Street Wize News ( Raw &Unkutt )

Farrakhan asks students and professors: Are you truly educated?



The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan told students and faculty at Chicago State University January 25 that they have to “break free” from the educational system that has been set up by their oppressors to maintain control.

“The Architects of our education never intended for us to escape the circle of activity that takes us out from under their control, so if we are still governed by the controlling systems of our former slave masters, then we yet have to break free, so Jesus said ‘you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,’” said Minister Farrakhan as he delivered much needed guidance and straight talk to over 1,000 at the Jacoby Dickens center. The current student enrollment at CSU is a little over 7,000.

The Minister commanded audience attention for nearly two hours including a question and answer period. He said education should be used to solve the problems of humanity, not to keep the systems of the oppressor in power. With all the educated people within the Black community, others are still controlling the economics and educational systems within Black communities.

“When we leave here tonight, you will know what to do with your life and how you can develop the gift that God has already placed in you—cultivate that gift and use it for the liberation not only of our people, but all of humanity.”

Hosted by the Chicago State University African-American Studies Program and the African-American Male Resource Center, the Minister spoke on the topic: “Education: Black People and the Future.”

“He who gives you the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activity,” said Min. Farrakhan. “The former slave master is the architect of your education. If a man will not treat you right, what will make you think he will teach you right?” he asked.

“If we as a people are non-productive, then somebody prescribed the diameter of your knowledge,” he said. “If you got a good education, why have we not produced what we need as a people?” he asked.

“How much control do you have over where you live and if not, why not if you are educated? If you are educated, what are you producing that proves you are an educated person? If you’re not productive, you’re not educated.”

Creating new rulers

Minister Farrakhan said “government is formed to meet the requirements of the growth of the people” and educators should use the example of Jesus, who was a “loving dictator.” His followers were called “disciples.” They were disciplined according to the teachings of Jesus, however, his desire was for them to grow in knowledge telling them, “Greater works than I do, shall you do.”


“If Jesus is the Messiah and the Messiah is God-incarnate, then Jesus was not trying to make some ignorant stupid worshippers, Jesus was trying to make people into himself, so that there would be a nation of gods on our planet!” said the Minister. “He who is the architect of your liberation becomes your teacher and your guide to help you understand your self-interests then he can go away and you can take it from there.”

Minister Farrakhan used the example of Jesus throughout the evening to demonstrate that a good teacher or professor should teach the students to use what is being taught as a base, inspiring them to be critical thinkers with the desire to build upon and even go beyond what they are being taught.

“These young people that are gathered here—some with their parents and also with professors—our young people represent the strongest and finest generation of Black people that have ever been born in this wilderness of America. They are so different and so strong until now there’s a gap between our young people and their parents, our young people and their elders.”

“There’s a divine reason for that. The elders must understand that we are the product of mis-education, for if we were properly educated, we wouldn’t be as a people in the condition that we are in,” said the Minister. “Our condition is a testimony against our educational pursuits.”

The Muslim leader said some of Jesus’ disciples failed to see the value of the youth, and the same thing is happening today. Some religious leaders ignore the youth because they may not have money to tithe, but they are very valuable in the sight of God. He reminded the audience of Jesus’ words in the Bible: “Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God.”

“The minds of your babies have gone beyond the reach of your knowledge,” said Min. Farrakhan. “You don’t have anything to deal with that kind of mind, and that’s why they are offering our babies Ritalin drugs because they cannot control the babies! There’s nothing wrong with your children there’s something wrong with the education and the so-called educators!”

Outsiders in control

The Minister said during his recent travels to the Caribbean, he discovered that despite the fertile soil there, island nations import food from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It is for this reason Black people worldwide are the leading suffers of diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.

“When somebody else is producing your food, and you are dumb enough to eat from your enemy, and he makes it look good he makes it taste good and your taste buds are deceiving you into thinking that it is good,” said the Minister. “What are you eating? Who is feeding you?”

“With all this education we’re a crippled people,” he lamented.

The social aspects of college life are well known: the parties, alcohol and drug use along with the mingling of the sexes, but the real purpose of education is sometimes an afterthought. Many parents worry about these factors when preparing to send their children off to college.

Minister Farrakhan said real education should properly prepare a students for future self-sufficiency by teaching them critical thinking, the science of farming, science of life, and the importance of the earth. Real education makes real men out of the young male students, not men who use women as sexual playthings.

“That is very bad when you have a college education and you disrespect your female, and you look at her as something only for pleasure and after you have pleasure, you discard her, but yet she’s pregnant with your seed and you walk away from her as though she means nothing to you,” said the Minister. “How can you be educated and don’t know how to respect your woman? How can you say you are educated and don’t know how to protect your female. Real college teaching makes a man out of you! Real professors make you a man that is not going to play with a woman!”



Members of fraternities, sororities and the Five Percent Nation heard the Minister’s message Jan. 25. Photo: Timothy 6X
To futher illustrate the point, the Minister asked if there were any members of the Five Percent Nation in the audience and a few stood up. The Minister pointed out the Five Percenters refer to the females connected to them as “Earths.”

“If the woman is your earth then she’s everything!” said the Minister. “When you call her your earth you’re saying that everything you need to make life what life should be is right sitting up in a woman that we are mistreating. So when you call her earth then honor and respect her as earth and don’t spit on the earth, don’t mistreat the earth, take care of the earth and the earth will take care of you and me.”

A sense of urgency

Prior to Minister Farrakhan’s message, he toured the the Aquaponics Department a few blocks away from where he was to deliver his message. The facility has been open since the summer of 2010. They are raising tilapia fish in a controlled continuously circulating water system, plants are grown hydroponically and the emphasis is on establishing urban gardening programs. This would solve the problem of “food deserts” that exist where Blacks live on the city’s South and West sides.



Minister Farrakhan toured the Aquaponics facility at Chicago State University prior to his lecture Jan. 25. He is shown shaking hands with the facility’s director Emmanuel Pratt. Look for more coverage of Chicago State University’s urban gardening initiative and an interview with Mr. Pratt in future editions of The Final Call Photos: Timothy 6X
Students, faculty, and the community should support CSU’s president Dr. Wayne Watson because he is thinking “outside the box” as demonstrated by the Aquaponics program and other enlightening and productive initiatives on the campus, said Min. Farrakhan.

Dr. Kelly Harris, director of CSU’s African-American studies department told the audience they have a responsibility to understand the true value of education, not just focus on the material benefits.

“We take that one purpose of increasing our bank account as the reason for getting an education but generally, we lose sight of the purpose for education,” said Dr. Harris. “When we talk about education, we need to transform our condition. This is really the value of education,” he added.

He went on to say some of his colleagues were upset and uncomfortable with Min. Farrakhan’s appearance on campus, however, the Minister has the solutions needed to solve problems plaguing society.

“How can anybody be comfortable with the state of Black America?” asked Dr. Harris. “Nobody in here should be comfortable. We all need a sense of urgency about the problems, we all need to figure out a way to deal with this education problem and understanding what education is.”

As an African American studies professor, Dr. Harris said he would be doing a disservice to his students if he taught about prominent Black leaders, and failed to include Min. Farrakhan.

“If I’m teaching about Black leadership in America and I leave out Minister Farrakhan, whether I agree with him or not, if I leave out Minister Farrakhan, that tells you something about my education,” Dr. Harris told the crowd. “I might be educated, but if you are educated and you leave out Minister Farrakhan, you’re just an educated fool.”

Following Minister Farrakhan’s message, Dr. Harris told The Final Call he was very pleased.

“It was a great turnout, it was a powerful message, it was a timely message and a message that will give people a charge. It’s not just talking to people, it’s giving people a charge to do something,” said Dr. Harris.

“Minister Farrakhan brought to them tonight knowledge, wisdom, understanding and a vision, because they represent the future leaders of tomorrow,” said Student Minister Ishmael R. Muhammad, Min. Farrakhan’s assistant at Mosque Maryam, the international headquarters of the Nation of Islam. “Chicago State University received a blessing and the Minister also received a blessing. It was a double blessing because as you can see, the Minister enjoys and loves not only teaching, but he loves young people,” he added.

Dr. Watson, told The Final Call Minister Farrakhan’s message was “powerful.”

“Minister Farrakhan’s primary focus was looking at education and those tenets of education that can be the foundation for young men and young ladies as they go through a university. He had an educational message for the students and without a doubt, I know the students and the faculty greatly appreciated it,” said Dr. Watson.

(Follow Ashahed M. Muhammad @ http://twitter.com/AshahedM)

The things we’re finding out about our beloved historical figures nowadays…

Apparently, during one of his trips to Washington for a Civil Rights march, MLK tried to get some freakiness poppin’. And that cost him the support of Mrs. JFK for a while.


In explosive tapes to be revealed later this month, the former first lady also tells how she could barely look at images of the iconic leader after he apparently also made derogatory remarks at JFK’s funeral.

Jackie Kennedy’s relationship with Dr King Jr became strained as a result of wire taps arranged by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

The taps allegedly caught Martin Luther King trying to arrange a sex party in Washington, although this has been dismissed by some material concocted by Hoover to damage Dr King Jr.

Nonetheless, Jacqueline Kennedy branded Martin Luther King ‘tricky’ and a ‘phoney’ after hearing of the FBI tapes.

In one of the interviews to be broadcast on September 13, she said: ‘I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, that man’s terrible.’

She said King had mocked her husband’s funeral and Cardinal Richard Cushing, who celebrated Mass at the funeral.

‘He made fun of Cardinal Cushing and said that he was drunk at it,’ she said. ‘And things about they almost dropped the coffin.’

But per Mrs. Kennedy-Onassis’ memory, MLK wasn’t the only hero who liked to talk that yang after work with his friends.


