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FinalCall.com News
National News
Farrakhan: The streets, college campuses and the Caribbean in 2012
By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor-
Updated Jan 7, 2013 - 8:59:33 AM
(FinalCall.com) - Several trips to the Caribbean, leading the Fruit of Islam out into the streets of America and a continued focus on the next generation of Black leadership highlights how the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan spent 2012.
Keeping up a tremendous pace, it is clear why Minister Farrakhan is one of the most respected and influential leaders on the scene today, and at the age 79, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Minister Farrakhan continued his focus on developing the minds of the next generation of Black leaders and thinkers in a message on the campus of Chicago State University, January 25, where he encouraged the students to “break free” from the educational system that has been set up by their oppressors to maintain control.
His message was a precursor to similar exhortations to students at historically Black colleges and universities.
“When we leave here tonight, you will know what to do with your life and how you can develop the gift that God has already placed in you—cultivate that gift and use it for the liberation not only of our people, but all of humanity,” said Minister Farrakhan.
His Saviours’ Day 2012 message was one of the most anticipated Saviours’ Day lectures in recent history. The Minister kept the capacity crowd spellbound for over four hours delivering analysis and insight into the pressing issues facing the world today.
Entering the United Center arena, Minister Farrakhan was welcomed by a thunderous standing applause lasting for several minutes and loud chants of “Long live Muhammad! Long live Muhammad!”
“There’s a degree of danger attached to telling the truth to those who have been deceived by lies and falsehood. There’s a degree of danger that every prophet had to meet in a world ruled by Satan, but the prophets never shrank from their duties to deliver the message,” said Minister Farrakhan. “For 44 years, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad never ever took a back step in delivering the message that he received from the great Mahdi Master Fard Muhammad, and being a follower of his, I can’t take a back step in delivering the message, and I seek Allah’s protection in delivering that message,” he added.
Minister Farrakhan then discussed the political environment inside America. He methodically showed examples of influential people in politics hurling insults at President Obama and his family. This “avalanche of hatred” is creating a dangerous climate for President Obama, his family, and could lead to a situation in which he could be assassinated, the Minister warned.
Min. Farrakhan discussed the “Arab Spring,” saying it was turning into a “harsh Arab winter” for America as Islamist political parties achieve dominance in the region. Furthermore, the uprising did not start in the Muslim world, said Min. Farrakhan. It began from plans in the United States to take over the Middle East and its natural resources by neo-conservative architects of the Iraq War, he explained.
Just days after delivering his weighty Saviours’ Day 2012 message, Minister Farrakhan spoke in Grand Rapids, Mich., on “Duty, Responsibility and the Necessity of Self-Sufficiency” March 1. The audience included the Black Student Union at Grand Rapids Community College.
On March 10, Minister Farrakhan addressed hundreds of Black student leaders from a dozen college campuses throughout California at the Afrikan Black Coalition’s 2012 conference on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley.
Thousands of students at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville, Alabama welcomed the Minister April 10 during the first stop on a tour reaching students from several historically Black colleges and universities throughout the “Cotton South.” Some members of the Jewish community placed tremendous pressure on school administrators and students at Alabama A&M determined to keep the Minister from speaking. They were unsuccessful. The bold leader spoke to thousands at AAMU as well as nearby campuses via Internet webcast.
On April 12, he spoke to hundreds of students, but not on the grounds of Tennessee State University as originally planned. The Minister delivered his passionate message to students from TSU and nearby Fisk University from the pulpit of Jefferson Street Missionary Baptist Church in downtown Nashville. Administrative and bureaucratic hurdles were erected however once again, the efforts could not prevent successful delivery of a powerful word.
While the first two stops on Minister Farrakhan’s tour of historically Black colleges and universities in the South were marked by externally generated controversy, the next two stops were completely different. When Minister Farrakhan’s caravan arrived at LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn., April 14, college President Johnny B. Watson was waiting to officially welcome him at the site of the Original LeMoyne Bell, a landmark constructed on the campus in 1870.
