(FinalCall.com) -
The following is an edited transcript of the Honorable
Minister Louis Farrakhan�s report on his recent Peace Mission to
Africa and the Middle East, delivered July 22, 2002 at the
National Press Club in Washington, D.C.)
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"Our
trip also took us to Zimbabwe where the historical
injustice of the land question has to be resolved,
hopefully amicably." |
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In the
Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. We give Him praise
and thanks for His mercy and His goodness to the human family.
That goodness is reflected in the guidance that He brings to the
human family through the mouths of His prophets and messengers.
This is why as Muslims, We thank Allah for Moses and the Torah.
And we thank Him for Jesus and the Gospel. We thank Him for
Muhammad and the Qur�an. Peace be upon these worthy servants of
the Almighty God.
As a
student of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, I could never thank
Allah enough for His intervention in our affairs in the Person
of Master Fard Muhammad, to Whom praise is due forever, for His
raising among us one to lead, teach, and guide us into the
process that would make us once again the righteous Muslims that
our fathers once were. We thank Allah for the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad, and in their names, I greet all of you with the
greeting words of peace, As-Salaam Alaikum.
First,
let me say how thankful we are that Almighty God brought us back
to the United States. Our thanks to the National Press Club for
allowing us the privilege of speaking to you from this platform,
and our thanks to the members of the press who are present, and
thanks to all of you who prayed for the success of our peace
mission and for our safe return, for we traveled safely on the
wings of your prayers and we are indebted to each of you for
that.
This
morning, I spoke with (former) Ambassador Burns, assistant to
the Secretary of State Colin Powell, by telephone and gave him a
brief report of our Peace Mission. We will follow-up with a
detailed report in writing to Secretary of State Colin Powell
and his assistant, Ambassador Burns.
As you
know, our peace initiative was twofold. First, we wanted to see
if we could stop the carnage among the Israelis and Palestinian
that we felt if it continued unabated would possibly widen the
conflict, destabilize the region, and this would not be good for
United States� interests nor the interest of Europe and the
world.
From
time to time, I have met with most of the Palestinian leaders,
including President Arafat. I believed that if I were able to go
into Israel and the West Bank that I could have gotten an
agreement from the Palestinians to accept a moratorium of 90-120
days on the suicide bombings, for there can really not be a
peace initiative in the face of an ever increasing cycle of
violence. At the same time, if we had gotten such an agreement,
which I believe we could have, then I would have asked Prime
Minister (Ariel) Sharon on the basis of that agreement, if he
would pull his troops and tanks out of the West Bank. And since
the state of Israel was mandated by the United Nations, the
United Nations cannot abandon its responsibility to gain peace
in that area. We suggested that in that condition of
non-violence that the United Nations should sponsor, under its
auspices, a discussion where all the parties who have offered
their peace initiatives could sit down and try to work out a
basis for a Palestinian state, the cessation of conflict, and
the Israelis having secure borders.
Unfortunately, we were not permitted to enter Israel. The
Palestinians have no control of those borders and the Israelis
said that they would follow the position of the United Kingdom.
As you know, the United Kingdom has banned Louis Farrakhan from
going there for the last, now, 17 years. And now that we won in
a lower court, it was appealed to a higher court and the lower
court ruling was reversed. Then it was appealed to the House of
Lords; and just recently, the House of Lords said, no, Farrakhan
will not be able to enter the United Kingdom. The Israeli
government felt that my presence would not be good for the
stability and peace of the area so they refused our entrance.
President Bush�s peace initiative took place while I was in
Qatar. I happened to be in the studios of Al-Jazeera watching
him and I was to speak on the news that night at 11:00 o�clock.
After his peace initiative, I was greatly disappointed because
his peace initiative was based on the condition of a change in
Palestinian leadership and certain reforms as a condition for
America to use its great influence to carve out a legitimate
state for the Palestinians. These conditions angered the
Palestinians and made them even more solid in their support of
President Arafat as their leader. The threat of no American
support unless there were a change in leadership made the
Palestinians feel that America wanted democracy but they wanted
it by coercion, not respecting the intelligence or the will of
the Palestinian people. So the situation there is not better.
Unfortunately, the cycle of violence continues. And I am afraid,
my dear brothers and sisters and listeners, that if America
fails to use her tremendous leverage in a positive way to bring
about peace, then the conflict will widen and American interests
will be severely damaged.
