Minister Louis Farrakhan

The American Gangster: An Executive Decision

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Dec 16, 2007 - 12:42:00 PM

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Justifiable Homicide: Black Youth in Peril—Part 3

[Editor’s note: On November 11, 2007, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered part three of his “Justifiable Homicide: Black Youth in Peril” lecture series live via national webcast from Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Illinois. Preceding him were various youth speakers who delivered inspiring messages to their peers in the audience, addressing subjects Minister Farrakhan referenced throughout his speech.  The following is the last installment of excerpts from that address. Click here for full message on CD/DVD.]

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

We give Him praise and thanks for His mercy and His goodness; for the prophets that He brought and the scriptures that He sent down with them, that they may guide an errant member of the human family back to the path of God. We thank Him for Moses and the Old Testament. We thank Him for Jesus and the Gospel. We thank Him for Muhammad and the Holy Qur’an. Peace be upon these worthy servants of Allah.

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The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivers impassioned address at Mosque Maryam
What is death? What is life? In the Bible, when Moses came to the Children of Israel, he said, �I set before you two signs: One of life; one of death. Choose life that you and your seed may live.�

My subject today is called “Justifiable Homicide: Black Youth in Peril—The American Gangster, An Executive Decision.” Our people are sick, and on every corner there is a church, and in between the church and the corner, there are drugs, prostitution, filth and degeneracy of every kind. Although we have some of the finest preachers that have ever walked among human beings, we are not being effective preaching the Gospel as it has been preached if we are not preaching today to liberate the minds of our people and all people who have been enslaved by a misinterpretation of scripture.

Satan could never have ruled as many people as he rules through religion if he didn’t misinterpret the Word of God. That is why in the Holy Qur’an, Satan says, “I will come after them in Thy straight path.” The straight path of God is His Word. So, if Satan is going to come right through the Word to deceive the people, and the Book said Satan deceived who?—“the whole world.” Well, are you among the deceived? Are we among the deceived? Look at our condition; our condition says something is wrong.

In the Holy Qur’an it reads, “And when Thy Lord said to the angels, ‘I am going to place a ruler in the earth.’” Let us look at these words: He’s going to place a ruler in the earth. Well, the earth was already here. People had to already have been here because He is not evolving them, He is placing them. This is a big difference.

“I’m going to place a ruler in the earth. And [the angels] said, ‘Will You place in it such as make mischief in it and shed blood? And we celebrate Your praise and extol Your holiness.’” And Allah answered, “Surely, I know what you know not.”

In the Bible, in the Book of Genesis which is called the first book of Moses, they give a date 4004 B.C. Well, if we’re in 2000 A.D., then 4000 B.C. is 6,000 years ago. Now, 6,000 years ago is not the beginning of the human family; it is the beginning of a ruler that is going to be placed in the earth to create mischief and cause the shedding of blood. This new ruler is called Adam.

White people today are changing dictionaries because we are using the language to defeat him, so he makes a little twist and turn. I’m going to give you an example: When Brother Malcolm X awakened, the first thing that he started reading was what? The dictionary. Brother Malcolm became a master of words, but he only completed the 8th grade, which shows you that your mastery of things is not necessarily in the schools of your enemy; your mastery of things is to become acquainted with your God and The Wisdom of God that is being given to you.

Dictionaries used to contain the term called “Pre-Adamite.” You don’t see that in the dictionary now. You get “pre-,” and you get “Adam,” but you don’t get “Pre-Adamite” because once you think Adam is the first human, you don’t go beyond Adam. Once you know people were on the earth before Adam, then you want to know what people were here before Adam, because those are the people that the ruler is going to rule.

The Pre-Adamite is called the Aboriginal people of the earth. In the old dictionaries, the Aboriginals were always the native people of our planet; the darker people—non-Europeans. Well, if you are a non-European, then you are connected to and are from the Aboriginal people of the earth who are going to be subjected to a ruler who is going to create mischief among you and cause the shedding of blood.

The prefix ab- is Latin; it means “from, or away from.” Origin means “the beginning.” As members of the Aboriginal people of the earth, we don’t know how old we are. There is no birth record to the Black man. In the Book of Daniel, he said he saw the Ancient of Days seated on the throne, with hair like lamb’s wool and feet like burnished brass—but He was sitting on the throne. That is your future, and the enemy knows that one day soon, God is going to put you back on the throne. The enemy is working to destroy you so that you will never fulfill your destiny.

Rebellion to God is the culture of death

This Adam is a strange man, because when God talks to him, He tells Adam, “You can eat of everything here but this tree, don’t touch it.” Brothers, if God told you something to do and something not to do, think about it. What would you do? But Adam rebelled against God, and in Adam’s rebellion, sin began.

Sin is rebellion against the God of Righteousness. The Aboriginal people didn’t do that, but this new man on our planet was a rebel against God. Once you rebel against God, you rebel against life, because God and His way and His law and His word is life itself. Once you start rebelling against God, you set up the culture of death.

