I often walk by this pizza shop in my neighborhood that's owned and operated by Muslims. I think they're from Pakistan, but I'm not sure. I'm vegan, so I don't really care about pizza, but I like walking by the place because they have these big posters right inside the front window - photos of the Hajj. (For those who may not know, the Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam, a pilgrimage to Mecca that happens about once a year). The posters show huge crowds of white-robed pilgrims circling the Kaaba. It's really quite a sight.

This evening, though, I noticed that they were gone. I said to the bearded employee standing out front, "Hey, you're Hajj posters are gone! I liked seeing them." "I liked them, too," he said, "but we had some trouble, so I took them down for a while."

Turns out some guy came in there and called these Muslim guys some bad names ("'fucking Muslims,' stuff like that"). So one of the employees beat the shit out of the guy. "I thought he was gonna kill him, I swear to God," the fellow told me, "We had to pull him off! He messed him up good!"

So, let that be a lesson to ya!

On a side note, if you haven't done so, you should read, "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." I read it, and then turned right to the first page and read it again! Totally great. Malcolm X went on the Hajj, and it was very transformative for him. He was surprised to find that Muslims came in all different colors - not just African American black - and he was touched by the kindness and hospitality that folks from all over the world showed him. The Hajj was one of several events that contributed to the tension between himself and his superiors in the Nation of Islam, his eventual identification with a pan-racial Islam, and, perhaps, his assassination.


I'm going out with my friend Suzannah later this evening. Yay!