The
second part of the initiative, which I feel was very successful,
was to speak to the Muslim world and the Muslim leaders to ask
them to speak with one voice to get [President Bush] to cease
his plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein and a bombing campaign on
Iraq, similar to that which was unleashed on Afghanistan, only
America had planned that it would be even greater, according to
what we have read. It appeared then, when I first spoke of this,
that I was singing a solo. Now a chorus has come up from the
world.
I spoke
to many Arab leaders, both political and spiritual, and I can
tell you that there is no Arab country that does not desire
better relations and friendship with the United States of
America. Even Iraq wants friendship with America but on
conditions that are fair and just. Whether the leaders in that
area agree with Saddam Hussein or not, none of them with whom we
spoke wanted to see bombs fall on Iraq and the slaughter of
innocent civilians just to get rid of a man that America says is
some threat to the world. They thought that if such an attack
took place, it would increase hatred for the American
administration. And any Arab leader that would give approval to
the United States to attack Iraq would cause a popular uprising
and it would cause America to lose her moderate friends in that
area of the world.
I can
tell you that I am very pleased that the Arab and Muslim world
is beginning to speak with one voice on this issue. And I thank
God that He gave us that desire to speak out regardless of the
consequences. My appeal to the United States government is that
it is very unwise to pursue this policy. America is too great
and powerful a nation as the only remaining superpower to do
that which would destroy her credibility as any type of moral
authority. The loss to America in terms of political capital
would be very great. America would then appear to the world,
even to her friends, as a bully, using manufactured evidence,
supposition, assumptions or a set of maybes as a basis for
murder and war. This is why we said that before one bomb is
dropped on Iraq, and before one American soldier�s life is lost,
there must be congressional hearings, that the matter should be
debated publicly so that the American people, rather than a
strong lobby, could determine what the direction of this nation
should be. Such aggression in the name of a preemptive strike
against anyone that the United States presumes or assumes is
developing weapons of mass destruction would not only be unwise
and improper, but it would place the United States opposite God,
Himself.
In the
Holy Qur�an, which is the book of scripture of the Muslims, but
also you will find it in the Bible, God demands of the righteous
not to be the aggressor, either in word or deed. The Qur�an
teaches that Allah (God) loves not the aggressor. If America
would assume an aggressive posture, under the name of a
preemptive strike without ever proving to the American people
that it is worthy of America, then God would take a position.
And that position would be against the aggressor. And then
inside the armed forces of America, you have over 400,000 Black
soldiers�men and women, some of whom are Muslim�and they would
be forced then to choose under such a policy whether they should
obey God or obey the commands of their commander in chief. This
would not be good for the morale of the armed forces to have
that kind of conflict within its ranks.
Our
travels took us to Durban, South Africa, where we witnessed the
birth of the African Union. It is regrettable that such a
significant event in the affairs of Africa, and Africans
wherever they are in the Diaspora, got so little attention in
the American media, so that there was only a handful of Africans
in the Diaspora attending such a significant, historical event.
This must not be, because the idea of an African Union or the
United States of Africa did not start on the African continent
with Kwame Nkrumah and Gamel Abdul Nasser. That idea started in
the Diaspora with Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. DuBois, C.L.R. James.
Then it was taken by Kwame Nkrumah and Gamel Abdul Nassar and
others on the African continent. Now Muammar Gadhafi, seeing the
validity of it, knowing that Africa as 53 independent states
would not be able to compete in a time of globalization, has
embraced the idea. Africa would be left out totally unless
Africa found a way to unite the best of itself to compete. So
the European Union became somewhat of the model for the African
Union.
Our
trip also took us to Zimbabwe where the historical injustice of
the land question has to be resolved, hopefully amicably. The
way the media in America and Great Britain and Europe have
written and shown President Mugabe, they showed him as an
undemocratic, wicked man who is now taking land from the White
owners. I think if we really want peace, we have to structure
peace on the basis of justice. And we cannot have justice except
on the basis of truth. And the truth must not be hidden to
vilify one or the other. Truth must be told. The land was taken
from its original owners by force.
Under
Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, men, women and children fought a
war of liberation. They didn�t fight a war of liberation just to
have a flag and a national anthem and a seat in the United
Nations. They fought to liberate the land so that the resources
of that land would accrue to its natural and original owners.
Unfortunately, just as they were about to capture the whole
country, negotiations began with Great Britain. And for three
months at Lancaster House in the United Kingdom, they argued
over the land question: What to do with the land settled on by
Whites that originally belonged to Blacks?
