Intro to Mecca - (Wordcount: 479)

Through the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam, I was taught to believe that the white man is the “devil.” Mr. Muhammad’s teachings greatly stressed how history has been “whitened” to the point that when white men had written history books, the black man was left out. This was the moment in which I started to wonder the truth about the black man. In prison, I read stories of various nations that helped to open my eyes to see how the whole world’s white men did, in fact, act like devils. I saw illustrations of black slave women tied up and beat with whips, black mothers watching their babies being dragged off, and the fugitive slave catchers – evil white men with whips, clubs, chains, and guns. “Book after book showed me how the white man had brought upon the world’s black, brown, red, and yellow peoples every variety of the sufferings of exploitation.” In my mind, white men were the enemy that the black men had to fight against.

However, the Muslim word has reappraised this view. Now, I feel sorry for generalizing the white race and claiming towards segregation rather than unity between the two. While being in Mecca, I was impressed as to how supportive and generous people are despite of their complexion and origin. I was welcomed and treated as a friend by Dr. Azzam, the white man. I was even troubled at how kind he was towards me. He made me feel honored. I experienced the same kind of sincere respect from other Muslims of different color as well. I realized that in the Muslim world, all of the white men were more genuinely brotherly than anyone else had ever been. It was then when I first became aware that not all “white men” are primarily described by their attitude and actions. “The color-blindness of the Muslim world’s religious society and the color-blindness of the Muslim world’s human society: these two influences had each day been making a greater impact, and an increasing persuasion against my previous way of thinking.” In my letter that would have soon become public knowledge in America, I expressed that America needs to understand Islam as a religion where race isn’t a problem. From what I experienced recently, I have rearranged my previous thoughts and threw away some previous conclusions, believing in a whole new outlook on the “white man.”

The trip to the city of Mecca made me witness how “people of all races, colors, from all over the world coming together as one,” to honor and pray to one God. Therefore, “I could see from this that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man–and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their ‘differences’ in color.”