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[Editor’s note: The following is the third and last part of a selection of answers that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan gave to questions submitted by The Final Call as we enter the year 2004.]
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful.
Final Call (FC): President Bush’s foreign policy doctrine of preemptive military action emerges from a group of intellectuals called Neocons (Neo-conservatives) who have, since the Reagan era, advocated for more aggressive action against nations they have targeted as against American interests. Many view this doctrine as a plan for European hegemony and imperialist aggression. What is your perspective on this viewpoint?
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan (HMLF): I will give my full perspective in my Saviours’ Day address, Allah (God) willing. It has nothing to do with the hegemony of Europe or imperialism, as we know it. It has to do with a small group of people whose interest is to capture the power and influence of America and use it to gain global power and to use it to destroy the enemies of America, but, in particular, those who are the enemies of Israel. More at Saviours’ Day.
FC: President Bush declared Iraq, Iran and Syria as nations that support and sponsor terrorism. Many feel these nations are targets of the West because of their threat to Israel’s military domination of the Middle East. What is your perspective on this viewpoint?
HMLF: Neither Iraq, Iran nor Syria pose any imminent threat to Israel’s military domination of the Middle East–for Israel, at this present moment, is reported to have at least 200 nuclear warheads or bombs, plus chemical and biological weapons. She is armed sufficiently to destroy the whole Arab world. However, if Iraq, Iran or Syria pursued a course of gaining weapons of mass destruction, then they could very well be a threat to Israel’s military domination of the Middle East.
This is why the West has destroyed Iraq and will force Iran not to make any type of nuclear weapon, and now is planning to attack Syria. Resolution 687 of the United Nations Security Council declares that the whole area of the Middle East should be free of weapons of mass destruction. This, of course, includes Israel. Until and unless America and the Security Council are willing to force Israel to give up her weapons of mass destruction, peace in the Middle East will only be talk. And if there is any peace, it will be achieved at the expense of justice.
FC: On March 19, 2003, President Bush preemptively invaded Iraq. The reasons given were that Iraq had for 12 years violated UN resolutions prohibiting the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction; and that Iraq presented an imminent threat to the security of the United States. These reasons are similar to the false reasons President Johnson gave in the Gulf of Tonkin incident, which they used to justify sending a half-a-million troops into Vietnam.
Much evidence is now coming to light that discredits the Bush administration’s factual assertion that the war was necessary. What, in your view, is the ultimate consequence of these deceptions and lies by the President to the American people and the world?
HMLF: I could say it in one word: Revolution! Once the American people believe that they cannot trust their leaders of government to speak the truth and their leaders of government have misused their sacred trust and sent young American service people into harm’s way to die for a false cause, this will cause the American people to rise up against their government.
The same type of trial that put the leaders of the Third Reich of Nazi Germany on trial for their war crimes and their destruction of Europe and, in particular, the Holocaust of the Jewish people, that same spirit is rising in the American people to put the leaders who have led America into this destructive fall on trial as war criminals.
Soon these things will come to pass.
FC: What are your thoughts concerning the decision by Libya to abandon its weapons of mass destruction program and to allow international inspectors to verify their destruction?
HMLF: I give credit to any man who sees a bullet coming and dodges it. That is wisdom. What Muammar Gadhafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya have done puts more pressure on Israel, the United States and the United Nations to enforce Resolution 687 in its entirety.
FC: Iran has also decided to open its nuclear energy program to international inspections. Any thoughts on this?
HMLF: All my thoughts in this area I will attempt to make very clear in my Saviours’ Day message on February 29, 2004, Allah (God) willing.
FC: What were your thoughts when you saw reports that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had been captured alive without a fight? Does his capture mean that Iraqi resistance to the U.S. invasion and occupation will soon collapse? Finally, looking back now, would his country have been better off if he had just surrendered before the war, sparing the lives of tens of thousands who apparently gave their lives in vain along with thousands of others who were murdered?
HMLF: The first part of that question I will answer in this manner. Since I met President Saddam Hussein and saw him in his palace exercising his authority and power over the people of Iraq, I was disquieted and even somewhat saddened to see him in the state that I finally saw him in, coming up out of a hole in the ground.
This caused me to think on every human being who exercises authority and power, particularly those who exercise authority and power over millions of people. Allah (God) Himself does not delight in casting down those who by His Permissive or Active Will are allowed to assume power and authority over what they did not create. All authority belongs to Allah (God). So He watches us as to how we exercise that authority.
If we are cruel, inhuman, tyrannical and unjust to those under our authority, before He moves or allows the Law of Justice to move against us, if it is in our homes, He will cause our children to speak against us; if it is in an organization or a church, He will cause someone in the organization or in the church to speak against the rulers’ misuse of authority; if it is in a corporation or small business, someone will arise to warn (whistle blowers). If due to pride and arrogance, warning is not heeded, then the authority, by the permission of God Himself and the Law of Justice, is taken down.
