This paper asks how Malcolm X's image and ideas were transnationally diffused and interpreted among Turkish Islamists shortly ahead of and during the ruling AK Party's rise. Drawing from a discourse analysis of 242 columns published from 1996–2019 in three prominent newspapers read by religious conservatives (Yeni Safak, Yeni Akit and Milli Gazete), this study reveals similarities in how authors: 1) assigned credibility and significance to Malcolm X’s Muslim identity; 2) referenced him to reaffirm negative beliefs about the West; and 3) approached his life and the Black experience as analogous to their own political struggles. Applying a social movement theory foundation built on Erving Goffman's concept of "framing," this paper argues that shared anti-colonial and pan-Islamist sentiments likely facilitated the adoption of Malcolm X as a potent political symbol by Turkish Islamists, who decontextualized and selectively emphasized his image and ideas in service of conservative religious aims. Paradoxically, although Malcolm X served as a symbol of defiance against state power in the case of Turkish Islamists' opponents—i.e., secularists and Western powers—he was also used to support the authority of the state under AK Party rule. Notably, this discourse omitted the subversive implications Malcolm X’s cause had for ethnic minorities in Turkey, such as its Kurdish, Alevi, Jewish and Christian communities. As a result, this paper suggests there are ideological limits to the Islamist discourse around Malcolm X in Turkey, and calls for further investigation into how the AK Party's domestic hegemony might be reshaping Turkish perceptions of international history and foreign political figures.