Remarkably, it was the first time the Minister had been publicly welcomed by an HBCU president. When Minister Farrakhan stepped into the Bruce Hall Gymnasium, students, campus administrators, and dignitaries from the greater Memphis area warmly received him with a standing ovation and cheers.
Then, the Minister traveled to the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and spoke to thousands at the H.O. Clemmons Arena April 16. His appearance was part of the “Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders” lecture series at UAPB, an 1890 Land-Grant HBCU with nearly 4,000 students.
Women in Support of the Million Man March headed by longtime activist and freedom fighter Frederica Bey held a successful fundraiser May 4 and May 5 at their majestic African Cultural Center in downtown Newark.
With the help of Min. Farrakhan, activists, politicians, friends and supporters throughout the East Coast, WISOMMM’s support base was bolstered as the women showed a lawsuit would not stop their efforts to serve the community.
WISOMMM, a group founded in 1995 to support Minister Farrakhan and the aims and goals of the Million Man March, is a nonprofit community-based organization in Newark, N.J. The U.S. Department of Justice filed a civil lawsuit against the group in January. Community members and WISOMMM leaders say the charges are baseless and retaliatory harassment aimed at the group because of effective work and strong support of Minister Farrakhan. Although he was scheduled to deliver a keynote address the next day, the Minister spoke for over an hour to several hundred people at a $100 a plate fundraiser for the WISOMMM legal fund. On May 5, Minister Farrakhan delivered a message regarding love, unity and the importance of integrity for Black leaders and those responsible for institutions in the Black community.
On May 27, several thousand listened to a powerful message delivered by the Minister Farrakhan at the San Diego Convention Center on “Guidance in a Time of Trouble.”
Speaking July 1 from the Nation of Islam’s international headquarters Mosque Maryam Minister Farrakhan wrapped up a busy weekend of activities delivering another profound message titled “All is Vanity.”
“The whole human family has come under death for the whole human family has been blinded by the touch of Satan. And now that Satan’s time is up, he must be exposed, and his work destroyed completely so that a brand new world and civilization will come into existence,” said Minister Farrakhan.
His message encouraged self-reflection, and self-analysis as Minister Farrakhan challenged the audience to examine their lives.
During an in-studio Chicago interview with the “governor of talk radio” Cliff Kelley of WVON 1690AM July 6, Minister Farrakhan announced he would lead the Fruit of Islam, the men of the Nation of Islam, into the streets to stem violence that gripped Chicago and many other cities.
“When the Nation of Islam was strong, we were in the streets and when we were in the streets, the violence—we had it—but it was not like it is today. So Brother Farrakhan is going to lead the Fruit of Islam into the streets. We are going to help our people,” he vowed. “We have to take our teaching and our example to our people.”
In the worst economically depressed and crime ridden areas in cities across America, the Caribbean, Africa and the United Kingdom, the Fruit of Islam were received well by the young, the old, the male and the female.
For A. Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, the Minister “pumping new life into the Nation” by leading the men back into the streets was key in 2012.
“What sparked it was the senseless killing in our community and that killing in America and the streets, I think reached the point of what we saw in Newtown, Connecticut and how detrimental it is the amount of guns that’s in the hands of the American people,” he said.
On July 27, Minister Farrakhan was presented with the Key to the City of Benton Harbor, Mich., following his message at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church. Delivering his subject “Nazareth! Can Any Good Come From There?” the Minister said despite being freed from chattel slavery, Black people are not truly free. True advocates of the poor are rare, he added.
A message from the Minister was the highlight of the fifth annual Nation of Islam Educational Challenge Conference held in Bloomingdale, Illinois, August 2-4.
Nation of Islam educators, and by extension, the Muhammad University of Islam should be in the vanguard position of a new educational movement enabling students to reach the highest levels of development in working to master God’s creation, he said.
The Minister would customarily speak to wrap up the conference, but he was scheduled to go to Jamaica for the Caribbean island’s 50th anniversary of independence from the British.
