Malcolm X on Front Page Challenge, 1965: CBC Archives | CBC

Tonight's

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on the cover welcomes outspoken black leader Malcolm x sir What's the real reason you two broke up? Is it merely ideological or is it personality? What else probably wasn't personality? The statement that was originally given by the movement when it divides more personality than anything else you've ever called people like martin luther king, would you get a nobel peace prize? uh, an uncle tom, is this correct first? Well, I prefer to say that in the states there is a law that was recently passed or a decision that was handed down by the court that if you call someone and Uncle Toms can sue you for defamation, well, I never refer to them as Uncle Toms.

I would say Uncle Martin is my friend. Uncle Martin is your friend, but you wouldn't agree with his uh. approach of what you want to achieve definitely if your approach would achieve what the black man in america needs to completely eliminate the problem we have, I would say very good, but I highly doubt that anyone who takes martin luther king's approach has been teaching to our people in that country can point to any significant achievements that have really served to solve the problem that black Muslims sometimes have, whether they have done it or not, and I think they probably have, sometimes it seemed to me that they were preaching hate to con

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hate. uh, I don't advocate any kind of hate, there's a lot of talk that sounds very similar, no, I think the American white man's guilt complex is so deep until you start analyzing the true condition of the black man in America, instead of For the American white man to eliminate the causes that create that condition, he tries to cover it up by accusing his accusers of teaching hatred, but in reality they are only exposing him for being responsible for what exists.

Well, that's kind of an argument, but I've heard speeches from some people in his group. I think I've heard him make speeches. It seemed to me that he was defending. What I would have to describe, I think, is violence to con

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the serious injuries that have occurred. done your people with which I call that violence uh, in no way do I encourage black people to go out and initiate acts of aggression indiscriminately against white people, but I do believe that the black man in the United States and any human being anywhere It is within your right to do whatever is necessary by any means necessary to protect your life and property, especially in a country where the federal government itself has demonstrated that it is unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of those human beings. .

Just before Pierre takes it, you have a pretty good fighter and the world heavyweight champion aligned himself with you to help you. Yeah, well Mr. X, if I think I'm calling you, that's the right application. Mr. There is no North America. I do not believe in any form of segregation or any form of racism. I am against it in any way. of segregation and against racism, do I have the right to say that the black Muslim movement that you left did believe in that? Well, Elijah Muhammad taught his followers that the only solution was a separate state for black people and as long as I thought he really believed in himself, I believed in him and I believed in his solution, but when I began to doubt that he himself believed That was feasible and I didn't see any kind of action designed to make it happen or achieve it, so I went in a different direction.

Are you still a Muslim? Oh yes, I believe in the religion of Islam, which believes in brotherhood, the complete brotherhood of all people, but at the same time that I believe in this brotherhood, I do not believe in imposing my desire for brotherhood on those who are not. I'm not willing to accept it first. I think Christians would say that they believe in brotherhood too. What did you say to that? I would say that they believe in it but they don't practice it. That will be a very good answer, sir, when the uh. verizon climbs the minaret twice a day cries to the world there is only one god and he is allah do you deny that there is a christian god uh moses does this five times a day five times so I only heard it twice well you were lucky to hear it twice , but he does it five times a day and the same god that says, uh, that expresses existence, is the god that Christians profess to believe in themselves and the god that Jews believe in one god. the creator of the universe muslims believe in the god who created the universe and i think christians believe and jews now as long as everyone talks about the creator jews can call him jehovah and christians can have another name for him those Arabic speakers refer to him as Allah.

Well, we believe in the same god now as the Muslim religion advances in the United States. Are you modernizing it or sticking to old beliefs, for example, complete segregation of the sexes? I think that Everything today on this earth is being modernized, religious principles and practices, as well as politics and other things. Now when you went to Mecca, this is a very sacred and forbidden city. I tried to reach Mecca myself and certainly did not succeed. I'm not a Muslim, but how would they accept you as such? You are American. There are few American Muslims. This is true.

And being an American and not having any, not being able to speak the Arabic language, I ran into a problem. A very serious drawback, but I was lucky to have been quite known to the officials in Arabia and they also knew that I had accepted orthodox Islam. It had been highly publicized in the newspaper and I became a guest of the state. I was invited. who of prince faisal president king faisal faisal and they made it possible for me to appear before the hodge committee or the hodge court which examines you and asks you questions about your beliefs and if you pass it you can go to mecca but you would have to have a translator there uh oh, I had one and then I realized that our problem in America, that we are African Americans and that we have a problem that goes beyond religion, we form the group known as the organization of African American unity and The goal of This organization is non-religious number one, any black can belong to it and the goal of that organization is to achieve a condition that guarantees respect and recognition of the 22 million black Americans as human beings.

We believe that the number one problem of black men in America is beyond America's ability to solve. It is a human problem, not an American problem or a black problem, and as a human or global problem we believe it should be removed from the jurisdiction of the United States. government in the courts of the United States and brought to the United Nations in the same way as the black man's problems in South Africa, Angola and other parts of the world and even the way they are trying to bring the problems of the Jews in Russia in the united nations because of the violation of human rights we believe that our problem is not a violation of civil rights but a violation of human rights not only are we denied the right to be a citizen in the united states we are denied the right to be a human being, Mr.

Courage to admit that a previous belief is incorrect and we congratulate you for that and for the service you performed tonight and for giving us your views. Thank you so much.