Minister Louis Farrakhan

Guidance During A Time Of Trouble

By Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Feb 4, 2003 - 8:01:00 PM

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[Editor’s note: As the UN weapons inspectors present their findings to the United Nations at Final Call press time and the Bush administration aggressively seeks a reason to attack Iraq, we reprint these words of consistent warning and guidance to America given by Min. Louis Farrakhan during various interviews.]

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

[From a statement delivered June 17, 2002 as he prepared to embark on a Peace Mission to Africa and the Middle East.]

To the members of the press, you are the most important members of American society at this time. I pray that you will not be used as an arm of propaganda of an administration bent on war that you will fail to do your due diligence to find the truth and then find the courage to print what you have found. You can save a nation, or you can cause the damnation of that which you say you love.

To all of my brothers and sisters who are present, to the religious leaders who are present, America, as the only remaining super power, is today what Pharaoh and Egypt were 4,000 years ago. Pharaoh had so much power that he saw himself as a god beside Allah (God). Therefore, when a humble servant from among the slaves came to advise him and warn him of the consequences of the path he was on, his pride overwhelmed him. He fought the servant, not knowing that he was fighting Allah (God).

No terrorist can destroy this nation. No combination of Osama bin Ladens can destroy this nation. This nation was not set up for any nation to destroy. This nation is inviolable. If the CIA, the FBI, and the intelligence units of this nation work as they should with the help of intelligence units throughout the world, there is no plan against this nation that will not be known and thwarted before it can be carried out. We don’t need to fear the terrorists; we need to fear Him who has control of the wind, the rain, the storms, the tornadoes, the earthquakes, the turning of Nature against you.

Wake up, America! Look at what is happening to this country while you sleep and party. Floods, fire, wind, rain, drought, hailstorms, you have not seen the destructive power of Allah (God). If America goes on like she’s going, I say this from the depth of my heart as I leave this country, Watch! Allah (God) says He will bring calamity after calamity against you. Submit! Get away from the arrogance and become the great nation that you were set up to become—the base of the Kingdom of Allah (God) on Earth. Or, (become) that nation that Allah (God) destroyed so that the people will know that He is Allah (God) and besides Him there is no God.

[From a July 11, 2002 interview with BET Nightly News.]

Q: What advice would you give the President to bring this situation in the Middle East to peace?

MLF: I would say to the President that I believe he needs more balanced advice. There are wonderful American Muslims in this country who know the Qur’an, who love America, and love Islam, and they would advise the President so that the President, when he speaks to the Arab and Muslim world, will speak in a way that will lessen the hatred and the fear and the distrust of the American administration.

Q: You have said on this program before, and we clearly understand, that outside of Colin Powell’s voice you believe that the rest of the Bush administration walks in lock step in terms of how they see this situation. And much of that administration, as does a lot of America ... sees Saddam Hussein, whether it be by virtue of propaganda or not, as a devil in disguise. Do you believe that any of the, as we put it just moments ago, propaganda that you’ve heard may indeed have some credence?

MLF: Even if some of it is true, how is America so righteous with blood dripping from their hands of the peoples of the world? How has America all of a sudden become so righteous that she can now go to Iraq and set that man down? Is America so righteous? What about the people that are suffering in the United States of America from the evil of our own government? Who will redress that? Who can bring America to the bar of justice? I’m a plain Warner from Almighty God that if no one can bring America to the bar of justice, God is able. And that is why I warned President Bush that just as God allowed Pharaoh to become so strong and so powerful but he became so arrogant and so spiritually blind that he thought himself to be a God beside God. So God sent 10 plagues against him that brought Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s army to their knees. Should we repeat history? Will not the president heed sound counsel and warning? This is a wrong step for the United States of America.

[From Sept. 13, 2002 interview on the Buchanan and Press Show aired on MSNBC.]

Q: In the absence of an attack on the United States forces by Saddam Hussein or Iraq, (do) you believe that any attack, even authorized by Congress and the UN, on Saddam Hussein and Iraq would be an act of aggression by the United States?

MLF: I do not believe that the UN would authorize an attack on Iraq unless they mandated that he let inspectors in and he refused to do that. But the United States’ position is clear: Whether he does it or does it not, the president of the United States said that he’s committed to a regime change in Iraq, and I think that that is highly improper for the head of the greatest and only remaining superpower.

