Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 21:09:00 +0000

The Ministry of Spiritual Development

The mission of the N.O.I. as a whole and of each of its parts is the spiritual development of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam in North America and our people throughout the world. The mission of the N.O.I. is the resurrection spiritually of a dead people and the entire focus and meaning of its work is to bring about this resurrection as quickly as possible. This is the purpose that gives meaning to all other activities engaged in and is the criterion by which we expect to be judged by Allah and His Messenger, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. As such, the spiritual dimension must be present in all and excluded from none.
(copied from AtonementCommission.com)

Contact:

Brother Robert Muhammad
Student Coordinator
Grand Rapids, MI
(616) 730-6052

e-mail:
gr.10thministry@gmail.com

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:52:00 +0000

Web Video: African American Muslims respond to controversy over NY Islamic Center

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Sep 2, 2010 - 6:40:13 PM

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Cick here for Press Conference Webcast Replay

A Coalition of African American Muslims held a press conference, Thursday, September 2, 2010 at the National Press Club in Washington, DC to address the controversary of the Park 51 Project (Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan).

Coalition leaders say the controversy over the Park 51 Project is indicative of a general rise in racist bigotry towards people of color in this country. While the issue has its particular and unique distinctions, it cannot be separated from the rising violence against African Americans and Latinos, or the increasingly inflammatory rhetoric and exclusionary politics driving the national debate on immigration.

The coalition's statement read in part, "as African-American Muslims, we feel our unique perspective has been missing from an emerging national discussion. We wish to join that discussion by first of all affirming that among our forbears are Muslims who have lived peacefully and productively in this country since its inception. They, and others among our people have sacrificed too much, both in enduring the horrors and brutalities of chattel slavery, and during the long march to freedom, civil and human rights for us to silently accept a return to Jim Crow exclusionary practices and policies that relegate either ourselves or our co-religionists from other ethnic backgrounds to second-class citizenry."

Cick here for Press Conference Webcast Replay

Related news:

Anti-Islam lies and the loss of rights in America (FCN, 08-24-2010)

Anti-Islamic sentiment, attacks must be condemned (FCN, 05-24-2010)

What is behind the anti-immigration push and who are the next targets? (FCN, 05-11-2010)

Activists, family demand justice in death of imam slain by FBI (FCN, 11-15-2009)

Islam is not the enemy! (FCN, 09-10-2009)

FBI targets religious groups (FCN, 04-23-2009)

Latino activists face death threats in Georgia (FCN, 06-03-2008)

Anti-immigrant sentiment grows into nationwide hate crimes (FCN, 05-16-2006)

Is Islam a Religion of Violence? (FCN Webcast, Min. Farrakhan, Press Conf. 05-25-2005)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Interview featuring the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Aug 24, 2010 - 9:59:41 PM

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(FinalCall.com) - Author, scholar and national news/talk radio show host, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson hosted the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in an in depth and powerful interview which touched on his decision to release Volume 2 of The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews as well as other topics.

Click here to listen to the DysonShow.org interview with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

From politics to pop culture, race matters to the latest writers, The Michael Eric Dyson Show reaches across gender, generational, class, and racial lines to offer a unique and sought-after point of view on issues of concern to all Americans.

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:48:00 +0000

Right wing's efforts to claim Dr. King's legacy condemned

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Aug 17, 2010 - 4:01:42 PM

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Beck rally has nothing to do with Dr. King, civil rights, justice or equality, say Blacks

Photo: AP/Wide World photos

WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastating landfall in New Orleans; the 47th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom; and the 55th anniversary of the savage murder of Emmitt Till near Greenwood, Miss.—on Aug. 28—cable-TV news commentator Glenn Beck has been given a permit to host a rally “Restoring Honor” in the nation's capital.

The event is scheduled for the steps of the Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have A Dream” speech.

‘I think it ought to be clear, this has nothing to do with the civil rights movement. This has everything to do with the White nationalist movement.’
—Dr. Ronald Walters, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Maryland

“Join the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and many more for this non-political event that pays tribute to America's service personnel and other upstanding citizens who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor,” Mr. Beck says, inviting people to the event.

The rally, Mr. Beck states, will “celebrate America by honoring our heroes, our heritage and our future.” Many Black observers disagree. The symbolism of this event is as shocking an inappropriate as former California Gov. Ronald Reagan launching his first presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss. the site of the brutal 1964 murder of three civil rights workers, says some critics.

“I think it ought to be clear, this has nothing to do with the civil rights movement,” Dr. Ronald Walters, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Maryland told The Final Call of the planned march. “This has everything to do with the White nationalist movement.

“I use that term because it's the title of a book I wrote on ‘the Right.' So, they're White nationalists. Essentially, what's going on is that this is an opportunity for them to make a stab at what some people have called, ‘taking back their country.'

“And they're taking it back on the vision of King, and progressives, and the good things that this country has stood for. And they're replacing it with a very narrow, narrow-minded vision,” Dr. Walters said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and his National Action Network are also planning a Washington mobilization on Aug. 28, at Dunbar High School, near downtown.

“But we will in no way be deterred by those dividers like Glenn Beck and other Tea Party members who are attempting to tarnish the legacy of this historic day and our impeccable leader,” the Rev. Sharpton said in a commentary distributed by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). “We will not allow them to hijack the dream, nor destroy Dr. King's mission.”

Mr. Beck, who is known for inflammatory rhetoric on his television and radio programs, says the rally is to be followed by “Glenn Beck's Divine Destiny, an eye-opening event at the historic Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. that will help heal your soul. Guided by uplifting music, nationally known religious figures from all faiths will unite to deliver messages reminiscent to those given during the struggles of America's earliest days,” according to Simon Maloy writing for Media Matters.

There will probably be no mass protest or counter-march against Mr. Beck's rally, according to Dr. Walters. The Rev. Jesse Jackson is planning an Aug. 28 march in Detroit, and residents of New Orleans are planning a commemoration of Hurricane Katrina that same day.

Still, Dr. Walters insists, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck and his people, “are not worthy of that date. I think that's what people ought to understand.

“Washington won't be the only site, because people are concerned, not just about Glenn Beck, but about jobs and justice, and that is in the tradition of Dr. King. If we don't do that, then (the Black response) is totally reactionary,” said Dr. Walters.

“Glenn Beck doesn't have a civil rights bone in his body,” commented Pastor Timothy McDonald, a member of the Concerned BlackClergy of Atlanta, which was Dr. King's base of operations and where the center named in his honor stands.

“This march is nothing more than an attempt to hijack and distort the civil rights movement. It is a highjack of the movement, a highjack of its tactics and a highjack of approach,” Rev. McDonald continued.

Mr. Beck's march is a slap in the face of the established legacy of Dr. King and others, but responses to the march should be tempered so that in some way the Beck march appears valid, Rev. McDonald said.

The Rev. Lennox Yearwood will be among those marching in New Orleans the weekend of the Beck march. “Let Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, and Fox News have Washington, DC on August 28th this year. We shall respond with morality, faith, and love for our country. We will not respond to hate with more hate,” he wrote for GlobalGrind.com.

“What is right is to stand up for justice, to stand up for a sustainable economy, for jobs, for peace, and to stand up for our environment,” he said.

“Glenn Beck and the right wing have a right to conduct their march, said Dick Gregory, the social satirist, comedian, historian, and civil rights advocate who marched with Dr. King. The problem is that Black folks just were not clever enough to book that date 10 years in a row so “that's our fault,” he told The Final Call.

He said one of the sad parts about it is who announced their march first. “If that (National Action Network) was announced after him (Beck), it means that we weren't planning to celebrate anything and that this is just a reaction to his,” Mr. Gregory continued.

He recalled that the Ku Klux Klan, a White supremacy group known for terrorizing Blacks and people of color, opposed every march they held but they couldn't stop the civil rights marches because they were not illegal. In this case, Glenn Beck had law on his side and even if the Army were called in, it would attack the Blacks and not Mr. Beck, he added.

“It's not reaching too far to think they are attempting to preserve White supremacy and White privilege in this country. Here you have people that have taken King's words and taken them completely out of context to say that he was speaking about all people, but what they're saying is they're going to restore what was, under one hand equality for all people, a non-racial society, what King would have wanted,” explained Dr. William Boone, a political science professor at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.

He views the Beck march as a continued 20 year effort to distort Dr. King around and have him suit all people, regardless of whether their purposes reflect what the civil rights leader lived and died for.

It is definitely an attempt to hijack and legitimize the whole anti-social, anti-progressive movement that has occurred in America over 30 years or so, but what people are missing is that Dr. King's dream was for equality and justice for all people, not just the right wing, he said.

Certainly Dr. King argued for a non-racial society, he continued. But a society where there would be equality and justice for everyone as well, and that's what the right wing are overlooking, Dr. Boone said.

“They are overlooking the point that we still have not reached the point of equality quite frankly in terms of public policy. We have not even reached the point of justice for all people regardless of their color,” Dr. Boone told The Final Call.

The right wing is citing Dr. King's message as one that is so universal that it can accommodate their particular end, he said.What Blacks should be doing is reinforcing their own ideas, Dr. Boone said.

He acknowledged Rev. Sharpton's march but said that a counter march gives the Beck march and movement far too much weight and publicity. “Our best bet is to continue todo the kind of work within our community, educating our people, especially people in the 40 and younger threshold, who are very unfamiliar with and are more susceptible to the kind of rhetoric being put out there by Glenn and the Tea Party Group,” he said.

Issues like the Beck march take away from the discussion of why the SCLC is now in turmoil or the NAACP finds itself in question because of decisions by its leadership, Dr. Boone added.“We need to focus on those things,” Dr. Boone told The Final Call.

“I think what ought to happen is, one ought to describe the country that Glenn Beck and them want to place in the place of the King vision,” said Dr. Walters. They've got a party and a Congress of the United States that has said ‘No' to everything that would empower people. That is the vision that is at absolute contradiction to the progressive vision of Dr. King.

“So I think the issue is not the fact that they are being serious about dulling the civil rights movement. The issue is that they are trying to damage that movement, and replace it with a vision that is totally from the right and totally inhuman,” he said.

(Final Call staff Charlene Muhammad and Eric Ture Muhammad contributed to this report.)

Desperate and Insecure, Whites see country slipping away (FCN, 09-15-2009)

FCN Editorial: A prophetic warning and White anger in America (FCN, 09-15-2009)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:17:00 +0000

Wyclef brings excitement to Haiti's politics

By Eric Ture Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Aug 10, 2010 - 10:05:34 AM

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Hip hop artist may have major impact on Haiti politics, but can he pull the country together?

Haitian-born singer Wyclef Jean, center, greets supporters from the top of a vehicle after submitting the paperwork to run for president of Haiti in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Aug. 5. Photo: AP Wide World Photo/Ramon Espinosa

Does he represent a new political force that can redirect an impoverished nation decimated by earthquake, economic instability, political and possible civil unrest? Or does his candidacy, as claimed by some critics, serve as a front for Western interests seeking to further exploit the poorest nation in the Americas?

(FinalCall.com) - On the streets of Port-au-Prince, Wyclef Jean, the popular musician and founder of the Yele Haiti foundation, formally announced his run for president of the country.

His music career and humanitarian work, have made him well known to Haitians and around the world, but can he bring enough to pull off a victory in the crowded, more experienced political field?

“I feel like I am being drafted by the population right now to give them a different face, a different voice,” said Wyclef during a televised Aug. 5 interview with CNN, the night of his announcement. “Despite what you are hearing with regards to the tent cities, there is a crowd behind me right now with so much excitement because they feel that hope is on the way,” he said.

A potential frontrunner in Haiti's upcoming Nov. 28 election, Wyclef was surrounded by crowds and placards bearing his name and resemblance as he awaits Aug. 14 clearance from the country's election committee that will officially allow his placement on the ballot. His proof of residency and nationality must be verified.

The Haitian-born and Brooklyn, N.Y.-raised entertainer is attempting a difficult transition—from Grammy-award winning, multimillionaire international recording artist to leader of a nation.

Whoever wins the seat analysts and pundits agree could have the toughest political job in the Western hemisphere—it could also serve as a test for Haiti.

Calherbe Monel, a Haitian American pastor, said discussions in the country reveal three levels of concern about a Wyclef Jean run: One, he has never been a politician. Two, he has no proven political leadership track record in Haiti and lastly, Wyclef is a high school dropout. This places, the highly philosophical, French speaking intellectuals at odds with him, said the pastor. Wyclef speaks English and Creole—not French, the language of her former colonial master.

“Haiti has so many qualified children overseas that can overnight, change the face of Haiti. However, the challenge for him and anyone coming from the Haitian Diaspora is winning over the spirit of a lot of people in Haiti, especially the rich, the bourgeois,” Mr. Monel said.

“They are very arrogant. They think that we in the Haitian Diaspora think we are so empowered, with so much access to resources to really come and change things and they are right. The bourgeois are very afraid of anyone that can come in and balance this power with a connection to the population. Wyclef just happens to be the one used for this. How well will Haiti receive one from her own belly?”

“Mr. Wyclef Jean, hype or not, qualified to run a country or not, that is beside the point,” Elizi Danto, director for Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network told The Final Call. “If the law applies, he simply does not meet the technical requirements to run for president of Haiti. To run he must, according to Article 135 of the Haiti Constitution, have lived in Haiti for a minimum of five years. Wyclef is a legal resident of New Jersey, USA.

“Even if by some stretch, Mr. Jean points to his 2007 appointment as ambassador-at-large by President Preval his ‘residency in Haiti' still falls short. We await the Haiti Electoral Board decision,” said Ms. Danto, who is a supporter of former President Jean Bertrand Aristide.

“Wyclef Jean will join a long list of artists—from Ruben Blades to Vaclav Havel to Fela Anikulapo-Kuti—who intimately understand the importance of culture to political change,” commented Jeff Chang, author of the forthcoming book, “Who We Be: The Colorization of America.”

“As a member of the hip hop generation, he has seen the power of art to move minds and bodies to elect the U.S.'s first Black president. The key question for our generation now is whether we are prepared to govern and ready to lead?” he said.

“Yo, are you serious?” chimed in Public Enemy front man and television personality Flava Flav, when learning of the news through The Final Call. “This is deep. He might be their Obama. His impact on the youth segment will be key though, to any success he could have in bringing the country together. Whoever does it (becomes president) has to bring the country together,” he said.

Haiti's politics and challenges

The country's most popular political party, Fanmi Lavalas, representing president-in-exile Aristide, is barred from participation in the upcoming election to choose a new president, 10 senators and 99 members of parliament.

There are also campaigns in Haiti calling for a return of another president-in-exile, Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, the infamous dictator of the 1980s in Haiti living in France. Mr. Aristide resides in South Africa.

Ravaged Jan. 12 by a deadly 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people and left as many as 1.2 million homeless, Haiti has to rebuild its entire governmental infrastructure—not to mention its inhabitants who have not received aid promised by the international community.

Huge numbers of the capital's inhabitants remain in poor housing, live in tent cities or are homeless, and many are without clean water or security.

Quake survivors say poor governance, corruption and shoddy construction magnified the impact of January's quake.

“The rebuilding efforts are going very slow for many reasons,” said Mr. Monel, founder and president of Christians United for Haiti, Inc., a non-profit and missionary organization focused on leadership development.

Just back from Haiti, Mr. Monel said before the quake the country was in a leadership and financial crisis. “So, when the earthquake took place, 28 of the 29 government buildings had collapsed including the (presidential) palace. That caused major handicaps in response time. It took the president (Réne Préval) three to four days after the earthquake for him to make a statement. So the first job was for the government to get back on its feet.

“All of the Supreme Court judges died, several key government people died from the Congress in Haiti, the department of finance, vaccinations, you name it—have lost their lives,” he said.

Billions of dollars in pledges have been earmarked for country, by the global community and donors such as the Red Cross and others.

“However, on the ground,” said Mr. Monel, “you cannot tell where the monies are going. When it comes to shelter, millions of people are still living in tents. There are quiet medical outbreaks such as malaria; skin diseases like rashes and eczema, ringworms amongst the children. The living conditions are not clean,” he said.

Another crisis with very little attention he lamented is the rape and molestation of women and girls by criminals within tent cities and the psychological damage suffered as a result of the quake.

“There are no coordinated efforts to address the issues of shelter, health and safety issues of the survivors,” Mr. Monel said.

Vision versus experience in election?

“Win or lose, Clef's participation in this election has the potential to change the landscape of Haitian politics,” said his brother, Sam Jean, in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor. “It's going to bring an incredible amount of scrutiny, and that's good for the Haitian people.”

“There are some advantages to this media coverage of Haiti, through this Wyclef Jean candidacy,” Ms. Danto said. “It won't help Mr. Jean. But it is an opportunity for those of us who care to bring the real Haiti narrative to the fore on this media frenzy leverage.”

At least 58 parties and 20 candidates are registered for the presidential race to succeed President Réne Préval, who is barred by constitution from seeking re-election. Voters will also select legislators and local officials as well. Among Mr. Jean's opposition is his uncle, Raymond Joseph, who until Aug. 1, was Haiti's ambassador to the United States. Mr. Joseph resigned to pursue his presidential aspirations, but insists he and his nephew are not running against each other. “We are family. And we won't allow politics to divide,” he said in published reports.

Another candidate is Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly, a musician and entertainer whose lyrics have poked fun at the Haitian presidency. Nowhere near the celebrity Wyclef, yet popular on the Caribbean island, Mr. Martelly earned the endorsement of Pras Michel, co-founding member of the Fugees with Wyclef, and his cousin.

“I just think that there are candidates that are more qualified than Wyclef at this point right now,” Pras said in an AP interview. “I saw him the other day, but I didn't get a sense of what is the real plan for Haiti. Haiti needs what I call a short term plan and a long term plan. You got 1.2 million people living in tent city right now. What are the plans to get these people out of tent city and into regular civilization?”

“Anybody has a right to run of course, if the elections were open—and they are not at this point,” said Dr. Akinyele Umoja, of the Department of African American Studies at Georgia State University. Wyclef Jean is aligned with reactionary elements in Haiti that vocally supported U.S. and CIA death squads that murdered thousands of Haitians, charged Dr. Uomja.

These death squads played a role in the Bush administration's 2004 coup of the popularly elected government of Mr. Aristide and Wyclef called these people “freedom fighters,” he added.

His uncle, Raymond Joseph, is also a major player in representing the Haitian elite's continued oppression of 90 percent of the Haitian population, Dr. Umoja continued. This is why the current Haitian U.S.-backed government is preventing Lavalas from participating in elections, he said.

In February of 2004, during an interview with MTV music news, Wyclef Jean voiced his support for embattled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to step down and asked his fans to remain hopeful of a better Haiti. Those comments, detractors say, showed support for the U.S. ouster of the president, but not everyone agrees with that view.

“The country's in an uproar; it's not safe. But for the safety of the country and to stop the violence, it has to be a situation where he steps down. If the president steps down, there will be some form of negotiation with the opposition force,” said Wyclef as Haiti was locked in a political stalemate that had deadly repercussions. The Aristide regime had also received little, if no support from the U.S., as the crisis and violence wore on.

“I don't consider those people rebels,” Wyclef told MTV news. “It's people standing up for their rights. It's not like these people just appeared out of nowhere and said, ‘Let's cause some trouble.' I think it's just built up frustration, anger, hunger, depression.”

Wyclef also asked his fans to understand that the uprising was not simply senseless violence. “What I want people to be clear about is it's not just people chopping up people for no reason. It's on the level of a civil war. People want the president that is currently the state to step down. And him stepping down will let the people make any kind of negotiation to come up with some form of peace,” he said in the midst of the 2004 crisis.

Those comments will likely be thoroughly discussed, dissected and deciphered as Wyclef's campaign goes forward.

“The fact that he is a celebrity, the fact that he has been found on the ground working and has established a connection with the people, does not necessarily mean he will be a good president,” said Dr. Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World 21st Century and founder of the Haiti Support Project.

“We have to see what his vision is, what he is articulating and what his platform is. This is a serious moment in the history of the country. What his plan is and how he intends to move forward has to be understood.”

Regarding the Wyclef's comments of 2004, Dr. Daniels responded, “I won't say he (Wyclef) is the most politically astute and there is no question that the American government was absolutely wrong in ousting President Aristide, but that is not the whole story,” Dr. Daniels said. “All of us should always be aware of the origins of history. Here, Wyclef was someone on the ground, who saw a situation that needed to be corrected. He did not have the answer, all he saw was his home in crisis.”

In Dr. Daniels opinion, Wyclef made an emotional response minus the politics and wanted a change in his people's existence. And, though he might have been found on the wrong side of the U.S. action, Dr. Daniels continued, “I think Wyclef and Ambassador Joseph through their actions since the earthquake have acquitted themselves well. I am sure they will have to address that time period. I would not have worked with them five years ago, but this is the way history moves.”