The Jackie Kennedy interview tapes also reveal that President Kennedy saw U.S. participation in Vietnam as ‘hopeless’ and scorned the idea of Lyndon Baines Johnson succeeding him in office.

The explosive never-before-heard memoirs of the former first lady reveal that JFK was highly skeptical about victory in Vietnam.

The memoirs, to be released later this month on the 50th anniversary of JFK’s first year in office, also describe how Kennedy feared what would happen if rival Johnson took office.

Kennedy chose Johnson, a Texas senator and former political rival, as his running mate in 1960 but later fretted about a Johnson presidency.

In a previously unaired 1964 interview with historian and former JFK aide Arthur Schlesinger, Jackie Kennedy said: ‘Jack said it to me sometimes. He said, ‘Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president?”

She also told how her husband and his brother, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy even discussed ways to prevent Johnson from winning the Democratic nomination in a future contest.

Jacqueline Kennedy added in the interview: ‘He didn’t like that idea that Lyndon would go on and be president because he was worried for the country,” she said.

‘Bobby told me that he’d had some discussions with him.

‘I forget exactly how they were planning or who they had in mind. It wasn’t Bobby, but somebody. Do something to name someone else in ’68.’

Well damn. Who knew our political heroes were this imperfect.
(BOSSIP)


Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy referred to Dr. Martin Luther King as “phony” and “tricky” during a 1964 interview about the life of her husband John F. Kennedy. The revelations were laid out in a new book about the couple’s time in the White House.

The interview was one of seven sessions with former JFK aide Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., where Kennedy said that King mocked her husband’s funeral, namely Cardinal Richard Cushing, who served as the celebrant for the service. In Catholicism, the celebrant is the person who offers the mass.

“He made fun of Cardinal Cushing and said he was drunk at it,” Kennedy said. “And things about they almost dropped the coffin. I just can’t see a picture of Martin Luther King without thinking, you know, ‘That man’s terrible.’”

The book is called “Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy.”

Mrs. Kennedy also revealed that her husband was petrified at the idea of Lyndon B. Johnson taking over as president.
“Jack said it to me sometimes,” she said. “He said, ‘Oh, God, can you ever imagine what would happen to the country if Lyndon were president? And Bobby (Kennedy) told me that he’d had some discussion with him … (to) do something to name someone else in 1968.”

(CNN) -- A church called the Phoenix Goddess Temple has been accused of being a house of prostitution, and a six-month undercover investigation has resulted in the arrests of 20 women and men who worked there, Phoenix police said Friday.

Authorities are still searching for 17 more people -- all of whom have been indicted -- in connection with the prostitution enterprise, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman. The 20 people arrested so far have been charged with prostitution or other offenses, police said.

During a Wednesday search of the Phoenix temple and two church-related sites in nearby Sedona, police seized evidence showing that "male and female 'practitioners' working a t the Temple were performing sexual acts in exchange for monetary 'donations,' all on the pretense of providing 'neo tantric' healing therapies," Phoenix police said.

The alleged brothel generated tens of thousands of dollars a month, Martos told CNN.

A history of neighbor complaints, a recent Phoenix newspaper article, and the temple's website were among the factors prompting authorities to conduct the undercover investigation, Martos said.

"What's unusual is that they were trying to hide behind religion or church, and under the guise of religious freedom, they were committing acts of prostitution," Martos said.

"We certainly respect First Amendment rights. However, religious freedom does not allow for criminal acts," Martos said.

Regarding the Goddess Temple's website, he said: "What they would talk about would seem to be religion. At the same time, they were implying or intimating that they were giving sex therapy."

The website says at one point: "Sex is a holy, sacred and divine healing force at the core (of) our beings. Once we embrace this force instead of deny it, we become successful, happy and powerful manifestors."

The website also features unclothed women, listed as residing in several states, under a "Goddesses" section.

The investigation focused on the alleged crimes, said acting Phoenix Police Chief Joe Yahner.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery added in a statement: "Freedom of religion does not allow individuals to trade sex for money, no matter how the transaction is portrayed."

The alleged madam, Tracy Elise, who is in her 50s, was arrested and charged with prostitution, illegal control of an enterprise, pandering, and operating a house of prostitution, police said.

Elise was allegedly involved in a similar suspected brothel in Seattle, Washington, which authorities shut down in 2009, Phoenix police said.

Elise or her attorney could not be immediately reached for comment.

Others named in the indictment face charges including conspiracy, working in a house of prostitution, and massaging without a license. A total of 33 people have been indicted, but during Wednesday's search of the Phoenix temple, police arrested four more people not named in the indictment, Martos said.

Four of the 20 people arrested are men, and two of the four are alleged prostitutes, Martos said. The other two men are a website operator and a school director-teacher at the temple, he said.

The other people arrested are women, he added.

The church is near downtown Phoenix, and the temple also had an office and a house in Sedona, both of which investigators also searched with warrants and where police made three of the arrests, Martos said.

The temple practitioners probably used the Sedona house for rest and sleep, Martos said.

What is this world coming to where people are using Religion to shield there dirty and unethical practices misleading and misguiding thousands of people under the false institution of Christianity when Christianity has nothing to do with those sick ideologies whatsoever.......(THACHILLONE)

Walking out of the 6,000-year-old grave of False Biblical Interpretations
(FinalCall.com) - The Simon Wiesenthal Center recently listed what it considers the top ten “anti-Israel lies.” At the top of the list was: 1. “Israel was created by European guilt over the Nazi Holocaust. Why should Palestinians pay the price?”

The Wiesenthal scholars addressed this charge by stating: “Three thousand years before the Holocaust, before there was a Roman Empire, Israel's kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem…”

In this case what is not said may be more important than what was said. In these next two articles we intend to show that the White people who call themselves Jews today have no Biblical, historical or archaeological right to run the Palestinians out of their ancestral homeland, but are hiding the real reason for the White race's entry into the Holy Land.

By using the argument that “Israel's kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem,” the Wiesenthal Center left out what Zionists have been claiming as the primary reason the land of Palestine was chosen as the new homeland of the Jews: God gave this land to the followers of Moses after their exodus from their cruel captivity at the hands of an Egyptian Pharaoh. Instead, the best that the center's scholars can come up with today is “… Israel's kings and prophets walked the streets of Jerusalem…”

So what happened to Moses, the Exodus and God's Covenant with the Children of Israel? It seems as though the Simon Wiesenthal Center has been keeping up with Minister Farrakhan's series of lectures titled “Who are The Real Children of Israel?” and the Final Call articles that brought actual facts and scholarship to bear on this theological and geo-political issue. Some of these who claim to be Jewish scholars seem to want to skirt the issue instead of confronting our scholarship.

One article in The Final Call titled “Did the Exodus Ever Happen?” used Jewish scholars to point out the fact that there is no written record outside of the Bible nor archaeological evidence in Egypt, the Sinai or even Palestine that confirms a mass “exodus” of Jews out of Egypt into Palestine at any point in history. In fact the exodus story has been debunked by even Jewish scholars as an inverted story of an actual historical event in which the Egyptians were invaded by foreigners from Asia around 1700 B.C. These invaders were subsequently expelled from the delta region of Egypt by the Egyptian king, Ahmose.

So now that the Zionists have given up on the Exodus hoax, they must rely on evidence of their ancestors once walking the streets of Jerusalem to claim ownership. Well, since my ancestors were in bondage in the southern United States for 300 years under chattel slavery and another 100 years under Jim Crow Black Codes, then the world should come together and force the U.S. government to give us the states of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina just for starters. Then because we were burned out of Tulsa, Okla., slaughtered in Wilmington, N.C. and mistreated in Detroit, Chicago, Newark, New York, L.A. and numerous other cities in America, we should be given a piece of those areas as well. Many of us not only walked the streets of these cities but also had to sleep on them as well, because we were homeless victims of economic exploitation and discrimination.

So if the Zionists can no longer claim Jerusalem and Palestine based on Biblical references related to the Exodus and Moses' Covenant with God, then why are the European Jews so adamant about going back to the Holy Land? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that all White people fall under the heading of Israel and that Black people in America are like adopted children of White people. There is a movement among White scholars that agree that all White people come under the name of Israel, but they claim this is based on the Bible story of the Assyrians capturing 10 tribes of Israel, not including Judah, around 700 B.C. and exiling them to the Caucasus Mountains. This tribe of White Israelites, later called Caucasians, spread from the Caucasus Mountains into Russia, Europe and the British Isles. Therefore, we must pose these questions: At what time was Israel (White people) in the Holy Land; when did they leave; and most importantly, why?

An article in The Final Call titled “Myth or High Science? Is There Evidence of Mr. Yacub?” pointed out recent DNA research which points to the advent of blue eyes on our planet at a time between 10,000 and 6,000 years ago. However, another group of geneticists were more exact and pinpointed the beginning of Black people in Europe being turned into a race of white-skinned people to 6,600 years ago, exactly the time The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us that Yakub began the grafting process to use the brown germ within the Black man to make a new race of albinos. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad further taught us that it took 600 years to turn 59,999 Black people into a race of White-skinned people. At that time these albinos entered the Holy Land and began to start trouble by causing the original inhabitants of the land to fight and kill one another. They were subsequently rounded up and made to walk across the hot Arabian desert to be put behind iron gates in the Caucasus Mountains, about 6,000 years ago. There they languished in their own ignorance for 2,000 years until Musa (Moses) was sent to civilize them once again in 2,000 B.C. or 4,000 years ago. Now, it is interesting that the Hyksos, which were a mixed group of Asians and Europeans, managed to walk back and ride back into Egypt around 1720 B.C.