The
British wanted Zimbabweans to buy the land back from somebody
who never used a dollar to get it. That was an insult. So they
founded a constitution and the land question in that
constitution was, that the land would be bought back but the
people of Zimbabwe had no money to pay for the land. So under
the administration of Margaret Thatcher and Jimmy Carter, there
was an agreement, not written but verbal, that they would help
to buy the land back from the British settlers. Well, that went
along pretty good for a while. Then Margaret Thatcher had no
more to give. President Carter was only in office for four years
then Ronald Reagan for eight. And all during that time money was
given to buy back land and it was proceeding, but slowly.
So the
Zimbabweans changed an aspect of the constitution, which at
first said that if the White settlers wanted to sell the land,
the land could be bought. But if they refused to sell, you could
not force them to sell. But after 10 years of that, the
constitution (was changed to say) the land would be bought in
the national interest. Now after 20 years, Robert Mugabe, when
he was fighting for the land, we saw old newspaper articles that
depicted him as a terrorist. And all the man was doing was
fighting to liberate his land. He allowed Ian Smith, who was
brutal in his suppression of Black people after independence, to
still live there on a large tract of land. He still lives there.
And as long as the Whites� ownership of land was undisturbed,
Mugabe was a gentleman. From a terrorist, he became a gentleman.
But
after 20 years, some of the soldiers that fought with him felt
betrayed and that�s when they settled on the land to say that
the revolution is not complete until the land is back in the
ownership of the original owners. Now, Mugabe had two things to
do. He could either fight them and throw them off the land or
recognize the rightness of them and the slowness of justice
coming. When Mugabe took the latter position that the soldiers
were right, the revolution was not completed, 4,500 Whites owned
12 million hectares of land and a hectare is 2.7 acres. When you
have 4,500 Whites owning 12 million hectares of arable land and
millions of Blacks living huddled together with no real economic
substance, that is an injustice that must be rectified.
Great
Britain has no desire to give anymore money. Under the
administration of the elder Bush, they gave money for awhile and
then they watched the way Zimbabwe was voting (in the United
Nations). Since Zimbabwe seemed to be voting more on the side of
the Soviet Union than the United States, President Bush, the
elder, decided to give no more money to settle the land issue.
So the land question then gets bogged down until that man who
was a soldier stood on that land and said we are claiming this.
This is what we fought for.
Instead of Britain
and America recognizing that it was a little more than $2 billion it would take to buy back all the land, what is
better�$2 billion or extended war? Nothing is going to stop
Black people in Africa from wanting what belongs to them. And it
is wiser for the Whites who live there well to want to share the
resources. The Zimbabweans don�t want to just kick the Whites
altogether out but they cannot live as they are living anymore.
One man owns 40 percent of the wealth of South Africa and that
same man owns 130,000 hectares in Zimbabwe, the size of Belgium,
and doesn�t want to give anything back to the indigenous people.
Well, what will that eventually cause?
To the
Whites of Europe and America, I am pleading with you to think
with wisdom. Justice is not what you are being offered. You are
being offered mercy. If you reject mercy, then justice comes.
And what is justice? The Prophet Obadiah said, �As thou hast
done so shall it be done unto you.� That�s not what you want.
You have given something to Africa so why not accept a merciful
solution that allows you something but does not deprive the
indigenous people of what belongs to them, what they rightfully
deserve.
(In)
South Africa, the wealth is not in the hands of the Blacks. We
can�t live with a national anthem and a flag and no food,
clothing, shelter, electricity, running water, and decent homes.
There is impatience in Africans now to resolve the land question
and the mindset of Europe and America is to make Mugabe an
example so that Thabo Mbeki or Sam Nujoma in Namibia and others
would not follow suit. They want to pounce (as in a military
attack) on Mugabe. What right does a Black congressman have to
vote for a democracy bill that sanctions Zimbabwe? As a Black
person in Congress to represent the rights of Black people, when
you hear Whites saying that Mugabe is wrong for what he is
doing, why don�t you get on a plane and go on the ground and see
for yourself and come back and report to those of us who sent
you to Congress?
