Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
In the West, I wonder whether there are communities defined by Islam, or whether there are communities of people with a shared ethnic/national background who also share a religion. E.g., Somali immigrants worship with other Somalis, and Bangladeshis with other Bangladeshis, but do the two groups have much contact with each other? Malcolm X has been on my brain because the Wee Slothrop has been asking about him, and at the end of his autobiography there's this vision of a Muslim community (did he go to Mecca?) with all races and colors and no one notice, sort of Colbert-like but non-ironic, but that was fifty years ago and his autobiography is a sales job of sorts (as they all are, going back to Ben Franklin).
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The way I look at it, if there are groups of ethnic Muslims who live in a city, (i) there are probably smaller communities that center around specific mosques and the friends and families of those who attend that mosque and live in that neighborhood and (ii) because being Muslim in the West surely forces you to look out for one another and to self-identify as Muslim first even though you may be from different places, there is probably a looser larger community.
Malcolm did go to Mecca. It's part of the reason why he and the Nation of Islam were moving in different directions. Malcolm discovered that the religion is more inclusive and not as narrow-minded as what he was taught. He was trying to bring that message to the Nation and Elijah Muhammed wasn't having it (on top of being threatened by his charisma already).
TM