So now we have historical evidence to show that there were indeed European White people who were once Black and once lived in the Holy Land. They have been trying to get back in ever since they were kicked out 6,000 years ago under not-too-favorable circumstances. They managed to get a hold of some of the writings or stories of ancient Black civilizations, and then twisted those stories to give them an identity that tied them to the Holy Land under false pretences. They invented the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on the human psyche. They not only have claimed something that did not belong to them, but have hijacked history itself. White people have the whole world believing that written history started only 6,000 years ago and everything that happened before this time was “pre-history” and of no importance to the development of civilization. This is why the European Jews, as exposed in The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 2 (TSRV2), are so persistent in denying that Blacks, the “cursed seed of Ham”, had accomplished anything of significance before they were brought into slavery in America from the “jungles of Africa.”



TSRV2 quotes the American Israelite, the most prominent and respected Jewish newspaper in America in 1913: “The negro, with the solitary exception of Australian and Polynesian, is the most backward of human races; his contributions to human progress have been insignificant…” If this is true, then why has it been necessary for Whites to burn down every library that they have found in the Black world?

As they “walked” through the African world, they destroyed the libraries at Alexandria and at every temple in Ancient Egypt. Now as they “walk” through the Middle East, they have destroyed the museums in Baghdad and now are burning books taken from the Palestinians in the occupied territories. They will continue to destroy artifacts that look “African,” as they “walk the streets” of the Holy Lands, to surgically remove what remains of human history of the peoples before them. This is their latest attempt to hide the evidence of how they recently arrived on our planet 6,000 years ago. No wonder they get exited every time Minister Farrakhan speaks. The more he speaks, the more he brings their shame to light.

(Dr. Ridgely A. Mu'min Muhammad, Agricultural Economist, National Student Minister of Agriculture, Manager of Muhammad Farms. He can be reached at drridge@bellsouth.net)

Holy Day of Atonement 2011: 16th Anniversary of the Million Man March



Time for weak leaders, Western lies is up!
Strength to oppose dangerous plots against Africa, Black people is needed now, says Nation of Islam minister
HARLEM, New York (FinalCall.com) - “We must speak truth to power or die! We must not be afraid to tell the truth even if it means we lose our lives because there is nothing more precious in this universe than truth,” said the Nation of Islam's leader while delivering a keynote address at the Millions March in Harlem, where a crowd stretched for blocks down Malcolm X Boulevard.

The gathering in the historic Mecca for Black culture and political thought was organized by the December 12th Movement to demand an end to the U.S.-NATO military assault on Libya, to denounce imperialist moves to recolonize Africa and oppose Mayor Bloomberg's policies activists complain are hurting Blacks.


Rally participants march down Malcolm X Boulevard. Photo: Arthur C. Muhammad


Activists, anti-war advocates and political leaders Aug. 13 decried U.S. designs on Africa and Black suffering in New York before the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's message punctuated their call for an end to war and devious plans to misuse Africa, alongside demands for justice inside the “world's greatest democracy.”

While America and Western nations use noble words, their intentions in Libya and Africa are evil and their promises made only to deceive nations and acquire their resources, Minister Farrakhan said. Today's leaders must not compromise or sugarcoat truth to gain an advantage or benefit from governments whose world is on its way out, he warned.



Libyan supporters of Col. Gadhafi now in the U.S. pictured with A. Akbar Muhammad. Photo: Ashahed M. Muhammad
“We are in great trouble as we speak and if our leaders will not tell us and guide us properly then they're going down and they'll take us down with them. This is why the Bible says ‘if the blind lead the blind both fall in the ditch' and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said the ditch represents hell and destruction. Right now as a people we're in hell and we are being destroyed and there are forces that are planning our destruction,” said Min. Farrakhan.

The Minister warned U.S. involvement in Libya, in North Africa, and other parts of the Motherland is designed to keep the continent weak and open to outside control. “When Africa rises, when Africa shows the world what she can do and contribute to the onward movement of world civilization, when Africa takes her rightful place, all Africans in the Diaspora, nearly 500 million of us will rise in every society where we are. So the threat to Africa is a threat to every son and daughter of Africa wherever they may be found on the planet,” said Min. Farrakhan.


Harlem youth wave the red, black and green Pan-African flag. Photo: Richard B. Muhammad
Regaining complete dominance over the Motherland requires removing Libya's revolutionary leader, who has supported development on the continent and acted as a leading force for a united Africa, and crushing leaders like Robert Mugabe, of Zimbabwe, for taking back land that rightfully belongs to Black people, he explained.
Despite being targeted by the two most expensive assassination attempts in world history, Col. Muammar Gadhafi is alive and his ideas and actions are threats to Western plots, said the Minister.

“Why would America want him (Col. Gadhafi) dead so bad that they would use the power of their military and the military of NATO to destroy this man's country? Bombing his infrastructure, destroying his communications, destroying the Man Made River Project, doing everything they can do to destroy the infrastructure of the country,” he said.

If Libya's leader survives and must use resources to rebuild his country, he will not be able to financially support the creation of a United States of Africa, the Minister noted.

Under the cover of United Nations Resolution 1973, Western nations are pursing assassination of a head of state and regime change, which are violations of international law.

America and her allies took $30 billion held in foreign banks from the Gadhafi government, giving it to the so-called rebel National Transitional Council, which is “an illegitimate government that they set up—a puppet regime to do the bidding of America and the West and not true service to the Libyan people,” said Min. Farrakhan.



(L-R)Muslim women arrive to assist at Aug. 13 march. Photo: Arthur C. Muhammad | Abdul Hafeez Muhammad of Mosque No. 7 in Harlem. Photo: Lem Peterkin | Fruit of Islam report for posts at demonstration. Photo: Arthur C. Muhammad

He urged the rebel groups headquartered in their de facto capital of Benghazi to opt for elections and a negotiated settlement to curb bloodshed and end fighting prohibited by Muslims in the current month of fasting and prayer called Ramadan. The U.S. and her allies will never make good on their promises, the Minister warned the rebels, who America, England, France and Italy have declared Libya's rightful government.

Hypocrisy and plots against Gadhafi

The Minister noted the United Nations was prepared to give Col. Gadhafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya, his revolutionary government, a humanitarian award. A UN report praised Col. Gadhafi's government for protection of human rights, political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, the Minister said. The Gadhafi regime was also praised for treatment of religious minorities but before a March vote on the award, NATO forces started attacking Tripoli, Libya's capital, and hitting pro-Gadahfi forces with missiles in February.

The UN-authorized peacekeeping operation, which was put in the hands of NATO, turned into one-sided support for rebel forces deadlocked with forces loyal to Col. Gadhafi. NATO initiated a “no fly” zone against Gadhafi air forces and then directly attacked Gadhafi troops, though the UN resolution was supposed to simply protect civilians. Western leaders twisted the mission by saying civilians would not be safe so long as Libya's leader remained in power.

But while the media has mis-portrayed Col. Gadhafi as a tyrant, Min. Farrakhan told the truth of a man despised by the West: With the oil wealth of Libya, Col. Gadhafi raised the standard of living for his country, educated his people and upgraded infrastructure. He invested $33 billion in the Man Made River Project because he wanted the Libyan people to be agricultural scientists and not be held hostage by high food prices from Europeans.



Videographers capture historic protest. Photo: Mikal Veale

Before Col. Gadhafi came to power, the life expectancy for Libyans was 44. It is now 75. Prior to Col. Gadhafi, Libyans had a 20 percent literacy rate, now it stands at 83 percent, and there is free education and medical care for all Libyans. Col. Gadhafi is also the only leader who has apologized for the Arab role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, noted Min. Farrakhan.

Col. Gadhafi prefers to live in tents, not ostentatious palaces, and unlike many Arab rulers has declined to enrich himself off of his nation's wealth, he continued. While Arab states have seen protests calling for greater freedom, Libya's leader introduced participatory democracy known as the “Third Universal Theory,” which puts leadership in the hands of the people.

Instead of using oil wealth to carve out a personal fiefdom, Col. Gadhafi put $70 billion in an African Development Bank, which meant that African nations could borrow money without exorbitant interest rates and/or debt bondage to the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank, said Min. Farrakhan.

Col. Gadhafi invested $400 million, and with $100 million invested by other African nations, launched a satellite that allowed direct calls to Africa, bypassing European routing of calls, which meant $500 million in lost European revenue, he said.

Col. Gadhafi is neither a dictator nor the president, he is the guide of the revolution, said Min. Farrakhan.

“Muammar Gadhafi is dangerous to Western hegemony; he is dangerous to imperialists; he is dangerous to monopolists; he is dangerous to Western oligarchies. He is so dangerous that they feel he must be destroyed.”

A warning for Africa

“The African governments must not accept the false promises of America,” cautioned Min. Farrakhan. “What have they promised you that they delivered on their promise? So if you trust their empty promises then you deserve the hell that you get because they are liars and deceivers!”



The African Union must reject Western domination and calls to support the overthrow of Col. Gadhafi's government, he said. The African Union's refusal to honor an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Col. Gadhafi was a good start, but the African Union must tell European powers to stop bombing Libya, or Africa will stop trade and no longer allow access to her natural resources, Min. Farrakhan said.

“So Africa, tell Hillary Clinton and all her representatives that come to you—tell them go to hell and drive them out of Africa! They think that you are the same lackey, the same flunkey, the same Uncle Tom that some of your predecessors were!”

Minister Farrakhan recalled that on two occasions during his world tours, when President Robert Mugabe was “the darling of the Commonwealth nations,” the Minister's delegation was not even allowed to land in Zimbabwe. On the third occasion, the delegation was allowed to land, but President Mugabe was no longer the friend of the West.

Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe led the revolutionaries against the racist minority White government of Ian Smith, when Zimbabwe was known as Rhodesia. But as the revolutionaries were going to take the capital city Harare, they were summoned to England, where the U.S. and UK promised to buy back the land from the White farmers, who owned millions of acres of the most productive land, so land could be returned to Black people. In a short time, America and England reneged on the agreement and after two decades President Mugabe began to seize land from White farmers in 2000 and return the land to Zimbabweans. He has been branded a dictator and a pariah for his land reform policy.

