In Malcolm X's teachings we can find the cure of ISIS

As the killings of African Americans continue to dominate US media, it is important to remember one of the great heroes of the last generation – Malcolm X – and how important his message remains, not just for the US, but for the world.

One of the iconic moments in Malcolm X’s career was when a member of the Nation of Islam (NOI), of which X was a minister, was brutally beaten by the police.

The man in question, Hinton Johnson, was a group of four had tried to stop the police from beating another African-American man. In turn the police beat Johnson and the others so badly that Johnson suffered contusions to the brain. They also arrested the four people.

This was in 1957, in New York, a time when the arrest, beating and even murder of African American people by a predominantly white police force, was a "normal" thing, something that seems, unfortunately, not to have changed much.

Usually in such cases, African-Americans rioted, and were beaten for their protests, and charged with more crimes.

In such a way, the US penalised not just being "Black", but also for protesting against injustice against African Americans.

They had not encountered Malcolm X. He arrived at the police station, and was told that Johnson was not there.

Malcolm stayed.

The crowd swelled, from a few dozen to a few hundred.

Organised. Quiet. Peaceful.

The police gave in, and let Malcolm X meet Johnson, and for him to be transferred to the hospital. At the hospital, the police refused to let Johnson receive bail if he was to have medical treatment.

Despite the injustice upon injustice upon injustice, Malcolm decided it was better that Johnson receive treatment. He did not explain himself, just agreed, and walking out to see a crowd of maybe four thousand – all peaceful, organised, quiet – he raised one hand, and his followers left.

Shaken, one policeman remarked, "No one man should have that much power." After which, of course, the police bugged him, planted spies, and infiltrated NOI.

The shining thing about Malcolm X is that he never sugar-coated the hate and injustice that the Black community received in the US.

The creation of the African American community is an outcome of the terrible Atlantic slave trade.

Apologists have tried to say that slavery existed in many societies. While this is true, American slavery was evil even within this evil.

In Rome a slave could win freedom and become a full citizen, and not be discriminated against. This did not happen in the US until 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed.

In other societies that had slaves, such as Egypt, the Mamluks (literally "owned people")went on to be rulers in Cairo (1250-1517) and Iraq (1704-1831).

The Delhi Sultanate had its slave dynasty (1206-90), and the Persians, their Khwarazmian dynasty (1077-1231). The US South, though, had a slave population who was raped and tortured, forced to take the name of their masters (which is why Malcolm rid himself of his last name "Little" for "X").

Even in their transport across from Africa, they were manacled for weeks, in overburdened boats in pitching seas, dying in each others’ shit and vomit, as they were transported to another hell.

Millions upon millions died. There is no real count.

Malcom X understood this, but instead of expecting justice, he knew that the society that had committed such crimes against African Americans would continue to pile injustices upon them. He expected no compensation, not even an apology, because he knew that would not happen.

Instead he focussed on building a disciplined, organised body of followers who would not be easily pushed around or, critically, resort to uncontrolled violence (he was all for self-defence, though) allowing the police and other authorities to persecute them further.

A very large part of that was making sure no criminality flourished among their own. Malcolm X knew that to shelter criminals was a way to give the enemies of his community the ability to destroy them. A community weak from within is easy prey to those biased against it.

I was reminded of all of this when the Chilcot Report was released, and basically came to the conclusion that the Iraq War was a fiasco, a war of choice, and its lead-up peppered with lies.

Although the report only focussed on the UK’s decision-making, it was the US that led this war, committed this crime.

It is good to have such a report bluntly stating this, to pin the responsibility for the utter destruction of a country, the tens of thousands murdered, and the millions rendered homeless.

Nevertheless there is no hope of justice.

Unlike Osama bin Laden, Bush and Blair will not be hunted down and gunned down in front of their families. Unlike Slobodan Milosevic, they will not spend their last days in a cage in The Hague facing charges for their war crimes.

Unlike Omar Al Bashir, they will not even be charged by the International Criminal Court.

Certainly, publications such as New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist and TV channels like Fox, CNN and others who cheered on the war, will not be held liable for cheering on war crimes.

Nothing will happen. They will continue to make speeches, and be paid thousands of dollars in fees every time they expound on their crimes.

A decade later, Dick Cheney will have had his next fake heart installed, and will have shot another friend on a hunting trip, and the friend will apologise to Dick Cheney for being shot.

In the meanwhile the murderous militias gestated during the illegal occupation of Iraq – after the illegal war – will continue to spread mayhem and murder around the world.

ISIS, birthed as it was in the US prison camp, might even be replaced by an even more aggressive monstrosity.

In all of this, Muslims – who are the principal victims of the violence of the Iraq War as well as ISIS – have a choice. They can stew in their anger, and expect justice that they will never receive, or they can try and sort out their own house.

In so doing they have to confront the militants that this violence has bred.

The murderous tendencies of organisations such as ISIS and other militants are the greatest enemy of Muslims at large.

Not only do these organisations kill large number of Muslims as a part of their normal operations (though they also kill whoever else they can – the Iraqi Christian community has been wiped out, and the Yazidis are under attack), they justify the continued intervention of an international community that has displayed again and again its complete disregard for justice.

As Malcolm X demonstrated 50 years ago, marginalised communities are further marginalised by a larger community that does not wish to acknowledge its guilt for the crimes it has committed against them.

There is another way. It is to make sure that the community itself harbours no criminals, that it is itself organised, quiet, united, and unwilling to be pushed aside – or critically – into violence.

Justice for the past is rare, and unlikely, but injustice in the future can be prevented, if Muslims – or other marginalised groups – want to take on that responsibility for themselves.

It is a hard lesson, because it means that the burden of responsibility rests on the ones already oppressed. Maybe that is why it is so hard to accept. But we can see the outcome of the choices.

It was Malcom X who showed Muhammad Ali, the great boxing legend, the path he was looking for, even if they became estranged later.

On the other hand, the young Bangladeshi militants pledged their allegiance to ISIS.

Judge for yourself who brought greater pride and greater good to the Muslim community, and who brought the greater harm.

In the end, all the bastions that opposed Ali bowed at his funeral. That is greatness. That is power.

That is what it means to bring glory to your people, not the wretched murder of the innocent in cold blood.