The enemy has put death on our youth and our youth are a part of a culture of death. It’s not your fault. I’m going to take all the blame away from you today, but I’m going to put it where it belongs. However, after I show you that you are not responsible, then don’t go back to that behavior because then you will be responsible; and then, a penalty will come against you.

What is death? What is life? In the Bible, when Moses came to the Children of Israel, he said, “I set before you two signs: One of life; one of death. Choose life that you and your seed may live.”

What is life? You and I have it, but do we really have life? Life is activity in accord with the nature of our creation. Life is in every creature that acts in accord with its nature. Death starts when you take a creature away from its natural course.

If you are the Aboriginal people of the earth, how did you live before the White man came? How did Black people live before the White man came? If you let him tell your story, you were swinging in trees, but if you were swinging in trees, how did you build his mansions in the south? How did you lay the roads? How did you become so great when he denied you the right to know? Where did your building skills come from? You already were a builder, brother. And we lived in accord with God and the nature of our creation, before an enemy came.

The Bible teaches, “As by one man,”—not one spook; not one spirit—“sin entered into the world.” What is sin? Sin is transgression of the law. Rebellion against God is sin. You didn’t do that; Adam did that, so the Bible teaches that as that one man brought sin, then death came by sin; and death has passed to all men for all men, now, have sinned. All are in rebellion because a ruler—that you would be bound to follow—is a rebel. That is why God is hard on leaders, because if any man would be your leader and he is a rebellious person against God, then what would you be who follow him? The Caucasian has been our ruler and he has always been a rebel against God.

Brothers, for you to be a “BD,” (Black Disciple) a “GD,” (Gangster Disciple) or whatever name you call yourself, and you hate your brother, this is mischief, because you all are brothers. How did you get to hate each other because one wears one color and one wears another? One gives one gang sign; and one gives another? The enemy is making mischief among us and what is it causing? Is it causing peace? Is it causing brotherhood? Or is it causing the shedding of blood?

This ruler has caused the shedding of blood throughout the earth, putting Muslims, Christians and Jews against each other. Satan comes right in the straight path, but here are people that believe in God and they’re killing one another in God’s name. Then there is all these political differences: One is a Democrat; one is a Socialist; one is a Communist; one is this and that, and these political entities are at odds with each other.

Some are rich, some are poor; some are White, some are Black; some are educated, some are uneducated—but we’re all confused and fighting each other. “What will you create in the earth but that which will create mischief and cause the shedding of blood?” Who is this Adam and his children?

The mark of the beast

In the Book of Revelation, Chapter 13, verse 18, John the Revelator said, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man, six hundred, three score and six.” So, we’re not dealing with something that you can’t see. You’re dealing with something that is real, that is causing all this turmoil, this mischief and this blood shedding. “Count the number of the beast for it is the number of a man.”—666.

In II Thessalonians, it says, “But that day,”—the Day of Judgment,—“shall not come except there be a falling away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.” The devil and Satan have been covered up. Cain was the first murderer in the Genesis, and after he murdered his brother, a mark was put on Cain because he said, “Every man that sees me will slay me.”

Then it says, “Whom the Lord will consume and destroy with the brightness of His coming and consume him with the word from His mouth.” When God comes, His duty is to expose the devil—and expose Himself—so that the people can choose. But Satan is going to be eaten up by the power of a word that comes out of the mouth of a messenger that God would send to the people.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that one of the worst names you could give for a human being is to call a human being a beast. Yet, in the Book of Revelation, there were four beasts and there were a people that had the mark of the beast in their forehead and in their hands.

What mark are we under? Our forehead is the manifestation of what we think and what we know, but our hands are the manifestation of that thinking. So if the mark of the beast was in their forehead, how would you know it until you looked at the works of their hands?

Our young men and women are the finest generation that we have ever had. Because you are the finest generation, this is why you are under attack.

The generation of the Messiah

I want to talk specifically to the youth, but I want the elders to listen, because in the Bible, there was something wrong with the elders of the Children of Israel. The elders were made by Pharaoh, and they had Pharaoh’s mind, and this made it difficult for them to hear Moses. Even the elders that heard Moses and went out with Moses in the wilderness, were ’twixt and ’tween—some of them wanted to go back under Pharaoh because it was difficult in the wilderness.

When they spied out the land that God was going to give the Children of Israel for their inheritance, the elders said, “There are some giants over there in that land. Moses, Aaron—you and your God go and clean them out. Then, we’ll go in.” But what God wanted to do is whip the giants to prove to the world that He doesn’t care how big they are! The bigger they are, the harder they fall! God wanted to bring the giants down and He wanted to use the Children of Israel as his battering ram.