Plots against Libya sign on assault on Nation of Islam

The plots against Col. Gadhafi and Libya are signs of plots at home against the Nation of Islam, which has suffered from negative propaganda and sanctions, with vicious opponents trying to cut off anything that might support the movement, said Min. Farrakhan. When privately owned Muslim security companies brought peace to public housing projects in the late 1980s and early 1990s, New York Republican Peter King, with the backing of the Anti-Defamation League and other Zionist groups, forced cancellation of contracts and held federal hearings. Rep. King has conducted hearings condemned as anti-Islamic witch hunts and is pushing a ban on lectures by Min. Farrakhan and Nation of Islam literature in federal prisons. The Justice Dept. recently agreed to probe NOI prison activity at the urging of the lawmaker.

Min. Farrakhan did not own any part of the security companies and did not receive any money from their contracts, but the intent was to hurt Min. Farrakhan regardless of the lives lost and violence suffered by public housing residents.

Describing many of America's powerful government officials and politicians as “robbers, thieves and cutthroats of the poor,” the Minister said they care nothing about the conditions of the Black, Brown and poor Whites suffering in the United States. It is hypocrisy to speak of a Libyan “humanitarian crisis” while ignoring massive suffering inside America, he said.

“I say to the government of the United States as the prophets of old said to the wicked of their day—come against me with all you've got! Come against me with all that you have and give me no respite and in the end, I will be standing because I'm standing with Allah and Allah is standing with me!” Min. Farrakhan said as the crowd cheered.

“But if you don't believe or half believe, then you will fear what they have visible power to do, but I know that they don't have what you think they have, and what they've deceived themselves into thinking that they have. Allah is sufficient for the Believer,” he said.

“So those of you that want to lead our people, if you say you believe in God or Christ, then demonstrate that by fearless, uncompromising, unwavering steadfastness in the pursuit of justice, freedom and equality. Otherwise you should sit down and get out of the way for those of us who know God will lead this struggle and we are the overcomers!” he said.

Illusion of democracy, progress in America

President Obama's perceived upward mobility is designed to deceive the masses into holding onto a system that is not designed to give Black people freedom, justice and equality, said Min. Farrakhan.

“I want to say to all of you, because you have a Black president does not mean that America is the home of the brave and the land of the free and everything is all right now because a Black man is taking care of the affairs of White people,” he said.

Urged on by wicked advisors, President Obama has ramped up drone attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia and now presides over the bombing of an African nation, the Minister noted. America is a “rogue government” with a president “surrounded by criminals” manipulated by unseen powers that impact global realities, he said.

“These are robbers and thieves in suits and ties and our brother (Obama) is the front man,” said Min. Farrakhan. “Sorry Brother Barack, you're trusting Satan and he will never give you the right information. You need to come sit with your brother, and I will not lie to you.”

Minister Farrakhan said he will never be a politician and will never compromise principles and truth for political progress.

And to those in the Zionist controlled media and organizations who continue the campaign to malign his character and try to create a misperception of the Minister in history, the Minister addressed directly: “We don't need you to write my history. You won't even be alive when my history is told,” said Min. Farrakhan. “When my history is written down in the generations you won't even be here to smell the heat from the pen. Now a man that talks like me is either crazy or he knows God and you can choose whatever one you want. I don't sound like a madman except to the weak and cowardly among you. I have God with me and what I speak from my mouth He answers.”

[Editor’s note: The following message is excerpted from a speech delivered by Minister Louis Farrakhan on June 17, 2001 at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, IL.]
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.



There is a scripture in the Bible that reads, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, and of the increase of his government of peace there shall be no end.” This is a great scripture to start a Father's Day message, because Isaiah the Prophet saw one coming that would be born of a woman, meaning he is like you and me, but, though he was born of a woman, a human being, yet the work that he did and the wisdom that he shared would be so magnificent that he would be called Wonderful, a Counselor, a Mighty God. Not Almighty, just Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. This one who was born of a woman would become a father, but he would be a father of an everlasting nation, and, of the increase of his government—but it is a special government, a government of peace—there shall be no end. That is powerful.



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Think about the son or the daughter that you brought into this world that you have not even communicated with in years. Write your children if they are away from you, and do not be too proud to say 'Son, I have been wrong.' There is nothing wrong with that. Do you know your children will love you more if you could muster the courage to say, 'Daddy was wrong, but I intend to make it right and I hope you will forgive me for not being to you as I should.'
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I want to take it from here to look at Jesus as a son who became a father, because every son ultimately becomes a father, and the quality of your sonship will determine the quality of your fatherhood.

Jesus submitted totally to The Father. Let us look at the words of Jesus and the actions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Jesus said, “Whatsoever I hear, that shall I speak. Whatsoever the Father commandeth me, that shall I do.” Whatever Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) heard from Allah (God), that he spoke, and whatever Allah (God) commanded him to do, that he did. He related to Allah (God) as an obedient son would relate to a father, and that is what qualified him to be the Father of a Nation of Peace. If we follow the example of Jesus, the example of Muhammad (PBUH), we would be good sons. Then, we too, could become good fathers.



The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
When the disciples said to Jesus, “Master, teach us how to pray,” Jesus replied, “Pray on this wise: Our Father.” If He is “our” Father, then what He did for Jesus, He is able to do for you and me. If you want Allah (God) to father you, then, as Jesus was obedient to Him, we have to be obedient to Him. Jesus set such a perfect example, that all you have to do is put your foot down where he put his foot down. His Father will make you into what He made Jesus.

It is the same with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). He was a soldier and a commander, but Muhammad obeyed Allah (God), and everyone that obeyed Muhammad was raised to eminence from a low state. Do you want to be raised? Then you have to practice being a soldier, being obedient to a son, who is obedient to a father, who is obedient to Allah (God).

“Our Father which art in heaven?” What does that say to men? If you are a father, you should exist in your house in an elevated state. Everybody should look up to father. “Hallowed be thy name.” That which is hallowed is that which is sacred. Some of us did not have a father like that. We never looked up to our fathers.

“Thy Kingdom Come.” How do you know that Farrakhan is a father? Because, when we started in 1977 to rebuild the Nation of Islam, there was nothing, but I had something in my head from the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and, with faith, we said, “Thy Kingdom Come” and we brought it in.

“Thy will be done.” As a father, you have to have vision, something in your head. What do you see? What do you want? Whatever you see and whatever you want that is of good, by faith you can bring it into existence. With Allah (God), there is nothing that you cannot do.

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Fathers, you have got these hungry children out there and you may have given them some bread yesterday, you may have sent your little payment, maybe last year, and you figured that what you sent last year was sufficient, but the prayer says, “Give us this day our daily bread.” That means every day a father has to be producing for his children and for his family.

“And lead us not into temptation.” When there is hunger in the house, when you do not have anything, you are really leading your family to be tempted. Satan is always there to tempt you for something that you need or want, but, by an illicit way to get it. If you are a good father, you do not lead your son into temptation, but you deliver him from evil. A father delivers his family from evil.

“Forgive us our trespassers as we forgive those who trespass against us, for Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory, forever.” Every father knows he has messed up somewhere along the line. All of us have done it. So, we ask The God to forgive us for our shortcomings, but we must have a heart to forgive those who have been short with us, but, for how long? Forever! Evidently. That prayer is associated with that One that was born who would be an Everlasting Father.

The Holy Qur'an comes at it a little differently, but it is the same result. The oft-repeated prayer of the Muslims is called “Al-Fatihah,” meaning “The Opening.” If you say this prayer and live this prayer, it opens up everything of good for the servant. “Bismillah Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim,” meaning, “In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.” The Commander is Beneficent; the Commander is Merciful. I am a soldier. Should not I be beneficent? Should not I be merciful?

“Al-hamdu li-llahi Rabbi-l-‘alamin,” meaning, “All praise belongs to Allah (God), the Lord, Nourisher, Sustainer of all the worlds.” So do not do your good deeds, dad, seeking praise or seeking honor. Do good because it is right to do good. One of my children called me and said, “Happy Father's Day, Daddy. I have a gift for you.” I said, “You are the gift. You don't ever have to send me a card to enrich the already rich or buy me something that I don't really need. Just be a good son and a good daughter. That is the gift to me as a father.”

“Maliki yaumi-d-din,” meaning, “Master of the Day of Judgment” or the “Law of Requital.” He is not a judge, He is a Master. I cannot necessarily be that, but I can be a judge. When the father comes into the house and there is an argument, put it on the table without favoritism. I cannot favor my wife. I cannot favor my elder son. I cannot favor the baby. I have to come straight with justice, because I represent God in my house.

“Iyya-ka na‘budu wa iyya-ka nasta'in,” meaning, “Thee alone do we worship. Thine aid we seek.” There is a singularity of focus of the Believer in God, and what you, as a husband want from your wife is singularity of focus on you and on me, but we are so deficient that we create adultery. The woman is not adulterous by nature. She is adulterous by circumstance. She would be faithful to us if we could complete her desire for a man. We do not care whether she completes our desire as a woman. It seems like we are always looking someplace, but I am here to tell you that the Qur'an says, “One is better for you, if you but knew.”

“Ihdi-na-s-sirata-lmu-staqim. Sirata-lladhina an‘amta ‘alaihim,” meaning, “Guide us on the right path. The path of those upon whom thou hast bestowed favors.” Every father should be in a position to give favors to his children. When they obey and do good, favor them, and the ones that rebel, do not favor them. Then, the one that did not get the favor will say to the other one, “Daddy sure gave you a nice bike. I want one, too.” The favored one will say, “Yeah, but Daddy said you are always disobeying him. He has the money to get you a bike, but, you are acting a fool, boy. You need to get your act together.” The next thing you know, the one who wants to win favor brings his report card grades up and begins to do things that please the father. Then, dad can say, “Now I can favor you, because you favored me by being obedient. Thank you, son. Here is your bike. Thank you, daughter. Here is your bike.”

