Fifth Annual Imam Hussein Lecture on Social Justice: “In the Footsteps of Imam Hussein: The Revolutionary Cosmopolitics of Malcolm X”

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May 19, 2025 marked the 100th birthday of Malcolm X, an organic intellectual whose life and legacy have left an indelible mark on humanity. Despite death threats and constant government surveillance, Malcolm X fearlessly advocated for the rights of the “wretched of the earth,” connecting the struggles of Black communities in the United States with the global plight of colonized peoples.

It is therefore not surprising that many have drawn parallels between the assassination of Malcolm X and the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, who refused to capitulate to the demands of a despotic caliph. In this lecture, Dr. Siwaju proposes that Malcolm X articulated a revolutionary cosmopolitics that reflects the Husseini ethos of enjoining good and forbidding evil, and of sacrifice in the service of truth and justice.

Drawing on her research on Islam in the Colombian Pacific, she will discuss how Afro-Colombian Shiʿi Muslims revere Malcolm X as a martyr, placing him within the spiritual lineage of Imam Hussein.