The
Middle East is a hot button. We pray for the resolution of that
conflict. But Africa is another hot button. If something is not
done among wise White people to recognize the injustice of what
you have done, and then offer back to the Africans some of what
you have taken and you keep what is commensurate to your
population and give to the Africans what is commensurate with
theirs, then there won�t be bloodshed anymore. You will live
together and there will be peace in the valley. But if this is
rejected because you feel you own it, you took it, it�s yours,
then I warn you in the Name of Allah (God) that a curtain of
blood will rise from South Africa. I want you to hear me,
please. I don�t want this but it will precipitate race war.
In
Africa, the Whites are the minority. You have weapons in South
Africa but you are the minority. If the Blacks lose patience
because they are suffering and living under terrible conditions,
if they start throwing the Whites off the land and blood begins
to flow, that will affect how Blacks survive in Great Britain,
how Blacks survive in Belgium, in Holland, in France, in
Germany, in Italy. Because whatever happens in Africa, you will
see a repercussion or as they say, for every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction. You will find a reaction on the
African continent but the greater reaction will be where Whites
are the majority and Blacks are the minority.
Then
the scriptures of the Bible will be fulfilled: �In that day,
every man shall go to his own and find refuge under his own vine
and fig tree.� As the Whites are pushed out, when they come back
to Europe and they see you, they won�t look good at even their
neighbors. And that will have an effect in the United States of
America with race relations. I think the time to stop all of
this is now and the wise Whites and the wise Blacks should plan
for peace and the acceptance of mercy rather than the harshness
of justice.
All of
southern Africa is suffering from AIDS. And the sad thing about
that is they are in Botswana trading diamonds for medicine. We
have to stop this. We are sending a team of doctors to Zimbabwe
because we believe there is a cheaper way to do this. And we
intend to encourage Muammar Gadhafi to open that facility
(where) he was accused of making chemical and biological
weapons. We want to encourage him to open that facility and let
the world come and see that he is manufacturing vaccines and
producing a low cost remedy for the AIDS pandemic that is
killing our people wholesale in Africa.
We have
taken our video cameras and taken pictures and we are sending a
team back to make a documentary because the American people,
Black and White and Brown and Asian, must know what is really
going on. I personally believe that the American Whites, if they
knew, would stand with us for a better solution than what the
government is presently advocating. Getting the truth of the
situation to our people is the problem, but it�s something that
we have to do.
In
closing, unfortunately it was reported in the Washington Times
and UPI (United Press International) that I prayed for an Iraqi
victory in a military conflict with the United States. I want
the American people and the world to know that the only victory
that those of us who were in this delegation and on this Peace
Mission prayed for was the victory of peace over war, the
victory of right over wrong, the victory of justice over
injustice, tempered with the mercy of God. I would never go on a
peace mission and pray for victory in a war that would see
American soldiers lose their lives and Iraqi people get
slaughtered. That was designed in this atmosphere of patriotism
to make Farrakhan look like an enemy of the United States of
America.
I want
to make it very clear: I am a citizen of the world but this is
my land. And I was most happy to get back here safe. I love this
land and I see myself as one who has to take the responsibility
of citizenship seriously since you say that I am a citizen. And
since this is supposed to be a government of the people, by the
people, and for the people, and since I�m one of the people,
then if I see my government doing something that doesn�t have
the consent of the governed, but is being manipulated by those
who want war so they can extract more money out of Congress to
feed the war machine, then I think as a citizen, I should speak.
The guarantee of freedom of speech is the beauty of American
life. Not speaking freely and stupidly, but speaking freely and
responsibly. In standing up against the will of our government
for war and the lack of our use of her strength and leverage in
the pursuit of peace, I know that in this climate of patriotism
that I and we can be accused of being unpatriotic.
I want
to start first with the word patriot. It comes from a Latin word
�pater,� which means father. You have taught me a prayer, �Our
Father � .� So I can�t be patriotic to the fathers of the nation
until I�m first patriotic to our Father. Being patriotic to our
Father means that His will is above the will of the president.
His will is greater than the will of the president even though
the president is our commander in chief. But I, being true to
The Father, have a duty to the President as well as he has a
duty to all of us.
Thomas
Jefferson said, �I tremble for my country when I reflect that
God is just and that His justice will not sleep forever.�
He
knew that the question of slavery and how the question was dealt
with could be the undoing of this nation. He said this, but John
Brown acted upon it. As a result, John Brown was evilly spoken
of. But history has rewarded John Brown. Martin Luther King took
an unpopular position against the war in VietNam and Jane Fonda
took a similar position and even visited Hanoi and spoke with Ho
Chi Minh and they both were castigated and evilly spoken of,
maligned, called traitors. They lost many friends but in the end
history has rewarded Dr. King. And when Jane Fonda comes in a
room nobody even mentions it.
