This year, I’m teaching forty kids. Nearly two-thirds of them are high schoolers, split into three classes (one for young women and the other two for young men) pursuing a simple goal: a book a month. We started with The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to Alex Haley though our progress has been uneven; we pivoted as earlier posts indicated, to talk about Gaza and our civic responsibilities as American Muslims.
But even that goes back to the life and legacy of Malcolm X. What does it mean to be an American and a Muslim? How is that identity even possible? And how can we define our futures if we don’t know our pasts? The model has worked out so well that even when we’re not talking about Malcolm X, we’re still talking about Malcolm X, which is what you want out of a great books course: Great conversations.
I’d encourage you (whether you’re a parent, teacher, or community leader) to build this kind of reading and learning together for your high schoolers.
Reading Matters
Though a book a month is definitely going to get you some eye-rolls and audible groans, reading regularly is good for spiritual health, intellectual health, and mental health. We’re encouraged to read the Qur’an daily, coming back again and again to the same text, to sit with and think with and grow with sacred scripture, and that’s a template for how to build knowledge more broadly.
Immersion. Reflection. Repetition. Implementation.
I assign about three to four chapters a week, about twenty-some pages a night, which is a great option for the end of a young man’s or woman’s school night, a much better way to finish your day than scrolling aimlessly on a phone. Not to mention, by high school, a young Muslim should be able to reflect on an extended argument, beginning to develop what meaningful religious literacy demands.
That means by the time your kids are in middle school, reading half an hour a day should be easy (I feel at that stage it’s less important what they read than that they’re reading at all—and if they can pick their own books, within reason, then there’s more cause for them to stick with reading.) By high school, then, they should be able to start evaluating religious arguments and ideas according to our moral principles.
That’s a slow process, of course, and some kids will be better at it than others. But each and all of us needs to be able to do that and, as minorities in a country with dynamic communities, we can’t expect someone will just be there to do it for us (not to mention that’s not Islam). That includes reading the books that help them understand who they are and where their communities came from.
Malcolm X Matters
Malcolm X was easily one of the most influential Muslims of the 20th century and certainly one of the most influential American Muslims ever. The Autobiography of Malcolm X As Told to Alex Haley is one of the most significant works of American Muslim literature, if not the most impactful yet.
Every (American) Muslim should read the book by high school. If you’re a Muslim parent who hasn’t read the book, of course, two birds with one syllabus: read with your kids. In our halaqa, we’re adding in the 1992 Spike Lee film (which one halaqa has finished and the other two are half-done with).1
We’ve also watched videos of Malcolm X’s speeches and, addressing the devastation in Gaza, we’re trying to ask hard questions not only about Malcolm X’s life, but how his life might speak to where we find ourselves today. Those conversations have been anchored by American Muslim civic obligations.
In fact, some of those discussions led to this op-ed for USA Today—in which I made the case that a foreign policy supportive of Palestinians isn’t just good for Palestinians, and those in solidarity with them, but for all of America, too, which follows from the larger frame: What does it mean to be an American Muslim?
Going forward, I hope the kids see Islam is a faith that can and should inform their lives—all of them will have to make Islam play that role, but above and beyond that, even if they can’t see the fullness of this picture in their adolescence, a life with faith is a uniquely rich and meaningful life, even as it’s a challenging life.
And if we’re not challenging ourselves, we’re always going to feel dissatisfied.
Principles Matter
Right now, we see here in the United States how many people have thrown civil liberties, freedom of speech, and ideals like equality and democracy overboard in favor of their politics. Not many years ago some pundits and politicians were stressing the allegedly civilizational threat Islam posed to democracy, warning us years ago about immigrant fifth columns but here we are today and some of them are excusing the January 6th insurrection.
Plenty in our political establishment do that right now too. They talk and talk about freedom and bemoan cancel culture until people who support Palestinian rights and freedoms express themselves, and suddenly those principles are out the window. But here’s the thing: What would make us immune from these kinds of double standards and moral bankruptcies? Malcolm X gave his life in witness to some profound truths. His principles didn’t change when that’d work to his advantage.
That is an immense and difficult kind of moral courage, which I can only hope I can try to embody. But isn’t that what faith is, learning the truth and then rebuilding your life, and your priorities, in service of the truth, especially when circumstances make it painful and problematic? Malcolm X saw the abuse of young women in his community, and did not stay silent even at great cost to himself. He saw financial corruption and rampant egocentrism in his community.
He did not stay silent even at great cost to himself.
He confronted racism, bigotry, bias, and prejudice, and paid for it with his life. In the next few weeks, we’re going to turn that on its head. Yes, Malcolm X lost his life. But since nobody’s life is really theirs to begin with, who in the end really wins and really loses? The one who sacrifices his dignity and his nobility for power, privilege, prestige, or even just a few more years? Or the one who stands up for what is right, and true, and beautiful?
If our calculus is only this world, maybe the answer seems obvious. But if our calculus extends well beyond this world, then the answer is also obvious. Though it’s certainly not the same. And since we’re just weeks away from finishing our journey into Malcolm X’s life, that includes some other obvious questions.
Continuity Matters
What book comes next? What’s the natural progression in this journey? I asked the girls halaqa to choose between one of two books about Palestine, Atef Abu Saif’s The Drone Eats With Me: A Gaza Diary or Nathan Thrall’s A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: The Anatomy of a Palestinian Tragedy. They chose the latter. Before we start there, we’ve already had a class on the origins of Israel, we watched a powerful and painful Netflix documentary, Born in Gaza, and I’ve invited parents to some classes, too.2
If you’re a parent who wants resources for yourselves, let me know: I’m happy to respond in the comments below. The more specific you are with your request, the more helpful I’ll be able to be! May God bless us with the strength to stick to what’s true, and right, and good, if even against ourselves, and may God bless Malcolm X and forgive his sins, and give us the strength to learn from his life and continue his legacy, and may God bring peace, dignity, and security to all peoples.
This one is rated R and should be. In the context of Malcolm X’s life, what he goes through and comes out the other side of, I nevertheless judged this movie age-appropriate (and certainly the book contains corresponding content, although some might find the visual depiction far more concerning.) I invited parents to watch with students, made judicious use of fast-forward for some gratuitous scenes that I didn’t think needed to be viewed, and made sure to talk about how the behaviors he engaged in harmed him and his community.
I also think we should always connect individual to community, that what we might not think is personally harmful actually is, but not just because of the ways we are directly and uniquely affected, but the impacts of sins on society broadly—including our continuity and coherence. From positions of privilege, those kinds of moral frameworks are sometimes dismissed, but understanding the salience of responsibility, dignity, and modesty from the long view is important for kids (even if we have a culture that downplays these).
Of course, as with this film (and see footnote 2 below), every family is different, so take these as recommendations—what I might be comfortable with, you might not be, and vice versa. As I see it, kids are exposed to some heavy stuff by high school. Better they have a space they can talk about it, or at the very least see adults acknowledge it. Maybe, I tell myself, that opens the door to their approaching us when these concerns get heavy.
With the subject matter, and the content, I’d watch this with kids 13+. But see the footnote above.
Reading matters and Malcolm matters. I'd suggest the Alex Haley autobiography in high school and the Manning Marable book in college (or later). The first being the book we'd all write about ourselves, heroic and inspirational, and the second what scholars would write, complex and flawed.
I would love specific resources for younger kids, kindergarten age.