Sunday, December 8, 2013

Karl Brown - Outside Reading - The Autobiography of Malcom X

When I sat down to read about Malcom X’s experience inside Mecca I was extremely excited. I had been dying to learn more about the Hajj as a spiritual journey and the thought of such a radical yet brilliant thinker like Malcom X taking a swing at the experience was bound to be an informative blast.  When I began to read, I did not find myself disappointed. His classic civil rights edge was present, the material was well written, and I was learning about the Hajj from a very fascinating thinker. He came into Mecca by plane instead of walking, which worried me when I first started to read, but he still had a strong spiritual journey so I did not end up disappointed.

Malcom X entered Mecca with the goals of preforming his Muslim duty and completing the Hajj. He was worried about being accepted, and had no idea about what was about to happen. Once inside the mass of pilgrims and performing the rituals of the Hajj, significant portions of Malcom X’s beliefs regarding discrimination and race relations were shattered and revamped. The fact that all the pilgrims on the Hajj came from all different areas with all different skin colors, were surrounding him peacefully and in a friendly manner, and all were doing the exact same thing he was created an experience that could not be recreated in the United States.


The Hajj’s power as a spiritual journey changed one of the most radical members of the civil rights movement. This was more that I could have asked for as insight into how the Hajj worked and the power it had to transform a person’s life. This reading made me want to learn even more about how other people were affected by the Hajj as a spiritual journey.

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