To me, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has been a Wonderful Counselor, a Wonderful Father. Once, he called me to Chicago and gave me guidance on a speech that he wanted me to make. In my stupidity, I thought I did not want to do it the way he wanted me to do it. He saw that in me, and, very gently, he said, “Brother, I sit right here at my dining room table and I order things for you all around the globe, like a god. I bought thousands of acres of land for you, but I never left my table. I asked them to describe the land, and when I got a description, I said, ‘That's a good piece. Buy that.'” He said, “I do not leave my dining room. Surely, I can show you how to make a speech in Atlanta and win.” I said, “Yes, sir,” and I took my notes. It was one of the best speeches I ever made at that time. He told me that with that speech, if I obeyed him, I would be in the history of 40 countries on this Earth. I made the speech exactly like he told me, and I have found friends all over the Earth. In all the countries that I have been to, I have friends that he made for me by his work.

When you look at your children, thank Allah (God) for the women or the woman that bore your sons or your daughters. Be kind to them and help them in rearing your children. Think about the son or the daughter that you brought into this world that you have not even communicated with in years. Write your children if they are away from you, and do not be too proud to say, “Son, I have been wrong.” There is nothing wrong with that. Do you know your children will love you more if you could muster the courage to say, “Daddy was wrong, but I intend to make it right and I hope you will forgive me for not being to you as I should.”

You have got to start making amends. You have got to start reconciling. You have got to start opening up to your children.

Thank you for reading these words.

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan told hundreds gathered for a town hall meeting here that those who resist the enemy and fight for justice should be supported and defended, and Black institutions should remain controlled by Black communities.

“Now, there's a few things I want to say tonight about how the enemy's pattern never changes. Once you understand the methodology and the modus operandi of the enemy, when you see your brother and sister being assaulted, instead of running away from them, you should run to them to get their side of the story before you make your judgment,” Minister Farrakhan told the crowd gathered at the Harold Washington Cultural Center June 8.
In a presentation and town hall meeting also viewed nationally via internet webcast, officials from the cultural center updated the community regarding their protracted legal battle and also countered media claims of mismanagement by the center's officials and nepotism aimed at former Alderwoman Dorothy Wright Tillman who worked tirelessly to bring the cultural center into existence.



Fmr. Ald. Dorothy Wright Tillman Photo: dbarge.com
The Minister said the enemy assaults the character of a leader, tells lies and then gets the media to support the lies. Then when those who lack facts read the accounts of those within the media, they begin to believe it and proceed to spread the misinformation and disinformation.

The use of false witnesses is also a reliable weapon in the arsenal of the enemy's wicked defamatory schemes. Mentioning leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Dubois and Adam Clayton Powell, the Minister said they were maligned in the media, and in many cases, betrayed by those within their inner circle. This is a difficult road that faces all Black leaders who desire to represent the legitimate aspirations of their people.

“If we are going to be free, we have to be willing to pay the price. There is no easy road in building God's kingdom,” Minister Farrakhan said.

The Minister said Dorothy Wright Tillman has always been an outspoken defender of the people. While alderman, she insisted that Black contractors receive work in the city and was never a politician that could be easily moved from her positions. While many politicians seem to adopt an self-serving and greedy attitude, Ms. Tillman always worked to serve the people.



“Of all politicians that we have elected that have done good works, Dorothy Tillman is the only one that left office and built an institution for her people,” said Min. Farrakhan. “And bringing reparations to the table in the city council, now, you have to admire a woman that recognizes that this government and people owe Black people something and we've never been paid, and you must never think that a Black president in the White House is payment for 450 years of evil and injustice.”

“I'm here to defend the honor, the integrity, the warrior spirit of a woman and to defend her legacy because this cultural center represents what's deep within her being for us. How she used her skill in politics to get money to build this institution,” said Min. Farrakhan. “Who would want to take such as thing away from us, and why would we permit it?” the Minister asked.


Minister's support

Early in March, Dorothy Wright Tillman spoke with Minister Farrakhan in Pittsburgh, when they appeared on the Bev Smith Show's Town Hall Meeting on “The Disappearing Black Community”. Ms. Tillman discussed some of the challenges they were facing surrounding the Harold Washington Cultural Center, and Minister Farrakhan said he would meet with her about it when they returned to Chicago.

After meeting with Ms. Tillman and looking over the paperwork Minister Farrakhan brought Student National Secretary Berve Power Muhammad into the mix along with his legal expertise and the resources of his Chicago-based law firm Power and Dixon. Atty. Muhammad looked at the paperwork and determined that evidence suggests impropriety on the part of not only Shore Bank, but also possibly the City of Chicago and the City Colleges of Chicago.

Minister Farrakhan also brought in well-connected and long-time aide Leonard F. Muhammad calling him “a master tactician and strategist” to advise the Tillman family in this matter.



According to officials, the Harold Washington Cultural Center is currently worth $15 million and sits in a prime location. The U.S. economic downturn has hit the area hard, and the loss of the 2016 Olympic Games slowed some business investment, but there is still potential for economic development.

Atty. Muhammad after looking into the case discovered that the original lender, Shore Bank, appeared to make money off mortgage payments made by Tobacco Road Inc., applying TRI's payments—totaling over $280,000—completely to interest and none to the principal amount of the loan.

During the discovery process, Atty. Muhammad found that City Colleges of Chicago became the plaintiff in the case in December 2010. Shore Bank and the City of Chicago engaged in a civil conspiracy with the goal of wrestling control of the Harold Washington Cultural Center away from Tobacco Road Inc., he charged.

About the center

The Harold Washington Cultural Center is owned and operated by Tobacco Road, Inc., a non profit organization, and supported through private donations, rental fees for events, and corporate sponsorships.

The majestic $19.5 million 45,000-square-foot limestone edifice rests on the corner of 47th Street and Martin Luther King Drive in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago. A 20-foot high 750-pound sculpted statue of the late Mayor Harold Washington greets those approaching the center.

Mr. Washington—the first Black mayor to be elected in Chicago—grew up in the neighborhood, and was a beloved figure for many Blacks who supported him, unified behind him, and ultimately, lifted him into office. A shrewd politician and effective administrator, Mr. Washington died in 1987 just months into his second term. Since his death, the Black community in Chicago has been fragmented and powerless.

When construction was completed and the Harold Washington Cultural Center opened in August of 2004, its presence was a great source of pride in the community. With its state-of-the-art audio and video equipment, iron staircases, terrazzo marble floors and flat panel plasma screen televisions throughout, its beauty is only matched by it availability and functionality, according to its executive director, Jimalita Tillman.

Describing its 1,000 seat ComEd Performing Arts Theater, conference meeting rooms and reception areas, and computer lab, Ms. Tillman said she is proudest of the fact that many youth are able to take advantage of free programs while finding a “safe haven” at the center, especially those having to take the train or the bus through some of the city's hot spots to get home.

“Whether they have Prada or they have nada, our babies are fine here at the Harold Washington Cultural Center,” said Ms. Tillman. “Our doors are open because of the community. It is more than brick and mortar,” she added.

Troubled bank and deception?

In a very easy to understand manner, Atty. Muhammad delivered a legal summary describing just a few aspects of the case. He pointed to possible improprieties conducted by executives at Shore Bank and the City Colleges of Chicago.

As for Shore Bank, it was the largest Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in the country. CDFIs operate with a stated mission and focus aimed at creating economic development in low to moderate income communities. In many cases, these are also traditionally underserved markets. On Aug. 20, 2010 Shore Bank was declared insolvent and taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with no advance notice given to the public.

At the time, Shore Bank was the 114th FDIC-insured institution to fail in the United States in 2010 and the 50th in the state of Illinois.

Many of the accounts and their assets were transferred to Urban Partnership Bank, and its existing branches, were reopened under the new banner.

The entire board of directors and executives who led Shore Bank as its financial condition worsened were fired.

“New management leading the efforts to save the institution and that did not contribute to the bank's problems will be retained,” read a supplemental fact sheet statement from the FDIC.

Minister Farrakhan said he was very proud of Atty. Muhammad, and advised the community to remain vigilant because often things are floated in the media, and then the community begins to echo what the corporate media says. This kills the spirit in the people to support and fight for what is right, and America's corrupt legal system, truth and justice often loses out to White Supremacy, he said.

“Brother Berve has laid out a beautiful legal defense, as he did a few years ago for a Black man that was killed while he was in custody. He fought the case and whipped everybody. If you were judging by the way he handled them and the lies he manifested in them, you would say he won the case, which he did. But when the deal went down, White supremacy prevailed,” said Min. Farrakhan. “We should win, but Jesus was innocent—the malefactors and false witnesses condemned an innocent man.”

America's corrupt government

Any leader that stands and won't bend will be attacked, whether in the United States or abroad. Using NATO's assassination attempt to kill Libyan Leader Muammar Gadhafi, the Minister said this “rebel government” that does what it wants to do in the name of the American people. Wars have been fought for greedy bankers, oil and resources, not freedom nor democracy, he said.



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“The United Nations is finished and every one of the coalition partners—I'm here to pronounce your doom. Let me just tell you. God is angry and He is the master of the chess board, and when you think it is your move, it is He guiding your mind to make a move that He's already got the checkmate for, so that your move will ultimately bring about His Will.”
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“If you don't stand up, you deserve the hell that you are going to suffer because of your weakness, your cowardice and your love on an enemy that means no good for you!” Minister Farrakhan said.

