The Final Call

WVON's Cliff Kelley Interviews Minister Farrakhan

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In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.

Cliff Kelley (CK): We are always pleased to have you, Brother Minister. How are you, sir? … In Chicago, the little girl seven years of age that was shot and killed was recently buried. And, when we talk about the violence happening in Chicago, because we have made headlines not only nationally, but internationally, there have been a lot of people to mention the fact: “What about The Nation of Islam?” relative to the success in training young people; for example, the many great young men who are in [The F.O.I.] of The Nation of Islam.

If The Nation can do it, and does do it, why can’t other groups do the same thing that The Nation does with young people? Please tell us what you think about this violence situation that goes on, and what can be done about it.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (HMLF): I’m very well, thank you Brother Cliff.

It is a tremendous tragedy, and a scourge, on our community; that after we have suffered so much from so many for so long, that we would become the worst enemies of self. This is grievous! We are filled with self-hatred. And I have to say to us as parents: We took our eyes off “The Prize.”

When Dr. King and the great Civil Rights Movement opened the door for those who were qualified to go here, there, to eat here, to eat there; to live here, to live there, we never sat down with our children and told them the “bitter road that we trod” to get to where we are today. And because we have violated a principle: That we should teach our children about our struggle; because if our struggle is not complete, then The Struggle must continue! And if it is to continue, how will it continue unless it continues through our children? And how will our children continue The Struggle for full Freedom, Justice and Equality if they are not taught and trained of the bitter road that their fathers and their grandfathers and their great-grandfathers have trod to get us to where we are today. We’ve “dropped the ball.”

The scripture teaches “young men for war; old men and women for counsel”—it’s the counsel of the elders that is missing in the community; there is such a gap that the youth, sometimes, don’t even want to hear from their elders. We’ve got a lot of work to do. And I must say that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had a way of taking Bible scripture that you read every day, and transforms the lives of Black people! We are ready, willing and able to offer his Methodology to the pastors, to leaders, that we will come together and make a concerted effort to save our youth from themselves.

And lastly: When The Nation of Islam was strong, we were in the streets, and we had the violence under control. But it was not like it is today; so Brother Farrakhan is going to lead the F.O.I. into the streets. We’re going to help our people. Prophet Muhammad said: “If the mountain won’t come to Muhammad, then Muhammad will go to the mountain,” so we have to take our Teaching and our Example to our people!

A brother said to me after the seven-year-old girl was unfortunately shot, that The Nation of Islam gave the mother a “basket of fruit.” I said to the brother: “It would have been so much better if the F.O.I. were in the streets as the ‘basket of fruit’ for that mother,” so that perhaps our presence can forestall some of the ignorance and violence. However, we don’t want to say like others: “Let’s take back the streets!” as if this is a “military operation.” These young people are our children! They are our flesh, and our blood! We don’t go in the streets like some “army” to “take back our streets”—we didn’t own the streets in the first place! But, if we get our young people together and pool our resources, we could own every street where we live. So we’re coming in the streets to show our young people the love that they are missing.

And I advise pastors: This bourgeois attitude of our “staying in” the church, in the mosque, in the synagogue—when all of the problems are in the street: We need to come out of the church, out of the mosque, out of the synagogue, and get in the streets where the problems are; and use the wisdom that we have been given to help our people come out of this condition.

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Then we have to put our young people to work and give them hope that there is a better life for us. Not sitting around waiting for President Obama or others to create enough jobs for us, we have to get together and create jobs for ourselves and our people. This we hope to share with all of our people because “The Battle” is in our hands now. We should take up The Challenge and create jobs, employment; and give our people intelligent discourse that they will come alive as human beings rather than the way we are acting at present.

I would like us to know that “Time” is on our side; but “Time” can be our “enemy” if we don’t act in accord with The Time. What Time is it? It’s time for us to act as free men and women, and stop sitting around looking for somebody else to do it for us when we are very capable of doing it for ourselves. We can create a heaven for ourselves while we live, because there is no “heaven in the sky,” and no “hell in the earth.” Even the Pope, John Paul, agreed with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that there are “Two Conditions of Life”: “Heaven” is a condition! “Hell” is a condition! And you all know that you are in Hell …

So let’s make up our minds, come together, and build a Heaven for ourselves while we live.

CK: Brother Minister, our major problem, as you well know, is “public education.” You talked about how many people don’t know when you’ve mentioned about the “ignorance in the community.” What do we do about that?

HMLF: Well, we need to “scrap” that which has shown its unworthiness, because if you look at the product being produced by public school education, this is a sign that there is something wrong—not with our children, but with public education!

I am before you at this microphone having grown up in a segregated community in Boston, Massachusetts. I want to let you know that I had a superior education even in a segregated, all-boys school! I left grammar school with a knowledge of all of the countries on this Earth and what they produced! When I went to high school, I had two years of German, two years of French, one year of Spanish, three years of Latin; I had English, and was very good in English. I had Algebra, Plane Geometry, Solid Geometry, Calculus, Trigonometry; I had Physics, Chemistry, Biology; I had Ancient History, Medieval History, and Modern History—in high school! But when I left high school and went South to a Black institution that was to give me “higher” education, I never had to “buy a book” in the years that I was in college because of what I had already learned in my primary education.

