Intro to Mecca

     I had been effectively removed from the Nation of Islam, the group that saved me from my old life. I was the top preacher for Elijah Muhammad, saying and believing that all white people were evil. Orthodox Muslims from the East had been telling me to take a trip to Mecca to experience "true" Islam for years. Then, I had recoiled at the suggestion that the Nation's version of Islam was not real, but now I had to consider it.With no money, no organization, and nowhere to go, I went to Ella and borrowed money to make the trip to Mecca.

     Even though I denounced white people for saying that all people not white were inferior, before coming to Mecca I had been telling all that would listen how the white man is evil. How could such a blanket statement be true? I knew that blanket statements were not true from my earlier experiences. How could I believe something like that? During my visit to Mecca, I realized that there were plenty of good white people in the world, and that white was more of a way of acting than a skin color.