Andrew
Young was the first Black man to ever hold the position of
America�s Ambassador to the United Nations. But because he spoke
to a representative of the Palestinians during a time of a
foolish no-talk policy, he was forced to resign his post. But
history is kind to him. We have taken this anti-murder, anti-war
stance, not because we wish to be popular and not because we
need to be unpopular, but because we desire the United States to
be right. And no matter what we suffer from being called
unpatriotic and even having our lives threatened, I believe,
like those who took a right position in the past, history will
also be kind to us.
And,
lastly, it is written in the Holy Qur�an that whenever God sends
a messenger He seizes that nation with distress and affliction
that it might humble itself. Whenever God raises a messenger, or
a warner, His pattern is that he raises the warner from among
the slaves, from among the abject, the oppressed, and the poor.
He sends that one to speak to the mighty and the powerful and
the wise of that nation, but because of the humbleness of that
person and his background and position, the arrogantly proud
dismiss the warner and his warning as inconsequential. So it
forces God to seize that nation with distress and affliction
that it might humble itself to the wise guidance coming from one
from among the slaves, the abject, the poor, and the weak of the
society. This is mercy from God to a great and powerful nation.
According to yesterday�s newspaper, 49 states are under a
condition of drought. Rivers are drying up leaving fish stinking
on the banks in the dry, parched mud. Cattle are dying by the
thousands under snow and intense heat. Wind, rain, snow, hail,
storms, floods and soon earthquakes, these are mercies coming to
the greatest nation on earth to make you humble yourself and
say, �Wait a minute, maybe we should examine our policies. Maybe
we should be a better nation, a more just nation.�
The
crisis of confidence that has caused the stock market to
plunge�Enron and the Worldcom scandal�has not been created by
Saddam Hussein or any foreign power. These are calamities coming
from within based on greed and corruption, causing thousands of
Americans to lose their life savings while corporate executives
are making millions at the expense of the poor and weak
investors.
The
crisis of confidence has caused the investors to lose well over
a trillion dollars. This crisis of confidence is now causing
foreign investors to back away from the stock market. And as
there were trillion of dollars in surplus�which Mr. Gore and Mr.
Bush were arguing about how to spend�now all of that is gone and
now there is a deficit. What is happening to America? Open your
eyes American people and stop dancing and playing and partying
and drinking and smoking dope while your country is going to
hell. Wake up and take your responsibility.
The
government cannot make Saddam Hussein or anybody else a boogey
man and focus America�s attention on Osama bin Laden or Saddam
Hussein. That�s not going to solve the internal problems in
America. There are 15 million Americans that are homeless.
Saddam
Hussein didn�t do that. There are 42 million Americans that have
no life insurance. Saddam Hussein didn�t do that. Millions of
Americans are incarcerated and they have very little education
and 30 percent of those graduating from high school are
functional illiterates. Saddam Hussein didn�t do that. There are
mob attacks and police brutality on Black people, racial
profiling, that our president has not spoken against. Saddam
didn�t call us no n----r. Saddam didn�t beat us down in the
street. Our fight is not in Iraq. Our fight is in the streets of
America for justice.
There
is a drug epidemic now that even snared members of the
President�s family.
Saddam
hasn�t sent any drugs to America. Who is bringing in the drugs?
Who is selling guns to the gangbangers? It�s not Saddam Hussein.
No. These are internal problems that the American administration
must deal with (not) making Saddam the enemy and inflaming the
passion of the American people and the soldiers, whose
patriotism is unquestioned, whose love of this country is
unquestioned, but it should not be manipulated. So America is
seized with distress and affliction and our prayer is that she
will humble herself to listen to voices that speak to her that
desire to see America fulfill her potential�not fulfill a
destiny of former sister nations: Rome, Babylon, Sodom and
Gomorrah and Ancient Egypt that refused to heed guidance from a
warner from God in their midst.
Thank
you for listening.
We�ll
take a few questions now and I�ll do my best and try and answer
them.
Mr.
George Curry, I know that Brother.
George
Curry: (NNPA): Tell us the extent that you made efforts to try
to go into Israel.