“As for Wyclef in particular, when you are building a country you have to work with a broad sector of people even as you build your own political core. Who does he see as assembling around him to make the team that will make up for his lack of political experience? I've never seen experience in and of itself as the sole qualification for office nor celebrity. The vision and platform are the most important things,” Dr. Daniels said.

Possible making of a youth movement

Wyclef believes his presidential run can impact youth and it appears his desire to impact Haiti's youth served as a major reason why he decided to run for office.

“I had to take a position in office so that the youth population in Haiti, which is over 50 percent of the population, we can start to provide a way to get them out of the mess that they are in,” he said, on the Fas a Fas Movement Web site. He is a founder of the Fas a Fas Movement.

“The media will forget Haiti,” the movement's mission statement reads. “They probably already have done. We will not! Activists around the world, young Haitians, and this movement will report what happens, without censorship, without servility. Through this movement the young Haitians, abandoned by the media, will become the media, establishing a permanent observatory of the territory, exposing corruption, other anomalies and injustices, so they will not remain unpunished any more.”

Haitian elections historically have been volatile and the country has a long history of dictatorships, supported by the U.S., followed by years of political turmoil and civil unrest. The November vote is viewed as a key step towards rebuilding the country and its political institutions.

The United Nations has pledged observers and security for the vote and other international bodies have promised a strong monitoring presence.

On Aug. 6, the Organization of American States and the regional umbrella group for Caribbean nations also promised a thorough observer mission to monitor the electoral process, from candidate registration through the proclamation of results.

The estimated cost of holding the election is $44 million, a tab paid primarily through international donors. OAS and CARICOM diplomats have said that this is the most expensive mission ever undertaken by both groups.

Related news:

A Voice For Haiti, A Voice For All Our Rise (FCN, Minister Farrakhan)

Wycleff Jean and Haiti's uphill road (FinalCall.com Editorial, 08-10-2010)

Analyzing Haiti's history of hardship (Web Video, 01-14-2010)

Disaster hits Haiti: Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake (FCN, 01-13-2010)

Naomi Klein issues warning on "Disaster Capitalism" in Haiti (FCN, 01-14-2010)

How the U.S. impoverished Haiti (FCN, 09-10-2003)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 11:51:00 +0000

A Response to Rabbi Abraham Cooper on The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews

By Jackie Muhammad | Last updated: Aug 4, 2010 - 4:26:24 PM

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(On July 15, 2010 Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center wrote an article titled “The Road to Nowhere: Tracing Farrakhan's Anti-Jewish Paranoia” which was also republished on the Huffington Post. This was written in response.)

To: Rabbi Abraham Cooper
From: Jackie Muhammad
Re: The Road to Nowhere: Tracing Farrakhan's Anti-Jewish Paranoia
Date: July 16, 2010

Dear Rabbi Cooper:

‘The experience and finances the Jews gained in perfecting the movement of human cargo from East Africa to Asia, added to the expertise they employed in the sale, transportation, and auctioning of West Africans into America and the Western world several hundred years later. So to deny that the Jewish people did not play a major role in the enslavement of Black people in America, in light of these historical truths, is quite dishonest.’
—Jackie Muhammad

I read your essay “The Road to Nowhere: Tracing Farrakhan's Anti-Jewish Paranoia” with a great deal of interest and consternation. Permit me, for the purposes of historical accuracy, to respond to several of the points you raise in your missive.

Apparently, you have not read the book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 2; nor is it apparent that you have heard either of Minister Farrakhan's two speeches (June 26 and July 11, 2010) titled “Who Are The Real Children of Israel?” The book, in my opinion, is a mesmerizing masterpiece. The speeches were nothing short of brilliant, coming from the mind of a spiritual genius.

Why do I use such adjectives to describe the speeches and this tome? The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 2, to which The Minister in his speeches refers, is over 400 pages in length and contains more than 2,000 footnotes. Each controversial aspect of what is written is fully annotated, primarily from Jewish historians, writers, and rabbis like you. As an educator I have not read any similar scholarly treatise with as much proof backing every claim made. Therefore, to compare either volume of The Secret Relationship to Mr. Ford's diatribe, The International Jew, and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion is both specious and historically inaccurate.

Your claim—which you attribute to historian Jacob Rader Marcus—that “American Jewish businessmen were accountable for less than two percent of the slave imports into the West Indies and North America” is misleading. Jews, though a tiny portion of the White population, became significant players in the economies of the Caribbean and the Americas. According to Jewish scholar Dr. Arnold Wiznitzer, Jews “dominated the slave trade. ... The buyers who appeared at the auctions were almost always Jews, and because of this lack of competitors, they could buy slaves at low prices.”

According to the co-author of your essay, Simon Wiesenthal Center's Dr. Harold Brackman, during the 1600s “slave trading in Brazil became a ‘Jewish' mercantile specialty in much the same way it had been in early medieval Europe.” Rabbi Marc Lee Raphael wrote that in Curacao in the seventeenth century, as well as in Barbados and Jamaica in the eighteenth century, “Jewish merchants played a major role in the slave trade.” In fact, the Jewish Encyclopedia states that “Jewish commercial activity” in this time included a “monopoly of the slave trade.” And the largest shipments of Africans arriving in New York in the first half of the 1700s were commissioned by Jewish merchants. I could go on and on, but you really ought to read The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Vol. 1.

The Jewish participation in the slave trade was an international business enterprise. For example, the unparalleled success of the House of Rothschild, an international banking and business enterprise based in Germany, was started from the proceeds of American slavery. Profits from slavery built factories and established the most extensive banking system in Europe at that time. The proceeds of slave labor fueled the Industrial Revolution.

I am sure you are familiar with the expression used in the South during and after slavery, “cotton was king.” According to a book footnoted in SR Vol. 2, Cotton and Race in the Making of America by Gene Dattel, cotton was America's largest export between 1803 and 1937. It was the single biggest engine of Western expansion. It was a German Jewish immigrant, Morris Ranger, of Galveston, Texas who “held the key to the cotton trade of the world” and became one of the largest cotton operators in the world. Mill owners Herman and Emanuel Sternberger of Greensboro, North Carolina “helped to transform their sleepy town into an industrial center” and were called the “cotton king.” For many Jews “cotton was gold.” The international trade in cotton made numerous Jews fabulously wealthy. The now defunct financial giant Lehman Brothers began as the owner of “a string of plantations” and slaves. Cotton mill owner Jacob Elsas retired “with a cool $10,000,000 to his credit.”

Your claim that “Jewish owners of plantations … were decidedly outnumbered by free Blacks who owned other African Americans” is a decidedly misleading and disingenuous statement. Many of these “free” Blacks claimed their relatives and friends from their former slave masters and housed them on their farms as a means of removing them from the dehumanizing plantation life of their Jewish and Gentile overlords. But they certainly did not “outnumber” the many Jews, who owned, insured, and financed slave ships and outfitted them with chains and shackles, or the many Jews who were auctioneers, brokers, and wholesalers, or the many Jews who, according to Dr. Jacob Rader Marcus, “were active as plantation owners.” Rabbi and historian Dr. Bertram W. Korn, whom you quote, confessed that “… many Southern Jews believed slavery to be indispensable to their happiness and security.”

Of course, these so-called free Blacks also suffered under the repressive slave codes, or Black codes, which Jews actually helped to create and never, ever had to face. Not only that, there were many, many, many Jewish office-holders in the South who—long before the Civil War—were officially responsible for law enforcement tasks that included the apprehension and punishment of Black people who wanted freedom more than slavery. In addition, according to a noted Jewish historian, “[s]ince emancipation, Jews in Dixie had helped to readjust state and local laws and customs to keep Blacks substantially less equal in their freedom.” In other words, Jews helped to create the very Jim Crow laws that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Civil Rights Movement struggled to uproot!

You say in your essay that “Jewish owners of plantations … constituted only a tiny proportion of the [slave holding] Southerners.” Yet Dr. Harold Brackman wrote, in an article in the Encyclopedia of American Jewish History titled “Black-Jewish Relations in the Nineteenth Century,” that “Jews were about twice as likely to be slave owners as the average White Southerner.” Rabbi Dr. Korn wrote: “It would seem to be realistic to conclude that any Jew who could afford to own slaves and had need for their services would do so. ... Jews participated in every aspect and process of the exploitation of the defenseless Blacks.” In fact, the Jewish Encyclopedia in 1901 made an astounding claim that put Jewish Americans at the epicenter of the slavocracy: “[T]he cotton-plantations in many parts of the South were wholly in the hands of the Jews, and as a consequence slavery found its advocates among them.”

One of the side effects of our enslavement in America at the hands of our “Jewish friends” was the psychological damage done to Black people that made us become haters of self. However, I am also aware that Black people do not have a monopoly on self-hatred. Are you aware that the same disease affects Jewish people? Are you familiar with the term Judenrat? They were Jews in Poland and the occupied territories of the Soviet Union who collaborated with the Nazi Germans to sell out and betray their own people.

I challenge you to name one so-called Black slave owner who used the profits gained from slavery to purchase publications like the New York Times to degrade Black people. Adolph Ochs, a racist, White supremacist Nashville, Tenn., and Jewish used the New York Times—which he purchased with loans from colleagues who made money from the profits from slavery, one of whom was the Rothschilds' New York agent, August Belmont—to refer to Black people as “animals,” “niggers,” and “coons.” None of Ochs's Jewish backers admonished him for his racial animus.

I challenge you to show how a handful of so-called Black slave owners can possibly compare to the legions of Jewish immigrants from Poland, France, and Germany who exited from boats on American shores, were handed packs of manufactured goods and products, sent to the South and directed to establish country stores on the plantations, and parlayed those plantation stores into multibillion dollar mega stores like Macy's, Gimbels, Blumenthal's, Sachs, Neiman Marcus, and Rich's.

Surely, Rabbi Cooper, you are not comparing so-called Black slave owners to Judah P. Benjamin, a Jewish member of the U.S. Senate, the Confederate Secretary of State, and Secretary of War, a close confidant of President Jefferson Davis, and the person who used his relationship with the international bankers to arrange to have another Jew, French banker Emile Erlanger, loan the Confederacy $7 million. No wonder he became known as the “brains of the Confederacy.” And, by the way, Secretary Benjamin was the owner of a 140-slave plantation.

Finally, I challenge you to give me the name of one so-called Black slave owner who produced the Talmudic-based Curse of Ham Myth as a justification for Black inferiority and White superiority and use that myth as a justification for the enslavement of millions of Black people around the world. Discussing the Jewish invention of the Hamitic Myth, Dr. Harold Brackman wrote: “[T]here is no denying that the Babylonian Talmud was the first source to read a Negrophobic content into [the Biblical story of Noah]...”

Are you familiar with a Jewish group called the Radanites? The Radanites were Jewish merchant traders who rose to power in the Middle Ages. Their influence held sway all over the known world. These global merchants spoke every major tongue in the world, namely, Arabic, Persian, Roman, the language of the Franks, Andalusians and Slavs. They traveled from east to west and west to east. They were the only group of traders allowed into both the Muslim world and the Christian regions. They monopolized the trade routes from India to China to Africa and Turkey and all routes in between. They trafficked in spices, raw materials, weapons and especially slaves, both White and Black.

One reason they monopolized global trade was that they were permitted to do so by both the Muslims and the Christians. Muslim goods were permitted into Christian territories, but the Muslims themselves were not. Likewise, Christian goods were allowed into Muslim nations, but Christians were not. The Jews, however, were not only permitted as middle men, but they were permitted to travel freely between both nations of people. And they were protected by both religious groups. When the Muslims ruled in Spain and spurred the rebirth of civilization in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire, Jews were given privileged positions throughout Western Europe. One can reasonably argue, therefore, that the greatest freedom the Jewish people ever experienced was under the tutelage and protection of the nations of Islam.

As previously mentioned, the Jewish Radanites played a central role in the trafficking of human cargo. They supplied the Iraqis with African slaves from Zanzibar. These Africans were called the Zanj. They developed such a significant presence in Iraq in the 9th Century A.D. that their presence caused a security threat for the nation. Subsequently, the revolt of these slaves led to one of the great rebellions of world history and the first major uprising in the history of the African Diaspora.

Scottish-born Louis Isaac Rabinowitz (1906–1984), historian, author, Chief Rabbi of United Hebrew Congregation, Johannesburg, South Africa, and an expert on the subject, wrote several published works on the Radanites. It has been concluded that they became so wealthy that when the lucrative trade routes were shut down by the new rulers of the Tang Dynasty, the emerging Venetian merchants, who viewed them as a threat, and the ousting of Jewish traders by the Christian Crusaders, they had to pursue other occupations. From the enormous profits they gained from the trade in slaves and raw materials, the Radanites parlayed their gains into money lending, and pawn broking. Rabinowitz joins another Jewish author, Joseph Jacobs, author of Jewish Contributions to Civilization, and states that they emerged as the leading bankers of Europe. Indeed, the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (1948) states unequivocally that “[i]n Eastern Europe there were very recently countries in which 90 percent or more of the trades was in Jewish hands; in some branches of trade and export they controlled the entire 100 percent.” It goes on to say: “Here [Central Europe during the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries] they were pioneers in the primary stages of capitalist development and therefore held a dominant position in these cultural economic functions which may be called the nervous system of capitalist economy. Banking, the stock market, export and import fall within this classification.”

The experience and finances the Jews gained in perfecting the movement of human cargo from East Africa to Asia, added to the expertise they employed in the sale, transportation, and auctioning of West Africans into America and the Western world several hundred years later. So to deny that the Jewish people did not play a major role in the enslavement of Black people in America, in light of these historical truths, is quite dishonest.

Furthermore, Rabbi Cooper, you mention that 78 percent of the Jewish vote went to elect Barack Obama as president. All people support a candidate based on their enlightened self-interests. As long as Jewish people felt President Obama would serve their interests, they voted for him. Now, Jewish people are calling Mr. Obama some of the vilest names imaginable. A relative of the Prime Minister of Israel called the president a racist and an anti-Semite. What they don't say is that the State of Israel did more to support the racist, Apartheid government of South Africa than any other nation on Earth. If Israel did not support that racist settler state with its technical knowledge of a nuclear delivery system, then the colonial oppressors could have been defeated much sooner and numerous Black lives could have been saved. The same analogy could be made here in America. If our “Jewish friends” had not in fact been at the very center of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as merchants, financiers, shippers, and insurers and among the leading international marketers of the products of African slave labor, America's slavocracy could have been defeated sooner, and untold Black lives could have been saved.

How different is the Jews' collaboration with the Ku Klux Klan in the South in the 1800s any different from the Jewish nation of Israel's collaboration with racist, apartheid, settler state of South Africa in the 1970s? In reading SR Vol. 2 many of the Jews who fought on the side of the Confederate Army were key supporters of the KKK. For example, one of Birmingham's leading businessmen, Jewish pawnbroker Joe Denaburg, supplied the Klan with both weapons and sheets, and referred to members of the Klan as personal friends of his. Mr. Denaburg was not a lone operative. SR2 is replete with myriad examples of Jewish collaborations with the Klan throughout the South. Hence, it should come as no surprise that there was a secret collaboration between the racist apartheid state of South Africa and Israel.

Therefore, those who are insidiously referred to as our “friends” have been cruel, craven and cowardly. This does not serve your people or mine. Both of us might agree that the time for a transition in that relationship has come. Unless we are prepared to factor into this equation the solutions proffered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan then a viable and amicable solution to this century's old dilemma will continue to elude us.

(Jackie Muhammad is a presidential appointee, member of the Oxford Round Table, educator, youth-trainer and businessman He can be reached at jacrb519@aol [dot] com.)

For more information on the topic visit www.BlacksandJews.com.

A Speech and Book for The New Spiritual Economics (FCN, 07-19-2010)

Jewish leaders demand Farrakhan denounce "Secret Relationship" book (07-11-2010)

Farrakhan's challenge to the Jewish community goes unanswered (FCN, 07-07-2010)

Farrakhan: Blacks are True Children of Israel (FCN, 06-28-2010)

The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews, Volume 2 Book Review (FCN, 06-28-2010)

Minister Louis Farrakhan's Letter To ADL's Abraham Foxman (06-24-2010)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 04:59:00 +0000

The Shirley Sherrod debacle brings America face-to-face with race and denial—again

By Askia Muhammad and Eric Ture Muhammad -Final Call Staff | Last updated: Jul 28, 2010 - 10:58:56 PM

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WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - It may be the most shameful incident in the modern history of the NAACP, and yet another failure on the part of President Barack Obama and his administration to understand the depths of racism in this country, and to lead the country to correctly deal with it.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Shirley Sherrod

The public pillorying of Shirley Sherrod, a Black USDA official fired for racial misdeeds she never committed, can also be seen as part of an onslaught of right wing propaganda and efforts to counteract any charges of White racism with charges of Black racial animus. Then there is a constant effort to calm White fear on one hand, hoping to avoid election year backlashes, as the other side seeks to inflame White fears to energize segments of White voters. Key to the right wing mobilization is apparently demonizing the president and Black civil rights organizations—and keeping both running away from race in the name of unbiased action.

The president was briefed July 19 about a March two and a half minute video clip purportedly showing Mrs. Sherrod, then director of Georgia State Rural Development for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, telling a story during a local NAACP banquet about how she hesitated to do all she could to help a poor farmer 24 years ago because he was White and acting superior to her. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demanded and received her resignation, declaring there is a “zero tolerance policy” for discrimination at USDA.

In a hasty response, the oldest and largest civil rights group in the nation— the Black community's “Good Shepherd” as it were—sternly rebuked Mrs. Sherrod, one of its own “sheep,” in an obvious attempt to appease the “wolf,” conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart who posted the deceptively edited video on the Internet.

Last year, Mr. Breitbart, a former editor at the Drudge Report, played a key role in the distribution of doctored videos that appeared to show ACORN employees giving advice to a pimp and a prostitute. Mr. Breitbart said he posted the Sherrod video in an effort to get back at the NAACP for passing a resolution at its recently concluded convention, calling on the Tea Party movement to repudiate racism in its ranks.

Within hours after learning of Mrs. Sherrod's forced resignation, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous supported Sec. Vilsack's actions and chastised Mrs. Sherrod.

“We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers,” Mr. Jealous said in the group's initial statement. “Her actions were shameful.

“While she went on to explain in the story that she ultimately realized her mistake, as well as the common predicament of working people of all races, she gave no indication she had attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

“No way in the world. No way. No way. I don't even want to talk about it,” Roger Spooner, the elderly White farmer at the center of the story told CNN July 20. “It don't make sense. She was just so nice to us as—she didn't—there wasn't no—there wasn't no racism attitude at all in it. Heck no. They don't know what they're talking about.”

“I never was treated no better, no nicer, and looked after than Shirley,” Mr. Spooner continued. “She done—she done a magnificent job. I don't have words—I don't have words to explain it,” he said. Mrs. Sherrod, he said, helped save his near 500-acre farm.

For the next 48 hours the White House, the Agriculture Secretary and the NAACP were in full retreat, personally and publicly apologizing to Mrs. Sherrod— who had worked for a non-profit group dedicated to stemming the catastrophic loss of Black farmland in the 1980s when she met Mr. Spooner. Her father was shot in the back and murdered by a White farmer when she was 17.

The NAACP, “after a careful investigation” and the day after its initial statement, said: “We have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed White farmers because of racial bias,” the new statement said.

“Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the White farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans,” Mr. Jealous said.

President Obama and Sec. Vilsack both telephoned Mrs. Sherrod to apologize. Mr. Vilsack offered her a new, unspecified job at USDA.

Mr. Breitbart refused to apologize, sticking by what he called his attempt to expose racism inside the NAACP. Some say it exposed the Obama administration's constant fear of a racial bogeyman.

“There are definitely a lot of people who surround (President Obama) that have these backwards views on what a president should do on race. I have dealt with many presidents and as far as Democratic presidents go, they have become less accessible. One of the real problems is that he (President Obama) himself does not make himself accessible,” said Barbara Arnwine, of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“He does a lot of good ceremonial meetings with African-Americans where he'll come in for a signing ceremony or reception, but he doesn't do policy meetings. I have been over to the White House several times and I have never seen him other than on the ceremonial set. That is unusual. Most presidents will make themselves available for some policy discussion. The fact that I have seen him in none is puzzling. All of the information he gets is filtered. He gets filtered information from his staff and he's not getting information directly from people.”

Fatahma Odebe, left, joins a rally outside the Department of Agriculture building in Washington, in support of Shirley Sherrod a former Agriculture Department’s director of rural development in Georgia, demanding that Sherrod be reinstated to her job July 21. Photo:AP/Wide World Photos

“This administration has to stop acting like they are afraid of the all-Black shadow. They have to become more affirmative proactively when dealing with issues that involve race,” said Ms. Arnwine.