“The United Nations is finished and every one of the coalition partners—I'm here to pronounce your doom. Let me just tell you. God is angry and He is the master of the chess board, and when you think it is your move, it is He guiding your mind to make a move that He's already got the checkmate for, so that your move will ultimately bring about His Will,” said Min. Farrakhan. “God intends to kill the warmongers because there will never be peace on earth as long as warmongers are in power, and it is sad that our brother who got a Nobel Peace Prize is now sending drones into Pakistan and into Yemen and Somalia killing men, women and children, some of the guilty, but many of the innocent are dying from the bombs of these drones.”

Pres. Obama recently was in the United Kingdom, and recently met with Germany's Angela Merkel. This is part of the global setup, said Min. Farrakhan reminding the crowd of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's guidance.

“Elijah Muhammad said in the end, England was going to trick America into war, France would be in it, but she would get out. But that war would bring all the nations into war. We're at the door now—The War of Armageddon and I'm telling you, no easy days are in front. If we can get through this, easy days will come behind it,” said Min. Farrakhan.

He ended his message with a word of warning and guidance.

“God is watching how we treat those who fight for us and if we do to her (Tillman) and to others what we did to Mr. Garvey, to Noble Drew Ali, to Malcolm X, to Muhammad Ali, to Elijah Muhammad, when the enemy turned down on them, we turned down too. Don't do that because God will chastise you today for weakness, cowardice and betraying those who fight for you.”

In the wake of a highly publicized sex scandal, Bishop Eddie Long's Lithonia, Ga., megachurch appears to be floundering.

Attendance at New Birth Missionary Baptist is down and the church has had to make dramatic cutbacks.

"Now there are a whole bunch of people trying to figure out what their place is, what's going to happen to the church, and what's going to happen to them," a church source told the website Elev8.

This week Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr., confirmed her departure as an elder at Bishop Long's church. King said she is leaving to start her own ministry.

Last week, Bishop Long reached a settlement in a sexual misconduct lawsuit involving four young men. The men accused Long of abusing his spiritual authority and making improper sexual advances. Long has denied the charges.

King said her decision to leave had nothing to do with the case.

How do church scandals, especially those involving head pastors, affect church congregations? How can church congregants find healing after disallusionment and hurt from scandal?

"I think scandals cause alot of diehard church members to re-examine their allegiances and committments to their perspective churches and congregations." These wicked frauds in religion play with thousands of loyal and dedicated members emotions and different aspects of their faith. No one should have their faith and belief system shattered by the imperfections and flaws of those that supposed to spiritually lead and guide them by no means." Religion is not a game,its not meant to be hollywood and its not meant to be some soap opera, people are seeking real spiritual guidance," (THACHILLONE)

It was the kind of insular, issue-driven, black-on-black debate that ordinarily doesn't attract the media spotlight, even on the slowest news day. But thanks to the unprecedented profile of Barack Obama, the most famous black person in modern history, this one got hot.

Last month, in an interview with Chris Hedges on Truthdig.com, Princeton professor Cornel West gave a scathing assessment of Obama's presidential performance so far. West let it rip with a kind of racially tinged dissatisfaction with Obama that's been brewing for months. Specifically, he called the black president out for what he sees as his complicity with the agenda of white, moneyed elites. He called Obama a "black mascot" for Wall Street, and at one point accused him of not acting like a "free black man."

The outburst prompted a swift and contemptuous rebuttal from West's fellow Princeton scholar and Nation columnist Melissa Harris-Perry, who described West's complaints as chiefly personal, not political, sparked by such things as Obama not returning the prof's phone calls promptly or giving him choice tickets to the inauguration. She went further, characterizing West's attack as "a self-aggrandizing, victimology sermon deceptively wrapped in the discourse of prophetic witness," and questioned whether his life of privilege (like her own) as a professor at an Ivy League university was any more authentic than Obama's.

Black folks on the blogosphere and elsewhere who were alarmed by the airing of dirty laundry between two of the best-known black scholars in the country weighed in, generally on one side or the other.

But the real divide is not between West and Obama or West and Harris-Perry, it's between two age-old, unresolved strategies black leaders have adopted throughout history to ensure black survival in America: nationalism and assimilation. Assimilation holds that blacks must claim their place in the mainstream to be successful; nationalism maintains that black success starts — and perhaps ends — with building and sustaining group unity. Fueling the latest image anxiety is a taboo question that animated the comments of an increasingly irate West: What good is Obama to us? By 'us' I mean black masses who are a crucial and historical part of the American working class and poor for whom West has always advocated.

Though she blasted West for his diatribe last month, Harris-Perry doesn't actually disagree with his view of the social landscape. Her defense of Obama also includes a view many blacks share — that the president, while hardly perfect, has been hampered by organized right-wing movements whose reflexive opposition to him is partly rooted in racism.

West is correct about Obama's lack of urgency about black issues. Perry is correct about the depth of resistance to Obama himself. But the combination of these two truths is hard to grasp: Obama is both the man in charge and the black politician stymied by the system he oversees. Broadly speaking, he is both the oppressor and the oppressed. This strange new fact feels like matter colliding with anti-matter, something that was never supposed to happen; black people, to say nothing of the media, don't quite know how to make sense of it.

But at least West and Harris-Perry are forcing into public consciousness a complex racial reality. After the collapse of the Black Panthers and black power in the '70s, assimilation became the black success strategy by default. The result was that assimilation — more precisely, financial and educational success — has happened for some blacks, but is beyond the reach of a vast number of others. The now numbing statistics about incarceration rates, inferior schools, entrenched poverty and the rest describe a population that, far from being integrated, still lives as a separate nation. That's all the more reason that blacks long to see President Obama as at least a sympathizer and fellow traveler rather than part of the institutional indifference that has proved as detrimental to black welfare as Jim Crow.

But Obama is a product of institutions. He is a fortunate middle-class son of the post-'60s, pro-integration era whose own success was due less to black empowerment than adherence to mainstream mores and values. Black nationalism or any clear support of black unity or racial justice is an anathema to those values; it certainly would have doomed Obama politically. This is true even though politically speaking, the president owes blacks as much as he owes Jews or any other constituency that voted for him in significant numbers.

The real problem with the assimilation-versus-nationalism battle is that it isn't really a battle anymore because black leaders, whatever philosophy they espouse these days, rarely put black interests first. Harold Cruse warned about this in his classic 1967 book, "The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual." In Cruse's view, the crisis then was a direct result of the black intelligentsia repeatedly abdicating its responsibility to assess black social conditions and craft action agendas entirely unique to America's racial history. As long as it deferred to integrationist approaches that didn't primarily have blacks' interests in mind, Cruse said, black people would always be reduced to reacting and protesting crises in the future. West's broadside of Obama is such a protest, though in it is a hope that a black man who is in a historic position to address the latest crisis will find it in his conscience to do so.

But putting aside the question of whether Obama is in a position to do much of anything, can principles of assimilation and black unity coexist at the top? Can they coexist at all? The big unstated fear among many blacks, including West, is that Obama will turn out to be yet another disappointing black politician, one who readily articulates the needs of those at the bottom but doesn't ultimately address them. That's a crisis of another color.

Erin Aubry Kaplan is a contributing editor to the Times Opinion pages.

Actually, that's not in the Bible
(CNN) – NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.

“Scripture tells you that all things shall pass,” a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season. “This, too, shall pass.”

Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase “This, too, shall pass” doesn’t appear in the Bible. Ditka was quoting a phantom scripture that sounds like it belongs in the Bible, but look closer and it’s not there.

Ditka’s biblical blunder is as common as preachers delivering long-winded public prayers. The Bible may be the most revered book in America, but it’s also one of the most misquoted. Politicians, motivational speakers, coaches - all types of people - quote passages that actually have no place in the Bible, religious scholars say.

These phantom passages include:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

“Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

And there is this often-cited paraphrase: Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden.

None of those passages appear in the Bible, and one is actually anti-biblical, scholars say.

But people rarely challenge them because biblical ignorance is so pervasive that it even reaches groups of people who should know better, says Steve Bouma-Prediger, a religion professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

“In my college religion classes, I sometimes quote 2 Hesitations 4:3 (‘There are no internal combustion engines in heaven’),” Bouma-Prediger says. “I wait to see if anyone realizes that there is no such book in the Bible and therefore no such verse.

“Only a few catch on.”

Few catch on because they don’t want to - people prefer knowing biblical passages that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs, a Bible professor says.

“Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book,” says Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who once had to persuade a student in his Bible class at Middle Tennessee State University that the saying “this dog won’t hunt” doesn’t appear in the Book of Proverbs.

“They have memorized parts of texts that they can string together to prove the biblical basis for whatever it is they believe in,” he says, “but they ignore the vast majority of the text."

Phantom biblical passages work in mysterious ways

Ignorance isn’t the only cause for phantom Bible verses. Confusion is another.

Some of the most popular faux verses are pithy paraphrases of biblical concepts or bits of folk wisdom.

Consider these two:

“God works in mysterious ways.”

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

Both sound as if they are taken from the Bible, but they’re not. The first is a paraphrase of a 19th century hymn by the English poet William Cowper (“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform).

The “cleanliness” passage was coined by John Wesley, the 18th century evangelist who founded Methodism, says Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University in Texas.

“No matter if John Wesley or someone else came up with a wise saying - if it sounds proverbish, people figure it must come from the Bible,” Kidd says.

Our fondness for the short and tweet-worthy may also explain our fondness for phantom biblical phrases. The pseudo-verses function like theological tweets: They’re pithy summarizations of biblical concepts.

“Spare the rod, spoil the child” falls into that category. It’s a popular verse - and painful for many kids. Could some enterprising kid avoid the rod by pointing out to his mother that it's not in the Bible?

It’s doubtful. Her possible retort: The popular saying is a distillation of Proverbs 13:24: “The one who withholds [or spares] the rod is one who hates his son.”

