Comparing the Ideas and Actions of Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X - Report Example

The role of religion in shaping the ideas, goals and strategies of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Inserts His/Her Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 21-November-2010 Martin Luther King’s background: Born on January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King was an activist and a prominent leader in the movement for the African American civil rights. He is well known for his notable work for the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world. He became a civil rights activist early in his career. Because of his vigorous reforms, he is cited as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism. Working for the establishment of a color blind American society, King delivered his ‘I have a dream’ speech in 1963 in Washington march, which earned him the reputation of one of the greatest orators in American history. He served as the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference which he helped found himself in 1957. It was his platform to develop any effective means of achieving civil rights. His ideas and strategies for African American civil rights in the light of religion: Member of a middle class family from Atlanta, Georgia, King was brought up in a protected environment with strong African-American institutions of family, church, and community. He believed in Christ and his religious outlook played a significant role in shaping up his ideas and goals. His efforts to eradicate racism in the American society seem influenced by the Christian beliefs of equality. He advocated that everyone deserved equal opportunities. In relation to this, the words he spoke were: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." He condemned violence because he saw it as the tool to express resentment and hatred. He saw it as unethical and unreligious. Combining the Christian idea of perfect love and St.Thomas Aquinas’s charge on the immorality of an unjust law in the eyes of God, he wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: “An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law.” Thus, his strategies of nonviolent protest and civil disobedience began to emerge. In relation to this, he also got deeply inspired by the peaceful struggle demonstrated by Mahatma Gandhi and adopted it. Bayard Rustin, another African American civil rights activist who studied Gandhis teachings also affected King’s views religiously. He counseled the latter to commit himself to passive resistance. Malcolm X’s background: Where Martin Luther King’s strategies seemed in accordance with religion, Malcolm X’s journey took a very different path. Growing up in era when the American society was marred by racial discrimination and Black victimization, Malcolm witnessed his father’s murder at the hands of Whites, the Ku Klux Klan. His father was a Baptist preacher and an organizer for an early Black Nationalist organization. From there onwards, he saw major ups and downs in his life. At some point in life he became heavily involved in crime and drug trade which also resulted in his imprisonment in 1946. His association with the Nation of Islam: It was during his time in prison that his religious thoughts began to take shape. He was impressed by the teachings of Elijah Muhammad who was the leader of Nation of Islam. His mission was to eliminate the disdainful attitudes of the whites towards the Blacks in the US who had repeatedly abhorred their color and race and had condemned them from participating in America’s social system. Ron Karenga, a prominent essayist describes the six aspects of doctrine of the Nation Of Islam. The first one is acknowledging Islam as the true religion of black people and considering Christianity as the religion of their enemies, the Whites. The second is the ideology that God (Allah) is a Black man. The third is that Black people are righteous by creation and nature and because of this, they are the chosen ones. The fourth is the belief that “White man is the devil himself”. The fifth is the view that the separation from the Whites on the social and political grounds is an absolute necessity. The sixth revolves around the need for racial and Islamic unity throughout the world. The organization also fought for a state of its own exclusive of white people. Malcolm became a devoted follower of the organization when he got out of prison and began working as a minister for it. It was during this time only that he changed his last name ‘little’ to ‘X’, in the view that ‘little’ seemed a slave name. Malcolm was successful orator and debated well. He quickly got recognized as a brilliant speaker for the Nation of Islam. Through his charismatic personality and convincing speeches in colleges, universities and on television and radio, he attracted an astonishingly huge number of young blacks to enter Nation of Islam. Many of them became active defenders and promoters of their adopted faith. His association with the organization has been credited with increasing the membership from 500 people in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963. By 1959, Malcolm emerged as one of the most influential leaders of NOI. He was forced to admit that his fame had completely overshadowed his mentor’s popularity. His stunning personality also caught government’s attention and led the FBI agents get into the organization where they secretly placed equipment to keep an eye on the group’s activities. At the time when the civil rights movements was bent on reconciling American life and society, a union of Blacks and Whites was needed. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference formed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others, were the advocates of change. They were successful when the US Supreme Court ruled racist laws which permitted separate educational facilities for 40 percent of US school children located primarily in the southern states. Continuing with the struggle, Malcolm promoted Muhammad’s ideas among the Black Americans: "Blacks and Whites cannot live together and agitation for integration is suicidal." This message was seen as a substitute to the King’s message regarding the nonviolent form of activism. Test of faith: However, in 1963 when the civil rights movement was at its peak, Malcolm’s faith was challenged when he discovered about the illicit affairs of Elijah Muhammad with six different women. He was deeply hurt by this sort of dishonesty as he had strictly adhered to his master’s teaching and had lived on in a celibate state until he married Betty Shabazz in 1958. His faith in Muhammad as a living prophet had shaken. He felt accountable for misguiding the masses by convincing them to join the deceptive organization. He ended his membership of NOI in March 1964 and planned to found his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque Inc. He also changed his name to Malik El-Shabazz. The life altering pilgrimage: Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the same year. The pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the Hajj, is a religious obligation to be fulfilled at least once in the lifetime by every orthodox Muslim. This trip not only changed his viewpoint in religion but completely altered his life. On his return from Mecca, he said that he had met "blonde-haired, blued-eyed men I could call my brothers. The whole experience of the pilgrimage enabled him to look beyond the racial discrimination and the black sovereignty beliefs that he learned as a member of NOI. He got enlightened with true meaning behind the term “white man”. He realized that the complexion was only secondary and it actually described the attitudes and actions. He stated that in the Muslim world, men with white complexions were extremely kind unlike the American society where “White man” is perceived as nothing but a model of specific attitudes and actions towards black and all the other non-white men. Thus it were his days of pilgrimage where he witnessed men of all races, united, carrying out the rituals by establishing brotherhood that his outlook about “white” men got revolutionized. Malcolm believed that America could only get rid of racism from its society if it wholeheartedly tries to comprehend Islam and its teaching about equality. He further explains it: “Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white -- but the "white" attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.” The new Malik Shabazz chose the Sunni code of Islam to follow. Educating and teaching his audiences around US and creating awareness among them about the true meaning of Islamic became his mission now. He wasn’t content on preaching to the African Americans only. In fact he wanted his message to be heard by all races. This gained him the support of minority of the African Americans who had previously accused him of committing shirk (associating partnership with Allah). Thus, Malcolm’s transformed beliefs formed the basis for the growth of numerous African American Muslim groups. Few of them accepted him as a brother and looked up to him as the hero of orthodox Islam. However, where his spiritual journey gave him a new direction for his thoughts and ideas, it was also disliked by many Black nationalists groups and also the NOI, who saw it as a deviation from the vision of solving the problems of Black people in US and securing them a firm place in the society. In addition to this, Malcolm’s embracement of the orthodox Islam resulted in conflicts in the African American community who called themselves Muslims. Sunni Muslims and the rising immigrant Muslim community were the two fractions of the African American community bearing differences in opinion. Thus, it seems that the outcome of parting ways with Elijah Muhammad was Malcolm’s close reassessment of the entire philosophy of NOI. It was this incident which led him to the path of self discovery and gave him courage to admit his mistakes as is reflected by his altered beliefs over NOI teachings about the White man being the devil. Sources: Cotter, Amelia 2010,July 27, Religious Backgrounds of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, November 19 Siddiqui,Yousuf The face of the black revolution in America and how Islam changed his life(Adapted from the pamphlet Malcolm X: Why I Embraced Islam), November19 < http://islam.thetruecall.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=76> Howard-Pitney, David2004, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s: A Brief History with Documents, Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston. Read More