“Why they reacted so badly in this situation, is because of their overall inability and lack of competence on handling racial discrimination acts and civil rights matters in general. If they had a better open policy; one of not bunkering and fear of our race, they would not have been off kilter so bad. They did not act professionally by just not checking facts. They should have looked at the source. Why would you trust this?”

“The real travesty of this case was perpetrated by Andrew Briebart, a filmographer that represents biggovernment.com who is also associated with taking down ACORN and fomenting racial animosity toward President Obama. It was very clear that his efforts were triggered by the NAACP's criticism of racism within the Tea Party Movement and the unwillingness of the Tea Party to address it,” said Wade Henderson, a longtime civil rights leader.

“Breibart wanted to establish a moral equivalency, if you will, between the Tea Party and the NAACP. In essence, he would stop at nothing to do it, including, manipulating a film of Shirley Sherrod giving a speech at the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet and making her appear that she condoned and practiced racial bigotry. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Mr. Henderson, of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Post-controversy: Sherrod called ‘polarizing figure'

A week after the Sherrod story made headlines—beginning with an Internet post from Mr. Breitbart, which was picked up and reported by Fox News online and cable, and by talk show host Bill O'Reilly, who called for her firing and later apologized, and other media outlets—right wing bloggers and talking heads were still defending the man who started the fiasco.

Some painted Mr. Breitbart as a victim and others jammed the president and NAACP for making hasty misjudgments. If the NAACP had done “due diligence,” since Mrs. Sherrod spoke at an NAACP function and the NAACP had the full tape, they said, perhaps the controversy might have been avoided.

Mr. O'Reilly, in a July 26 column, apologized for not having all the facts in initially demanding Mrs. Sherrod be fired from USDA. But he wasn't willing to let things go and called Mrs. Sherrod “a polarizing figure.”

“Shirley Sherrod is a long-time liberal activist who peppered her NAACP speech with racial references such as this: ‘I figured I'd take (the farmer) to one of them (White lawyer)—that his own kind would take care of him. His own kind?” wrote Mr. O'Reilly on www.billoreilly.com.

“Now, we all make mistakes, and that just might be a harmless comment. But if a White federal official referred to an African-American by using the term ‘his own kind,' you know what would happen.

“Then Ms. Sherrod went on to tell the NAACP audience this: ‘I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as I've seen lately over this issue of health care. Some of the racism that we thought was buried, didn't it surface? Now we endured eight years of the Bushes, and we didn't do the stuff these Republicans are doing because you have a Black president.'

President Barack Obama signs the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2010 in the Oval Offi ce July 22. Photo: Whitehouse.org

“The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from endorsing political parties while on the job. Ms. Sherrod was invited to speak at the NAACP meeting because she was in the administration. So you make the call.

“There are two main points here: First, Shirley Sherrod was not initially treated fairly by me, some other journalists, the NAACP and the Obama administration. She deserved better.

“And, secondly, Ms. Sherrod may not be a great fit for the USDA. She is obviously a very political person with a strong point of view. Public servants are supposed to look out for all the folks; it is tough for polarizing people to do that.”

A woman over $1 billion budget?

Mrs. Sherrod—whose calm, dignified demeanor has been compared favorably to Mrs. Rosa Parks, who was arrested and bravely faced racial hostility for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in 1955—declined to say whether or not she would return to work for USDA, which Black farmers have labeled the “most racist agency” in the federal government.

“Shirley Sherrod in her remarkable career has been one of the most active practitioners in assisting untold numbers of Black and White farmers to access the credit, conservation and other programs at USDA,” said Ralph Paige, executive director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund.

“We find it ironic that in the 100 years of USDA's history of discrimination, not a single White person has been dismissed for discrimination, however, a Black women who is doing her job well is falsely accused of discrimination in an altered video and you decide that she can no longer do a credible and nondiscriminatory job of dispensing USDA rural development programs and must resign,” he said.

According to USDA, Mrs. Sherrod's former agency administers and manages over 40 housing, business, and community infrastructure and facility programs as laid out by Congress through a network of 6,100 employees located in 500 national, state and local offices. These programs are designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America. The Georgia agency has an existing portfolio of over $114 billion in loans and loan guarantees. She was appointed by the Obama administration in July 2009.

“This woman controlled a billion dollars in funds,” Ms. Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law told The Final Call. “Very few African Americans anywhere control $1 billion in funding.

To take away her job when she had that kind of power is a significant loss for all of those poor farmers who relied upon her for that support. I am curious as to why she is not being offered that job back. The job that they are talking about her taking—the outreach job—I don't see the money, nor the money power she had behind her before,” she said.

“One thing we do know is that on the part of the Agriculture Department, as soon as they found that this was a lie, that it was doctored; that she did not do anything, she should never have been forced to resign or fired. You reinstate her to her position, period,” commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson told The Final Call. “To offer her a new job was an insult. What was wrong with the job she was doing before? Right away this sends a signal that they are not dealing genuinely and sincerely with the issues with race.”

For 15 years before she went to work helping Black farmers save their land, Mrs. Sherrod and her husband, the Rev. Charles Sherrod—a veteran civil rights campaigner who worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s—operated New Communities, a 6,000-acre farming cooperative, which was the largest Black co-op in the nation.

That community was crushed after it lost a battle over loans with the USDA and lost land. The co-op later won a $13 million settlement in that case. Mr. and Mrs. Sherrod were personally awarded $300,000 for their pain and suffering.

“Talk to almost any family member of a Black farmer or check out the C.R.A.T. Report (February 1997) published by the USDA resulting from the ‘Listening Sessions' of 1996 and see the government's documentation of how USDA employees, on the local and federal level discriminated against Black farmers, in particular,” Gary Grant, president of the Black Farmers and Agriculturists Association said in a statement.

“And nothing was ever done to penalize the all White officials bent on destroying a society of Black farmers across the nation: not one firing, not one charge brought, and not one pension lost,” the statement said.

“The real injustice clearly was done to a courageous civil rights hero,” added Ms. Arnwine. “This is a woman who the USDA knew, she sued them. They knew who she was. And to summarily dismiss her without any due process was just an actual slap, not only to her and the entire civil rights community.

“The next big injustice: I have been constantly speaking to the administration about their need to address racial justice matters in a clear and comprehensive manner. I think that unfortunately they continue to be too skittish, too unfocused and too resistant to addressing racial inequalities with any priority.”

“The USDA has huge problems. When you look at Vilsack's inner circle you can't find one Black person. There are none in his inner circle. If you look at what they've done on civil rights matters they haven't done a lot. You look at their policies on farming and small farmers, there is a lot there where she could be a powerful policy voice and she should have a substantial budget where she is able to redress problems. She doesn't want to be just a mouthpiece,” said Ms. Arnwine.

Ironically, as this episode unfolded on the national media stage, senators quietly stripped more than $1 billion intended to compensate tens of thousands of Black farmers for Pigford v. Glickman a decades old class action suit which Black farmers won, from the emergency Supplemental Act of 2010 before they approved it and sent it back to the House of Representatives for reconciliation on July 22.

Not all grassroots activists were confused or “snookered.”

“There's just so much outrage about what has occurred. It's so incredibly outrageous that Mrs. Sherrod was faced with the false charge of so-called anti- White racism and essentially fired as a federal worker for political reasons,” Sarah Sloan, an organizer with the International ANSWER Coalition told The Final Call after a noisy protest rally by several groups including CODE PINK and the D.C. Statehood Green Party, supporting Mrs. Sherrod at the USDA offices July 21.

“This is another example of the administration bowing to right-wing political forces. It was a clear manipulation of what Mrs. Sherrod actually said. We demanded that the administration immediately stop capitulating to rightwing, racist forces,” Ms. Sloan said. “We absolutely will take to the street against every instance of every racist outrage and act of discrimination that we see.”

Many observers agree that President Obama has been mostly silent on racial issues, and has a poor record of supporting Black appointees—like so-called “Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones, who was labeled a “Black radical” and a “conspiracy theorist” by conservative opponents and was forced to resign.

So, instead of celebrating two major legislative victories that week—a $33 billion extension of unemployment benefits after a Republican filibuster was broken, and a major overhaul of financial regulations governing banks and investment firms—the Sherrod incident forced the Obama administration to try to defend the indefensible: its poor record on race.

Ms. Arnwine doubts the president “hears the urgency. We went to the meeting with all of his top officials in December about unemployment amongst Blacks. … They got him in this bubble; he is too insulated and he needs to personally become more involved with policy. I have been to a lot of big meetings and I am surprised that he is not there. The unlearned lesson is that in order to be the Black president for all of the people you have to understand that all of the people includes Black people. That is the lesson they have not learned.”

“Issues of race continue to be the enduring and a problematic core problem of American democracy. Racial bias, racial discrimination, issues of race continue to be at the very heart of American democracy in the 21st century. Particularly when you put issues of race, poverty, and structure inequality on the table. When you put these three things together, continue to make it difficult to resolve America's oldest dilemma. I think the country has been historically reluctant to discuss these issues openly,” said Mr. Henderson.

(Eric Ture Muhammad reported from Atlanta.)

Related news:

Brutal racial attacks on Blacks are on the increase in America's post-racial era (FCN, 06-17-2010)

Desperate and Insecure, Whites see country slipping away (FCN, 09-15-2009)

FCN Editorial: A prophetic warning and White anger in America (FCN, 09-15-2009)

Final victory over race hatred elusive (FCN, 07-03-2009)

Obama candidacy exposes race hatred in America (FCN, 11-10-2008)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:20:00 +0000

An Open Letter To Black Leadership by Minister Louis Farrakhan

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Jul 20, 2010 - 11:18:59 AM

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Minister Louis Farrakhan
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HONORABLE ELIJAH MUHAMMAD
AND
THE NATION OF ISLAM

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL.
I BEAR WITNESS THAT THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND I BEAR
WITNESS THAT MUHAMMAD IS HIS MESSENGER

AN OPEN LETTER
TO BLACK LEADERSHIP

July 19, 2010

To the Spiritual, Political, Educational, and Economic Leaders and to our Sports and Entertainment Giants:

May this open letter find you well and in good spirit as we search for a solution to the many problems that we face as a people.

Most of you have benefited in some way from a relationship that you have with members of the Jewish Community. Some of you have become very wealthy and are able to live in the best manner that you choose because of this friendship. However, have you ever noticed that no matter how rich and powerful some of us have become, we have never been shown how to network with the wealthy and learned of our people, pooling our resources that we may produce for our people that which would grow us from a begging position as little children to become masters of our own destiny?

The Jewish people have maximized their wealth by networking with their people and others in America and the World, thus they have become masters in banking, trade, commerce and have parlayed their wealth to become masters in every field of human endeavor. At the same time, we as their friends amass wealth for ourselves, our families and a few people who benefit from us but never have we done anything collectively to benefit the masses of our people.

It is not that we would not desire to do this; it is because we have not been shown how. Our distrust and disunity prohibits us from doing what the Jewish people have done.

These books that the Historical Research Department of the Nation of Islam has published, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews: How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy Volume 2” and “Jews Selling Blacks” are being shared with our people to show us how we were completely undone and how others have benefited from what has happened and continues to happen to us. We cannot deal effectively with our so-called friends as men and women without this vital knowledge.

Whenever the Light of Truth has been shone on them, they reach for you to defend them against the Truth that uncovers the horror that has been done to us. They have always been successful pitting us against each other thus keeping them from facing the Truth of their real relationship with us. As they call upon you to denounce me as an anti-Semite and, because of the favor you believe you owe them for what they have done to help make life comfortable for you; I am asking you to stand down. I am asking you to read this research and then discuss it with your Jewish friends. Would you condemn me as an anti-Semite for exposing the research that shows them as being anti-Black? I am asking you to stand down and let them come out to me to defend their record and history of their relationship with us that we compiled from that which was written by their own scholars, historians, and Rabbis.

If you become an apologist for them in this hour, you will be seen by the masses of our people as a modern day Uncle Tom who believes you owe more to them than to the masses of our suffering people. If you attack me at their insistence you will be seen as an enemy of the rise of our people as well as an enemy of your own rise; for you can never be free to rise above the limitations placed on you by them until you know the absolute Truth of your relationship with them. Being an apologist for them will be dangerous for you as the masses of our people are awakening and are increasingly angry at the reality of our condition. No matter how popular you may be and desirous you may be to defend your so-called friends, it is dangerous for any of us to defend those who are the architects of White supremacy and are the architects of the destruction of us as a people.

Most of you are afraid to face such a formidable and powerful enemy. So, I implore you to stand to the side and let them come out to defend themselves and argue against the Truth that I and we speak and write.

I will prove to you and them that Allah (God) is Present and He is with me. As David went out to Goliath and defeated him in the face of the fear of King Saul and the Children of Israel, likewise, I can assure you that I will be victorious over your and my enemies with the Help of Allah (God) and His Christ (Mahdi).

Thank you for reading these words.

I Am Your Brother and Servant,

Respectfully and Sincerely Submitted,

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
Servant to the Lost-Found
Nation of Islam in the West

HMLF/km

Note: See related links:

Minister Louis Farrakhan's Letter To ADL's Abraham Foxman (06-24-2010)

Jewish leaders demand Farrakhan denounce "Secret Relationship" book (07-11-2010)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:41:00 +0000

Neo-slavery in the American South

By Brian E. Muhammad and Richard B. Muhammad
Final Call Staff Writers | Last updated: Jul 20, 2010 - 7:42:58 AM

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Though called by other names, poor Blacks are kept in bondage today in the United States

Photo: Istockphoto

COLUMBIA, S.C. (FinalCall.com) - Nearly 150 years after Emancipation, trapped by extreme poverty, isolation, fear and shame, some Blacks remain victims of neo-slavery in rural areas of the South, locked into work in fields, factories and assorted industries.

While not bought and sold at auction block, these poor Blacks are forced to work, live in shacks, often have no indoor plumbing and are often trapped in peonage, tied to land where they owe owners debts that are never repaid, according to an activist and researcher. Some Blacks are even forced to pay rent to White landowners for dilapidated housing but are fearful of identifying landlords and owners.

“Slavery never ended and that's the point, it never ended. It just disguised itself in other forms,” says Antoinette Harrell, who is based in Louisiana and has documented the plight of people she describes as modern slaves in America.

Ms. Harrell has been tracking this problem for the past decade. She knows it is hard for many to accept abusive conditions that amount to slavery exist today. Blacks don't want to believe this is happening in 2010, she adds. But people are forced to stay on plantations in Glendora, Miss., Webb, Miss., Roseland, La., and other places where landowners use isolation and threats of violence to keep these Black workers under control, she says.

Antoinette Harrell in Attala County, Mississippi.

Though others would define the conditions as peonage, which was outlawed by the 13th Amendment in 1865, or as sharecropping, where agricultural workers live on and work on land owned by someone else for a share of the fruits of their labor, the researcher is adamant the bottom line is slavery inextricably tied to debilitating poverty.

It's slavery because people are forced to stay against their will, worked, controlled and dehumanized, she stresses. In some cases people have been murdered, charges Ms. Harrell, reciting accounts told to her over the years. In addition to extreme poverty and no opportunity, other essential elements make people vulnerable: There is no transportation, workers don't have cars, dogs are used to track people who try to run away and many feel there is nowhere else to go, says Ms. Harrell.

Dr. Ron Walters, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, explains that after Emancipation, new systems were instituted to exploit Blacks and to keep Blacks essentially enslaved. Over the years, whenever federal officials were asked to intervene, one problem was proving that Blacks were indeed suffering from slavery prohibited by the Constitution, he says.

Plantation owners, understanding the law, would argue that there was no slavery and the Justice Dept. was unable to declare what was happening illegal because of “vague” Constitutional language, he adds. Another problem was the lack of political will and a concern about confronting and exposing the continued problem of slavery and Blacks in America, Dr. Walters explains. From 1865 onward, the problem has cropped up at different times, but it has never been entirely resolved, he adds.

Ms. Harrell, a genealogist, became aware of modern manifestations of slavery while exploring the issue of reparations. Based on conversations with workers, Ms. Harrell says she found many did not know they could actually leave. Ms. Harrell is unsure of how many people may be in this condition inside the United States. She has been able to access these areas by networking, researching plantation histories and locations and through the story of Mae Miller.

Ms. Miller, whose life as a modern slave in Mississippi and Louisiana has been documented, escaped captivity in 1961. The problem exists today, she declares. Ms. Miller, who says she was raped by a slave master beginning at age five, told The Final Call her family and others who moved from one plantation to another where they worked and were kept in horrible conditions and weren't regularly fed. We were beaten and barely fed table scraps, she recalls.

Ms. Miller says she didn't realize she had been kept illegally as a slave until 2001. She recalls that her father, her mother, her siblings, her grandfather were with her. She says she didn't know anything about other family members or what was happening in the outside world.

Ms. Miller says she knows people that are still on these plantations—and who still live under the fear and conditions that she suffered from. Her story was told in 2007 in People magazine, as well on ABC Nightline and CNN. She declines to talk about her family's experience—it brings up painful memories loved ones would like to forget. Her family's plight was called peonage in the People article.

Slavery in all its forms

According to the Florida-based Coalition for Immokalee Workers the problem of real slavery exists today—in particular among tomato pickers and agriculture workers in the Sunshine State. “Slavery in Florida today is not separate from the past—indeed its roots extend deep within our state's history. Farm workers have always been, and remain today, the state's poorest, least powerful workers,” says Gerardo Reyes of the coalition. “If we are to abolish slavery once and for all in Florida agriculture, we must pull it up by the roots by addressing farm worker poverty and powerlessness.”

“There is real slavery in the fields of Florida. This is not about lousy jobs, but violent control, vicious exploitation, and the potential for serious harm and even death,” adds Dr. Kevin Bales, of Free the Slaves, an international organization.

Photo of a cabin where workers lived in Webb, Mississippi. Photos: Walter C. Black Sr.

The coalition is kicking off a July 25-Aug. 14 tour of its Modern-Day Slavery Museum, which will visit the northeast. The exhibit consists of a cargo truck designed as a replica of trucks involved in a 2008 slave operation in Florida. Dozens of farm workers from Mexico and Guatemala were kept in trucks and shacks, beaten, forced to pay for food and showers, and plied with alcohol. Some of victims suffered in bondage for years and were forced to work fields in Florida and other locations in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Coalition for Immokalee Workers, a farm worker justice group, says the upcoming tour is also an attempt to raise awareness of conditions in the tomato supply chains for Ahod's USA supermarket brands, which it says includes Giant, Stop&Shop, and Martins.

Since 1997, the coalition says it has helped the Justice Dept. prosecute seven farm slavery operations and helped free over 1,000 people.

“I am not surprised with that because it's the same system and Florida was one of the 16 states that really heavy peonage cases came from there,” says Ms. Harrell. “The new slaves that they are focusing on in 2010 are the immigrants.”

The sixteen states that Ms. Harrell's research has shown were once involved in post-Emancipation slavery included Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Georgia. Today the problem exists in Louisiana and Mississippi, she says.

Calls to the U.S. Department of Justice about allegations of modern slavery in the South went unanswered at Final Call press time, however cases of slavery involving immigrant workers have been prosecuted by the federal agency. Attempts to reach state officials in Louisiana were unsuccessful, Mississippi officials, however, did respond. “No one has complained of this to our office. If you have specific allegations, we'd be happy to hear them and see what we can do or help refer to the appropriate agency,” says Jan Shaffer, a public information officer with the Mississippi state attorney general's office.

While the plight of immigrant workers, sexual bondage, holding women against their will and forcing them into prostitution; human trafficking, in which immigrants pay for passage to America and are forced to work in factories, prostitution or restaurants; or child labor, where children are exploited and abused to make products, are acknowledged and called forms of slavery, calling poor Blacks in the South “slaves” remains distasteful and is seen as almost impossible.

But Ms. Harrell traces the connections to slavery and post-slavery practices through the U.S. National Archives, Justice Department records, local court records and interviews victims living on plantations to understand and document its existence.

“The documents are there from the slave holders; companies that insured our family members, our ancestors and once you start to look into records, you find something a little bit deeper,” Ms. Harrell says.

She says she met people in St. Johns and St. Charles parish in Louisiana who were on sugar cane plantations well into the 1960s and 1970s.

According to Ms. Harrell, letters appealing for investigations into the claims, filed at the National Archives expose that no fewer than three U.S. presidents knew of post-Emancipation slavery during their terms—Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Digging through U.S. Department of Justice records in Washington, D.C., Dr. Walters, who is also director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland, found the extent to which the federal government was aware of post-Emancipation slavery and its challenges with addressing the problem.

