Malcolm X: Beliefs of the Nation of Islam Part 15.

Philosophy

Except for his autobiography, Malcolm X left no writings. His philosophy is known almost entirely from the myriad speeches and interviews he gave between 1952 until his death in 1965, Many of those speeches, especially from the last year of his life, were recorded and have been published.

Further information: Beliefs and theology of the Nation of Islam

Before he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X taught its beliefs in his speeches. His speeches were peppered with the phrase "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that ...".

It is virtually impossible to discern whether Malcolm X's beliefs diverged from the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X once compared himself to a ventriloquist's dummy who could only say what Elijah Muhammad told him. Malcolm X taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils who were created by an evil scientist named Yakub. The Nation of Islam believed that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent.

When he was questioned concerning his statements that white people were devils, Malcolm X said that "history proves the white man is a devil." He enumerated some of the historical reasons that, he felt, supported his argument: "Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil."

Malcolm X said that Islam was the "true religion of black mankind" and that Christianity was "the white man's religion" that had been imposed upon African Americans by their slave-masters. He said that the Nation of Islam followed Islam as it was practiced around the world, but the Nation's teachings varied from those of other Muslims because they were adapted to the "uniquely pitiful" condition of black people in America.

He taught that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation, was Allah, and that Elijah Muhammad was his Messenger, or prophet.While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people.

The Nation of Islam proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people in the Southern United States as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa.Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves