These passionate words would float around the smoke-filled room. Being one of the few in the group to shun drugs and alcohol, I was alert enough to empathise with these sentiments. Although their authors' noble intentions would wear-off the next morning (along with the hangover), I often reflected upon the notion of supporting the oppressed.

When I did enter Islaam, I briefly contemplated over the fact that this was the religion embraced by Malcolm X. I incorrectly understood the Nation of Islam to be just another group within Islam, rather than the heretical sect that they are in actuality. The wall of my halls of residence room displayed a poster proudly declaring: "There is nothing in our book, (the Koran), that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent, be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery." The 'turn the other cheek' mind-set had never been accepted by myself when a Christian. Although I didn't support the black nationalist movement which Malcolm X had advocated and subsequently rejected, I admired the zeal in his speeches from that period of his life. But I still had no idea how relevant his words would become a decade later, for Muslims in a post 9-11 era.

Many of Malcolm's pertinent remarks address the white-black issue America. However, if one were to apply his words to the current 'War on Terror' against the Muslim world, his words are as relevant today as when first uttered. In the following extract, Malcolm refers to the U.S. military intervention against liberation forces in the Congo (today Zaire). Picture instead the current situation in Somalia, Afghanistan or Iraq: "That bomb is dropped on men, women, children, and babies. There is no outcry. There is no concern. There is no sympathy. There is no urge on the part of even the so-called progressive element to try and bring a halt to this mass murder. Why? Because all the press had to do was use that shrewd propaganda word that these villages were in 'rebel-held' territory. That's an enemy, so anything... that is done to them is done with justification." Isn't that what the Bush administration also claims? Doesn't the above scenario sum up what Malcolm dubbed as "democracy ...nothing but disguised hypocrisy"?

Malcolm X wouldn't have attended token iftaars at the White House. "I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American..."

How many Muslim politicians happily sit at the table with government representatives who are stripping the Muslim community of their rights, grateful for the few crumbs tossed in their direction as reward for their unswerving loyalty? Their skills and positions are not utilised for the betterment of the Muslim community, but for personal promotion and self-gratification.

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