I know that our children are being given an inferior education; and those who want to control the minds and hearts of the American people have purposely “dumbed down” the American people. We must change the education in the public schools, where the children are getting this porridge … When they show up as a “discipline problem,” you want to offer our children “Ritalin” which is cocaine in a small dose; doping up our babies and preparing them for the institutions of injustice—no! We’ve got to look at what is being fed to our children! And we have to be concerned about education, the right kind of education, for all American children: Black, Brown, Red, Yellow and White!

America’s education system has failed—but we, The Nation of Islam, have a System that would not only be good for Black people, it would be good for White people! It would be good for all people, because everyone needs a Superior Education in order to master the circumstances that Life presents. While the “education model” we have is not yet “perfect,” and we are perfecting our model, we are still a long way from the madness that we see in our public schools. We wish that you would permit us to come in and help you with the students. We’re not there to teach them “hatred” of any people, but to get them to fall in love with themselves! And the more you teach them the richness of their history, and The Nature of God that sits deep within them—and the power that they have once they are “turned on”: We’ll never have to beg another people again.

So I am asking the teachers and the principals: Look at our record, and stop fearing what people are going to say “downtown,” or “uptown” or “across town”—they’re afraid to see us clean up, stand up, and wake up! But we’ve got to stop trying to please others, and start trying to do that which will please God, and make us pleasing to ourselves and to each other.

CK: On “foreign policy”: With the election of Egyptian President Muhammed Morsi, what do you expect is going to happen there?

HMLF: I applaud President Morsi, and the Muslim Brotherhood. I wonder, though: Since they had a new constitution, since they had a legislative body; since they were moving toward democracy in that they were going to exercise their right to vote for the first time in a long, long, long time for who would lead Egypt … And all of a sudden just before the election, the group of army generals disbanded the constitution; turned out the parliament, and so a man wins, and they take all the power, then I can’t help but to think that America was involved in that maneuver!

Before the Million Man March took place, America knew before we did that it was going to be a smashing success, because they’ve got “ears to the ground.” America, you knew that the Muslim Brotherhood was going to win, and you wanted to preempt that victory because you feared that this would be an “Islamist government”—like you did in Algeria, like you did in Tunisia! And, like you do when you fear that which is coming will not be kowtowing to your policies!

So my advice to President Morsi, who is a wise man that has the people with him: You go get the people, President Morsi; and then take back the power that belongs to the president! Because what good is a man whose “testicles” have been “cut off,” and you want him to reproduce?

CK: Everything that is happening in Syria is what happened in Libya, Brother Minister; with the “arming of rebels”—and we couldn’t have that to continue! Do you think there is a difference between what is going on with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and what happened to Libyan Colonel Muammar Gadhafi?

HMLF: Well, no. The U.S. government is arming the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad, and that is what is keeping this conflict going, making it more violent. Some of the rebels have been involved in the slaughter of civilians, but the media, of course, blames it on President Assad. In their trying to depose Muammar Gadhafi, they destroyed Gadhafi’s ability to defend the air space, and they have done the same with Syria.

You know, the “hand of America” is a bloody hand. And soon, America, I fear for you that your hand is going to be cut off. And your interference in sovereign nations as they try to solve their problems is making it bad for you at home.

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I just read that Russia is planning to give to Iran a “S-300 missile system” that is the best in the world. … Now, what will that do? First of all, I believe that the more you arm the rebels, you are the one that’s keeping the slaughter going! [Syria has] a government that has power; it’s legitimate—whether you like that government or not, it is a legitimate government that you, America, desire to see overthrown. This is a part of what the Neo-Conservatives had planned years ago; they wanted to knock out Libya, they want to knock out Sudan, they want to knock out Syria, and they want to knock out Iran! So, they’re “on schedule.”

You’re making some serious miscalculations, America. Your weaponry, your power has literally gone to your head! I can tell you on WVON, the nation’s radio station, that this is my country—I have no other country that I’m a “citizen” of. Yes, I guess I’m a “citizen of the world,” but if you continue in this path, your power will be broken in war.

I’m not saying it out of an “ego” or “vanity,” I am repeating what a man that was Taught by God put in my ear, and put in the public domain. You have not won a war in the last 40 or 50 years: You didn’t win in Korea; it was a “police action” that was a stalemate! You didn’t win in Vietnam, and you’re not winning in Afghanistan. There’s something wrong, America! You need to stop a minute … And the American people need to rise up against the warmongers that are bringing America down!

Now, you can come and get me if that’s what you want to do. But I am a Faithful Warner from God through the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to you. I’m not warning you because I “hate” you; I’m not warning you because I want to see America “fall”—I don’t want to see America fall, because I live here. But America: You are headed for a very hard fall…

I’m saying that all of the world will go free because your power, NATO’s power, and the power of the warmongers of the world will be broken in this final war which you are shaping up for now. You will not win—I can guarantee you that whether I am living or dead … .