Q: Minister, you could not deny as the president detailed yesterday that Saddam Hussein has violated every one of 16 resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council over the last decade. Are you just saying that the United Nations should sit there helpless and let him get away with thumbing his nose at the organization?

MLF: Ariel Sharon thumbed his nose at the president when the president said he wanted all Israeli forces out of the West Bank. Ariel Sharon stayed there as long as it took him to do what he intended to do. A former U.S. Senator on questioning him on television yesterday said, half of the people that the president was addressing had at one time or another violated some U.S. resolution.

What happened to Resolution 242 and those resolutions that traded land for peace? Is Saddam the only one that has violated UN resolutions? And suppose there is, in the Security Council, a vote and that vote is vetoed by one of the five permanent members; will then America thumb its nose at the world and say, "I’m going to go it alone," making America an international criminal?

[From an Oct. 6, 2002 radio interview in Detroit on WCHB AM]

Q: I don’t have to tell you about the many confusing messages that are going out across this country pertaining to what the President is calling an "Urgent Duty" for this country to attack Iraq. What is your view on this and what is it that Americans ought to be concerned about in such an attack?

MLF: I don’t think that any American who loves this country takes pleasure in being opposite the President of the United States. But this is the most serious time in the history of this nation and in the history of the world. We cannot afford to be silent if, in fact, we disagree with the head of the house. Part of the beauty of living in America is you have the right to free speech. This right should be exercised responsibly, in this hour, in the time of grief of a nation. The American people have not gotten over the grief and the horror of what we saw on September 11, 2001.

Now, we have to be careful because when we’re grieving, we don’t usually make good decisions. When we lose a loved one and we’re in shock or we’re in pain, or we’re in grief, somebody else helps us in that hour through the time of grief so that we don’t make bad decisions, because grief makes us see things improperly. When one is crying, the water in your eyes causes the light to give different shapes to images so you don’t see things clearly and neither do we see things clearly when our nation is in grief. This is why the President of the United States, who is in the most powerful position on the earth today, must seek wise counsel.

In my humble judgment, our President is off course and is victimized by the greatness of the power of America. The kind of rhetoric he put before the American people last night made a tremendous case that would convince a brass monkey that we should go to war. But what is the substance of what he said? If you look at what the man said, and find truth, then you’ll find very little truth but a whole lot of "half truths," "outright lies," "assumptions," "maybes," "possiblys," and "ifs." No nation should commit its resources to war on assumptions, maybes and ifs without actual facts to support a conclusion that will lead to the loss of tens of thousands of American lives, the loss of lives of the Iraqi people and others.

Q: We know that last night when the President gave his speech and, as cameras tend not to do sometimes, Americans didn’t get to see the nearly 1,000 protesters who were on the outside protesting this war. We also know there were ministers in pulpits who this past Sunday spoke out against war. Is there enough time, and if there is, what can be done for the American people to stand and say this is not right for America?

MLF: First, the members of Congress are our representatives, and these representatives must not be hijacked by powerful lobbies. In Washington, there is a powerful pro-Israel lobby that is pushing for war with Iraq. Less than three weeks ago, the former prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, was in the halls of Congress, in the U.S. Senate, pushing American Senators to vote to go to war with Iraq. This is arrogance for a foreign national to tell those whom we elected to represent us to send our boys and girls off to war.

Who is Saddam Hussein threatening? Let’s be real. Here is a man 6,000 or more miles away. He has no planes to reach here; no bombs to reach here; no missiles to reach here. They say he has weapons of mass destruction and they put on the television an aerial photo of places that he has so-called re-commissioned. Then let the inspectors in and let them go and prove what he (the President) has asserted. You will find that they (the Iraqis) are unable to defend themselves.

Last night, the President said they (Iraqis) have shot at American planes and British planes 700 or more times. But he never said that the no-fly zones were set up without the United Nations giving America and Britain the right to patrol this air space over a sovereign nation. For 12 years, America and Britain have been bombing Iraq at will and every time the Iraqis try to defend their air space and shoot down British and American planes, their radar installations have been destroyed.

America has said, and Britain has said, that in 12 years they have never lost one plane. How then is Saddam Hussein a threat? Now, they say he’s gaining weapons of mass destruction. In 1991, when the war in the Persian Gulf was over, and these resolutions were passed, a part of the truce was that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction would be discovered and destroyed. Inspectors went in and found a tremendous amount of weapons of mass destruction. There were 32 nations and 28 armies against Saddam Hussein, and he had weapons of mass destruction, but he never used them.