MLF:
Thank you. We first sent the message to the Israeli Embassy,
letting them know that we were taking a Muslim, Christian,
journalist delegation. And we let them know our intentions to
speak to Yasser Arafat and to Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon,
that as Muslims and Christians and representing the seed of
Abraham, we wanted to visit the Church of the Nativity, the
Wailing Wall, and the third holiest shrine in Islam, Al-Aqsa
Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. We also said we wanted to go
down into Dimona to visit the Hebrew-Israelite community that
lives there; they�re originally from the United States. We sent
that word through our Chief of Protocol and we received a word
that we would be getting an answer.
While
we were traveling, we got an answer that our message was
relayed to the foreign ministry and the foreign ministry took it
up with the Knesset and the Knesset voted against our coming to
Israel. We did not think it wise to create an incident because
we have an American passport to go to the border and insist (on
entering Israel). The Bible says, if you go some place and they
don�t want you, just shake the dust off your feet and keep
going. I did not go there to incite anything, but to try to
stop what I see is the carnage between the Israelis and the
Palestinians. Any human being that sees that kind of suffering
would like to see it stopped and the conflict ended with
justice. Well, unfortunately that didn�t happen. Thank you,
Brother.
Al
Millikan (Washington Independent Writers): Since you were
proposing a 3 or 4 month moratorium on murderous suicide
bombings in Israel or Palestine, are you considering murderous
suicide bombing terrorist acts a legitimate form of warfare, a
legitimate strategy or tactic to base future negotiations on?
And would history be kind to you and others who want to
legitimize this kind of terror?
MLF:
Well, first, you made an assumption already that I would
legitimize that kind of activity. Let me be very clear. The
Palestinians are living under terror. That is not mentioned, but
this is state-sponsored terror. When you have F-15s, F-16s,
helicopter gunships, tanks and rockets, made in America, being
unleashed on a people, those people are terrorized as well. I
believe that if the Palestinians were allowed what every nation
is allowed, to defend the integrity of its land mass, the
Palestinians would be in the streets fighting a conventional war
for their liberation. But they don�t have anything with which to
fight. In their despair and hopelessness, they strap bombs on
themselves to go into Israel or wherever they can find Israelis
to punish them for what they�re suffering.
Now,
what I condemn, sir, is the despair and the hopelessness and the
horrible conditions under which the Palestinians are living that
give rise to a suicide bomb. I respectfully suggest to you that
when people reach that level of despair, they do what they feel
they must do. I never thought I would see a human being eat
another human being, but we�ve seen that that has happened; not
because they wanted to, but situations force them to do what
under normal circumstances they would never do. There is
nothing that the Pope can say, or I can say, or the Sheikh of
Al-Ahzar can say to stop these young people from using their
bodies as the only weapon that they have. I think that when you
see men, women, and children doing that, that ought to send a
message that there�s so much despair here that we have to do
something to stop it. And the best way to stop it is to give
those people some hope that justice will come to them and a
Palestinian state will finally come to them. I believe that
hope will end suicide bombings.
Mark
Perez (Next Step Magazine): Please give us a brief update on how
youth are responding to the challenge. There is a three-month
initiative to bring a summit for deaf speaking people of African
Americans working with Africans traveling to West Africa and
South Africa on the issue of AIDS. They would like to have an
international signing summit in the Motherland.
MLF: I
spoke to members of the hip hop culture, which is deplored by
some. But these young men and women are messengers. They can
be messengers of filth and degeneracy or they can be messengers
of good. All the armies in the world are populated by young
people and it is the youth of the world who are being used by
elders who are supposed to protect them, but are using them to
fight wars that ofttimes are not based on the principle of
justice. Young people are not politically sophisticated, but
through rap, they could be made sophisticated. Once you take the
young people away from the warmongers and tell the warmongers
�you go fight it,� then see how many of the warmongers are quick
to run over there with their children. But they love to send
ours over there. So the youth going to Africa to join in a
fight against AIDS is fitting and proper and you will find that
all of the efforts by African Americans to unite Blacks in the
Diaspora with the Motherland have always been opposed by our
government.
