NEW YORK – A Muslim students’ group at Cornell University, New York, celebrated the life and legacy of Malcolm X through a roundtable discussion attended by both Muslim and non-Muslim students.

“Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land,” Yahya Abdul-Basser ’20 said, reading from Malcolm X’s “Letter from Hajj,” The Cornell Daily Sun reported Tuesday.

Abdul-Basser was speaking during an event hosted on Monday by the Cornell Muslim Educational and Cultural Association (MECA).

MECA, which has served Cornell for over 20 years, aimed to offer Muslim and non-Muslim students a place to examine both Malcolm X and his legacy in contemporary US politics.

The forum offered a glimpse of the activist’s life as a devout Muslim.

“Malcolm realized on his pilgrimage that black and brown people across the world actually cared about what was happening to black people in America,” Cyrus McGoldrick, a Muslim human rights activist of Iranian and Irish descent, said about Malcolm’s journey to Makkah.

“Malcolm began to identify with people beyond American black nationalism in a global sense.”

McGoldrick focused on Malcolm’s ability to balance opposing qualities like confidence and humility, inclusion and exclusion and spirituality and secularity.

“It is a tremendous act of humility to be able to change one’s mind and to do so publicly,” McGoldrick said.

“Malcolm was someone who grew in public without being ashamed.”

McGoldrick praised Malcolm’s ability to build “strong local communities outside of the state system,” his “clear language” and his steadfast devotion to a cause.

The group also focused on the fact that Malcolm “internationalized the struggle” through his Muslim pilgrimage, changing “the discussion from civil rights to human rights.”