Glendora, Miss., Mayor Johnny Thomas agrees bogus debt schemes like peonage and sharecropping were used to exploit Black people well into the 20th century. This was his experience growing up as a sharecropper in the late 1950s.

“It's pre-meditated,” Mayor Thomas explains. “You were kept indebted to the point where you couldn't leave.” In these cases the plantation owner pays the debt, then the “debtor” and—in most instances—his entire family work the plantation to repay the money. Only the debt is never caught up.

Mayor Thomas says as far as he knows sharecropping is going on, albeit hurt by the economy, but not slavery.

Both Ms. Harrell and Dr. Walters told The Final Call that the deplorable conditions people are living under on the plantations is nothing short of slavery regardless of the label.

“They are in deep rural areas, miles off the main highways, back off into cotton fields where you got 2,000 acres; how can they get away?” asks Ms. Harrell.

“I was born into slavery, I guess because my father was in slavery. I don't know if it was generational or only us,” Mae Miller says. “As far as I can remember back when I was a little bitty girl it was happening to us.”

Talks with Ms. Miller expose the extent of isolation experienced with no exposure to the world outside of the plantations. She later learned to read and write and worked following her literal escape from a White landowner under, she says, a death threat.

According to Ms. Harrell, two things must happen as awareness of slavery in modern America grows: The language of what is understood as slavery in the history books must be expanded and there must be a legal injunction against the U.S. for allowing slavery to continue illegally.

Eradication of slavery in America is an issue for the World Court because the practice is a crime against humanity, argues Ms. Harrell. She also sees the atrocity as another example of why Blacks deserve reparations. “It is necessary for the attorneys to come and further the case for reparations, not only for the 19th century but the 20th and 21st century,” Ms. Harrell argues.

The Cotton Pickin' Truth: Still on the Plantation (FCN, 07-13-2010

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:08:00 +0000

Jewish leaders demand Farrakhan denounce "Secret Relationship" book

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Jul 16, 2010 - 9:07:08 AM

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Details emerge of meeting with Jewish leaders and Minister Farrakhan

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan continued his message “Who Are The Real Children of Israel?” with part two subtitled, “The Proof” at the Nation of Islam's international headquarters, Mosque Maryam on July 11, 2010. The message was also broadcast live via webcast to a national and international audience.

For some in the audience, it was the first time hearing detailed aspects of Minister Farrakhan's simmering and at times white-hot controversy with powerful Jewish leaders and organizations.

He went into details of a meeting over a decade ago with several prominent Jewish rabbis and leaders in which they laid down ground rules for him to gain friendship with the Jewish community. Their terms included a probation period of monitoring Minister Farrakhan's actions and words over a “protracted period of time.” Another term was that he denounce “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,” Volume One, which they called a “calumny” against the Jewish people. No one has been written of well in history who has not been a friend of the Jewish people, Minister Farrakhan said the influential Jews told him.

Minister Farrakhan responded that since they had done more harm to Black people maybe it was us—as members of a vigilant Black community—that needed to watch the Jewish people over a “protracted period of time.” He then advised them that he would not denounce the book unless they were prepared to denounce the research and writings of the Jewish historians and scholars who were quoted in Volume One.

Published in 1991, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,” Volume One set off ideological tremors resulting in denunciations, and chaotic scrambles into the archives of Jewish historical literature by those hoping to debunk its claims. They were unsuccessful, and quietly, the assertions that Jews were merely “co-sufferers or innocent by-standers” in the trans-Atlantic slave trade have been silenced.

The Nation of Islam's Historical Research Department has followed up with the highly anticipated Volume 2 in a series of scholarly volumes, this one under the subtitle “How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy.”

Text of Minister Louis Farrakhan's letter to ADL's Abraham Foxman (FCN, 07-01-2010)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:44:00 +0000

Farrakhan's challenge to the Jewish community goes unanswered

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor- | Last updated: Jul 7, 2010 - 4:30:31 PM

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Hollow claims of anti-Semitism remain

Who Are The Real Children of Israel Part 2 Live Webcast (NOI.org)

‘I think most Black people pay no attention to what is said about Minister Farrakhan in the mainstream media. People are not blinded by the castigation of him.’
—Prof. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, University of Florida

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Over a week after the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered a message to tens of thousands worldwide from the Atlanta Civic Center, his challenge to prove his words false, remained unanswered.

In fact, during his June 26 speech, Minister Farrakhan offered to give his life if anyone could prove anything he said to be incorrect.

Minister Farrakhan sent a letter to the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, as well as copies of the newly-released books by the Nation of Islam's Historical Research Department, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Volume Two” and “Jews Selling Blacks.”

Additionally, copies of the books and the letter were sent to all of the heads of the major influential Jewish organizations. In the letter, Minister Farrakhan wrote: “I did not write this with vitriol, hatred, bitterness or a spirit of vengeance, because One greater than you and me has permitted this for His own wise purposes.” He continues, “I have pleaded with you over the years for a sensible, intelligent dialogue. You have rejected me, and some Rabbis have given me terms for friendship that any self-respecting person could never accept. So with this truth in our hands and yours, and soon in the hands of tens of thousands, I again ask you for a dialogue.”

Predictably, claims of anti-Semitism were leveled at the Minister and the Nation of Islam, however, none of the Jewish organizational leaders have proven any of the assertions made during his Atlanta message, nor any of the content in the books to be erroneous.

Acknowledging receipt of the books and letter, Mr. Foxman, on June 29 called Minister Farrakhan's words “obsessive, diabolical and unrestrained.” Following suit, in a June 30 press statement, the American Jewish Committee also denounced Min. Farrakhan's letter as a “hate letter” and called it “virulently anti-Semitic.”

Strangely, despite the fact that tens of thousands heard Minister Farrakhan's speech titled “Who are the Real Children of Israel?” in which he introduced over 600 pages of documentation contained in the two books, no articles appeared in the “mainstream” media until the ADL's June 29 press release. After that, an internet search turned up over 300 articles from news agencies across the U.S. and internationally.

Of those articles circulating, none have delved into the research and a majority of them appear to have repeated the baseless attacks from the ADL and Mr. Foxman.

According to Dr. Gwendolyn Zoharah Simmons, a professor of Islam and African American Religion at the University of Florida, this is part of a strategy to make Minister Farrakhan persona non-grata so others will pre-judge him before listening to what he has to say.

“Minister Farrakhan has been denigrated, he has been viciously attacked for years, and this is one of the primary weapons used,” said Dr. Simmons. “This is very unfortunate, but I think most Black people pay no attention to what is said about Minister Farrakhan in the mainstream media. People are not blinded by the castigation of him,” she said.

An internal ADL document titled “Mainstreaming Anti-Semitism: The Legitimation of Louis Farrakhan” appeared in the mid-90s citing Minister Farrakhan's ability to attract large crowds as a troubling factor for them. In the ADL's June 29 press release, clearly disturbed, Foxman is quoted as saying, “And yet he (Farrakhan)continues to fill convention centers with those eager to bear witness to his bigotry, and to believe that he holds the truth.”

Referencing the book “Slavery by Another Name” by Douglas Blackmon, Dr. Simmons said this type of research, and the naming of companies could finally form the legal basis for suits against those companies that have benefitted from slavery.

“This stuff is so painful and horrible,” said Prof. Simmons. “Without a doubt, we have been decimated,” she said citing factors such as a recent study showing a huge disparity between the worth of Black women and their White counterparts.

“Black people have almost no wealth, even if you are so-called middle class, it is only because of the salary you are earning,” Prof. Simmons told The Final Call. “The minute you lose your job, you have nothing because we have no wealth and wealth was accumulated on our backs from the time we were brought here as slaves up until the 50's and 60's,” she added.

According to Dr. Simmons, an honest discussion dealing with these topics is long overdue.

“This is why whenever we bring up reparations, people don't want to hear it, but clearly we have been economically disadvantaged and we have never ever recovered from what happened to us as a people,” she said.

“We so desperately need a person like Minister Farrakhan who is not afraid to speak out. He is not running for office, he doesn't need the approval of the media and this is why he is so important to all of us, because he will say what others are unwilling to say,” she added.

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:46:00 +0000

Text of Minister Louis Farrakhan's letter to ADL's Abraham Foxman

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Jul 1, 2010 - 11:38:24 PM

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(FinalCall.com) - The Nation of Islam has released the full text of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's letter to the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman. The letter dated June 24, 2010 was sent with copies of two newly released books by the Nation of Islam's Historical Research Department, “The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews Volume Two” and “Jews Selling Blacks.”Additionally, he sent copies of the books and the letter to all of the heads of the major influential Jewish organizations.

In a June 29, 2010 press statement, ADL Director Abraham Foxman responded to Minister Farrakhan's letter.

The full text of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's June 24 letter as well Abraham Foxman's response is being made available via the PDF documents below:

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:47:00 +0000

U.S. and Israel say no to international investigation into Gaza flotilla attack

By Saeed Shabazz -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Jun 27, 2010 - 9:31:12 PM

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UNITED NATIONS (FinalCall.com) - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon continues to insist that there be an international investigation into the May 31 Israeli attack against a nine-ship humanitarian aid ‘Gaza Freedom Flotilla' despite Israel's announcement on June 14 of an internal probe.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

The Israeli cabinet approved a three-man Israeli-led commission with two international observers: one from Canada and one from Northern Ireland, to examine Israel's role in the attack that killed nine humanitarian activists.

Graphic: Harold Muhammad/MGN Online

A spokesman for the secretary-general told reporters on June 14 that Mr. Ban had taken note of the Israeli announcement, but his proposal for an international inquiry “remains on the table.” Observers say that Mr. Ban's position is indicative of his doubt that an Israeli-led probe would be impartial. There have been discussions in the UN corridors that the secretary-general had been lobbying the Israelis to accept an international panel led by a former New Zealand Prime Minister.

While the UN may harbor doubts concerning Israeli impartiality in such a probe, the U.S. White House lauded the Israeli effort. The White House announced the day before the Israeli cabinet special session that it welcomed the Israeli call for a prompt and impartial probe of the incident.

“We believe that Israel, like any other nation, should be allowed to undertake an investigation into events that involve its national security,” the White House said in a statement. “We will not prejudge the process or its outcome, and will await the findings of the investigation before drawing further conclusions,” stated the White House.

A U.S. State Department spokesman told reporters during a briefing on June 14: “Certainly, as a government, Israel has the institutions and certainly the capability to conduct a credible, impartial and transparent investigation.”

The White House may be satisfied with the Israeli probe, but human rights organizations say the probe falls short of meeting international standards for impartiality as the proposed panel includes only two foreign observers, who will have no say on the proceedings, or on the conclusions of the Israeli commission.

“The format of this government-appointed commission represents a disappointment and a missed opportunity,” stated Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and Africa, Malcolm Smart in a press release. “The commission looks to be neither independent nor sufficiently transparent, and the two international observers may be denied access to crucial information, and the findings may not be used in future prosecutions,” he added.

Human Rights Watch said: “The Israeli government has undermined the credibility of the appointed panel to investigate its military's deadly attack on the ‘Gaza Aid Flotilla' by preventing it from questioning Israeli soldiers or compelling the military from providing evidence.”

In the meantime, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuloglu said his government would insist on an international commission, according to Reuters. “If an international commission is not set up and Turkey's rightful demands are ignored, Turkey has the right to review its relations with Israel,” the foreign minister said.

Turkey is a member of the 15-nation UN Security Council that endorsed a “Presidential Statement” on June 1 condemning the attacks that led to the nine deaths, all were Turkish nationals, calling for a “prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation.”

It is being reported that port workers in Sweden have announced a boycott of Israeli ships, which follows the growing public fury in different European cities as well as Australia.

“A thorough investigation of the incident and the lifting of the siege against civilians in Gaza are essential steps. If Israel is to break out of the international siege and strategic catastrophe it now faces, it urgently needs a different policy,” stated an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on June 7.

Israeli officials since the May 31 attack have been denying that their three-year-old blockade against the Gaza Strip has affected its 1.5 million inhabitants. A UN report released on June 10 stated that the economic situation in Gaza remains “precarious.”

“The longer the closure continues, the more it undermines future prospects of workers and their families, in particular the younger generation,” states the International Labor Organization report. The ILO says that the unemployment rate in Gaza is nearly 40 percent, which is the highest in the world.

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 23:52:00 +0000

Should America Pay Reparations?

By Toure Muhammad -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Jun 27, 2010 - 7:12:49 PM

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Activists, scholars: U.S. can’t avoid responsibility for slavery

‘People were scared to have the discussion on reparations over the last year and half because they said we have a Black president and should not be discussing it. I want to thank Henry Louis Gates for his opinion editorial, published in the New York Times, because he actually is helping us reenergize the discussion on reparations.’
—Dr. Conrad Worrill

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Although they believe Henry Louis Gates Jr. trivializes a most heinous crime against humanity—the European enslavement of African people—advocates say he has become an unwitting ally to the reparations movement.

Dr. Conrad Worrill took “strong exception” to the April 23, 2010 opinion piece, “Ending the Slavery Blame-Game,” by Mr. Gates, a Harvard professor, due to “gross errors, inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Mr. Gates' presentation of the trans-Atlantic European enslavement system.” Still the director of the Jacob H. Carruthers Center for Inner City Studies thanked Gates for bringing reparations back into public debate.

Dr. Worrill, and the National Black United Front hosted a community forum held in Chicago June 18 to discuss the resurgence of the reparations movement, fueled by reaction to the Gates' commentary.

“People were scared to have the discussion on reparations over the last year and half because they said we have a Black president and should not be discussing it,” said Dr. Worrill. “I want to thank Henry Louis Gates for his opinion editorial, published in the New York Times, because he actually is helping us reenergize the discussion on reparations.”

Reparations is defined as the making of amends for wrong or injury done. Advocates argue that reparations is a process of repairing, healing and restoring a people injured because of their group identity and in violation of their fundamental human rights by governments or corporations.

Dr. Raymond Winbush, director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University and author of “Should America Pay?” and “Belinda's Petition: A Concise History of Reparations for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade” led the community forum discussion, titled “Revitalizing the Reparations Movement & a Critique of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s ‘Ending the Slavery Blame Game.' ”

After giving some historical context, Dr. Winbush began to address the main point of the Gates article which “contradicts his stated purpose of ending what he refers to as a blame-game, by erroneously making African rulers and elites equally responsible with European and American enslavers.”

In his article, Mr. Gates said that “most vexing is how to parcel out blame to those directly involved in the capture and sale of human beings for immense economic gain. While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played. And that role, it turns out, was a considerable one, especially for the slave-trading kingdoms of western and central Africa.”

Mr. Gates shifts the “blame” in a clear attempt to undermine the demand for reparations, Dr. Winbush explained. Despite Gates' assertion, scholars of African history and reparations activists acknowledge the collaboration of some African rulers, elites, merchants and middlemen in the slave trade. Indeed, “collaboration accompanies oppression as a continuing fact of history,” said Dr. Winbush.

But collaborators were part of two other major Holocausts: the Jewish Holocaust and the Native American Holocaust. The Jewish Holocaust had its Judenräte, Jewish councils which chose Jews for enslaved labor and for the death camps and facilitated their transport to them, as well as its “kapos,” Jewish camp overseers, who brutalized their fellow prisoners along with Nazi guards. In the Native American Holocaust, there were Native Americans who fought alongside Whites to defeat, dispossess and dominate other Native Americans.

Such collaboration in oppression is not unique to Africa and Africans, said the scholars.

“Yet Gates, ignoring the historical record, merges three distinct groups involved in the Holocaust of enslavement: perpetrators, collaborators and victims,” said Dr. Winbush.

Reparation advocates say the facts are that White Europeans and North Americans initiated the Atlantic slave trade and profited most from it. How much did they profit? Harper's Magazine estimated the total of reparations for slavery due is over $100 trillion, based on 222.5 million hours of forced labor between 1619 and 1865, with a compounded interest of 6 percent.

The call for reparations is also not a new one. In Dr. Winbush's book, “Belinda's Petition,” he gives the account of a captured female African who petitioned the court of Massachusetts asking that her former slave master pay her for 30-plus years of free and forced labor. In 1783, Belinda requested an income from the estate of her former owner, Isaac Royall. The Massachusetts House and Senate awarded Belinda “15 Pounds, 12 Shillings” per year. The “pension” awarded to Belinda may be one of the first cases of reparation for slavery and the slave trade, according to the Winbush book.

Another monumental call for reparations was declared in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's 10-point answer to one of the most frequently asked questions directed at him: What the Muslims Want. His answers can be found on page 39 of every Final Call or in his monumental book “Message to the Blackman.”

Point number four detailed some of his demand: “We want our people in America whose parents or grandparents were descendants from slaves, to be allowed to establish a separate state or territory of their own—either on this continent or elsewhere. We believe that our former slave-masters are obligated to provide such land and that the area must be fertile and minerally rich. We believe that our former slave-masters are obligated to maintain and supply our needs in this separate territory for the next 20 or 25 years until we are able to produce and supply our own needs.

“Since we cannot get along with them in peace and equality after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced, we believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced upon us by White America justifies, our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own.”

The reparations movement has also been waged in the political arena. In January 1989, Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) first introduced H.R. 40, the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act. He has reintroduced H.R. 40 at every congressional session since that year.

Rep. Conyers proposed legislation does four things: (1) acknowledges the fundamental injustice and inhumanity of slavery; (2) establishes a commission to study slavery and its subsequent racial and economic discrimination against freed slaves; (3) studies the impact of those forces on today's living Black Americans; and (4) would allow the commission to make recommendations to Congress on appropriate remedies to redress the harm inflicted on living Black descendants.

During the forum, Dr. Winbush outlined four steps to true racial reconciliation.

“First, the nation committing a crime against humanity must formally apologize to its victims; secondly, the nation must then conduct an investigation and accounting for the impact of the crime against humanity; thirdly, international law, such as United Nations recognizes that whenever crimes against humanity have occurred, compensatory measures must be made by the nations that committed the crimes; and finally the optional step is prosecution of the wrongdoers. This decision is made by the victims; however, an international court of law may prosecute regardless of victims' desire,” said Dr. Winbush.

Another critique of the Gates opinion piece, as highlighted by Dr. Worrill, is that the reparations debate includes much more than reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade and hundreds of years of chattel slavery. “There are 18 reasons for reparations. We seek reparations because of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 400 years of our labor, slave codes laws, destruction of the African family, raping of African women, fugitive slave laws, colonization of our African culture, KKK lynchings, the 13 and 14th Amendments—they didn't ask the captured Africans if we wanted to be citizens—denied 40 acres and a mule, Jim Crow laws, forcing us to fight in imperialist wars, the assassination of Black leaders, COINTELPRO, the crack cocaine epidemic, criminalizing our young people, jailing our freedom fighters, and centuries of miseducation and mental atrocities,” said Dr. Worrill.

As the reparations movement finds resurgence, the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, known as N'COBRA, is hosting its 21st annual conference in New Orleans June 25-27. N'COBRA is a mass-based coalition organized for the sole purpose of obtaining reparations for African descendants in the United States. Since its inception N'COBRA has embraced public education, mobilization, and organization to obtain reparations. The conference theme is “United Voices for Reparations.”

As N'COBRA continues to support the House version of the reparations bill, the group is pushing U.S. Senator Roland Burris, a Democrat from Illinois, because he is a “proponent of reparations, an Afro-descendant” to sponsor a Senate version as well.

(For more info on the conference or the desired Senate bill, go to www.ncobra.org.)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:30:00 +0000

Brutal racial attacks on Blacks are on the increase in America's post-racial era

By Jesse Muhammad -Staff Writer- | Last updated: Jun 17, 2010 - 3:57:53 PM

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A group of people look at the dead body of 32-year-old Rubin Stacy hanging from a branch of a pine tree, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., USA, July 19, 1935. Stacy was forcefully kidnapped from the custody of the deputy by a masked mob resorting to lynch law. Stacy was accused of having attacked a White woman. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

(FinalCall.com) - Anthony Hill is the latest victim in an on-going pattern of modern day lynchings against Blacks in the United States, say activists.

According to South Carolina authorities in Newberry County, Mr. Hill was shot in the head, tied up and dragged several miles by a White male in early June. In another incident, a young Black woman in Beaumont was also allegedly beaten to death then tied to the rear of a truck and dragged.

These horrendous incidents seem similar to the murder of James Byrd, Jr., who was killed in 1998 in Jasper, Texas. The 49-year-old Black man was chained to the rear of a truck and dragged along a rural road.

“The dragging death of Anthony Hill is a sadistic and brutal hate crime and Gregory Collins should be charged and tried with a federal hate crime and not merely in state county court,” said Attorney Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

The group along with Black Lawyers for Justice, county community leaders, and residents held a press conference on June 10 outside the Newberry County Magistrate Building to demand justice.

