Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Crimes 5
Malcolm X was shocked and could not believe when Elijah Muhammad was accused of Adultery. He was astonished he did not know what to do because he was mentored by Mr. Muhammad and for him to engage in an act of this magnitude. Mr. Muhammad had always taught Malcolm what to do next in his life, and for him to be accused of this crime totally discredited him. It was even worse because he was so important to the Nation of Islam. He had the ability to gather crowds that were so big you would have thought a bomb had hit the city and everyone had to crowd together to stay alive. He had the capacity to attract the attention of Muslims, Black Muslims, and Christians alike. After Elijah Muhammad was convicted of this crime and was sentenced to 1-5 years in solitary confinement the whole religion of Islam was shocked. He was one of the first promoters of Islam and for him to commit this sin was just ridiculous. This personally reminds me of a few years ago when a scandal broke loose in the Catholic Church. During this time, a large amount of Catholic Priests were accused of molesting little children in their church, mainly boys. This was a shock to the whole Catholic religion. People could not believe that the people in charge of their church served such a bad example to the community and their religion. http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/Catholic-priest-molested-children.4076385.jp is an example of one of the cases against a Priest. It describes how from one accusation of abusing a child, came others. It seems that both the cases of adultery against Elijah Muhammad and the Catholic Priests were both hidden for a while, without anyone finding out. However, once the issues surfaced both of the religions declined. Both of these incidents reminded me of one another because they both were to important people in the religions and caused the religions to suffer.
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3 comments:
Elijah Muahmmad's crime was definitely shocking, but honestly, it wasn't that unexpected. As we all know, no one in the world is perfect. Whether you are of great significance or religious importance, everyone has to make mistakes. That's just the way of life. As I have mentioned in one of my blogs, religion can definitely be a dangerous thing. Maybe not religion itself, but the person that preaches, in this case Elijah Muhammad. Considered of great importance, many black individuals seeking for hope and leadership, looked up to this man for his words of wisdom. When he committed this act of adultery, it definitely left a huge impact on the Nation of Islam. I think that through this incident, some of his followers viewed that crimes, at times, can be acceptable. This incident definitely changed the way people viewed Muhammad.
I also found your connection between this incident and the one of the scandal within the Catholic Church quite insightful. While reading this, I myself thought about the priest that took sexual advantage of women coming to him for confession sessions. I guess great minds to do in fact think alike. JK
I thought you did a good job connecting Elijah's infidelity with the Church scandal, the only difference being the large amount of priests that molested the children. While reading about Elija and his adultery, I realized that even the nation of Islam has its share of corruption. I thought of Rob Blagojevich, the politician who was recently sentenced to 150 years in prison for charges of bribery, mail fraud, and abuse of power. This passage of Malcolm X also reminded me of Tim Donaghy, the NBA ref that was caught fixing the games he officiated. Perhaps there will be a day where people do not abuse their power or go against that which they teach.
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