From the Final Call Newspaper

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

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

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

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.

***

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.