They are calling for a national march against hate crimes on June 26 at the county building.

With police between them, White supremacists hold up a Nazi flag and yell at protesters marching on the town square in Paris, Texas, July 21, 2009. The conflict began with a march through downtown by about 100 Black activists who were protesting the state's handling of the case of a Black man who was run over and dragged by a vehicle. Photos: AP/Wide World Photos

“As in the James Byrd case in 1998 in Jasper, Texas, the use of ropes to tie a Black man up and drag him behind a pickup truck until he is just blood and bones is clearly a modern day lynching used to not only murder the immediate victim, but also spread fear amongst the wider Black population and society,” said Attorney Shabazz.

“That is awful what happened in South Carolina and it just continues. I know firsthand that America has not progressed racially because whenever hate crimes are done to Blacks, the murderer goes free. But if a Black man is the one committing the crime it's a different outcome in the courtroom,” Jacqueline McClelland told The Final Call. She says she lost her son, Brandon McCelland, to a similar dragging in Paris, Texas in 2008.

Greg Collins, who is White, has been arrested for allegedly tying up Mr. Hill around his torso and neck and dragging him 10 miles after first shooting him in the head.

According to Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster, agents discovered dozens of weapons inside Mr. Collins' rented mobile home. Mr. Collins is charged with murder and the case is being investigated by the FBI as a possible hate crime.

“We don't yet have a definitive motive for all this. We don't want to attribute something to Collins that isn't necessarily true,” said Reggie Lloyd, who directs South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division.

“But out of precaution, given the circumstances, we are investigating the racial angle,” said Mr. Lloyd.

According to the 2008 FBI Hate Crimes report, over 2,100 agencies reported 7,783 hate crime incidents involving 9,168 offenses, with 4,704 offenses racially motivated. Of these offenses, 72.6 percent were motivated by anti-Black bias, 64.0 percent were due to anti-Hispanic bias because of nationality, and 17.3 percent stemmed from anti-White bias.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (formerly the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009)was signed into law on October 28, 2009 by President Barack Obama but Ms. McClelland only sees it as a piece of paper that does not serve justice for the poor and Blacks.

“What the president needs to do is conduct a thorough investigation into the files and practices of these courthouses. They are rotten and corrupted. It seems like if you don't have a lot of money you can't fight. This is still going on 12 years after James Bryd,” said Ms. McClelland.

The act authorizes the federal government to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated crimes based on the victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or disability. The bill also gives the federal government jurisdiction over prosecuting hate crimes in states where the current law is inadequate or when local authorities are unwilling or do not have the resources to do so themselves.

“Since President Obama has been elected there has been a noted spike in hate crimes and racist acts toward Blacks, Mexicans and Hispanics. We call on President Barack Obama to stand up and deal with the reality that this has not become a ‘post-racial society.' In fact things are getting worse. With the rise of the Tea Party and other Confederates, demanding to ‘take their country back' certain aspects of society have become even more polarized and extremely dangerous,” said Attorney Shabazz.

A consistent pattern of hate against Blacks

Mr. Hill's mutilated body was found around 4:30 a.m. on June 3 on Highway 176 near an elementary school, according to news reports. Sheriff's deputies followed a trail of blood from Mr. Hill's body back to Mr. Collins' mobile home. Mr. Collins refused to surrender until tear gas was thrown inside forcing him to come out, said authorities.

On June 5, the Orange County Sheriff's office in Beaumont, Texas reported that 35-year-old White male William Baker Bibb confessed to killing 26-year-old Theresa Ardoin, who was Black. An autopsy was performed on Ms. Ardoin and the cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma. Then Mr. Bibb allegedly dragged her body a quarter of a mile behind his pickup truck.

The Orange County authorities say Mr. Bibb and Ms. Ardoin were in a relationship and were allegedly going for a ride to a nearby sandpit to “possibly do some drugs, have sex.” Authorities have said there is no evidence that the incident is a hate crime.

These two deaths came within days of the 12th anniversary of the murder of James Byrd, Jr., who lost his life on June 7, 1998.

Three White males wrapped a heavy chain around Mr. Byrd's ankles, connected the chain to a pickup truck, and then dragged him for several miles. The dragging resulted in Mr. Byrd losing his arms and his head. They eventually dumped the mutilated remains in front of a cemetery and then went to enjoy some barbecue. The three suspects were convicted, which marked the first time in Texas history that White men were found guilty of murdering a Black man. Today, two of the convicted murderers are on death row, while the third is serving a life sentence.

Mr. Hill and Mr. Collins were co-workers at a chicken processing plant in Newberry County and were hanging out together at Mr. Collins' mobile home the night before. Some might consider them friends, but Ms. McClelland says people should be wary of the term friends. “That's one of the reasons why the murderers of my son got off,” she said.

In September 2008, Brandon McClelland was dragged nearly 70 feet down a county road in Paris, Texas. Two White males, one of whom was allegedly a close friend, were accused of the crime. Last year, all of the charges against Shannon Finley and Charles Crostley were dropped. Ms. McClelland says she is still suffering strokes since losing her only son.

“By them calling those murderers my son's friend, it helped the case of the defense. But friends don't kill friends. This loss still hurts and I still don't know fully what happened to my son because the courts only give me the run around. All of a sudden certain papers related to the case are missing. This system is messed up!” said Ms. McClelland.

In their 2009 report, Confronting the New Faces of Hate: Hate Crimes in America, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund notes that “despite the election of our nation's first African-American president, African Americans remain by far the most frequent victims of hate crimes.”

The civil rights group's research found that of 7,624 hate crime incidents reported nationwide in 2007, 34 percent (2,659) were perpetrated against Blacks.

“From lynching, to burning crosses and churches, to murdering a man by chaining him to a truck and dragging him down a road for three miles, anti-Black violence has been and still remains the prototypical hate crime, intended not only to injure and kill individuals but to terrorize an entire group of people. Hate crimes against African Americans have an especially negative impact upon society for the history they recall and perpetuate, potentially intimidating not only African Americans, but other minority, ethnic, and religious groups,” the report states.

FCN Editorial: A prophetic warning and White anger in America (FCN, 09-15-2009)

Final victory over race hatred elusive (FCN, 07-03-2009)

Obama candidacy exposes race hatred in America (FCN, 11-10-2008)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:31:00 +0000

Activists want ex-cop accused of torture jailed and police torture outlawed

By La Risa R. Lynch -Contributing Writer- | Last updated: Jun 12, 2010 - 1:28:43 PM

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CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Freed in 2007 from jail after 23 years behind bars for a murder he did not commit, Chicago native Darrell Cannon is not happy.

Mr. Cannon, 59, felt justice slipped through his fingers when federal prosecutors announced in 2008 that a former Chicago police commander who allegedly created a torture chamber at Area Two and Area Three police districts on Chicago's south side was being charged with lying.

Former police commander Jon Burge would not face charges for his alleged role in having two city police officers place a shotgun in Mr. Cannon's mouth, pulling the trigger three times in a mock-execution.

Mr. Burge would not face charges for his alleged part in having officers cattle prod a then-32-year-old Cannon in the genitals while in the backseat of a police car. Mr. Burge would not face charges for other alleged acts of brutality, including smothering suspected murders with a typewriter cover, burning some on a hot radiator or just simply beating confessions out of men held in police custody.

Dardy Tillis of Chicago participates in a rally outside Chicago's City Hall against alleged police brutality and torture under retired Chicago Commander Jon Burge May 24, in Chicago. Jury selection was beginning in Mr. Burge's federal trial where he is accused of lying about the long-ago torture of suspects. Photo: AP/WideWorldPhotos

Mr. Cannon's coerced confession got him a life sentence in connection with a 1983 murder. Mr. Cannon, who was a member of the El Rukn street gang, admits he drove the getaway car, but he contends he had no part in the killing.

During his murder trial, Mr. Cannon testified about his torture, but his claims were dismissed as desperate fabrications. The courts equally rejected similar claims from other Burge torture victims. In all, Mr. Burge and his underlings allegedly tortured 110 men from the 1980s until the police department fired him in 1993.

For Mr. Cannon, Mr. Burge's perjury trial is a slap in the face.

“I'm not happy about it,” said Mr. Cannon who believes Mr. Burge is getting off with a wrist slap. “I'm not enjoyed with Burge going on trial for anything of this magnitude. It should have been greater and should have been long before now. I hope people don't get complacent, thinking that this is the beginning of the end, because it is not.”

Mr. Burge faces two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of perjury after testifying he did not use or know about the use of torture during a 2003 civil rights violation case. If convicted he faces 45 years in prison.

Justice, Mr. Cannon contends, won't be served until other detectives under Mr. Burge directly involved in the torture are indicted. Those include Mr. Cannon's alleged torturers, former officers John Byrne and Peter Dignan who both have been accused of torture and abuse in 13 other cases.

‘In the state of Illinois, there is no statute that criminalizes acts of torture by police officers. It is noteworthy, however, that there is legislation that criminalizes the torture of animals. We think there should be such legislation when law enforcement officials abuse their badge and torture individuals in their custody.’
—Joey L. Mogul,
ICAT member and an attorney for the People's Law Office.

“Until they're indicted, until Burge is convicted and hearings are held for the 23 men still rotting away in prison (based on coerced confessions)… I can't feel happy,” said Mr. Cannon, who works with CeaseFire, a violence prevention program in Chicago.

Mr. Cannon has a pending suit against Mr. Burge and Mayor Richard M. Daley in his torture case. Mayor Daley was then the Cook County state's attorney when allegation of police torture first surfaced.

Making police torture a crime

Grassroots community activists who toiled for years to expose the Chicago Police Department's dirty little secret also contend Mr. Burge's perjury trial falls short of justice. They are seeking tougher measures. They want to make torture by law enforcement officials a crime in the U.S.

The Illinois Coalition Against Torture, a broad coalition of community groups, are pushing city, state and federal officials to enact laws that criminalize police torture. ICAT also wants laws to remove statutes of limitation that prevent police torture victims from filing criminal charges. Mr. Burge is not facing more serious charges because the statute of limitation ran out.

The group also wants new trials for 23 men wrongfully convicted based on coerced confessions. They contend using those confessions violate state and federal laws.

“In the state of Illinois, there is no statute that criminalizes acts of torture by police officers,” said Joey L. Mogul, an ICAT member and an attorney for the People's Law Office. The People's Law has been a stalwart in investigating and representing police torture victims.

“It is noteworthy, however, that there is legislation that criminalizes the torture of animals,” she added. “We think there should be such legislation when law enforcement officials abuse their badge and torture individuals in their custody.”

Anti-police torture advocates hope legislation Congressman Danny K. Davis is drafting will give torture victims the redress needed to bring their abusers to justice. However, it is too late for Burge victims since the proposed legislation is not retroactive.

Rep. Davis's legislation would make torture by law enforcement a federal crime not bound by a statute of limitation. The legislation uses the United Nations' definition of torture to set a standard on what constitutes torture. The UN defines torture as any intentional infliction of severe physical or mental pain.

While there are laws protecting individuals' civil and human rights, there are no laws — state or federal — against police torture, Mr. Cannon's lawyer Flint Taylor explained.

Laws do not differentiate between a police officer punching someone or “electro-shocking some person to an inch of his life,” said Atty. Taylor, also with the People' s Law Office.

He explained both crimes under state law are considered battery and have the same statute of limitation of three years. Torture, as a federal offense, would be a violation of someone's constitutional rights, Atty. Taylor added.

“What we are trying to do here is have federal and state governments recognize torture by police as a more serious crime,” he explained. “The crime of torture should be treated quantitatively different in terms of punishment and in terms of statute of limitation.”

Mr. Burge got away with torture because he covered it for so long, while Mayor Daley, who was the prosecutor at that time, did not prosecute despite mounting evidence that surfaced that torture under Mr. Burge's command was systemic, Mr. Taylor added.

“If Burge had not come forward in a lawsuit and lied about torturing people, he wouldn't be charged at all,” he said.

Mr. Burge's perjury trial was precipitated by a civil rights case against him and several police officers brought by former Illinois death row inmates, including Madison Hobley, who were pardoned by then Gov. George Ryan. Mr. Hobley, also an alleged Burge torture victim, was on death row for a 1987 arson that killed his wife, child and several others.

Removing the statute of limitation would be a deterrent to future Burges said attorney Standish Willis, founder of Black People Against Police Torture. His group also has worked tirelessly to expose police torture and police brutality.

“I think that it will always be a deterrent because then we would start pressing local officials to prosecute under that law, and they can't get away by saying, ‘Well, it is too late. We can't do anything,' ” he said.

Mr. Cannon also believes torture should merit the same credence as arson or treason, which have no statute of limitation.

“There should never ever be a statue of limitation on torture,” added Mr. Cannon, who said adjusting to life after prison was difficult. “It has been very trying, but I have finally adjusted to being back in the free world again.”

A movement for justice

Efforts to create a police torture law and bring Mr. Burge to some semblance of justice grew out of grassroots activism among progressive Whites and Blacks working together to expose police torture.

A 1989 civil rights case brought by a cop killer sparked the groups' convergence. Andrew Wilson was charged with shooting two gang crimes detectives in 1982. His confession, however, was coerced. Atty. Taylor's law office represented Mr. Wilson who testified that Mr. Burge electroshocked his ears with a hand-cranked electric device and burned him on a radiator.

That testimony prompted a police department investigation while a diverse group of community activists began demanding Mr. Burge's firing. Activists soon began to rallying behind other alleged Burge victims, known as the Death Row Ten.

While progressive Whites in the legal community galvanized around the issue, the Black community was slow to catch on even though Mr. Burge's alleged victims were predominately Black.

Atty. Willis noted there was no sustained organizing movement within the Black community around police torture until he created his group in 2005. Additionally, police torture was not on the agendas of the city's leading civil rights agencies, like PUSH, NAACP or the Chicago Urban League.

“Periodically something would come up, and they would speak out, but none of them had sustained programs or organizations dealing with police violence,” Mr. Willis said, noting that even fewer Black attorneys dealt with civil rights work.

The absence of Black involvement didn't mean they were not concern, Mr. Willis explained. There just was no vehicle to mobilize them, he said. His group gave Blacks a way to get involved and raised issues not considered by other groups.

His group was the first to call for reparations for Mr. Burge's alleged victims and cited Chicago's own human right violation with the Burge case as reason not to bring the 2016 Olympics here.

“You need a Black political organization that has the ability and understands the importance of being able to coalesce with other groups … when we think it is appropriate,” he said.

The momentum further gained steam when the human rights and the anti-death penalty movements joined forces. Together, they successfully pressured Gov. Ryan to impose a moratorium on state executions in the late 1990s. He later emptied death row in 2003 after compelling evidence showed several men may have been put there because of Mr. Burge's alleged interrogation tactics.

“The two groups came together in common fight … because there were men who were tortured on death row so it became a unified struggle,” Atty. Taylor explained.

Gov. Ryan commuted death row prisoners to life sentences and pardoned four men—Mr. Hobley, Aaron Patterson, Leroy Orange and Stanley Howard—based on innocence because they were tortured into making false confessions. They won a $19.1 million settlement in their civil rights case.

“That was another victory for the grassroots movement,” Atty. Taylor said.

But the victory was bittersweet. The special prosecutor activists urged to be appointed to bring charges against Mr. Burge refused. The special prosecutor, then Cook County States Attorney Richard Devine, had ties with the Daley administration.

“He spent fours year investigating and refused to bring any indictments, refused to recognize the racist aspect of the torture and refused to call it systematic,” Atty. Taylor said.

“The grassroots movement was outraged that this special prosecutor who was so closely connected to the Daley machine and to the police had written a whitewashed report,” he added.

Undaunted activists wrote a shadow report outlining the extent of alleged Burge and police department crimes. Nearly 200 community groups signed onto the report, which demanded hearings at the city, county and federal level. Eventually that lead to the U.S. attorney indicting Mr. Burge in 2008 and investigating others under his command.

The movement's efforts garnered international attention, when activists presented their findings in 2006 to the UN's committee against torture. The UN's rebuke was resounding.

“The United Nations in their report talked about Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and Chicago,” Atty. Willis said. “I think that was enough to push the justice department to say, ‘Look! What's going in Chicago? Take care of this.' Right after that Burge is prosecuted.”

Atty. Taylor called the journey to get Mr. Burge indicted an uphill battle that many felt wouldn't see the day Mr. Burge got fired, let alone indicted or even some of his victims pardoned.

“These are uphill battles that would not have been able to be accomplished without a combination of the legal and the activist movement,” he said.

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:59:00 +0000

Critics blast U.S. for, support of Israel after deadly attack on aid convoy to Gaza

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor- | Last updated: Jun 10, 2010 - 6:31:52 PM

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The Mavi Marmara, the largest ship in the Freedom Flotilla convoy that was attacked by Israeli naval commandoes on May 31. (Photo: www.freegaza.org)

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Less than a week after a Gaza bound aid-convoy, the Freedom Flotilla, was raided by Israeli naval commandoes resulting in the death of several humanitarian workers, including one American, another international standoff looms as another ship headed to the region.

That ship departed Ireland and was seized by Israel on June 5.

Protesters rallied outside of the Israeli consulate in downtown Chicago on June 1. Photo: Ashahed M. Muhammad

The Freedom Flotilla consisted of a fleet of nine ships sponsored by several aid organizations. The sea-bound convoy originated in Turkey.

A week of angry protests and demonstrations across the globe have many analysts wondering if the international condemnation is enough to bring an end to the Israeli blockade which prevents the delivery of essential goods to the suffering people of Gaza.

“I think there is a sickness in this country that prevents us from having an honest conversation about Israel,” said author and prominent Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah standing just outside of the Israeli Consulate in downtown Chicago after a rally on June 1 that drew thousands. “Those who do want to talk about it are demonized and attacked, called radicals or terrorists. People who just want to have an honest conversation about innocent people being killed,” he told The Final Call.

Mr. Abunimah said the passengers aboard the Mavi Marmara—the largest ship of the convoy attacked on May 31—were justified in defending themselves given the fact that the raid took place in the pre-dawn hours of the morning. According to organizers for the Freedom Flotilla, over 10,000 tons of valuable materials were on board making it an enticing target for pirates.

“There was a movie about Flight 93 and people were defending themselves against hijackers,” he said. “If there were Americans on those ships and they had been hijacked by Iranians or someone else and behaved the same way, we would be calling them heroes. We would be making movies about them.”

U.S. aid to Israel questioned

Important questions are being raised regarding the amount of aid given to Israel despite the stringent belt-tightening measures encouraged by the Obama administration during a time when states across America are experiencing severe financial challenges.

“If Israel is threatened by unarmed, humanitarian activists to the point of massacring them, then Israel is a failed state,” wrote former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in an Op-Ed that appeared on internet blogs and news sites worldwide.

“U.S. President Barack Obama's most recent granting of an additional $205 million for Israeli ‘missile defense' is unconscionable, when in the same week, reports revealed for the first time, Israel's offer of nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa,” she added.

According to statistics provided by the advocacy group, American Muslims for Palestine taken from the CSR Report for Congress titled “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel,” in the fiscal year 2008, the U.S. gave Israel $2.4 billion in foreign military funds, $40 million was given to Israel to help 11,500 Jewish immigrants move to Israel to settle there. The amount of U.S. military aid to Israel will be increased incrementally from August 2007 to 2018 by a total of $6 billion, meaning there are already budget provisions made for aid to Israel for the next 7 or 8 years.

A report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said 46 states have or are facing large budget shortfalls. In fact, financial analysts with the center estimate that states will have to deal with total budget shortfalls of nearly $260 billion for 2011 and 2012.

California, the most populous state in the U.S. recently faced insolvency almost declaring bankruptcy, and the city of Detroit, formerly an economic powerhouse sustained by a strong American auto industry, faces the possibility of a nearly $460 million deficit to its $1.6 billion budget. This would result in the city possibly falling into state receivership with the threat of bankruptcy looming.

Federal aid provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has almost run out, and critics claim much of the money failed to reach urban areas in terrible need of development. Municipal governments are using every idea possible to generate funds—most often opting for tax increases—and state budgets are stretched, yet, the federal government seemingly has no problem consistently delivering billions of dollars in aid to Israel.

Demonstrator dressed as Grim Reaper participates in protest against Israeli policy. Photo: Askia Muhammad

Thaer Ahmad, 21, believes the money is being improperly used. He was supposed to be a traveler on the Freedom Flotilla aid convoy attacked on May 31, however, he broke his ankle, which prevented him from going. He said he was kind of naïve and lacked a full grasp of what was going on in Gaza until he visited the region in the summer of 2009.

“I know all the numbers, I have all the statistics, but do we know how they feel? Do we look into their eyes when they are hungry? Do we look into their eyes when they need the wheelchairs and they are limping on an amputated foot?” he asked. “Seeing that really got me shook. I wanted to come back and do anything I could to help them out.”

