FCNNEWSSOURCE FCN Editorial
A good name is more to be desired than great wealth, and to be respected is better than silver and gold. –Proverbs 22:1 (Bible in Basic English)
A good name is better than gold.
FCN EDITORIAL
Why? With a good name or good reputation and a track record in life or business one is able to marshal forces and acquire resources based on the confidence that one’s reputation engenders. A lack of confidence can doom a company or an economy–just look at America’s sputtering and failing ways. There is fear for the future so people are loathe to invest in something that they have doubts about.
But a man’s life work, especially work in a divine mission, is worth far more than material things because the ultimate aim of the work is to fulfill God’s will by delivering words of guidance and words of warning. At the judgment of the world, material things cannot offer a way out, it is only through hearing and adhering to divine guidance that one can escape a doom foretold of in both the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, the Islamic book of scripture.
If words and reputation are important in a divine work, it is natural for the opposers of that work and the haters of the man with the divine word to work to undermine his reputation, his work and the reputation and the work of those who come to assist him in delivering a clear and powerful message–a message that condemns the wicked and heralds the end of their wicked rule.
The recent arrest and detention of Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of the Nation of Islam and longtime aide to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is a clear example of the use of lies and slander to try to besmirch reputations and inhibit deliverance of a word that is so vital at this time.
In the South American country of Guyana, “Brother Akbar,” as this world traveler and Muslim helper is known, was accused of drug trafficking and terrorism. The charges reported May 19 were so ludicrous they would have been laughable except that this is a dangerous time and tarring someone with the label of terrorist and drug dealer can lead to serious consequences.
“ … I can say with truth and certainty that he (Bro. Akbar) is as far away from drugs as the far planet Pluto is away from the sun and that is four billion six hundred million miles, and as for terrorism–he would never come to any country to inspire such acts,” said the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in an exclusive statement to The Final Call.
The Minister thanked the president of Guyana for informing him that an innocent person would not be kept in prison in the country and for whatever President Jagdeo did regarding righting a terrible wrong done to Bro. Akbar, who was released May 20.
But the wrong was not just a wrong done to Bro. Akbar it was a wrong done and an injury to Min. Farrakhan, the Believers in the Nation of Islam and all those who have been affected by the good works and the Supreme Wisdom of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad for the past 80 years.
The lie and false charges were an assault on Bro. Akbar’s family, his legacy and his decades of work to help reform and uplift Blacks in America and the world. To attempt to pin such a scurrilous charge on Bro. Akbar and by extension impugn the character of the Minister and the work of the Nation was wicked and dastardly. There are many criminals and drug dealers across the world and the biggest of them operate in the corridors of power inside governments and government-controlling corporations.
The work of the Nation of Islam is to free people from the tyranny of drugs, both illicit substances and the mind-numbing and consciousnesses altering drug of Black inferiority and false notions of God, the Devil and the Time.
So whether the false charges and detention stemmed from a call from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as Bro. Akbar was told, or was motivated by political chicanery as Guyana’s racially divided political parties prepare for an election, the deed was wrong and demands at minimum a formal apology and official recognition that it was an unfounded act and a horrible misdeed.
The lie that attached drug dealing and terrorism to the name of a Nation of Islam official has already gone around the world via news reports. However the truth that the charges were unfounded is unlikely to catch up to that lie so there needs to be official recognition that a wrong was done.
Lies have consequences. Lies and deliberate misinformation have kept Min. Farrakhan out of the United Kingdom as the British government has banned him and deemed him persona non grata in the country. But Britain’s leaders and the people of Britain need guidance and there are Believers and supporters in the United Kingdom who are eager to have the Minister visit and speak.
Lies have consequences. When lies are used to justify hindering a man and a movement dedicated to the resurrection of a fallen people, there is needless loss of life and pain in the resulting confusion and denial of access to truth that saves lives.
Such action is not without consequences. Scriptures warn against hiding the truth and hindering others from the path to the truth. Such misconduct can kindle God’s anger and earn his wrath. No one should desire to be in that position in such a critical hour as this.