Another saying that sounds Bible-worthy: “Pride goes before a fall.” But its approximation, Proverbs 16:18, is actually written: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

There are some phantom biblical verses for which no excuse can be offered. The speaker goofed.

That’s what Bruce Wells, a theology professor, thinks happened to Ditka, the former NFL coach, when he strayed from the gridiron to biblical commentary during his 1993 press conference in Chicago.

Wells watched Ditka’s biblical blunder on local television when he lived in Chicago. After Ditka cited the mysterious passage, reporters scrambled unsuccessfully the next day to find the biblical source.

They should have consulted Wells, who is now director of the ancient studies program at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania. Wells says Ditka’s error probably came from a peculiar feature of the King James Bible.

“My hunch on the Ditka quote is that it comes from a quirk of the King James translation,” Wells says. “Ancient Hebrew had a particular way of saying things like, ‘and the next thing that happened was…’ The King James translators of the Old Testament consistently rendered this as ‘and it came to pass.’ ’’

When phantom Bible passages turn dangerous

People may get verses wrong, but they also mangle plenty of well-known biblical stories as well.

Two examples: The scripture never says a whale swallowed Jonah, the Old Testament prophet, nor did any New Testament passages say that three wise men visited baby Jesus, scholars say.

Those details may seem minor, but scholars say one popular phantom Bible story stands above the rest: The Genesis story about the fall of humanity.

Most people know the popular version - Satan in the guise of a serpent tempts Eve to pick the forbidden apple from the Tree of Life. It’s been downhill ever since.

But the story in the book of Genesis never places Satan in the Garden of Eden.

“Genesis mentions nothing but a serpent,” says Kevin Dunn, chair of the department of religion at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

“Not only does the text not mention Satan, the very idea of Satan as a devilish tempter postdates the composition of the Garden of Eden story by at least 500 years,” Dunn says.

Getting biblical scriptures and stories wrong may not seem significant, but it can become dangerous, one scholar says.

Most people have heard this one: “God helps those that help themselves.” It’s another phantom scripture that appears nowhere in the Bible, but many people think it does. It's actually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation's founding fathers.

The passage is popular in part because it is a reflection of cherished American values: individual liberty and self-reliance, says Sidnie White Crawford, a religious studies scholar at the University of Nebraska.

Yet that passage contradicts the biblical definition of goodness: defining one’s worth by what one does for others, like the poor and the outcast, Crawford says.

Crawford cites a scripture from Leviticus that tells people that when they harvest the land, they should leave some “for the poor and the alien” (Leviticus 19:9-10), and another passage from Deuteronomy that declares that people should not be “tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.”

“We often infect the Bible with our own values and morals, not asking what the Bible’s values and morals really are,” Crawford says.

Where do these phantom passages come from?

It’s easy to blame the spread of phantom biblical passages on pervasive biblical illiteracy. But the causes are varied and go back centuries.

Some of the guilty parties are anonymous, lost to history. They are artists and storytellers who over the years embellished biblical stories and passages with their own twists.

If, say, you were an anonymous artist painting the Garden of Eden during the Renaissance, why not portray the serpent as the devil to give some punch to your creation? And if you’re a preacher telling a story about Jonah, doesn’t it just sound better to say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, not a “great fish”?

Others blame the spread of phantom Bible passages on King James, or more specifically the declining popularity of the King James translation of the Bible.

That translation, which marks 400 years of existence this year, had a near monopoly on the Bible market as recently as 50 years ago, says Douglas Jacobsen, a professor of church history and theology at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

“If you quoted the Bible and got it wrong then, people were more likely to notice because there was only one text,” he says. “Today, so many different translations are used that almost no one can tell for sure if something supposedly from the Bible is being quoted accurately or not.”

Others blame the spread of phantom biblical verses on Martin Luther, the German monk who ignited the Protestant Reformation, the massive “protest” against the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church that led to the formation of Protestant church denominations.

“It is a great Protestant tradition for anyone - milkmaid, cobbler, or innkeeper - to be able to pick up the Bible and read for herself. No need for a highly trained scholar or cleric to walk a lay person through the text,” says Craig Hazen, director of the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University in Southern California.

But often the milkmaid, the cobbler - and the NFL coach - start creating biblical passages without the guidance of biblical experts, he says.

“You can see this manifest today in living room Bible studies across North America where lovely Christian people, with no training whatsoever, drink decaf, eat brownies and ask each other, ‘What does this text mean to you?’’’ Hazen says.

“Not only do they get the interpretation wrong, but very often end up quoting verses that really aren’t there.”

"To this day so many people,millions to be exact misquote scriptures everyday and they do a real disservice to the spectrum of organized religion and its a travesty."

JOPLIN, Mo. - A massive tornado that tore a 6-mile path across southwestern Missouri killed at least 125 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like soda cans and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighborhoods once stood.
Authorities warned that the death toll could climb as search and rescuers continued their work. Their task was made more miserable Monday morning May 23 as a thunderstorm with strong, gusty winds and heavy rain pelted part of the city with quarter-size hail.



Dramatic capture of fury of Joplin tornado.
City manager Mark Rohr announced an initial number of known dead at a predawn news conference outside the wreckage of a hospital that took a direct hit from Sunday's storm. Mr. Rohr said the twister cut a path nearly 6 miles long and more than a half-mile wide through the center of town, adding that tornado sirens gave residents about a 20-minute warning before the tornado touched down on the city's west side.

Much of the city's south side was leveled, with churches, schools, businesses and homes reduced to ruins. Fire chief Mitch Randles estimated 25 percent to 30 percent of the city was damaged and said his own home was among the buildings destroyed as the twister swept through this city of about 50,000 people some 160 miles south of Kansas City.

An unknown number of people were injured in the storm, and officials said patients were scattered to any nearby hospitals that could take them.

Authorities conducted a door-to-door search of the damaged area May 23, moving gingerly around downed power lines, jagged debris and a series of gas leaks that caused fires around the city overnight.

Gov. Jay Nixon said May 23 that fires from gas leaks still burned across the city.

“It's a very, very precarious situation,” Gov. Nixon told CNN. “It's going to be a stark view as people see dawn rise in Joplin, Missouri.” Residents said the damage was breathtaking in scope.

“You see pictures of World War II, the devastation and all that with the bombing. That's really what it looked like,” said Kerry Sachetta, the principal of a flattened Joplin High School. “I couldn't even make out the side of the building. It was total devastation in my view. I just couldn't believe what I saw.”

The Joplin twister was one of 68 reported tornadoes across seven Midwest states over the May 22 weekend, stretching from Oklahoma to Wisconsin, according to the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center. One person was killed in Minneapolis. But the devastation in Missouri was the worst, eerily reminiscent of the tornadoes that killed more than 300 people across the South last month.



The Sunday May 22 storm in Joplin hit a hospital packed with patients and a commercial area including a Home Depot construction store, numerous smaller businesses and restaurants and a grocery store. Jasper County emergency management director Keith Stammer said an estimated 2,000 buildings were damaged.

Among the worst-hit locations in Joplin was St. John's Regional Medical Center. The staff had just a few moments' notice to hustle patients into hallways before the storm struck the nine-story building, blowing out hundreds of windows and leaving the facility useless.

Michael Spencer, a national Red Cross spokesman who also assisted in the aftermath of a tornado that devastated nearby Pierce City in 2003, was also stunned. “I've been to about 75 disasters, and I've never seen anything quite like this before,” Mr. Spencer said. “You don't typically see metal structures and metal frames torn apart, and that's what you see here.”

Triage centers and shelters set up around the city quickly filled to capacity. At Memorial Hall, a downtown entertainment venue, nurses and other emergency workers from across the region were treating critically injured patients.

Emergency management officials rushed heavy equipment to Joplin to help lift debris and clear the way for search and recovery operations. Gov. Nixon declared a state of emergency, and President Barack Obama said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was working with state and local agencies.

An aching helplessness settled over residents, many of whom could only wander the wreckage bereft and wonder about the fate of loved ones.

A tornado that hit north Minneapolis killed one person and injured 29. Authorities imposed an overnight curfew over a 4-square-mile area, including some of the city's poorest neighborhoods, to prevent looting and keep streets clear for emergency crews.

Additional storms were predicted across the southern Plains. An advisory from the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said warm weather May 23 could fuel instability in advance of another weather system. A few tornadoes, some strong—starting in Oklahoma and southern Kansas in the afternoon and in North Texas in the late afternoon were possible at Final Call press time. (AP)

“O you who believe, if an unrighteous man brings you news, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what you did.”
—Holy Qur'an Surah 49:6



Brother Abdul Akbar Muhammad Photo: Mikal Veale
(FinalCall.com) - Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, is back safely in the United States after being detained by law enforcement officials in the South American country of Guyana.

In an exclusive interview, Akbar Muhammad told The Final Call May 21 that when Guyanese police officers came to his hotel room in the country, an officer said the Central Intelligence Agency had told local authorities he was a terrorist. There are also suspicions that the false arrest and detention could be tied to tensions between the ruling Indian-dominated political party and Black opposition party as elections loom.

The false charges and arrest is part of a sustained effort to trash the good name of Minister Farrakhan and the good works of the Nation of Islam, charged Mr. Muhammad, who has traveled to Guyana on numerous occasions since 1975 and has never had any problems with law enforcement. His most recent visit was about five years ago to speak to young people.



Guyana is located on the northern tip of South America
“The Minister is well known in that society, so when you see his name on the front of the paper, people are going to read it,” said Mr. Muhammad. “It's absolutely to try to make Minister Farrakhan look other than the champion that he is (on behalf) of Black people, and to say that he's got one of his assistants down there who is a terrorist and dealing drugs and planning some terrorist act against Guyanese society,” he added.