Mr. Ahmad said after his second visit to the region in December of 2009, he reached the conclusion that the American politicians were being dishonest in their treatment of the Palestinians, and ignoring those experiencing discrimination in America.

With the federal debt hovering at around $13 trillion and growing, and unemployment rates for Blacks nearly double the national average, he believes the money can be used better elsewhere.

“After coming back, I had to figure out what was going on, and I began to realize that the politicians in this country are not dumb, they are not stupid. There are people in their pockets. They are the ones who know what is going on. They have exact details and they are being paid to shut up. They are being paid to be quiet.”

Mr. Ahmad, invoking the name and memory of Malcolm X, said what happens in Chicago and Harlem is similar to what goes on in Gaza and the struggles are related.

“The issues are all together,” he said. “Everyone is being oppressed. If your skin is a certain color, most likely, you are subject to oppression, racism and discrimination.”

Many activists at the protest mentioned the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, an American ship in which 34 Naval shipmen were killed and 171 injured when the Israeli Air Force bombed the ship, also in international waters just north of the Sinai Peninsula. They believe the one-sided American policy related to Israel is the main threat to peace in the Middle East, and the primary obstacle to establishing an American society free from threat of terrorism.

“The shocking thing is that when any other government attacks American citizens anywhere in the world, the United States stands with its citizens. When Israel alone attacks Americans, the United States stands with Israel. The U.S. government is being more loyal to Israel than to its own citizens, and that is something that should wake Americans up,” said Mr. Abunimah.

Related news:

Video: The Big Story: Israel's deadly attack on aid convoy (PRESS TV, 06-09-2010)

Israel condemned for deadly attack on aid ships (FCN, 06-08-2010)

Turkey vows response to Israeli attack (PRESS TV, 05-31-2010)

Israel declares war on peace groups (FCN, 01-08-2010)

Palestine: If Americans Knew (FCN, Alison Wier Interview, 12-24-2007

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:33:00 +0000

Runaway corporate greed haunts America

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Jun 2, 2010 - 8:42:19 AM

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WASHINGTON (FinalCall.com) - In an effort to rein in greedy financial industry corporate practices, the U.S. Senate approved sweeping reforms of Wall Street May 20, ending months of debate over the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s. The vote was 59 in favor, 39 against.

The vote comes at the same time public concern is increasing about runaway corporate greed.

NEWS ANALYSIS

Even as the Senate took this step, handing President Barack Obama a victory, oil giant BP—the firm responsible for the worst environmental accident in U.S. history, the Louisiana Gulf Coast oil spill—has gone to court to get a $75 million cap on its liability for the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion on April 20 which killed 11 workers, and for its aftermath: a massive oil spill which has transformed the Gulf of Mexico, literally into the “Gulf of Oil.”

Corporate greed. Billionaires behaving badly, this, even as the U.S. stock market has been in a freefall recently, and the entire Western European economic system is trying to ward off chaos.

“Over the last year, the financial industry has repeatedly tried to end this reform with hordes of lobbyists and millions of dollars in ads, and when they couldn't kill it they tried to water it down. ...Today, I think it's fair to say these efforts have failed,” Mr. Obama said after the Senate vote.

Mr. Obama supports the bill's tighter rules for banks and capital markets after the 2007-2009 financial crisis that threatened the U.S. economy with near ruin, leading to massive taxpayer bailouts. The Senate bill must be reconciled with the measure approved in December by the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, BP has, in the view of many, consistently underestimated the extent of its oil leak, claiming it was flowing at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day. Some scientists and the U.S. government have questioned that, suggesting that the real figure could be as high as 19 times more than the BP estimate.

But the British energy firm maintained its challenge to some of the third-party estimates of how much oil is gushing out of its leaking well on the sea floor as inaccurate and it denied a cover-up.

These real-life plots and manipulations of the U.S. economy eclipsed even the wildest Hollywood plots about Wall Street and young, impatient stockbrokers willing to do anything to get to the top, including trading on illegal inside information, while taking part in ruthless and greedy Wall Street piracy by legal corporate raiders.

Each real life story today is more shocking than the last. Often they are tragic.

A mine blast in a coal-shaft operated by Massey Energy exploded recently, in part because of sloppy safety procedures. In that incident, 29 miners were killed.

Exaggerated executive bonuses are rampant despite public outrage at the practices: “Wall Street bailouts,” “Main Street sellouts.”

On top of that, some of the world's biggest, most profitable corporations enjoy far lower tax rates than individual taxpayers, if these giants pay taxes at all, according to Forbes.com. Corporate greed. Billionaires behaving badly.

“The most egregious example is General Electric. Last year the conglomerate generated $10.3 billion in pretax income but ended up owing nothing to Uncle Sam. In fact, it recorded a tax benefit of $1.1 billion,” Forbes wrote.

In upstate New York, more than 300 full-time manufacturing workers at the Mott's applesauce plant have been attempting to bargain a new contract with the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Inc. Corporate greed.

Despite the plant's most profitable year in the last five fiscal years, the company demanded a long list of concessions: a pay cut followed by a wage freeze. A pension freeze for current workers and pension elimination for future workers. A decrease in employer contributions to the 401K. An increase in employee contributions and co-pays for health care, noted Stuart Appelbaum in a Huffington Post article.

Corporate greed.

The public policy scale in every area is tipped in favor of the corporations. New figures show the number of financial industry lobbyists opposing derivatives market-reform outnumber pro-reform lobbyists by a ratio of 11 to 1. The group Public Citizen says 903 lobbyists have worked to oppose the reform compared to the 79 working for its passage. In all, thousands of lobbyists have descended on Capitol Hill. Big oil, the pharmaceutical industry, the banking and finance industries employ a total of five registered lobbyists for each elected member of Congress.

Corporate greed is the “subtext for this whole economic crisis,” according to Dr. Ronald Walters, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland.

Corporate greed “is what produced it,” Dr. Walters told The Final Call.

“It's a little phrase, but it's a powerful and big idea, because that's what the Congress has been trying to tamp down, trying to regulate, trying to legislate, because the previous Republican administrations simply let the corporate people do whatever in the hell they wanted to do,” Dr. Walters continued.

“It's run us into a wall, perhaps going over a cliff, if the Obama administration hadn't done something.”

This behavior is “barbaric,” according to Andrew Sheng, chief adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission in an article for The Wall Street Journal. He compares Wall Street barons today, to fictional characters in the book Barbarians at the Gate. “Wall Street raiders, aided by investment bankers, acted like Huns breaking down the Great Wall,” Mr. Sheng wrote.

In the case of BP, there are now known to have been many acts of negligence and incompetence that contributed to the explosion in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana April 20.

“We now know that the emergency shutoff valve, supplied by Transocean was leaking hydraulic fluid and its backup had one dead battery out of two. Halliburton (the company that cemented the well) had poured too little cement for the ocean depth so that it broke under pressure and allowed the gas leak to occur,” Mickie Lynn wrote for TransUnion.com.

British Petroleum “makes a good study in the ways that corporate greed for short term profits at the expense of people and complex ecosystems can create major catastrophes. First there's BP's safety record and willingness to pay large fines in pursuit of much larger profits over the past several decades,” Ms. Lynn wrote.

Tyson Slocum, director of Public Citizen's Energy Program reports that “BP has one of the worst safety records of any oil company operating in America.”

In the oil industry, don't just single out BP, according to a new report which examines the industry as a whole, in terms of safety and accident records. The international environmental education and resource group Global Exchange has found that operating errors and incidents around the globe are more common than the public likely realizes because most events don't even make the news.

Corporate greed.

“It's beyond the idea that corporate people have no nationality,” or patriotic loyalty said Dr. Walters.

“The way they have constructed the capitalist system to work, it is a system that they have put together where they don't lose. If you lose, they still win. That's what the hearings have revealed.

“That they have created this system, where they have bet against other people winning, for example the home foreclosure mortgage, that was securitized, they bet against them winning. So they created a system that was not only anti-nationalist, but in some sense, anti-ethical and anti-human.

“That's what has to be reigned in. When the human element has to be put back into capitalism, if it can, through regulation and through some sense of ethics,” Dr. Walters said.

These financial traders whose greedy and risky conduct with the money of others, is addressed in the financial reform legislation just approved by the Senate, ironically don't manufacture or produce anything of substance in the economy. They literally make money by selling money to those who make things, like furniture, or automobiles.

Corporate greed.

From the Final Call Newspaper

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:09:00 +0000

Community outraged and mourning after police kill 7 year old girl

By Andrea Muhammad | Last updated: May 25, 2010 - 3:37:10 PM

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A painful loss, a call to stop the killing

Aiyana Stanley Jone

DETROIT (FinalCall.com) - Facing one of its darkest days, the Stanley-Jones family along with the city gathered to say a final goodbye to seven-year-old year Aiyana Stanley-Jones who was shot and killed while sleeping on a sofa in the living room of her family's home.

Several hundred mourners lined up outside of Second Ebenezer Baptist Church May 22 to pay their respects to a little girl whose death has sparked international outrage and concern over a rash of violence gripping the community and police tactics used in bringing suspects to justice.

According to police department spokesmen, Aiyana was shot in the “head/neck area” by Officer Joseph Weekley, a member of the police Special Response Team (SRT).

Accompanied by a film crew from cable television network A&E's “The First 48,” Off. Weekley and other members of the SRT were attempting to apprehend murder suspect Chauncey Owens, 34, for the May 14 slaying of 17-year-old Je'Rean Blake. Off. Weekely also stars in another A&E series called Detroit SWAT. An investigation is currently underway by the Michigan State Police into the shooting, while the Detroit Police Department is conducting its own internal investigation.

During his daily syndicated radio talk show, the Rev. Al Sharpton, of the National Action Network announced that he would be attending Aiyana's funeral and had been asked by the family to deliver the eulogy.

Grandmothers and family of seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones, who died in police raid. Photos: Andrea Muhammad

In a community already torn over the tragedy, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox took to tweeting about Rev. Sharpton's decision to perform the eulogy. According to Mike_Cox (at Twitter.com) he wrote, “Al Sharpton giving eulogy @ the funeral of Aiyana Jones, the young girl accidentally shot by Detroit police. Disgusted but not surprised.”

During a phone interview with Fox2 Detroit, Atty. General Cox went on to say, “The bottom line for me is an outsider coming in and exploiting a seven-year-old girl's death.”

The attorney general's comments prompted a response from Rev. Horace Sheffield, president of the Michigan chapter of the National Action Network, “He's in a desperate race for governor. He thinks he has to pander to folks who are anti-Black, anti-Detroit.”

Rev. Sheffield said Atty. Gen. Cox should not allow his political aspirations to override his duty as attorney general. “If he is going to be in charge of the investigation, he needs to shut up or step down,” said Rev. Sheffield.

Despite the media frenzy, finger pointing, legal and political posturing, a brief yet poignant pause was made to honor the memory of a child whose life was cut short too early.

A somber mood overtook family and well wishers as they filled the sanctuary approaching the modest white casket draped in pink, Aiyana's favorite color.

Many bowed in reverence as others shook their head in disbelief at the sight of the beautiful little girl dressed in pink and white whose father fondly remembered as “my first Black Disney princess.”

Among those paying their respects were Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich.), representatives of the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, civil rights activist Rev. Al Sampson of Chicago and attorney Jeffrey Fieger, who is representing the family in Aiyana's death.

During his remarks, family attorney Fieger, acknowledged, “We live with a fear of violence every day in this community. It is a fear compounded by the sense of betrayal by the very people we should be able to trust to protect us.”

Vowing justice in Aiyana's death he said, “When one dies unjustly, they cannot rest in peace until justice is done. And so this goodbye today does not have the finality of peace until justice is done. By her death Aiyana has paid for a justice that will save the lives of our children.”

In a riveting 26-minute eulogy, Rev. Sharpton called for a holistic approach to violence and problems striking the city at its core. Rev. Sharpton underscored the importance Jesus placed on youth saying, “Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of God.”

From there, the civil rights leader, prefaced any admonishments with a dismissal of his critics, “I would be doing Aiyana a disservice if we just vented and not dealt with the real problem.”

He went on to talk about how violence helped feed into cycles of victimhood, sorrow and reckless police tactics deemed necessary to counter the violence.

“Maybe this child's death will wake some of us up,” he said.

While the circumstances into Aiyana's death are still under investigation, Rev. Sharpton posed a pivotal question that was met with a rousing applause from the audience, “Do they (police) throw these flash grenades in everybody's neighborhood? Would you have gone in (the affluent suburb of) Bloomfield Hills and did what you did?”

Taking the attorney general to task for being “disgusted” about the eulogy, Rev. Sharpton countered defiantly, “I'm disgusted that I have to do the eulogy.” He said he was further “disgusted” at seeing the community and police more like foes rather than partners.

His sentiment of disgust was not left solely at the door of law enforcement.

Rev. Sharpton levied disgust at the Black community for tolerance of unacceptable behavior saying, “I'm disgusted that some of you Black men are making babies that you won't raise.”

He spoke against the neglect of politicians and business leaders saying, “I'm disgusted that we can come to Detroit and bail out the auto business but we can't bail out the Aiyanas.”

As Rev. Sharpton spoke, the tone of what, at first, was a funeral became a call for a potential defining moment for a city struggling to find its way.

“We've got no choice but to turn this city around. We can do it if we all come together in Aiyana's name and say this child is the breaking point,” he said.

Bringing the audience to its feet, Rev. Sharpton concluded with urging the community to take into action, the words of Michael Jackson in the song, “Man in the Mirror.” “All of us need to do our part so we won't ever have to have this happen again,” he said.

Rev. Sharpton reminded Detroit of its ability to transform tragedy and hardship by invoking the legacies of greatness shown by Nobel Drew Ali, of the Moorish American movement, and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, patriarch of the Nation of Islam, which started in Detroit.

Aisha Dawson felt the eulogy was “awesome and it gave hope to the community. I really like it.”

Determined that her life not be in vain, Rachel Connelly was armed with a sense of legacy to carry on in her niece's name. “Aiyana was a beautiful person from conception to death. I believe that her mission was completed (and) her purpose fulfilled,” Ms. Connelly told The Final Call. She plans to establish an organization for young girls called Aiyana's Angels.

As Detroit's “little princess” was taken to her final resting place, for one last goodbye, preparations were underway for the funeral of the original victim in this tragedy.

A family and community paid their respects for the life of the Southeastern High School senior who would've graduated in June. His service was held after Aiyana's funeral. Je'Rean Blake's funeral was held within the “The First 48” hours of Aiyana Stanley-Jones funeral who, ironically, was killed within the “The First 48” hours of his killing. Police said they were seeking the teenager's killer when they raided a home and killed the seven-year-old.

Detroit Imam slain by FBI agents suffered 21 gunshot wounds (FCN, 02-05-2010)

Plainclothes surveilance proves deadly for Black officers and civilians (FCN, 08-14-2009)

The high cost of police brutality (FCN, 02-25-2009)

Fatal shooting of unarmed man sparks outrage (FCN, 01-17-2009)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Sun, 16 May 2010 20:24:00 +0000

An America For Whites Only?

By Charlene Muhammad -National Correspondent- | Last updated: May 11, 2010 - 10:32:45 AM

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What is behind the anti-immigration push and who are the next targets?

Protesters called upon President Barack Obama to stop the spread of harsh immigration laws. Activists say Texas and California could be next for anti-immigrant legislation. Photos: Hakeem Khaaliq

(FinalCall.com) - The fall out over passage of an anti-immigration law in Arizona continued across the United States this week with people wondering is America being reduced to a nation “for Whites only?”

Anti-racism activist and author Tim Wise says a sense of “White racial anxiety,” has in his view, “taken over large segments of White America.”

According to Mr. Wise, the sense of entitlement that Whites have always enjoyed is being challenged by demographic data showing the growth of Black and Brown populations projected to become equal with the White population by 2050, as well as a change in the political landscape, demonstrated by the first Black president of the United States.

“This idea that White folks give voice to every now and then that they're losing their country, sometimes they mean with Black folks and the Black president and sometimes they're referring to Latinos and Brown folks. It seems that though, when White folks say that they're referring to some nostalgic sentiments of the past that they want to resurrect,” said Mr. Wise.

“They can't fathom a country wherein they are not the norm, the prototype of what an American is. The way they've grown up for years is when they hear the word American, they see their (own) face and people of color have never been able to have that reaction, that when they talk about American, they're talking about me, but White folks have, so when all of a sudden you've got to share that title, that symbol with Black and Brown people that have different names and faith traditions than yours, that shakes them up because they have that sense of entitlement.”

SB 1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, mandates that law enforcement stops anyone they reasonably suspect to be an undocumented immigrant and obtain their documentation. Anyone without it can be arrested, incarcerated, fined, and/or deported.

According to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, the bill signifies that she is for enforcing the law and against racial profiling but immigrant advocates strongly disagree.

“This law is a very racist law and it's persecuting people of color and very much affecting people of dark complexion. If you do not look Anglo you could be questioned and asked for your documents, but in our cases, even though we are of Afro descent, we have accents but they could ask for documentation from all of us,” and many people are now afraid to even go out of their homes in Arizona, said Eunice Escobar, a board member of the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America and member of the Association of Afro Columbians in Displacement.

“The most important consideration is why is this law passing now? I think there's really a very strong interest behind it in an attack of America's new generation of Latino people who are coming into this country and making decisions. Most of these Latinos are dark people and they are looking for a change,” said Ms. Escobar, who is of Afro and Latino descent.

Tim Wise

‘(T)he folks who were behind this in Arizona are members of a loosely affiliated set of groups that have a history of White supremacy, White nationalism.’
—Tim Wise,
author and anti-racism activist

Part of the fear in America that drives such legislation is the unity of Blacks and Latinos, she said. For instance, the first Black President Barack Obama received a lot of support from Latinos and that makes Whites in America very afraid.

Another example she gave is how Latinos have come out into the streets in record numbers to proclaim their rights. “They thought they were done with this, with the Civil Rights Movement and they didn't think that minorities would come up again and ask for their rights. They're afraid of the new possibilities from these new coalitions and new alliances,” she said.

Javier Rodriguez, Director of the March 25 Coalition, said that obviously the legislation is a ploy by extreme right wing conservatives within the Republican Party to racially profile immigrants and the Latino population, starting within Arizona.

He concurred that the law is blatantly racist and discriminatory and said that it is unveiling the ultimate aim of the Republican Party's upcoming national electoral campaign. People must remember that immigration reform is the big prize that they must keep their eyes on, he said.

“The legalization of the 12 million people and their families is the most effective solution to the Arizona bill,” Mr. Rodriguez told The Final Call. He charged that the right wing plan is to create conditions for the undocumented that are so miserable and uncomfortable, people will self deport and to some degree, that occurred in the 1930s and 1950s with Operation Wetback, the United States' repatriation project that targeted primarily Mexicans.

Under Operation Wetback, the U.S. Border Patrol found more than one million undocumented immigrants when they raided Mexican American barrios in Southeastern states in 1954. They sought identification from “Mexican-looking” citizens they stopped on the streets and ultimately, many immigrants were deported and many others fled the U.S.

Now history is repeating itself and without swift, strategic action, opponents of the bill argued, its negative profiling implications could permeate America's entire infrastructure, including the Prison Industrial Complex, and its health care and education systems, for starters.

Dr. Wilmer Leon, a Political Science lecturer at Howard University in Washington, D.C., has joined the growing chorus of political analysts to question what other implications loom if SB 1070 is found to be constitutional.

“What will happen in Chicago as that city struggles to get a handle on the recent explosion of murder and mayhem and the alarming levels of violence among its schoolchildren? Will the state of Illinois be allowed to “stop and frisk” and detain individuals simply because law enforcement believes a particular individual fits a certain profile?” he asked in his latest commentary, “Now State Reaction to Illegal Immigration Should Matter to African Americans.”

Not just Arizona

Already, other states are signaling that they could follow Arizona's suit.

Michael Correll, a counter-protestor, holds up his Texas drivers license as a demonstration of citizenship to illegal immigrants during the mega march in Dallas, Tx., May 1. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos

“There were eight the last time I heard, who are thinking about copy cat legislation,” said Mr. Wise. “One of the things that makes that likely is that the folks who were behind this in Arizona are members of a loosely affiliated set of groups that have a history of White supremacy, White nationalism, like FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), (Sen.) Russell Pearce (R-AZ), the main sponsor in Arizona. Those folks have a connection to a larger network of national groups and individuals. No doubt, Arizona was just a test case,” he added.