So, I
wish them well and I want you to know also that there are some
Jews in Israel that wanted me to come. There are Rabbis that
have pleaded with me to go. And I believe that I could have
talked to Jews because if you are going to speak the language of
the Torah, then let�s talk because I study the Torah, too. If
you are a Christian and you want to speak the language of the
Gospel, then let�s talk, because I study the Gospel, too. And if
you are Muslim and you want to speak, then let�s speak the
language of the Qur�an. I�ve been taught well the languages of
all those revelations. I think that as a spiritual man, the
rabbinical Jews would be more apt to listen to
spiritually-minded Christians and Muslims. It�s the politics
that have gotten in the way. I do want you to know that there
are many in Israel that would have loved to welcome me and asked
me to come. And I have some Jewish rabbis that when they see me
they kiss me, because they seem to believe they know who I am.
Malik
Azecz (Washington Informer): How many nations did you visit on
your Middle East and Africa Peace Initiative Tour? Who were some
of the leaders you met with? And what was your mission overall?
MLF: I
think I mentioned the second part in my opening statement, which
might have been a little long, but that�s traditional. I think
we visited nine or 10 countries. We visited Qatar and spoke
with Emir al-Thani and all the religious leaders. We visited
Yemen and spoke with President Saleh and we spoke with the
religious leaders in Yemen. We visited Dubai and we spoke with
Ministers but they were part of the royal family of that area.
We visited Syria and spoke with the President of Syria and then
with the leader of all the Muslims in Syria (Sheikh Ahmed
Kuftaro). And we were invited to speak at the Jum�ah prayer
service and it was widely publicized. We were very, very well
received as a Head of State. And through the good office of the
President of Syria (Bashar Asad), we went straight away to the
Presidential Palace in Lebanon where we met with President
(Emile) Lahoud and also spiritual leaders.
Then we
went to South Africa where we met with many, many African heads
of state and shook hands with Kofi Annan and the
Secretary-General of the OAU and the incoming Secretary-General
of the African Union, (South African President) Thabo Mbeki,
(Nigerian) President Obasanjo. So many Presidents.
Brother
Farrakhan was treated like I was a President. I met in Iraq
with practically all the members of the government of Iraq up to
and including the Vice President. At the time the foreign
minister was in Vienna with Kofi Annan dealing with bringing
back (UN weapons) inspectors and the cessation of sanctions, so
we met with members of the foreign ministry in Iraq but we
didn�t stay long enough to meet with the foreign minister. But
everywhere we went, we met with the highest level of leadership.
We
ended up, of course, in Zimbabwe (where) we met with President
Mugabe and ministers of his government. And in Egypt, we met
with the two most powerful religious leaders in the country�the
Grand Imam Sheikh Mohamed Tantaawi of Azhar University, which is
the oldest university in the world and he is the most respected
of the religious leaders in that country; and second, we met
with the Grand Mufti of Egypt. And all of them, all of them,
supported our thoughts and ideas on bringing about peace in that
area. And all of them wanted no war on Iraq, regardless of how
they personally felt about Saddam Hussein.
What I
would like to see, since it came out that Jordan, Turkey,
Kuwait, and Saudi, their lands might be used in an attack. I
read in today�s paper that the Prime Minister of Turkey has said
that he�s a friend of America, but he does not want America to
attack Iraq. The Foreign Minister of Jordan said there are no
American troops in Jordan and you can come and investigate,
there will be no American troops in Jordan attacking Iraq. �
Kuwait said only under the United Nations will they allow it.
And this is very personal, this has nothing to do with the
United Nations. This is an American and British thing so I don�t
think they can get any help from Kuwait. We didn�t get anything
from Saudi, so I would like to ask in this press conference that
the Saudi foreign minister or the Crown Prince or the King
himself to speak to us and let us know, from his mouth, that the
American soldiers and the base that is there in Saudi will not
be used against a brother Muslim nation, regardless of what they
may think of its leader.
Alexandria Shimo (ABC News): You mentioned that there was a role
for wise Whites to help alleviate the poverty in Zimbabwe. I was
wondering if you can give us the specifics on their role in the
U.S. and in Zimbabwe?
MLF: I
know that among us there are people of good will and wisdom.
The wise Whites and the wise Blacks who do not want to see
whatever is there destroyed by war, if they sat down and
reasoned together, they could come up with a solution that both
sides would feel, well, the Blacks may not get all the land
back, but they would get enough that it would satisfy them that
what they fought for they finally received it. The Whites would
not lose all. They would give up some. Now, sometimes that�s
hard. But I respectfully say that when there�s manslaughter
sometimes there�s a blood debt that has to be paid. You have to
give up something as an act of atonement. I think the spirit of
atonement is what will bring reconciliation. We can�t afford to
live in a world like this with the hatred growing on all sides.
