The Final Call

Farrakhan addresses world at Saviours' Day 2008

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• Farrakhan: ‘Mischief making’ should not dampen support for Obama (NOI.org, 02-28-2008)

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan addresses Chicago audience on Feb. 24, 2008.

The nations—the Nation of Islam, the United States of America, the entire world—have simultaneously arrived at a divinely positioned crossroads, where ideals are pitted against selfishness and greed, and where young people will be “the instruments that God is going to use to bring about universal change,” said Min. Farrakhan Feb. 24 in his 27^th annual Saviours’ Day address.

The desire for change desired by Americans is reflected in their historic political support for Democratic hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), he said.

“The context of the phenomenal rise of Barack Obama is a world and a nation in peril,” he said. The world as we know it, can collapse in a twinkling of an eye and the signs of the fall of America are crystal clear: many U.S. cities are bankrupt. Many of the 50 U.S. states are bankrupt. Stock markets all over the world are falling. This country’s infrastructure is going unattended to, because the country is fighting a needless war in Iraq, he said.

Once friendly Latin American and Central American countries are turning away from capitalism and the United States, the Nation of Islam leader continued. They are now “seeing America as an evil, imperialist empire.”

Dissatisfaction brings change

There has never been as much worldwide dissatisfaction as there is now, Min. Farrakhan warned, reminding his audience that dissatisfaction brings about change. “People are losing confidence in America’s ability to correct her ship of state.”

Sen. Obama “is not only about changing who sits in the White House; he’s talking about changing the mindset of those that led us into the war in Iraq,” said the Minister.

“Brothers and sisters, Barack Obama to me, is a herald of the Messiah. Barack Obama is like the trumpet that alerts you something new, something better is on the way,” the Muslim leader declared.

“We have been taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that Master Fard Muhammad had a Black father and a White mother. The man that we call the Saviour was born of the two people,” Min. Farrakhan said, describing the founder of the Nation of Islam in North America and Mr. Muhammad’s teacher, who was born in Mecca, Arabia Feb. 26, 1877.

“A Black man with a White mother became a saviour to us. A Black man with a White mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall,” Min Farrakhan said. Sen. Obama does not represent the politics of yesterday, politics which have led this country to the brink of ruin, he said.

“This has been the most difficult text that I have ever had to put together,” the Muslim leader told the audience made up of people from Chicago, Los Angeles, Newark, Baltimore, New Orleans, Denver, Holly Springs and Jackson, Miss., Boston, London, Paris, Ottawa and Toronto, Canada, and dozens of other cities and towns who came to participate in the three-day meeting. It included workshops and gala events, and the annual reunion of Nation of Islam members who answered Min. Farrakhan’s call.

Borrowing from a famous song title by rhythm and blues icon Marvin Gaye, Min. Farrakhan repeatedly described the world’s and this country’s perilous state, asking the question: “What’s Going On?” The country is spiraling downward. There are high levels of stress throughout the society. Many young people suffer from lethal obesity and heart problems. There are new incurable diseases sweeping across the country, and every day, there are more sightings of unidentified flying objects, he said.

In 2007, America experienced the second highest level of unusual weather since weather records have been kept, for more than 150 years, the Minister noted. The dollar is collapsing, and the country is for sale, Min. Farrakhan said.

Obama seeks to be unifying force

But as a result of Sen. Obama’s presidential campaign, “people are being transformed from what they were. His language is raising them above their racial, ethnic, cultural, religious differences, and he is welding people into a bond that has never been seen before.

“You might say, gee, I don’t think Barack is ‘Black enough.’ He wasn’t supposed to be. If you want a Black leader, there’s Rev. Jackson, there’s Rev. Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, and we don’t apologize,” said Min. Farrakhan. Sen. Obama is not “the Black candidate,” he’s “the American candidate who wants to unite all the American people. You may not agree with him, then stand on the sidelines and watch.

“There are Caucasian people, right now, who don’t see Barack Obama’s color, they see that man as the only one able to save this country from itself,” said the Minister. “In the end the outcome is in the hands of God.

“If this man is doing what has never been done before by any politician White or Black, where is God in this, and why now? We have never seen Caucasian people vote like this for a man of color.