On May 5, nearly 100 members of various Hispanic organizations protested outside the Major League Baseball (MLB) game featuring the Houston Astros versus the Arizona Diamondbacks. This is part of an on-going movement to oppose the recent immigration bill passed in Arizona and to send the message, “Not in our backyard,” to Texas lawmakers.

“The SB1070 is legalized racial profiling and we are 100 percent opposed to it,” Michael Espinoza told The Final Call. He is the lead organizer for Houston's SEIU Justice for Janitors group.

Mr. Espinoza was among those outside Minute Maid Park holding up signs that read “No Human Being Is Illegal,” “Boycott Arizona,” with a slash through the words “SB1070.” He says the local coalition is in agreement with boycotting Arizona-based companies and is demanding that MLB officials reconsider hosting the 2011 All-Star game in Arizona.

A Department of Homeland Security report released earlier this year shows that Texas was second only to California in the number of unauthorized immigrants in 2009, with 1.7 million and 2.6 million respectively. Currently, an estimated one million plus undocumented immigrants live in Texas, which is costing the state $4.5 billion annually.

Amidst the debate of the Arizona immigration bill, Republican lawmaker Debbie Riddle of Tomball, Texas is planning to introduce a tough immigration bill for Texas that will parallel the controversial new laws in Arizona. Rep. Riddle is pushing to present the law in the January 2011 legislative session.

“If our federal government did their job, then Arizona wouldn't have to take this action, and neither would Texas,” said Rep. Riddle.

Texas Governor Rick Perry agrees in protecting citizens, but has reservations about bringing similar immigration policy to the Lone Star State.

“Recently, there has been much debate over immigration policy in Washington and what has been implemented in Arizona. I fully recognize and support a state's right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas,” said Gov. Perry in a written statement.

“We're not going to stop protesting. We're going to keep fighting to make sure that which Rep. Riddle is proposing will not get passed even if it means escalating our tactics,” said Mr. Espinosa.

Some opponents of the bill from within Arizona itself include Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. According to reports, Chief John Harris of Sahuarita said he opposed the bill before Gov. Brewer even signed it, partly on the basis of manpower and budget issues that would only worsen under the law, and because traditionally, immigration has been a federal issue.

According to Mr. Rodriguez, the most blatant part that is absent from a lot of discussions and debates about the bill is that the sweeping racial profiling powers extend beyond just law enforcement. “The enforcement of identifying and arresting potential (undocumented) immigrants is to be done by any kind of municipal, county, or state institution in the health field, employment department, any department that suspects that anybody is an illegal immigrant, they are obligated by the law to inform ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” the activist said.

That would undermine the society by setting up a vast network of informants but ultimately, just like with apartheid in South Africa and fascism in Chile, that might deny people their freedom for a few years, even a decade, but eventually, freedom will be obtained, Mr. Rodriguez said.

A result of America's own foreign policy

Because America disrupts, or supports countries that work against, the well being of poor people, many people flee their own land for financial benefit in the U.S., Ms. Escobar said. Their only option is to come to the U.S. for a better living and America must change her foreign policy and the way she does business with other countries.

In Columbia, she said, gold mining corporations are exploding the gold mines for the wealth, but the mines are located where Afro Columbians live. Ultimately, people are being displaced, which is what happened to Mexican farmers under the Central and North American Trade Agreement. “They made it impossible for farmers in Mexico to continue farming and when 1.2 million of them could not work anymore, their only option was to come to the U.S.A.,” Ms. Escobar said.

(Jesse Muhammad contributed to this report, from Houston.)

Desperate and Insecure, Whites see country slipping away (FCN, 09-15-2009)

FCN Editorial: A prophetic warning and White anger in America (FCN, 09-15-2009)

Blaming White anxiety on Obama: Proxy protests and racial rage (FCN, 09-04-2009)

Final victory over race hatred elusive (FCN, 07-03-2009)

Obama candidacy exposes race hatred in America (FCN, 11-10-2008)

FROM THE FINAL CALL NEWSPAPER

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:08:00 +0000

Urban violence brings renewed calls for National Guard deployment

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor- | Last updated: May 4, 2010 - 3:18:31 PM

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The New York Army National Guard's Battery B, 1st Battalion, 258th Field Artillery Regiment. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army Photo Courtesy, U.S. Army

‘Gang activity and its resulting violence has taken a toll on my community for far too long. We need action now.’
—Rep. Lashawn Ford
Illinois House of Representatives

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - The idea of coordinated military action to counteract gang related violent crime is not a new idea, however, it appears to be gaining traction among some lawmakers as the number of those killed in many cities across America continues to rise.

“Gang activity and its resulting violence has taken a toll on my community for far too long,” stated Illinois State Representative Lashawn Ford, a Democrat. “The Military Code of Illinois specifically states that it is the duty of the governor to deploy such force as he deems necessary in order to suppress individuals acting together and committing violence in violation of our laws. Enough is enough. We've already lost too many lives. We need action now.”

At a joint press conference on April 25, Rep. Ford and fellow Illinois House of Representatives Democrat John Fritchey called upon Governor Pat Quinn to bring in National Guard troops to bolster the presence of law enforcement in areas of the city that have been the hardest hit by crime.

Rep. Lashawn Ford, Illinois House of Representatives

“As we speak, National Guard members are working side-by-side with our troops to fight a war halfway around the world,” said Rep. Fritchey. “The unfortunate reality is that we have another war that is just as deadly taking place right in our backyard.”

The sense of urgency in Rep. Ford's words is surely caused by the pressure of his constituents. Rep. Ford's 8th District encompasses parts of Chicago's West Side, specifically, a notoriously violent neighborhood called Austin. By contrast, Rep. Fritchey's 11th District encompasses parts of the city's more affluent North Side.

The statistics are alarming. Approximately 80 percent of the murder victims have been Black, and, according to Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis, most violent crime occurs in just 9 percent of Chicago's blocks. However, Supt. Weis, who served six years in the military, is on record as being against bringing in the National Guard.

Rep. Ford told The Final Call his call for the National Guard should not be looked upon as a slight or a criticism of Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis, nor is it a call for heavily armed military personnel menacingly walking the streets, however, it is clear that Supt. Weis and the Chicago Police need help.

“If you say that you need the National Guard, you can very well possibly need some federal dollars to get some help with the police, but if you are telling everyone that you don't need any help, then you eliminate your chances for possibly lobbying for federal dollars,” said Rep. Ford. “If you say that you can't solve the 9 percent, then one thing that you can do if you have more bodies, then you will be able to deter crime in those areas because you have more presence,” he added.

Just one year ago, Supt. Weis and law enforcement officials took credit for the fact that homicides had dropped 20 percent in Chicago for the first four months of 2009 compared with the same four-month period in 2008. By the end of April 2009 there were 108 homicides, 26 fewer than for the same period in 2008. Supt. Weis credited the work of his officers, and the establishment of several specialized crime units directly targeting street organizations and crime hot spots.

In the summer of 2009, Supt. Weis ordered all plainclothes officers to wear their full uniform when on duty. This included many gang enforcement and tactical officers. The department also held a highly publicized series of roll calls in order to show the community that Chicago police would be more visible. He also redeployed many administrative officers to street patrols. The department has ordered more powerful weapons, expanded the use of Taser guns, and Chicago's “blue-light” cameras appear to be almost everywhere.

Recently, he announced the establishment of a rapid-response technology initiative which will make a block-by-block computer crime data analysis available to patrol officers.

In 2010, 113 people have been killed in Chicago, the exact number of those killed during combat in Afghanistan. In the most recent embarrassment, an April 2 press conference being held by Supt. Weis at the location of an earlier shooting was abruptly ended when gunfire from another shooting erupted in the vicinity. Recently, a 20-month-old girl was killed by a bullet intended for her father.

Shortly after the death of Derrion Albert in September 2009, the Rev. Jesse Jackson called for the National Guard to be brought into the city. Many community activists criticized him and decried the notion, however, now, some seven months later, many are asking, why not a coordinated military effort in violent areas, especially if nothing else has worked?

Pat Hill, a justice studies professor at Northeastern Illinois University and the executive director of the African-American Police League, believes those calling for the National Guard are “cowards.”

“Specifically, those who are 50 and older know better because we have experienced and witnessed the National Guard being used domestically,” said Prof. Hill, also a retired Chicago police officer. “If we recall after the assassination of Dr. King, in New Jersey the National Guard killed 60 people. I don't understand how the elders could go for this. If you think the police will shoot you … the National Guard will kill you and that's really all there is to it! Those who are calling for the National Guard are cowards. I think they don't want to deal with it. They know that the National Guard will kill our kids,” she said.

Long-time Austin resident Dorothy Jones, 71, disagrees. She told The Final Call she is in favor of the call to bring in the National Guard. She has lived in the West Side neighborhood for over 30 years and has watched it transform from a place where young children could play outside, to a place where most residents are afraid to leave their homes. She has four grandchildren and said she worries about their safety constantly.

“They can't play, they can't go outside and ride their bikes, you have to wonder and worry and pray that they will be safe!” said Ms. Jones “They can't do things that we did as children. They are held hostage.”

Street Gangs: The New Insurgents?

In a report titled “Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency” written by Dr. Max G. Manwaring, a Professor of Military Strategy in the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army War College, he drew a parallel between “contemporary criminal street gangs” and the insurgencies that are seen in Iraq and Afghanistan “in terms of the instability it wreaks upon government and the concomitant challenge to state sovereignty.”

Prof. Manwaring points out that that in many cases the ultimate objective of many gangs and/or organized “non-state actors” have as their ultimate objective, destabilizing or deposing the current governmental authorities in order to create a condition of lawlessness that would allow them to control the areas in question. This would enable them to either establish or continue their illicit commercial enterprises such as narcotic sales and intimidation of business owners unhindered by a coordinated governmental response. Control of this “nonstate battle space”—as termed by Prof. Manwaring—such as an urban environment allows for the establishment of psychological dominance and rule by fear of the residents of the area.

In describing the importance of understanding the “half-criminal and half-political nature of the gang phenomenon,” Prof. Manwaring writes that many leaders underestimate the potential consequences of failing to act against these “nontraditional political actors.”

“At best, many leaders consider these nontraditional political actors to be low-level law enforcement problems, and, as a result, many argue that they do not require sustained national security policy attention.Yet, more than half of the countries in the world are struggling to maintain their political, economic, and territorial integrity in the face of diverse direct and indirect nonstate―including criminal gang―challenges.”

He continues, “The violent, intimidating, and corrupting activities of illegal internal and transnational nonstate actors―such as urban gangs―can abridge sovereign state powers and negate national and regional security.”

New York Army National Guard soldiers assigned to Joint Task Force Empire Shield, a state Army and Air National Guard security force operating in New York City, don protective masks as smoke fills a subway car simulator during emergency training conducted at the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Photo Courtesy, U.S. Army

Calls for the National Guard to be deployed are not just limited to Chicago. In fact, several members of Congress wrote a joint letter to Pres. Barack Obama on April 28 calling on him “to take action to address this growing national security threat on our southern border.”

They are asking for National Guard troops to be deployed with the “very clear guidance of proper rules of engagement and should be armed and allowed to defend themselves if fired upon or attacked.”

Critics see this as a dangerous, not only for ordinary citizens but also for law enforcement officials. National Guard troops are routinely deployed in cases such as natural disasters, however, for them to be deployed in the case of actual law enforcement and patrols other than during a national emergency, such as an urban rebellion, would be unprecedented.

For the time being, Gov. Quinn has rejected the idea of sending in the National Guard to supplement the Chicago police. In a recent press conference, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley said the problem is the amount of guns on the street and in the hands of criminals.

This is a position shared by Michael Walsh of the Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (ICPGV). He believes calls for the National Guard are a sign of growing frustration with violent crime levels, but not the solution.

“Its just the frustration that something needs to be done. We can't go through another week and every time you turn around there's another report of senseless gun violence. At the same time, before we get to bringing in the National Guard and having a military presence on our streets, there are other things that we can be focusing on to get those guns off the street.”

The ICPGV is active in pressuring state and federal courts to tighten restrictions on gun ownership and strengthening penalties for illegal gun sales and ownership. In addition, anti-gun activists are calling on Congress to reinstate the federal ban on semi-automatic assault weapons, which expired in 2004.

“My neighbor across the street got shot in the stomach last August by a 14-year-old kid,” said Mr. Walsh. “There are just too many guns in the wrong hands.”

Related links:

Street Gangs: The New Urban Insurgency (Dr. Max G. Manwaring, U.S. Army War College)

From the Final Call Newspaper

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:06:00 +0000

Farrakhan offers guidance, warns America of the need to change course

By Askia Muhammad -Senior Correspondent- | Last updated: Mar 2, 2010 - 11:46:38 AM

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View archived webcast @ http://www.noi.org/webcast/
Part 2 of Minister Farrakhan's address to be carried live via webcast @ NOI.org, March 7, 2010

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivers Saviours' Day 2010 keynote address Feb. 28th.

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - Everyone in the United States who has been affected by the Mission of the Nation of Islam since 1930—Black people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike; Latinos and Aboriginal Indians; White, rich and poor; and the U.S. government—everyone, has now entered a dangerous “Valley of Decision,” so said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in his Saviours' Day 2010 address at the United Center Feb. 28.

With photographic accuracy, footnoted with frequent references to sacred texts including the Qur'an and the Bible, the Nation of Islam leader revealed how he was prepared in advance for his work over the past 29 years since the Rebirth of the Nation in 1981, and how even his own now faith that the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad is physically alive and in power with his Lord, Master Fard Muhammad, the prophetic figure described in scripture, has now grown to an unshakeable knowledge that he is himself “more than a prophet.” The coming of God brings direct spiritual light, not reflected light that comes as prophets lead people back to the Supreme Being.

“Some people think I'm a prophet,” Min. Farrakhan said. “But I have to say, the word ‘prophet' is too cheap a word. Prophets come in the absence of God like moonlight comes in the absence of the sun. I come to fulfill that which you have read from the prophets,” the Muslim leader declared.

“The word ‘prophet' is too cheap a word. I am a light in the midst of darkness,” sent directly from on high, Min. Farrakhan said at the Nation's annual convention which commemorates Master Fard Muhammad's birth date, Feb. 26, 1877. “It ain't ego; it's my love for you,” he said.

Saviours' Day attendees watch Min. Farrakhan on the diamond-vision screen above their heads at the United Center on Feb. 28. Photo: Brian 5X

The powerful earthquake which shook Chile, literally hours before his address was a divine precursor Minister Farrakhan said, warning that America will face its own imminent disasters and must prepare.

The Muslim leader's message was titled “The Time and What Must Be Done,”

“It's not an accident that a great earthquake took place in Chile,” said Min. Farrakhan, a prostate cancer survivor, who at age 76 appeared strong and vigorous during his three-hour lecture, more like a man half his age.

“It (the earthquake and tsunami) it produced, precipitated what I have to tell you today of what's coming to America, you will not escape.

“I will speak to the kings and rulers of the world. I will speak to the pope and the religious leaders because you have to know that your time has come, and so has ours,” Min. Farrakhan said.

“I desire to guide you and warn you of things that are coming that you must try to prepare yourselves for because we are absolutely living in the change of worlds.”

While the world wants and needs change the Muslim leader declared, it can't be brought about by politicians, it can only come from God Almighty Himself. The Muslim world is looking for Mahdi, a self-guided one who comes to guide the faith back to the right path. “He will sit down every tyrant. He will set down justice in the earth, he will kill every swine,” Min. Farrakhan continued.

According to religious orthodoxy, the Jewish world is looking for the Messiah, the Christians are looking for the Christ. They are all looking for a man. Jesus, Min. Farrakhan explained, becomes Christ after his departure. According to Islamic tradition, Jesus would be with the Messiah. During a discussion of a Father's Day lecture Min. Farrakhan had delivered, the Hon. Elijah Muhammad told him that he (the Minister) would “sit as the father of the house when I am gone.”

(L-R) Members of Minister Farrakhan's family, Sis. Betsy Jean, his wife Mother Khadijah, Maria, Fatimah, Donna, Karen Farrakhan and Mother Tynnetta Muhammad (2nd from right) listen to the Minister's message.

That house, Min. Farrakhan explained, is not just the tiny Nation of Islam, but the entire 40 million-plus population of Blacks in the U.S., indeed, the entire 4 billion, 400 million population of the earth, including Caucasians.

Min. Farrakhan spent much of his address recounting in exacting detail—just as he has recited it, word-for-word, many times before—a 1985 vision, out-of-body-experience he had in Mexico.

The Nation of Islam leader said he was taken aboard a plane—commonly referred to as an unidentified flying object (UFO)—which the Bible and the Hon. Elijah Muhammad referred to as “The Wheel,” “Ezekiel's Wheel,” “the wheel within a wheel,” where Min. Farrakhan said he saw a scroll with writing on it, and heard the Hon. Elijah Muhammad speak to him.

That experience led him to reveal to the world future events he was told of on The Wheel, including the United States' 1986 bombing of Libya.

Divine knowledge has allowed Min. Farrakhan to recognize countless warning signs over the decades, he insisted. For months on end and in the four corners of the world, Min. Farrakhan proclaimed the message he received from Mr. Muhammad on The Wheel during his vision/out of body experience. The reason, he said: his faith in Almighty God Allah. “The Lord is my light and salvation, of whom should I be afraid?”

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the entertainment industry began depicting Black males in a most ominous light, even altering and darkening Min. Farrakhan's image in various publications.

But he was also relentless, engaging in numerous speaking tours and rallies and national interviews with the most prominent journalists of the day, and offering his unqualified support for various Black politicians around the country. Finally his national men's only “Stop the Violence” tours led the N.O.I. leader to organize, despite nearly overwhelming opposition, the 1995 Million Man March, one of the most remarkable mobilizations in U.S. history and the largest public demonstration ever.

During that lead up to the MMM and all along the way, Min. Farrakhan had to deal with evil plots from neo-conservatives and Zionist forces, inside and outside the government, and with U.S. presidents from Ronald Reagan, to George H.W. Bush, to Bill Clinton, to George W. Bush.

“Brothers and sisters, God has shown me the mind of these presidents from that one experience that I had on The Wheel. When 9-11 took place, I held a press conference and I warned Mr. Bush, that he should be careful how he pursued vengeance. Then I wrote him a letter. You can read it, it's all up on the website,” Min. Farrakhan said.

Beginning when the doors opened at noon, the lines stretched around the block. Photo: Ansar El-Muhammad

“I told Mr. Bush, everything that would happen to him if he followed what was in his mind, and I told him what was in his mind. I am a light in the midst of darkness. And that is a light that God has given you. The people that walked in darkness haven't seen some light, they were given a great light.”

Ironically, Min. Farrakhan continued, he believed everything the Hon. Elijah Muhammad said, “except what he said about me. I'm not arrogant, I am humble.”

After the enormous success of the MMM, Min. Farrakhan quickly realized that the enemies of the Nation of Islam and of the rise of Black people here and throughout the world, would next scheme to discredit the Nation in the eyes of the Islamic world as being other than true Muslims.

What happened instead was that in dozens of countries in Africa and throughout the Islamic world—including the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and even the Islamic Republic of Iran where he was the only American to speak at the anniversary rally for the Islamic revolution in that country—Min. Farrakhan was received as a head of state.

The devastating earthquake that shook Haiti led Min. Farrakhan to remind his audience and U.S. leaders that a great debt is owed to the Haitian revolution. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 for example, which literally doubled the size of the U.S. territory at the time, happened because the French ruler Napoleon had been soundly defeated by the Haitian slave uprising, and wanted to have nothing more to do with the neighboring French territory on the North American continent and needed money after the expensive war.

Today however, Haiti has been betrayed by the U.S., first when Jean Bertrand Aristide, the first popularly elected president there in the 200 years since the revolution, was overthrown by a coup d'etat supported by U.S. power.

The earthquake in Haiti and the increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters around the world are but a warning of what's to come in this country, Min. Farrakhan predicted.

While the Nation of Islam leader has supported U.S. President Barack Obama from afar—a man Min. Farrakhan described as a sign of “hope” for the Black world—he also advised the young president that he must do more to improve the lives of Blacks and the downtrodden.

The “White right” is conspiring to make Mr. Obama a one-term president, already derailing some of his most important legislative efforts. Those opponents are also seeking to trap him into a future war with Iran that could lead to mass destruction.

“When we can't feed our families what do you tell us?” Min. Farrakhan asked rhetorically. “Thou shalt not steal? When survival is the first law of nature? What are you going to do when Black people and poor people erupt in the streets of America? It's coming! Will you use the federal troops, Mr. President, against the poor?”

None of the hundreds of billions of dollars in bank bailouts made it down to working class and non-Whites who need it the most.

“I can't even get a meeting with a congressperson if a White man's watching,” Min. Farrakhan said. At the same time, Mr. Obama has been depicted by the White right in the vile manner that was once reserved only for the Muslim leader.

