On the evening of February 21, 1965, Malcolm X was gunned down in Harlem--"not by Ku Klux Klan agents," as WFB reminds us, "but by agents of Elijah Muhammad, the reigning Black Muslim leader." The chief assassin implicated two other men, one of them being Norman Butler, now known as Muhammad Aziz. Although the assassin later admitted that he had lied about the other two, they were not granted a new trial. Mr. Aziz speaks about how his religion has sustained him, and even if Christians, including Mr. Buckley, will have difficulty accepting some of the distinctions he draws, his testimony is

moving indeed: "Christianity doesn't lend itself to the black man holding his head up, but Islam does. Islam says you don't have to turn the other cheek if you're attacked.... Islam gives you an operational basis for your everyday life, for your every moment of existence."