He never used weapons of mass destruction when he was greatly threatened. Inspectors removed 95 percent of those weapons of mass destruction up until the time that they were not kicked out, they were told to get out by President Clinton’s administration. The U.S. bombed all of the installations of conventional weapons because America had spies among the so-called weapons inspectors who were spying for the government of the United States. When the weapons inspectors were taken out, America bombed Iraq for four days—never losing one plane.

With 112 billion barrels of oil in reserve and Saddam Hussein weak and unable to stop America, America now wants to take that nation, set up a new regime, control the oil and dictate the direction of that area of the world. I think it’s a grave mistake.

I think that if the president does this, he will lead this nation into that terrible war of Armageddon. And the American people, you cannot sit by silently and let this happen. If God puts it on your heart to stand and speak, stand up and speak. If we don’t, America will march off to war and take our sons and daughters and body bags will come back. If you think there was grief over Sept. 11, when body bags start coming back to American families whose sons and daughters were sent to war, it will be a grievous, grievous day for us. It’s time to speak and think. If there is going to be a regime change, that regime change should be right here in the United States of America and get the warmonger, war-making person out of office. Blessed are the peacemakers, they are the ones who shall be called the children of God.

[From a July 25, 2002 interview in New Orleans, La., with the Louisiana Weekly newspaper.]

Q: I want to talk with you about the current state of events—September 11th, things in the Middle East. I read in your letter that you sent to the President (Bush) where you were mentioning that Elijah Muhammad was a Warner to the United States. What is it that you feel the United States needs to be warned of or conscious of?

MLF: Whenever God sends a Warner or a Messenger to a people, the duty of a Messenger, first, is to deliver a message that will guide and reform a people that have been misguided and are living a life that keeps them out of the favor of Allah (God). Our fathers [were] brought into America as slaves and robbed completely of the Knowledge of Self—our names, our language, our culture, our religion and our history taken from us—and then sold as chattel for 310 years. Then, under the so-called Emancipation Proclamation, (we were) given a form of freedom but not the knowledge that would make us self-respecting, self-determined and unified that we could take advantage of the freedom that we were given. So, every ethnic and racial group that has come into the United States has been able in a short time to take advantage of what America offers and move from poverty to strength, while we, having been here longer than anyone except the Native Americans, are still struggling. That shows not that we are less human than others, but that there is something lacking that we need in order to be able, not to beg for equality, but to really make ourselves equal. This is why Allah (God) raises a Messenger. America is today in the same position that ancient Egypt was in, in relationship to the Children of Israel who were under her rule and authority for 400 years until Allah (God) raised Moses from among the Children of Israel to guide them, to reform them, but also to warn Pharaoh that there’s something Pharaoh has to do to get out from under the judgment of Allah (God). America is in that same position.

Q: I just have one final question, Minister. Do you believe we’re living in Revelation times?

MLF: I know we’re living in Revelation times and I know we’re living at the end of the present world of White rule and domination. There is going to be a new world and if White people are going to live in it, they will have to live in it as a partner with human beings under the rule of Allah (God). If not, then the war that is coming will destroy many, many, many, many people from the face of the earth. You know already that Allah (God) is acting. According to Pat Buchanan, the population growth in Europe right now is not zero population, but it is less than zero. Zero population growth would mean that for every White child that’s born, a White person would die, but now it’s less than that. He’s saying that in 50 to 75 years, if this continues, there would be very few Whites left in Europe. This is going on in America as well. If Allah (God) sets His hand against the womb, then it doesn’t have to be race war. Time itself is going to take those that Allah (God) is angry with off the planet. The enemy now is saying, "Well, if I’m going, you’re going with me." So Africa is being depopulated, the Caribbean is being depopulated through AIDS. And that’s afflicting our community moreso than anyone’s in the United States of America. But all of that will come to a halt. It is our hope that those warmongers who are in positions of power, that if we can wake up America, Black and White and Brown, we can take back the government that has been hijacked by powerful lobbies and make America what America could become.

At the end of Revelation, Babylon was gone and a new world was set up. It wasn’t set up by Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney and the G-8. It was Allah (God) and His Christ setting up a New World Order that I want to live under that I hope you and other decent Whites would want to live under where there would not be hatred, where there would not be violence, where there would be brotherhood and love between human beings. That’s the world I hope for. That’s the world I want to help Allah (God) to bring in with the help of many, many others.