[Editor�s note: The following text is from a July 11 interview of Minister Louis Farrakhan by Black Entertainment Nightly News host Jacque Reid. The interview continued with BET talk show host Ed Gordon. Min. Farrakhan was interviewed while in Durban, South Africa, for the inauguration of the African Union.]

Minister Louis Farrakhan (MLF): I saw them doing just what you are doing, what the American people are doing. They are going about their daily chores as normal. We, in the United States, are living under some fear of a terrorist attack. But the President has said to the American people, go on and live your life. Well, that�s exactly what the Iraqi people are doing. They are going on living their lives as though there is no eminent threat from the United States government.

MLF: I didn�t go there to stir the pot. I went there to take the pot that is stirring off the stove. Peace is better than war. Life is better than death. Healing is better than killing and murder. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. That�s what I want to be and I hope President Bush wants to be the same.

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.

Ed Gordon (EG): Good evening everyone, I�m Ed Gordon. Welcome to a special edition of Black Entertainment Televisions BET Tonight. We are very pleased to bring you, in the midst of his whirlwind tour, the Minister Louis Farrakhan. He joins us as our guest this evening. Minister, I know that you are in the midst of this tour. We welcome you. You are in South Africa, correct?

MLF: Thank you. I�m very, very honored to be on your show, Ed. Yes, we are in Durban, South Africa, where we just witnessed the historic birth of the African Union.

MLF: Well, the first reason was that looking at television and watching the daily carnage taking place in the Middle East, particularly among the Palestinians and the Israelis, and hearing our president say that it was the intention of his government to remove Saddam Hussein from power. And this would mean war or even assassination of Saddam Hussein. It is a combination of these two things that compelled me to ask those that went with me, let us go and see if we can help to make some peace and relieve some of the suffering of the people in Palestine and in Israel and see if we can unite the Muslim world; to see if we could speak with one voice to request from President Bush that he not bomb Iraq. This is what compelled me.

MLF: No, we weren�t in Saudi Arabia. We went to Qatar, to Yemen, to Dubai, to Syria, to Lebanon, to Iraq, and now we are in South Africa. And hopefully tomorrow we will be in Zimbabwe and then we will begin to make our way home. There was difficulty in some of these countries for timing and scheduling to get in to talk to those leaders. But I met with the Emir of Qatar, the President of Yemen, the President of Syria, the President of Lebanon, one of the ministers of government in Dubai. I met with all the ministers of government in Iraq including the vice president. And I was in the Middle East at the time that President Bush issued his peace initiative on the Middle East crisis. And I happened to be in the Al Jazerra studios in Qatar when he made his speech. And, unfortunately, I was disappointed. I thought that he needed more balance and guidance from those who love Islam and who love America and want to see the President come off better than he did. But, unfortunately, the peace initiative that he gave, many felt that it could have been written by Prime Minister (Ariel) Sharon himself. It was so heavily overbalanced on the Israeli side that it increased the anger and the despair in the Arab world and many feel that President Bush has really said to the world that he cannot be an honest broker for peace in this problem in the Middle East.

MLF: Well, certainly we tried through the Israeli Embassy in the United States and they contacted the foreign ministry in Israel. And then I understand there was discussion in the Knesset and they decided that Louis Farrakhan should not be permitted into Israel at this time. And they adopted the same posture as the government of Great Britain, saying that the Minister would not be in the public good, when, in fact, I went there to do good. But, unfortunately, I was not able to do that good. But through the blessing of television I was able to get my message across to the Arab and Muslim world. I probably spoke to over 100 million Arabs and Muslims in that part of the world during my short visit there.

MLF: First let me say, yes. It�s an outright lie. There will be no winner in a military confrontation. American soldiers� lives will be lost. Many American families will be grieving. And on the Iraqi side there will be many, many lives lost there. My prayer is for the victory of peace over war and right over wrong. I would never, ever say that I wished that somebody would prevail in a military conflict. I went there for peace and that is my hope, that is my prayer, and that is what the people of Iraq want. In all of my talks to the officials of the government, to the people in the street, to the religious leaders, they do not want war. They want peace. And it was so sad for me to talk to the minister of health in Iraq and to hear of the problems of the sanctions and what they have done already to the Iraqi people. And the United States and Great Britain have been bombing Iraq for 11 years in these no fly zones that America and Great Britain have put up to the north and the south of Iraq. And the Iraqis have not, according to the news, been able to shoot down one of these planes in 11 years. And a part of the sanctions is to deny Iraq these conventional weapons that would allow them to defend the sovereignty of their own air space.