So the elders said, “Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s been nice knowing you Moses; really had a good ride with you, but we’re not going no further if you’re going in there with those giants.” So God communicated to Moses and said, “Take the youth and let them go in and they will inherit the Promised Land.” So the young were, as the young brother said, the generation of the Messiah. They were made tough and hard because the time doesn’t demand any punk! The time demands a heart that is tired of the evil and is willing to follow God. And the ancestors that bore them, who suffered the hangings, burnings, and castrations at the hands of their oppressors, will say, “I’ve got a generation that’s not afraid any more. I’ve got a generation that’s ready to inhabit the Promised Land.”

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Jesus told his disciples, “Suffer the little children to come unto me for of such is the kingdom of God.” Just think about that. Satan and death and rebellion have covered the earth, but Jesus comes into the world and he is calling the youth. Well, Satan heard that invitation, and says, “Yeah, Jesus is after those young people. Those young people—with the wisdom of Jesus—they’re going to overcome me and build a new world. So before he can get to them, I’m going to get to them.”

Satan is making a cold-hearted youth, but what Satan doesn’t know is that he’s making a cold-hearted youth so that when God gets through guiding him, he will neither love silver nor gold.

Brothers, right now you have been nurtured in a way where you don’t have real human feelings. If you go to the prison, penologists will tell you the coldest criminals they have ever seen are the youth, particularly Black and Hispanic young people. Even young White people are like that, but the Black and Hispanic—the way we kill, the thought of murder is just there with us.

Young men and women—when you all get to fighting, it’s like you want to kill. Murder is in the atmosphere; murder is the order of the day. Murder is our way of life.

This is the climate, and our youth are caught up in it when you change serious rap to “gangsta” rap, and have our Black women undressed, putting their behind in the camera and shaking it in the face of the world. When a man looks at you, he doesn’t see intelligence, though you have it; he doesn’t see the beauty of you.

The real American gangster

How many of you have seen the movie American Gangster? How many of you have seen the BET program “American Gangster”? Do you think this is an accident? This is no accident, Brother. Do you know some of these satanic Jews have taken over BET? They took it away from Bob Johnson and gave him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. They have Essence; they have our hair product people; they have Motown. Everything that we built, they have. The mind of Satan now is running the record industry, movie industry and television.

And they make us look like we’re the murders; we look like we’re the gangsters, but we’re punk stuff. If you can come out of seeing that movie, saying, “Damn, Frank Lucas was bad,” then this inspires you to try to be like him. Let me show you what Frank Lucas really was: If the lure of this is true, he brought in heroine in the 1960s—I want young people to pay attention!

In the 1960s, your grandparents were on picket lines. Your grandparents were marching against White Supremacy and Jim Crow. They were being beaten down with fire hoses and dogs and they were put in prison just so you could go to a toilet! We paid a hell of a price to get something so damn cheap as a voting right that the enemy finds a way to take from you.

The moment the riots began and Black folks rose up, because all Black people weren’t following Dr. King—though the enemy would like to make you think that everybody had that same kind of dream—there were Black people who didn’t want anything to do with going to school with White people. There were Black people that didn’t want anything to do with integrating with them. There were Black people that would never turn the other cheek and be non-violent. There were the Deacons for Defense!

There was the Black Panther Party; there were Black men willing to take up arms against this enemy, and the moment that kind of spirit was in the people, a purer form of heroine was introduced in the Black community.

Therefore, Frank Lucas was a pawn of the powers that wanted to drug those who weren’t drugged by religion; drugged by the enemy’s education. They were drugged with a purer form of heroine, so in the movie, you see them shooting up and dying. Frank Lucas was killing his people for money.

In the movie, they said he had planes flying in with a purer form of heroine, and that he even punked the Mafia. You can believe that bull if you want to.

What are they telling you? Do you think you can out-criminalize the real criminals? Is that why your behind is filling up all the jails in America and they’re working your raggedy behind like a slaves, like they did your great grandfathers? Is that why you think you can outdo the White man in criminal behavior? He is the number one criminal. He just doesn’t rob you—he robs countries. He doesn’t just kill you—he kills whole populations. You’re a cheap killer and a cheap thief compared to him.

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That movie was designed to inspire you to a gangster life. The whole series on BET, is designed to inspire young, Black men to more criminal conduct as though there are no White gangsters. But this is a focus on Black gangsters and they are now calling you “The American Gangster.” How did you get to be an American gangster when you are not an American at all? If you doubt what I am saying, go back and get the early dictionaries and see what the term “American” means—they name the European countries that are the real Americans, and no American could be an aboriginal. This is why you don’t have real citizenship now; they tell you that you are a citizen, but they treat you like a slave. Either you are or you are not a citizen.

That is why you need a defender. I’m so anxious to go before Congress and defend you! God and His Messenger, Messiah—the Honorable Elijah Muhammad— has made me a defender and God has given me the heart of a defender! I thank you for reading these words. May Allah (God) bless you as I greet you in peace, hoping that Allah will give you the light of understanding, As-Salaam Alaikum!