Just hours after touching down on American soil, Mr. Muhammad spoke to The Final Call from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, explaining that the trip to the South American country involved a series of speaking engagements, media appearances and business meetings. During his time there, he spoke to the mayor of Georgetown, the nation's capitol, as well as some pre-teen students in an economically depressed area of town.

Strange call and then arrest

While in his hotel room at the Princess Hotel in Georgetown, Mr. Muhammad said he got a strange telephone call at about 1:30 a.m. The caller asked to speak to someone, and he told them they had the wrong room.



About 15 minutes later, he heard banging on his door and the voices outside said they were the police. Mr. Muhammad said he was not sure if they were police so at first he refused to open the door, then they threatened to break the door down. He told them that was not necessary and knowing he had done nothing wrong, he opened the door, saw four Guyanese police officers and one of them said they were contacted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency saying that he was a terrorist.

Angered yet under control, Mr. Muhammad began defiantly questioning the officer in charge.

“I felt it was erroneous, I felt that it was fake, so I said to the officer in charge, ‘You got a message from the CIA? Are you the CIA's boys? They just call you and tell you I am a terrorist and you come and arrest me? I thought this was a sovereign country? Is the CIA running this country, or are you running it?' He didn't say anything,” recounted Mr. Muhammad.

After grabbing a few belongings and walking out of his hotel room, he saw two White men standing in the hallway and heard them talking. They appeared to be with the police, but were not uniformed.

Mr. Muhammad walked over and asked one, “Are you the CIA agents who gave them this information?” He said the man answered, “No.” Asked if he was an American citizen, the man replied, “yes,” according to Mr. Muhammad. “Then how come you've got that British accent?” Mr. Muhammad asked, but the man was silent. The two men remained in the building after Guyanese officers escorted Mr. Muhammad outside, presumably to go through the hotel room and search through his belongings.

Mr. Muhammad was concerned that perhaps something could be planted in his room, but there was nothing that he could do about it at the time.

False media reports circulate

The first news many heard regarding the situation was an Associated Press report early afternoon May 19 stating that Akbar Muhammad, described as a “U.S. Muslim cleric,” had been detained on suspicion of ties to drugs and terrorism.

In the Islamophobic climate of America, that wording was sure to push buttons and create a perception in the minds of viewers and readers.



Guyana Crime Chief Seelal Persaud
Guyanese assistant police commissioner Seelal Persaud was quoted in several news articles as saying, “Based on the information we have, he is involved in drugs and terrorism.”

Mr. Muhammad said, however, after being taken to the police station, he was subjected to a bizarre line of questioning from Guyanese law enforcement officials.

He was never handcuffed, which seems strange given the fact that he was allegedly involved in terrorism and drugs. He sat in a chair from approximately 2:30 a.m. until 5 p.m., answering their “ridiculous” questions while authorities went through the contents of his laptop computer.

“I said I'm not a drug dealer. I preach against drugs and I am not a terrorist. If anybody around me even had thoughts of a terrorist act, I'd get as far away from them as I possibly can,” said Mr. Muhammad. “They just had something that they were trying to do,” he added.

Following questioning, he was jailed.

He read and reflected on the situation while confined to the overcrowded and squalid conditions in the cell where he was held and swarmed by mosquitoes that bit him all over his arms and face.

During the ordeal, Mr. Muhammad reached out to his representative in the U.S. Congress, William “Lacy” Clay Jr. (D-Mo.) and the U.S. Embassy in Guyana was contacted and representatives immediately arrived to inform him that according to Guyanese law, an individual can be detained and jailed for up to 72 hours before officially being charged with a crime.



President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo. UN Photo/Erin Siegal
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“The president informed me that no man in his country would be charged with a crime and remain in prison who is innocent. I want to thank His Excellency and I am grateful for whatever he did in looking into the case.”
—The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
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After appearing before a judge, it looked as if he would be jailed over the weekend.

The Nation of Islam has an active study group in Guyana located in Linden, which is about one hour outside of the capitol city of Georgetown. Its coordinator, Brother Dennis Muhammad upon hearing that Brother Akbar was in the country and experiencing difficulty, immediately contacted Student Regional Minister Rasul H. Muhammad who presides over the Seventh Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes South America.

A telephone conference was quickly arranged between the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and President of the Republic of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo and the diplomatic wheels were placed in motion. Additionally, a television station Mr. Muhammad had made an appearance on earlier in the week enlisted Attorney Nigel Hughes, one of the leading lawyers in Guyana, for legal assistance.

Akbar Muhammad, who regularly takes heart medication, had not taken it for three days and had left it at the hotel. He asked officials to allow him to go and retrieve it and his request was granted. During that time, he got access to a phone, and placed a call to Minister Farrakhan, who informed Brother Akbar that he had spoken with Guyana's President regarding the situation.

“It was impressive in the character of the President of Guyana that he sought to speak to the Honorable Louis Farrakhan to understand what was going on with our Brother Akbar Muhammad,” said Student Minister Rasul Muhammad. “I'm impressed with the President of Guyana after having been contacted, and the government of Guyana being contacted by the federal government and the CIA in the United States spreading negative rumors that would disrupt the good works of Brother Akbar, that the President had the character to seek out the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan to get the facts,” Student Minister Rasul Muhammad added.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan praised and thanked Pres. Jagdeo for his swift intervention and shared aspects of the telephone conversation with The Final Call.

“I informed His Excellency that Brother Akbar has been my friend and companion for over 46 years and I can say with truth and certainty that he is as far away from drugs as the far planet Pluto is away from the sun and that is four billion six hundred million miles, and as far as terrorism—he would never come to any country to inspire such acts,” Minister Farrakhan told The Final Call. “The president informed me that no man in his country would be charged with a crime and remain in prison who is innocent. I want to thank His Excellency and I am grateful for whatever he did in looking into the case.”

The Guyanese people know and love Minister Farrakhan. Mr. Muhammad said as soon as he entered the jail, one Black man came up to him and asked, “Hey, aren't you that brother from the Farrakhan program?”

With the consistent outreach work of the Nation of Islam there, Minister Farrakhan's lectures are broadcast daily for one-hour and have been airing for years. Guyanese-Canadian Phillip Muhammad, who was also arrested, was instrumental in establishing and maintaining Minister Farrakhan's television ministry in Guyana. He paid for the entire trip—including airline tickets and lodging—out of his own pocket, said Akbar Muhammad.
Akbar Muhammad said once he arrived back to the police station, presumably to be subjected to more questioning, he noticed a change in the approach of his interrogators.
“I noticed that when I got back, they had a whole different attitude,” said Mr. Muhammad.

Emboldened by the recent conversation with Minister Farrakhan, Mr. Muhammad turned the tables on his would be accusers.

“They never mentioned anything about the president's office, so I brought it up with them,” Mr. Muhammad said. “I said, ‘Well, my leader—the leader of the Nation of Islam—has talked to your president about the situation.' They didn't respond. They didn't say a word.”

Within hours, he, Phillip Muhammad and a 26-year old Guyanese brother who was also arrested in connection with the bogus charges were released.

Akbar Muhammad and Atty. Hughes held a press conference outside of police headquarters demanding a formal apology. Atty. Hughes called the arrests and detainment “outrageous” and an “unjust claim from the beginning.”

“I think it was one of the worst moments for law enforcement in Guyana,” Atty. Hughes told The Final Call. “Within 10 minutes of arriving at the police station at the prison detention department of the police headquarters, I inquired about the reason for the arrest of Brother Akbar, the reason for his detention and what were the specifics of the allegations that they were attributing to him. They could provide absolutely no specifics of any activity that was remotely criminal. There was nothing of narcotics, nothing of terrorism.”

Atty. Hughes said the entire interrogation concentrated on basic information, such as his age, how many children he had, and who he met with. The fact that he met with political officials appears to be key. In his 23 years of practicing law in Guyana, the attorney had never seen a case like this.

“I have not come across such an act of maliciousness in terms of detaining somebody against whom they have absolutely no evidence,” said Atty. Hughes.

He has filed a formal demand for a formal apology from Guyana's police department with the commissioner of police for the arrest and detention and is exploring possible civil proceedings for false imprisonment and unlawful arrest. He will also be in discussion with attorneys in the U.S. regarding possible actions against Guyana regarding the prison conditions, which Atty. Hughes described as “appalling.”

Guyana's history and racial tension

Guyana, the only English speaking country in South America, is located on the northern tip of South America nestled between Venezuela and Suriname.

The Black slave trade flourished there with many slave traders becoming rich from the highly profitable and productive sugar cane fields. Originally a Dutch colony, it became a British possession in the early 1800s. Once the trans-Atlantic slave trade subsided, many Blacks remained there, however, other profiteers brought in “indentured servants” from East India to continue working the sugar plantations. Since obtaining its independence on May 26, 1966, and even before, ethnic tension has existed between Blacks and East Indians.

According to census figures, East Indians make up 50 percent of the population with Blacks 36 percent of its total population of nearly 767,000. This has led to political tension between the ruling political party dominated by East Indians and the opposition led by Blacks. Mr. Muhammad said this could have acted as a contributing factor to his arrest and detention.

National elections are scheduled to take place in August and perhaps the ruling party wanted to show Guyanese voters and the international community that they were being tough on terrorism.

Through the entire ordeal, described by Mr. Muhammad as “humiliating,” he thought about his 10 children, his 14 grandchildren, the members of the Nation of Islam and all those friends across the country and world who know him seeing the false media reports and wondering how they were affected. This incident has only inspired him to do more work, and to speak out for Muslims who have gone through the same harassment in airports and other places, said Mr. Muhammad.

“This is happening to too many Muslims,” he said. “Many (Muslims) have suffered this and have been harassed and detained and don't say anything, so they continue to do it. So what we have to do is that when this happens, we have to make some noise and let the world know that because I am a Muslim, I am being harassed like this and they just have to cease and desist. Anybody with a Muslim name can be accused of anything,” he added.