“Why is this happening at this time? It is because the gods are at war, and you don’t even know that the war has already started, and you are being victimized by the arch deceiver who sees his world coming down. At the same time we are witnessing the phenomenal rise of a young man of color in the country that persecuted us.

“You know, when the Gods are at war, you have to understand the kind of world that God wants to bring in against the kind of world that Satan has us living in.

“Here’s a man who has an African father that deserted him when he was two-years-old and a young teenage, White mother and maternal grandparents who raised him. Now, how’s he going to be a racist when the mother that taught him and the grandmother that raised him and gave him the love that nurtured him are White? So don’t look for him to be a hater. That man has empathy for people who are African or Black, but he has empathy and love for people who are White.

“Do you think they would trust him in Africa, as a president of the United States, that he might help to reshape America’s foreign policy toward Africa?” Min. Farrakhan asked. “How would they see him in the Middle East? How would they see him in Central and South America? How would they see him in Asia? Whether you are broad enough to open your eyes, this young man is the hope of the entire world, that America will change and be made better, because a better man may become her leader.

“Well, he doesn’t have any experience, they say. Nobody, White or Black has experience to deal with the fall and decline of a world and the greatest nation in that world. It is not experience that is needed. The Bible says, where there is no vision, the people perish, and that is where (Sen.) Obama is ranking over all of them.

“Some people thought that Barack should wait. Wait until 10 or 12 years from now. ‘(Sen. Obama) will be more seasoned, more mature.’ America does not have that long at the rate she’s going. He said: ‘My time is now.’

“Would God allow Barack to be president of a country that has been so racist, so evil in its treatment of Hispanics, Native Americans, Blacks? Would God do something like that? Yeah. Of course he would. That’s to show you that the stone that the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner. This is a sign to you. It’s the time of our rise. It’s the time that we should take our place. The future is all about you,” Min. Farrakhan said, offering a warning as well. “I ask that we pray for our brother. I’m not asking for votes. I’m asking a nation, the Nation of Islam and people of goodwill, pray for this young man and his family,” because a lot of impediments have been thrown in his path.

Sen. Obama has already encountered, and will likely face even more hostility, in Min. Farrakhan’s name sake. “The enemy is working right now. He wants to find a way to get at Farrakhan. What is wrong with Farrakhan, that you have to make Farrakhan a litmus test for any Black person who strives for betterment, for elevation in society? ‘Let’s give them the Farrakhan test.’

“I’ve taken tests. I’ve never been in a classroom where a test is only applied to one student in the class. If you’re going to give someone the litmus test,” give it to all the presidential candidates, he said.

“Don’t single out one man and say let’s give him the Farrakhan test. Why not give it to (Sen.) Hillary (Clinton)? What are you trying to do to our brother? Why do you hate him so, that you want to make me a stumbling block.

“That’s why you have never heard me make any comment. I love that brother, and I want to see that brother successful. I don’t want to say anything that would hurt that brother, and I don’t want them to use me or the Nation of Islam,” Min. Farrakhan said, pointing out that he didn’t tell anybody for whom to vote.

“The future is all about you, all about youth. You have to make decisions for your life, and you have to be informed to make the right decision. If the future is all about you individually, you plural, and it’s all about youth. The man that we call ‘The Saviour’ was born of the two people,” a Black father and a White Mother. ”

Sen. Obama “is not the Messiah for sure, but anytime, he gives you a sign of uniting races, ethnic groups, ideologies, religions and makes people feel a sense of oneness, that’s not necessarily Satan’s work, that is I believe the work of God.

When religious scholars talk about Christ, and when they talk about the Mahdi, they never talk in racial terms, he observed.

Min. Farrakhan also discussed his own health. “Allah has granted me another year after my horrific operation and near death experience,” he said. Not much was heard from him or from the Nation of Islam itself, for the past year, since his Saviours’ Day address in Detroit in 2007. “I’m doing fine,” he said. “Last year, at Saviours’ Day I was 170 pounds, up from 158, down from 186.” He said he now weighs 192 pounds, declaring that “cancer is not present because if it were, I would not be gaining weight.”

“We must clean up our lives, clean up our communities. Young people, you are the instruments that God is gonna use to bring about universal change, and that is why (Sen.) Barack (Obama) has captured the youth. And he has involved young people in a political process that they didn’t care anything about. When the Messiah speaks, the young people will hear, and the Messiah is absolutely speaking.”