Ep.36 Malcolm X: The Myths and Reality with Hakeem Muhammad
Malcolm X, the black American Muslim leader is celebrated around the world. His courage, intelligence and skill to persuade, makes him one of the greatest orators in history. Yet, today what he stood for has become unclear, as his image and message is co-opted into several political programmes that, if Malcolm was alive today, he would probably find questionable. From the Black Lives Matter movement to Conservative Party politicians here in the UK, his name and speeches are utilised to endorse one political or social project or another.
Yet the legend of Malcolm is more complex. Today Riaz Hasan of the Thinking Muslim Project speaks to Hakeem Muhammad, a lawyer and campaigner about his thoughts on Malcolm X, distilling the real man from the fiction created after his death.
Hakeem Muhammad is a Public Interest Law Scholar from Northeastern University School of Law where he also holds a Juris Doctorate Degree. He has assisted litigation to hold police departments accountable for acts of police brutality against African-Americans and to exonerate African-Americans who have been wrongly convicted of crimes. Hakeem has taught seminars on African-American legal studies at Harvard University, Michigan State, and U.C Berkeley. He is also the co-founder of Blackdawah Network a Muslim organization that promotes Islamic values and ethics within inner-city Black American communities.