Rejection from such a group is grist for the Black Muslims’ mill. Malcolm X holds them up to high ridicule and scorn, saying they have been corrupted by Christianity and that they look very much like “the blue-eyed devil who enslaved us and took away our culture.” In his “University Speech” (see Part Two of this book) Malcolm rains fire upon these “European Moslems” who have “passed us by in an attempt to make our slave masters Moslems.”
There are several clear differences between Black Muslims and orthodox Moslems. Whether these differences read Elijah and his followers out of the Islamic brotherhood is a matter to be determined by Islamic officials. These are some of the differences between the two groups:
—The Black Muslims will not allow white persons in their temples; orthodox Moslems accept worshipers of all races.
—The Black Muslims maintain a separate movement; there seems to be little or no organizational link with the orthodox Moslems. The Black Muslims do not visit the orthodox Moslem temples, and the orthodox Moslems do not come to hear Malcolm X.
—Nowhere in the Koran or in any orthodox Moslem literature is there support for the Black Muslim’s teaching about the evil scientist Yakub. Nor is there any support in the teachings of orthodox Moslems to support Elijah’s account—see his “Atlanta Speech” in Part Two—that this world was once the moon and was blown up by an evil scientist who wanted to destroy true followers of Allah.
—Orthodox Moslems universally condemn the Black Muslim teaching that the white man is a devil by nature.
—Orthodox Moslems universally object to the Black Muslim preachment concerning a separate state.
But once Muhammad walked into Mecca these differences ceased to matter. To be sure, orthodox Moslems want no part of Elijah and, if pushed, will denounce him. But the hajj committee has rendered what must be accepted as the final verdict.
Behind this trip to Mecca lies a typical Black Muslim story. Malcolm X had visited the Near and the Far East the year before. His mission was to make certain key contacts for Muhammad. I followed Malcolm by some several months into Cairo, Egypt, and talked with Moslem officials who had received him with open arms. Malcolm was in Cairo during the holy season, at the very time when thousands of chanting Arabs were wending their way toward Mecca. Malcolm himself was cleared to make the hajj; he could have gone to Mecca in 1959 and that would have settled the controversy once and for all. Malcolm elected not to go, not to upstage his teacher and leader. Instead he returned home with the word that all was well in Mecca, that Elijah and his family would be received there with open arms.
The following year, while Malcolm remained at home, Elijah went to Mecca.