How do you dissipate hatred and turn it into something
positive? When we had the Million Man March, we proposed eight
steps of atonement. And the first step is the most difficult of
all. It is to make a person know their sins. All of us can�t
take that. And some of us don�t have the strength to tell our
mate or our friends where they have hurt us. We just go away
with a bad feeling. But if we said to the Whites of Zimbabwe,
this is the wrong. But when you put wrong on the scale the way
God does it, He puts the good on the scale with the evil. And He
always gives more weight to what is good than what is evil. It�s
a wonderful balance that could be achieved by sane and sensible
people who want to avert the slaughter that comes when people
fail to reason on the basis of what is truth and what is just
and what is right. I believe those persons exist but they�re not
in positions of power.
This is
supposed to be a Christian country. If Christ-consciousness
were in the Congress, this would be a moot point because
Christ-consciousness would make�no matter who possesses it,
White or Black or Asian�you act in the consciousness of Christ.
It�s bad to talk about somebody that you adore but you don�t
want to accept him into your life to be a disciple and
discipline your life according to the teachings of a great
master. This is what�s wrong with America. We�re filled with
the right words, but we are so hypocritical when our actions are
opposed against what we say.
There
are good people that can make that happen, but you know what is
wrong with this Nation? May I say it very openly and frankly?
Corporate greed and the ability to spend over a billion dollars
a year to get legislation enacted that favors corporations
rather than the people, that�s dangerous to democracy. Then
unbridled influence of effective lobbies. A IPAC is an
effective lobby. The [American Israel Public Affairs Committee]
is probably one of the most formidable lobbies. There is
nothing wrong with being a lobby and lobbying for your point
because your point favors you. But here is a small minority in
the population with an enormous amount of influence. And if that
influence causes the government to move in the direction of that
influence and there�s no counter balance, then America will be
seen following Israeli interests to the detriment of what is in
the best interest of the United States of America.
Now, I
say that and I don�t want you to call me anti-Semitic because
I�ve never been that and I�m not that now and I hate that. But
I am anti-injustice. So, how do you counterweight that. That�s
our fault if we don�t have a counter-weight. We are 40 million
people and we have 25-30 million Hispanics; we have Asians and
Native Americans. We have interests in this, and if they don�t
represent our interests then we ought to unite to represent our
own interests.
For
AIPAC to send a million dollars into Alabama to cause us to lose
a Black congressman who is sent there to represent our
interests, not Israeli interests�Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) is
sent there to represent our interests�we can�t allow that kind
of influence to take away strong leadership from us. But if we
allow it, it�s not their fault, it is ours. Until we stop the
blame game and get into the game to play it and win, then it
will be our fault. The Whites of this nation should lobby the
United States Government along with us because your interests
are not being served by the way the government is moving. You
might not want to agree with me, but you check it out. The tail
is wagging the dog. I don�t want the dog to cut off his tail.
But put the tail where the tail belongs. I thank you. The last
question to the gentleman over here.
Hirofumi Nkano (Nippon Television): Besides sending doctors to
Zimbabwe and producing local remedies for AIDS, do you have any
other plans to save the people in the region for the future?
MLF:
The best plan, sir, would be to awaken the people to the
knowledge of self so that they become self-respecting and work
for their own self-interest. That awakening must take place
throughout the whole of Africa. And I respectfully say to
African people, we will never gain the respect of others until
we do for ourselves what we see intelligent civilized people
doing for themselves. The nature of the human being sometimes is
not merciful, it�s not kind. If they see an advantage and you
in your ignorance allow them to take advantage of you, then
their base instinct will allow that human being to take
advantage of you. But when you are wise to who you are, and
stand up for who and what you are, and become the best of what
you can be, then people will honor you and respect you. Africa
has to receive that kind of knowledge. And I believe from the
teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that we have been
given that type of knowledge. If I were free to teach Africa,
well, to teach America, too, I believe that if I had freedom to
really teach and there was some money to back me � and if you
listen to me, you may not agree with everything I say�you didn�t
agree with what your mother said all the time�but if you can
agree with 50, 60, 70 percent of what I say, suppose I (could)
talk to the American people, just enlightening the American
people would make Bush a better President. People are taking
advantage of you in your ignorance. That�s why the Bible says,
�My people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge.� It has
nothing to do with your color. You just don�t know how to
protect your interests. Please let me help you.
Thank
you very much and may Allah bless you all.
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