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FinalCall.com News
Perspectives
Farrakhan: International Messenger of Truth
By Jackie Muhammad
-Guest Columnist-
Updated Mar 27, 2008 - 5:18:00 PM
As a young Muslim growing up in New York, I was always fascinated with international affairs. I remember going to the United Nations in the early 1970s and sitting in the gallery listening to debates and arguments concerning international issues. What fascinated me even more was to learn that members of the international body were so impressed with a young Muslim minister that they wanted that minister to come to their country to teach their people.
That Muslim Minister was Louis Farrakhan.
In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Minister Farrakhan was having such unprecedented success uplifting the spirits and reforming the downtrodden masses of our people with the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad that several foreign nations asked his permission to have the Minister come to their country and teach their people the way the Minister was teaching Black people in New York City and around the country. Among those nations were Uganda and Canada.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad denied their request.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s refusal to allow the Minister to travel internationally is akin to Jesus saying that his early message was for the Children of Israel only.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad stated that the Minister’s work was among the so-called Negroes in America. However, in 1974 the Honorable Elijah Muhammad permitted Minister Farrakhan to lead a delegation to Jamaica. Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley invited the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Muhammad Ali to Jamaica to honor him for his work in America and honor Ali for his successful efforts in regaining the heavyweight championship of the world from George Foreman in Zaire.
The culmination of the official delegation’s visit took place at a rally held in Jamaica’s largest soccer field. Twenty-five thousand Jamaicans packed into the stadium to hear from the assembled leaders, including their popular prime minister. The crowd, however, was restless. They did not calm down until the young minister from New York stood up to speak and the crowd started to enthusiastically respond to the Minister’s word. The audience in the stadium began to roar at the inspirational message.
Some in the stadium that day may have heard about the Minister from relatives and friends in New York where Minister Farrakhan had organized the Black Family Day Rally in 1974, a gathering of over 70,000 Black and Latino New Yorkers that included internationally known R&B and Salsa stars, politicians, entertainers and community leaders. That event and a subsequent rally went down as the largest gathering of Black people in New York City’s history. On a local level the Black Family Day Rally was similar to the impact of the Million Man March 21-years-later.
Since 1974 Minister Farrakhan has visited over 100 nations. The trips included visits to countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. In nations such as China, South Korea, Russia, Nigeria, Liberia, The Congo, Niger, Liberia, Malaysia, Singapore, Jamaica, St. Kitts, the Minister was often welcomed as a head of state. Some invited him to help heal the religious, cultural and ethnic divisions that plagued their nation. Nations with Christian/Muslim divisions sought his counsel in helping to bridge the religious divide.
His foray into the international community was akin to Jesus allowing his followers to go out into all the world and spread the gospel of his new message.
In Ethiopia huge crowds were so inspired by the Minister’s words that security was breeched on several occasions by the throngs from enthusiastic audiences who thirsted for a glimpse of the man some began to view as a New Age Muslim Mujeddid (reformer). For the first time in its history, in the West African nation of Ghana the Nation of Islam held its Saviours’ Day Convention on foreign soil. Jermaine Jackson, brother of Michael Jackson, and Chuck D, the hip hop impresario, encouraged locals to come to the stadium to hear the Minister. President Jerry Rawlings invited Minister Farrakhan to address his country’s military leadership, an unprecedented event. In Nigeria the local government named a street after him.
In Iran on February 12, 1996, Minister Farrakhan spoke live before an audience of 5 million people and an estimated 20 million watched him live on television. Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a rare gesture to a foreign visitor, invited Minister Farrakhan to sit next to him on a pavilion erected for a mass rally marking the 17th anniversary of the Islamic revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran.