“The White right is trying to set him up for assassination,” said Min. Farrakhan, reminding his audience of a Christian pastor who said he was praying a precatory prayer, a prayer asking God to kill the president of the United States.

Despite the fact that President Obama has stated he wants to write a new page with the Muslim world, the Zionists and the White right have planned a war with Iran and they are trying to suck President Obama into declaring it. Min. Farrakhan said he would oppose such unjustified military action and recognized he could be charged with sedition and even imprisoned.

“Let me say this brother president, because America is unraveling,” Min. Farrakhan continued. “Unemployment is spiraling. What are you going to do when Black people and poor people riot in America? Will you use troops against them?

“Your people are suffering. You can't ease their plight, but you can use your bully pulpit. Speak for the poor. Speak for the weak,” Min. Farrakhan advised. Help the Nation of Islam, which has worked to reform Black inmates and others for decades, to reform Blacks, Min. Farrakhan said. “Put some money on the back of us,” the Muslim leader said. “We can reform our people.”

From the Final Call Newspaper

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:19:00 +0000

Nation of Islam marks 80 years in North America at Saviours' Day 2010

By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Asst. Editor- | Last updated: Feb 9, 2010 - 8:21:36 AM

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Official Website for Saviours' Day 2010

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Photo: Mikal Veale

CHICAGO (FinalCall.com) - With America in the grips of the worst economic crisis since The Great Depression, Black youth crime and violence at high levels, and a political reality rife with contradictions, guidance from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and the implementation of programming and solutions to serve the needs of Black people are needed now more than ever.

This year's Saviours' Day convention marks the 80th year of the Nation of Islam's existence in North America. Each year, to commemorate the birth of its founder Master W. Fard Muhammad, members from around the world make the journey to Chicago, Illinois during the last week of February for a weekend of fellowship, networking, information dissemination and spiritual renewal.

The United Center, Chicago

“On Saviours' Day, we come together to celebrate the birth of a man who taught a man, who taught another man, who is now teaching an entire people,” said Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, assistant to the Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan during a Feb. 7 message delivered from the Nation's headquarters, Mosque Maryam, and viewed via webcast nationwide.

Ishmael Muhammad

The Nation of Islam “has survived the conspiracies and plots not only by the United States government but also an agreement by (foreign) nations to destroy the Nation of Islam in the West. I feel so absolutely proud and honored to be alive in this day,” he added.

Also during Saviours' Day, some of the best academic minds, entertainers and activists come together for strategizing, organizing and mobilization.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's Saviours' Day messages are always timely as he marvelously deals with current events, spiritual realities, prophecies and solutions to the problems plaguing the Black community. This year's message, titled “The Time and What Must Be Done,” is scheduled to be delivered to the world from the ultra-modern United Center just west of downtown Chicago on February 28.

With the recent major earthquake in Haiti which decimated its capitol of Port-au-Prince and killed over 200,000, along with the second major blizzard and wave of brutally cold temperatures blasting the East Coast and Southeastern portion of the United States and many other areas that typically experience heavy snowfall and below-freezing temperatures, the importance of disaster preparedness is needed. Major challenges lie ahead for Black America in 2010 and all of the workshops will cover aspects of ministries of the Millions More Movement.

Radio spots have begun nationwide, ticket sales have been brisk, hotels are quickly filling up, and the anticipation and excitement is building for what promises to be a memorable event with worldwide impact.

Dr. Aminah Beverly McCloud, a professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University and the Director of the Islamic World Studies Program, said the Nation of Islam's impact on America cannot be ignored.

“The Nation of Islam has been the most powerful and significant movement in this country by Black people ever,” said Dr. McCloud. “It is important that the face of Islam in America be an indigenous face,” said Dr. McCloud also adding that Black people who are followers of Islam have to have the spirit to work together to improve the conditions within the Black community.

“The Hon. Elijah Muhammad set an economic plan into motion. Many have lost the sense of sacrifice,” said Dr. McCloud. “The Hon. Elijah Muhammad was the only one during that time who had the idea of building a community.”

Dr. McCloud also said it is important for many of the younger members of the Nation of Islam to be taught the history. She gave the example that many youth might not even know that the late former Mayor of Chicago Richard J. Daley declared an “Elijah Muhammad Day” in 1974.

“The young people have allowed themselves to be co-opted by Twitter, FaceBook and MySpace. They have confused information with knowledge,” she said.

Saviours' Day Director Ademah Muhammad said there has been a very close working relationship with the members of the Nation of Islam's Executive Council in planning for this event.

“When you look at what the Nation of Islam has done in the past 80 years and you see what the planet is going through at this time, it is a culmination of what the Hon. Elijah Muhammad taught and prepared us for,” said Ademah Muhammad. “Minister Farrakhan loves Black people and the members of the Nation of Islam and everything he does is motivated by that love and what he was taught and learned from the Hon. Elijah Muhammad,” he added.

Among the engaging activities scheduled for the weekend will be an historical display. It will include photos, books and clothing artifacts will chronicle the different phases of the Nation of Islam and its contextual placement within the Black religious, cultural and socio-political experience in America.

Another presentation during this year's convention is “Table Talks by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad,” a project headed by one of his great-grandsons, Rahman Sultan Muhammad. He has been working hard around the clock with a team of volunteers to present a rare, intimate look into the discussions with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in other social settings outside of the mosque. His words, even during those seemingly “casual” moments, yield wisdom for today.

“Saviours' Day 2010 is history in the making,” said Rahman Muhammad, recalling the great sense of unity, togetherness and family that exists during Saviours' Day. He said he, his wife and children are looking forward to the entire weekend of events.

Mother Khadijah Farrakhan's Children's Village is always a hit, and this year it will be free for the children who register for Saviours' Day.

Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, who recently returned from a fact-finding mission in Haiti, will talk to convention goers about his experience there.

Legendary former gangster Frank Lucas, whose life was masterfully portrayed by award-winning actor Denzel Washington in the movie “American Gangster,” is scheduled to appear along with former crack kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross for a forum titled “Redefining the American Gangster” and Allen Hughes—one half of the dynamic movie directing duo The Hughes Brothers—the minds behind the movies “Menace II Society,” “Dead Presidents” and “The Book of Eli,” also starring Denzel Washington—will be among those participating in Saviours' Day 2010. Motivational speaker and life coach Iyanla Vanzant and Susan Taylor are scheduled to appear and participate in workshops.

A Jazz and R&B Show is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 26 and on Saturday, Feb. 27, there is a Hip Hop Show as well as a Comedy Show, all taking place at the Rosemont Convention Center.

Radio personality Warren Ballentine will be broadcasting live throughout the weekend, including from the United Center on Feb. 28. James Mtume, host of Open Line on 98.7 KISS FM in New York will also broadcast from the convention.

As always, the Salaam Expo vending section will be available throughout the day with friendly hours and deals on goods and services that you would have trouble finding anywhere else. And as a special treat, the legendary Nation of Islam Drill Exhibition returns.

(To find out more about Saviours' Day and to register for this year's convention, visit http://www.noisd.org.)

From the Final Call Newspaper

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 22:36:00 +0000

The poor have no voice

By the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Feb 4, 2010 - 2:05:07 PM

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[Editor’s note: The following text is excerpted from “A Torchlight for America,” written by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, 1993.]

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

It’s said that most of the congressmen, the representatives of the American people, are from the wealthy class. The wealthy and the privileged in this society, who have benefited most from the federal debt, corporate restructurings and plant relocations, are the people charged with representing the poor. Can they adequately represent the poor?

In the 1992 presidential debates, a young woman asked the candidates how can they, who have never known suffering in their lives, lead the American people and bring a healing to what ails the country? The closest people to the proper representation of the masses and their suffering are the Blacks, women, Native Americans, poor Whites and Hispanics. In the Congress, the closest representative of the poor is the Congressional Black Caucus. Each year, they have developed and presented before Congress a budget that would keep America strong, while at the same time looking out for the masses of America’s people. Each year, their efforts have been belittled and their budget has been voted down.

It’s our peculiar relationship with suffering that has prepared us for leadership today, and it is precisely because we have an intimate understanding of the devastating effects of being subject to greedy, racist, sexist, immoral leadership, that we have a chance, if reformed, to be a torchlight for ourselves and for all of America.

The American worker has worked and sacrificed to build this country. The corporations, the high-paying government jobs, the fine material possessions, all of this was built on the backs of slaves and the labor class. It is wrong for companies to leave the poor and the working classes in the lurch conceding manufacturing to other nations under the guise that America is becoming a more service-oriented economy.

In truth, the poor are voiceless in society as it is presently structured. Every president in recent history has been of the privileged class. This does not mean that being wealthy disqualifies one for leadership. Being wealthy does mean that there is a lack of an experiential vantage point that we must pay careful attention to.

It was Mr. Ross Perot, among all the candidates in the ’92 presidential election, who recognized—and openly stated—that the wealth he has achieved is from the poor. Now he sees that same country and those same working-class people who gave him the opportunity to be a billionaire, going down the tubes.

Jesus said in his sermon on the mount, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) How can you be blessed and poor at the same time? How can you be blessed when you’re barely surviving or can’t feed yourself? Jesus meant that out of the poor will come the Jesus who can lift the poor. This is why the rulership of that day feared Jesus. In him they saw the end of their power and the end of their rule.

The man, Jesus, was sent because no one was speaking concerning the real issues of the poor. Jesus became the advocate of the poor and got in trouble with the rich. The poor today need a Jesus. The poor today need an advocate who will stand for them and speak out to the rich on their behalf.

A SOCIETY OF PERVERSE INCENTIVES

It’s the greed for short-term profit that has generated an entire society devoid of values and that alienates the poor and the few non-greedy. Most of the incentives and many of the laws in the society are corrupt.

As an example, more is paid to professional athletes than society’s teachers. The teachers have to work two jobs to make ends meet, yet they are responsible for shaping the future by shaping the minds of our children. I’m happy to see the Brothers and Sisters in sports and entertainment making money. However, I am appealing to them, what are you doing with the money to help your people? What kind of opportunity is paraded before our young, when there are only about a thousand positions for our talented sports figures, but there are millions of Black children suffering, who can never become professional athletes to escape from their condition?

Legislative policy and tax law is perverted to work for the rich. The political action committees (PACs), the lobbyists, the special-interest groups, all work for the rich. The rich get a capital gains tax break. The corporations get to write off special deductions and interest on loans. The poor get nothing but the burden and the blame. The lowest rung of the workforce is made idle through plant closings, and America spends next to nothing to retrain them to make them useful in the economy.

Pride and arrogance are part of the leaders’ mentalities. This spiritual disease is what blinds them to the true formula for success, because they’re trying to keep up a posture in the world that is out of step with the will of God and the demands of the time. They want to maintain themselves as the great imperialist power, the overlord, the slave-master, the god beside God.

It doesn’t profit America’s leaders to lose the respect of the people who have sacrificed to build this country. The American worker has worked and sacrificed to build this country. The corporations, the high-paying government jobs, the fine material possessions, all of this was built on the backs of slaves and the labor class. It is wrong for companies to leave the poor and the working classes in the lurch—conceding manufacturing to other nations under the guise that America is becoming a more service-oriented economy.

It’s the failure to deal effectively with this old mentality of slave-master and slave that has taken the country to the brink of ruin. If America does not deal with this mentality—which is rooted in the outdated relationship between Black and White—then America is doomed.

Manufacturing is the bedrock of self-independence. Why should America let others produce for her what she can produce for herself? Why should Italy produce all the shoes while the American shoemakers sit idle at home? Why should your garments be fabricated in Taiwan while your own plants close and collect dust? America could see the simple solutions to its problems if America were not blinded by greed and that old mentality of slavemaster and slave. Both mentalities have to be broken and replaced with a sense of community, humanity and fairness structured on truth and the principles of justice and equality.

THE MENTALITY OF BLACK LEADERSHIP

Black organizations and leadership must focus on self-help. We should create a forum in which we can convene regularly to discuss the troubles of our people and develop solutions that we can execute on our own.

Each Black organization and every Black leader has a role in the upliftment of our people. We must recognize and respect each other’s role and learn to work with those with whom we may be at variance ideologically. We should consider establishing a united front for the purpose of converging our efforts to meet common objectives over one, three, five and 10 years.

As a people, we must recognize and understand that, in order for America to survive, she must tighten her belt, and all of her citizens will need to make sacrifices. The country is not in a position to give away because it has mortgaged its future. Even its veterans, who have fought to maintain America as the number one military power, will need to make yet another sacrifice.

Therefore, Black leadership cannot go to the government to beg it to provide a future for us. Putting the beg on America is not a wise program for our leaders to advance on behalf of the people. That old slave mentality that keeps us at odds with one another and dependent on White people has to be broken.

Black leadership must champion the strategy of turning within to do for self. Meaning, we must teach our people to use our talent, time and money, and pool our resources educationally and financially, to address our troubles. Whatever America decides to do, our actions cannot be dependent on the actions of a benevolent, White, former slave-master.

Even though this country owes us reparations, in her present condition what she owes will stay on the back burner or not on the stove at all. We must work harder to address our own problems. We must also provide the country with solutions that benefit us as well as the whole, to pull the country to a state of strength. Perhaps, when the country’s condition improves, we can speak more effectively about what is owed to us for our services, past and present, to repair our condition.

From the Final Call Newspaper

gr.10thministry@gmail.com (Muhammad's Study Group of Grand Rapids, Michigan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:29:00 +0000

For America to Survive, She Must Make a Real Change

By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan | Last updated: Jan 7, 2010 - 10:57:41 AM

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[Editor's Note: The following text is taken from a message delivered by Minister Farrakhan on November 1, 1997 at Celebration's Banquet Hall in Chicago, Illinois.]

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

America is at the pinnacle of power and greatness. When you are at the pinnacle, they say, there is no place for you to go but down. But America does have a choice. She can go the way of ancient Rome, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt, and the wicked in the days of Noah and Lot, or she can make a step up and make America the basis for the Kingdom of God. Every nation, kindred and tongue lives within the borders of America, but we have not related to each other as we should.

Tonight I would like to take as my text, “Sing Unto the Lord a New Song and His Praise from the End of the Earth.” America is in trouble. It is the greatest nation ever in the history of the world. She has the finest constitution of any government in the history of the world. She is the greatest economic and military power in the history of the world. She has everything that it takes to be the greatest nation on the earth, but she is dying from an internal rot produced by a moral decline that is taking her into the abyss of decadence.

Those of us who are preachers and teachers have to analyze our preaching, whether we are imams, rabbis, ministers, cardinals, arch-bishops or high potentates. When you see the decadence that we see everyday of our lives, of what effect is our preaching if our preaching cannot change people's hearts that they may do better? Or are we preaching a watered down Torah, Gospel and Qur'an that literally tickles the ears of the wicked and makes people satisfied in their wickedness with no pangs of conscience that they are in manifest error?

The church, mosque and synagogue have embraced what Christ, Muhammad, Moses and the Prophets of Israel cannot embrace. We can embrace the human being, but when the human being's ways are contrary to the will of God, we cannot embrace that. We can come as we are, but we can't stay as we are.

America is sick, and America needs a doctor. What is America's sickness? She started off wrong. She started off with an ideology and a philosophy that was not Christian, though she came in the name of Jesus. She started off in the name of a philosophy of White supremacy. White supremacy, as an ideology and philosophy, spawned from it a racist America and a Constitution watered with racism, so that the darker people that live in America could never feel like they are a real part of the promise of this nation.

It's wonderful to see Promise Keepers on the mall; White males saying that they want to keep a promise. Why a name, Promise Keepers? It is because their fathers have been promise breakers. The Constitution was fashioned by White males who made a promise to the American people of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. This was a guarantee. Where is it? It does not exist for the masses of Whites, much less the darker people who inhabit America. Where is the promise for the homeless? Where is this promise in prisons that are filled with our young men—1,600,000; more than any civilized nation on the earth?

The building of prisons is the number one growth industry in America. What is happening to a nation that promises life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and yet if you have no money and you get sick, then you die where you are? Something is wrong with a nation that sends its young people to war on the basis of a lie, making them to think they are fighting for democracy when they are fighting to keep multi-national corporations filthy rich at the expense of poor people. Something is wrong with a nation that will allow soldiers to be poisoned by chemical agents, biological agents, and then the government acts as though they don't know anything about this. Something is wrong with a nation that has millions of people living under bridges and in cardboard boxes, going to bed hungry at night, children who cannot read, yet there is a Hubbell telescope in space giving us pictures of what is far out and we can't see what is right around the corner.

I'm not anti-American. This is the only country I know, but the country needs help. I can't say to Bill Clinton, “Yes sir, Mr. President,” while a country is going to hell, when the nation is over $5 trillion in debt and wants to balance the budget on the backs of the poor.

You take the poor Mexicans and Hispanics and call them aliens when you took the land from them. Native Americans are mistreated on reservations.

So many of us today are steeped in religiosity that we lose spirituality. So many of us are bound in rituals that we have lost the truths to which the rituals are pointing us. So Jesus was such a refreshing personality in the Roman society. The scriptures say that the poor heard him gladly. Anybody that the poor hear gladly concerns the rich. So many of us today are steeped in religiosity that we lose spirituality. So many of us are bound in rituals that we have lost the truths to which the rituals are pointing us. So Jesus was such a refreshing personality in the Roman society. The scriptures say that the poor heard him gladly. Anybody that the poor hear gladly concerns the rich. And if you won't, it's all right with me. I have to do it. God has put it on my heart to do it. You may not like me for doing it, but I care nothing about popularity with you. To be popular with you doesn't mean anything if I am unpopular with God.

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Our poor fathers, when they were brought to America in chains, would go down to the shore because one of the ships that brought them here was named “Jesus.” They would go down to the shore and they would say, “You can have all of this world, just give me that ship Jesus that will take me back home to my land and my people.” The Bible says, “By the rivers of Babylon, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps on the willow tree and our joyful song had turned to mourning, and they that wasted us required of us mirth. They that carried us away captive required of us a song, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.' But they said, ‘How can I sing the Lord's song in a strange land?'”

If you can't sing the Lord's song in a strange land, what kind of song have you been singing? “Shake your booty. Shake your booty.” These are the kinds of songs that you sing. The songs that you sing reflect the state of your mind, and your mind has become so degenerate that you can sit and listen to filth and it doesn't bother you.

We have to sing unto the Lord a new song. And if we are going to sing a new song, then we need a new composer, because the one that composed the song that we are singing about, the life that we've been living, is not a song that the Lord will accept. It is one thing to sing gospel music, but should not we live the Gospel? It's one thing to sing about Jesus Christ, but singing about Him is not going to get Him to accept us, if we refuse to live the life that He asks us to live.

America needs a new song. The songs that she is singing now are songs of hate, division and injustice; songs that praise and elevate the things that artificially separate us from one another. We are proud to be Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, AME, CME. That's fine, but these are denominations, meaning “down from the name.”

We are proud of our Islam, our Judaism, or our nationality. We split up religion. We split up and literally made ourselves something by means of color. How can you describe who you are by means of a color? Don't you realize what you are doing to your humanity by describing the infinite being, God and self, by means of some color or the lack of it? We (Nation of Islam) used color as a medicine to heal the effect of White supremacy that produced in its wake Black inferiority. Color is insufficient to define the majesty of God or the majesty of the human being.

What is your nationality except some little piece of land somewhere that is used to give you a different language or culture or history?

The Bible teaches, “Behold, I make all things new. There will be a new heaven and a new earth and the former things shall pass away. Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is only out of a renewed mind that a new song can come. “Let this mind be in you, the same that was in Christ Jesus.” If you have that mind in you, then you can sing a new song. But if you don't have his mind in you, then you sing the same old song—the songs of division, discord, hate and bigotry, sexism, racism, materialism, and a sick nationalism. If you are going to sing a new song, you have got to be a new person.

I leave you with these words: America is at the pinnacle of power and greatness. When you are at the pinnacle, they say, there is no place for you to go but down. But America does have a choice. She can go the way of ancient Rome, Babylon, Sodom and Gomorrah, Egypt, and the wicked in the days of Noah and Lot, or she can make a step up and make America the basis for the Kingdom of God. Every nation, kindred and tongue lives within the borders of America, but we have not related to each other as we should.

White supremacy, Black inferiority, money and the lack of it, class—all of these divisions have kept the American people from realizing their true greatness. Don't think that America cannot fall. The Romans thought that. The Babylonians thought that. But no nation, I don't care how powerful it is, can remain when their evil outweighs their good. America can go down, but if we would sing this new song, if we would have a change of mind and heart where we could be lifted beyond color, race, sex or nationality to see spirit as the common denominator that will bind human beings together, if we can do that, then we will sing unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth will be seen because we in America set a new tone called, The Atonement.