No Way Out Read Online Free PDF

black as this militant guest of his. Now in his late fifties, of average build, his colorful life had run the gamut from left-wing radical to Islamic fundamentalist to neo-conservative and born-again Christian.
    This was meant to be a three-way debate between secular black militants, black Muslims and the Klan. But the black militant had turned the debate on conservative blacks, including Claymore himself, and made the white supremacists in the studio – who had raised the drug issue in the first place – largely irrelevant.
    “What they did to us is no excuse for what we’re doing to ourselves brothers!” Claymore replied. “We have to stop blaming others. We used to be slaves to the white man . Now we’re slaves to the white powder . I say it’s time for us to break the chains and set ourselves free once and for all!”
    Again the audience burst into thunderous applause, except the small cadre of militants. Claymore looked around and saw the approval on the faces of most of the audience, black and white. The black militant had almost won them over, but Claymore knew that with a few well-chosen words he had won them back.
    Then a man wearing a suit and a bow tie with a crescent on it spoke up.
    “If you think that joining the white establishment is a solution, then you’re as big a fool as he is.”
    “What are you talking about?” asked Claymore sneeringly.
    “I mean you’ve jumped out of the frying pan into the fire. You’ve betrayed your people twice over.”
    He was a tall, slim, dapper figure and he was known to be Claymore’s arch-enemy. The man was a leading member of the Nation of Islam. Claymore had once belonged to his sect, but had later become disillusioned with it after he fled to Libya while on the run from the police.
    “Would you care to elaborate?” Claymore challenged.
    “I’m talking about Islam, the religion of the black man, the religion you turned your back on when you became an apostate.”
    “An apostate to Islam or an apostate to the Nation of Islam? The two are not the same. For example Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam but never turned his back on Islam. Yet that didn’t save him from getting murdered.”
    This was one of his favorite challenges to his former sect. Malcolm X had left the Nation of Islam in disillusion both at its policy of separatism and at the practices of its leader. His disillusion became even more pronounced after making the Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca – and learning about the universal nature of true Islam. To Malcolm X – as to the Prophet Mohamed – all Muslims were part of one “Umah” … one community. Indeed it was the act of “Islam” – submission to the will of God – that had united the feuding tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, ending the “Jahilya” – the dark age that preceded Islam.
    But Malcolm X had also become disillusioned with Elijah Mohamed personally, over the NOI leader’s sexual exploitation of teenage girls. The trouble was that in speaking out so frankly, Malcolm X created enemies. And in response to his outspoken criticism, Louis Farakhan, a loyal follower of Elijah Mohamed, made inflammatory statements about Malcolm X. Two months later, Malcolm X was assassinated by members of the Nation of Islam.
    But the well-dressed man in the audience was not going to be drawn into a debate about who killed Malcolm X. The Nation of Islam had subsequently re-adopted their former enemy and tried to distance themselves from his assassination.
    “You’re not like Brother Malcolm, Claymore, and you never will be! Brother Malcolm never did what you did.”
    There was wild applause at that one. Everyone knew that Elias Claymore was not quite as respectable as he had now become. But Claymore was prepared for this.
    “It’s precisely because of my own guilt that I must speak out,” said Claymore, casting a trained professional eye at the studio clock. “As a sinner, I have a duty not to remain silent. In the meantime, let’s