In Turkey, Minister Farrakhan met with the leader of Turkey’s 62.7 million people, Prime Minister Necmettin Erbaka. The prime minister was delighted to learn about the similarities between the flags of the Turkish nation and the flag of the Nation of Islam. In China, the Minister met with Muslim leaders who represent 20 million Chinese Muslims. In Russia, he and his entourage were embraced and warmly greeted by the Grand Mufti of Siberia and the throngs of young and old Russian Muslims. Minister Farrakhan was greeted with repeated Arabic chants of “Allah-u-Akbar! (God is Great).” The warmth of his reception almost melted the frigid cold weather that greeted the delegation. In Mahachkala, the capital of the Caucasus Mountains region of Daghestan, local residents gave the Minister an outpouring of love and admiration. One Russian TV reporter acclaimed, “Something sensational has happened in Moscow.” (So much for Farrakhan being anti-White.)
In Australia the Grand Mufti labeled Minister Farrakhan the mujeddid, the highest honor that can be bestowed upon a Muslim, the outside of title of Prophet and Messiah. Great honor and respect was bestowed upon the Muslim Minister by religious leaders in several of his stops around the globe as well as at an international gathering of Islamic scholars and spiritual leaders in Chicago in 1997.
With the help of CNN, BBC, Reuters, the Associated Press, Al Jazeera, and a myriad of local media, some conservatively estimate that the Minister has been seen live, on television, in the papers, and on radio by an estimated 100 million people worldwide. If that estimate is correct, Minister Farrakhan is easily one of the most influential persons on earth. That fact has been corroborated by some of America’s top magazines.
Few Black men anywhere in the world have the influence and respect that Minister Farrakhan enjoys in foreign capitols among Black Christians, Muslims of all persuasions and, yes, even Jews.
There is a move afoot to downplay the international influence the Minister exercises. But what history has shown is that you cannot kill, an idea or vision or visionary whose time has come.
Minister Farrakhan’s influence has transcended race, politics, ethnicity, tribe, gender and age. Master Fard Muhammad, the Great Mahdi and founder of the Nation of Islam, promised we would have “money, good homes and friendship in all walks of life.” That pledge is being realized through the Minister. He has made friends all over the world for the Black man in America. He has forged social, political, religious and economic ties with leaders from all walks of life.
The Minister has used this platform to teach, cajole, admonish and inspire Muslims, Christians, animists, Communists, and Socialists, worldwide. As Deputy Secretary of the World Islamic People’s Leadership Conference, an organization that represents over 50 Muslim countries, he advised those Muslims who have devolved into sexism, materialism and racism, to return to the straight path of the Prophet and the Holy Qur’an.
The Minister’s World Friendship Tour III began in the West African nation of Mali in December, 1997. Mali, today, is an impoverished nation, but it has one of the richest histories in all of Africa. As a 14th century superpower, the kingdom of Mali was larger and richer than the Roman Empire. Mali was known as one of the intellectual centers of the world. Its famous king, Mansa Musa, is known in world history as the African leader who led the greatest Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.
Mansa Musa led an entourage of 100 camels loaded with 300 pounds of gold each, preceded by 500 servants each carrying a 6 pound staff of solid gold from Mali to Mecca. Enroute, he freely distributed gold. He gave away so much gold that he caused the collapse of the gold market in the Middle East. Subsequently, the region took years to recover.
Knowledge in the 21st century is what gold was in the Middle Ages, and what steel was to the industrial revolution. As steel revolutionized the building industry, knowledge will serve as the foundation upon which civilizations will be built. One of the main reasons the international community is gravitating to Minister Farrakhan is because he is introducing a new base of knowledge, ideas and information. He’s forcing us to abandon old world thinking and enter into a new paradigm of thought. Therefore, labeling him an anti-Semite is a ruse. It is a smoke screen used by enemies to keep us from recognizing the genius of thought coming from him that can serve as the foundation upon which a new world order can be built.
As Mansa Musa spread gold throughout the Middle East and Africa during a period of transition in the world, so has Minister Farrakhan helped to spread hope and change in a world in transition.
(Jackie Muhammad is the president and CEO of Jackie Robinson and Associates. He is a businessman, former presidential appointee, educator, youth trainer, member of the Oxford International Roundtable on Education Policy, and a member of the Nation of Islam.)