So now America, with all of her great arsenal of weapons of war, is now preparing to fight a country that cannot protect their air space. And you are going to come at them by land, by sea, and by air. For what? You say you are going to set down this dictator. When have you become so righteous? You have been upholding the dictators in Central America, South America, the Caribbean and in other parts of the world as long as they went along with the corporate greed of American corporations that were taking the raw materials of these countries. You are not pressing for democracy in the Arab world. So now you mean to tell me that Saddam is so bad (that) you are going to kill off all of these Iraqi people to remove one man and set up a government to your liking? It�s not working in Afghanistan. It will not work in Iraq. And so I pleaded with the Arab and Muslim world, please don�t allow your nation to be a base for such a war. You are a Muslim and you should feel the hurt and the pain of your own fellow Muslims and say to America with one voice, no, no to war, no to murder. And inside the United States of America, if it pleases God, when I return I am calling for congressional hearings because the American people need to know both sides of this question: Did Saddam Hussein gas his own people? Is Saddam Hussein planning or did he plan to murder President Bush�s father? What kind of evidence is there?

MLF: There is enough that I have heard that most of it is propaganda; and this is why there has to be hearings. And if the government will not call these hearings, we are prepared to call these hearings in Washington, D.C., and invite these scholars and scientists who have a different view than the lobby that is pushing the American administration to use the power of the United States to destroy the Iraqi leadership and the Iraqi people. This is not right.

MLF: Ed, 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, Ed, 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.

MLF: I don�t know what he will do. If he is like Pharaoh and God hardens his heart and he feels that it is his duty to go to Iraq and unseat Saddam Hussein or call for his assassination, then he will do this. But he will do this and lose the prestige of America in the world community. Russia doesn�t want it. China doesn�t want it.

MLF: I believe that the Arab and Muslim world will turn against the United States of America with more hatred. It is not that they have the power to destroy America, but America is not in the world by herself. America needs the friendship of the nations of the world. So if the European Union turns her down, if Russia and China turned her down, she begins to look like a bully because she is bullying Iraq. She doesn�t agree with China. China is communist. Why don�t you pick on China? Because you know you will get a response that will bring many American body bags home. This kind of bullying tactic is wrong. It is immoral.

Look, Ed, last year 666 murders took place in Chicago, Illinois. How in the world can I go back home and we go back home and tell the gang bangers (to) stop murder, stop murder in the inner cities, when from the highest office in the land of the United States the President, himself, is calling for the assassination of another human being with whom he has a disagreement. Even if Saddam is an enemy, what can he do against the great and powerful United States of America? I want this thing debated in the Congress. I want those who want war to stand up and tell the American people why. And those who don�t want war, let us give the reason why we don�t want war and let the American people judge and our representatives in Congress act on the will of the American people and not the will of a lobby, whether it is a Jewish lobby or a Zionist lobby or any kind of lobby. That government body should represent the will of the American people.

MLF: Let me say, Ed, that the armed forces of the United States has over 400,000 Black men and women who have joined the Army and are patriotic in their love for the United States of America. There are also many Hispanics and poor Whites that will be used if President Bush launches this attack on Saddam Hussein. It is very difficult for us as Black people who suffer in the United States of America from racial profiling, police brutality, redlining, and all of the abuses that we suffer, and yet we have fought, bled and died for this nation for a freedom that we yet do not enjoy. And some people would say to Farrakhan, "Well, Farrakhan, you should leave America and live in Iraq." Just a moment. America is where I live. I have a stake in that country. Our people have fought, bled and died for this country and we don�t want to see the country mismanaged by anybody�White or Black. So who do you speak for, Farrakhan? I speak for the voiceless Americans�Black, Brown, and White�who would like to say what I�m saying but they don�t have a voice. I speak for those in Congress who may be afraid because of this climate of patriotism to speak truth to power. I even think I speak for Colin Powell in aspects of this policy that he disagrees with but he can�t come out and say it. So I�m speaking for those who have no voice and I believe there are many in America who will join me in speaking against this war, particularly the mothers and the fathers whose children will die. Die for what? Die on a vendetta; die because this man is a dictator. If he is a dictator, let his own people overthrow him. That�s not our business. It will be Saddam Hussein today, Gadhafi tomorrow, Castro the day after, Bashar Assad of Syria the day after that. Who�s next? America, you�re not raised by God to be a superpower to go into other nations and set them down saying that they need a change of leadership. Maybe we need a change of leadership in the United States of America.

MLF: You can tell I�m healthy.

MLF: Good to see you. Thank you.