On Sept. 26, The Final Call held the first ever “ #AskFarrakhan Social Media Town Hall Q&A” webcast live from The Final Call Administration Building in Chicago. Participants from all over the world via the social networks Twitter, Facebook and YouTube submitted questions to Minister Farrakhan, who gave unrehearsed answers from a divine perspective and divine guidance. Minister Farrakhan has nearly 150,000 followers on Twitter.
An enthusiastic crowd of over 3,000 inside Southern University’s Felton G. Clark Activity Center greeted Minister Farrakhan Oct. 3, as he challenged students to develop new strategies and solutions to solve today’s problems.
The Minister praised Southern University as a “great institution of learning” valiantly attempting to prepare young Black students for a productive future, though it faces financial challenges like many Black educational institutions across the country.
The crowd, largely comprised of university students, listened carefully as Minister Farrakhan talked about the importance of proper education, while encouraging students to use their skills and talents to solve the problems plaguing society.
He then traveled to Charlotte, N.C., for the Nation of Islam’s commemoration of the Holy Day of Atonement and 17th Anniversary of the Million Man March. Members of Muhammad Mosque No. 36 in Charlotte worked hard in preparation for his appearances.
On Oct. 12, the Minister visited the campus of Johnson C. Smith University and told students life is a struggle, but each human being walking the planet has already beaten the odds and has what it takes to survive and thrive in pursuit of true freedom. On Oct. 14 at the 11,000 seat Bojangles Coliseum, the Minister delivered a keynote address titled “Guidance for Our President and Our Nation.” Radical solutions and sacrifice are needed to save the country, said Min. Farrakhan.
“Will the impatience of Americans, and unforeseen challenges of the future, cause there to have to be a new government rising out of the ashes of this one? For this nation is now being sent to the depths of hell by the inordinate greed and lust for power, and the wealth and resources of the peoples of the world in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many,” said the Minister.
If the problems of America are to be solved, sacrifices are going to have to be made throughout all levels of society, he continued.
The American people, government, corporate America, labor unions, bankers will all have to sacrifice, and so will Black America, the Minister added.
“What are you, Black America, willing to sacrifice?” he asked.
Minister Farrakhan delivered an inspirational message of empowerment and responsibility to a capacity crowd of mostly students inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Communication Arts Center on the campus of Bowie State University October 26.
College students from across the country gathered at Tennessee State University in Nashville, for the first Collegiate Black United Summit International conference Oct. 31 to Nov. 2.
Because of difficulties caused by Superstorm Sandy, student leaders from parts of the East Coast were unable to make the trip, however, many did, and enjoyed the three-day summit featuring Minister Farrakhan.
The Minister got right to work speaking to approximately 30 student leaders on Nov. 1 at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel. He was also the keynote speaker wrapping up the conference Nov. 2 at the Gentry Complex on TSU’s campus.
“My purpose for coming, at my own expense, is to talk to you,” said the Minister. “I’m not a young man, and as an older man starts going down into the valley of death, he wants to know what is coming behind him, that will make his living not in vain.”
“If we lose you, we have no future. That’s how important you are to the future of our people and that’s why they have made it very difficult for Louis Farrakhan to come to speak to young Black students,” he said. None of the Minister’s appearances before students had admission charges as the expense for each venue was carried by Min. Farrakhan himself—more clear evidence of his commitment, love and determination to share Supreme Wisdom that can deliver a nation of people.
Dr. Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, said seeing Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam leading the fight against oppression in America and abroad was in his view, very important to the struggle for liberation.
“We can say that in 2012 against all of the imperial forces, including the United States, the Honorable Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam stood fast in their opposition to what we saw in Libya and what we continue to see around the world with the United States encroaching in the affairs of sovereign nations,” Dr. Worrill told The Final Call. “The Nation of Islam is one of the lone organized forces and institutions that has maintained a powerful tradition in our movement, to call out the forces of oppression even when many people in the world sided with these voices,” he added.
(Charlene Muhammad contributed to this report)