It does not please me to see those in power and authority brought to naught, to disgrace, to ruin, to abasement, or to destruction. But, this is what Allah (God) has promised. He said, “Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” The Qur’an teaches that Allah (God) hates those who are proud and boastful. He loves those who are humble, who recognize that authority alone is Allah’s (God’s) and do their best to execute their authority with justice and fair dealing.
It is written, and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad has said to us, that the Coming of Allah (God) or the One in the Bible Who is called the Christ, or the Mahdi in the Muslim world, is to take over the rule of the nations, because the rulers of the nations have failed to give justice to those under their rule. Therefore, the Kingdom of God is promised because the rulers of this world are wicked.
There is no ruler who does not have something in their record that justifies their removal. So, Allah (God) has come to remove all the rulers and set His king on the throne. According to both the Bible and Qur’an, He takes the Kingdom from whom He pleases and He gives it to whom He pleases, for He is the Lord of the worlds and has power over all things.
The capture of President Saddam Hussein in no way will mean the collapse of the resistance to the United States’ invasion and occupation. That resistance, I believe, will increase and intensify.
Lastly, I cannot say looking back, in the context of the question, that it would have been better for Saddam Hussein to surrender. He could not surrender being the type of man that he was.
Do I think that the thousands of lives that were lost were lost in vain? No! Every life counts with Allah (God). He counts the loss of life of the righteous and He said that He would avenge the loss of life of the righteous from Able to Zacharias. And the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said “from Zacharias to this present moment.” No life that is lost is lost in vain.
We all die for a purpose bigger than ourselves and sometimes that purpose is a witness against those who thought they had the power to put us to death. But then our death is a nail in the coffin of those who feel like the Babylonians, “I sit as a queen and shall see no sorrow.” That’s the thinking of the present rulers of America.
The seeds of revolution are in the United Kingdom, they’re in the United States of America, they’re throughout Europe and indeed, throughout the world. This is why Jesus said, “One of the signs of the end is that there would be wars and rumors of wars. Nation would rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and this is just the beginning of sorrows.”
It will only take a little spark to cause a conflagration and you will see the heads of governments rolling down. This is that hour; that spark has already lit the fire and Armageddon is proceeding at a very rapid pace.
FC: What does 2004 portend for Israel and Palestine scripturally and geo-politically?
HMLF: It’s all the same. There will not be any cessation of bloodletting because there is no will on the part of Israel to deal justly with the Palestinian question. And there is no desire in the hearts of the Palestinian people to submit to what Israel wants to offer for peace.
So more of the same and much more of the same is on its way.
FC: What are your thoughts on France’s Jacque Chirac’s ruling to ban the wearing of headscarves (hijab) by Muslim girls from public schools in an effort to have a clear distinction between state and religion?
HMLF: We who are religious should come from under the state’s ruling and set up our own schools and not depend on the state, so that our girls can wear that which Allah (God) prescribes in the Qur’an for us.
However, as long as we subordinate ourselves to the way of the state, then the state can tell us what they don’t like about us. But when we come out of dependence on the state and set up our own school where we can do as Allah (God) pleases, then we will be able to show that we are in compliance with the Will of Allah (God).
FC: What were your thoughts on the former Malaysian Prime Minister’s speech last fall and why did you have it included as the centerfold in The Final Call where your article usually goes?
HMLF: Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad made a brilliant speech. He was leaving office. He was not looking for anything. That’s usually the time when politicians can be more honest, or speak with less constraint.
Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are better presidents today than they were when they were in office because they are not beholden to anyone except their conscience.
I applaud Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad for the brilliance of his speech.
What we need from politicians is more Truth and the courage to speak the Truth even at the cost of their position, because the position that we, as Muslims, want is a position with Allah (God), not so much with man or mankind. If we have Allah (God) as our friend, then He tells us, “He whom Allah befriends is not disgraced.” So, I was proud of that speech. I’m proud of him for making that speech. Hopefully, he can be a very good advisor to his successor.
FC: What are your thoughts concerning a Sister (Dora Muhammad) becoming the managing editor of The Final Call newspaper?
HMLF: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has always desired to free the gifts, skills and talents of women, that these may be used in the building of the Nation. The Qur’an says, “The believing men and the believing women; the sacrificing men and the sacrificing women; the charitable men and the charitable women.” Many of the Attributes of Allah have a feminine form. This is to teach us that those of us who submit to Allah (God), wear His Divine Attributes and seek knowledge can manifest Allah’s (God’s) characteristics. It is sinful to cover the characteristics of the female and deny what Allah (God) has given to her for the development of the nation and its ultimate success.
FC: What are some of your thoughts about the significance of Saviours’ Day 2004, which will mark 70 years of the Mission given to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and your continuing work to make His Great Commission known?
HMLF: I feel that this Saviours’ Day will be a watershed moment; a moment of departure from what was to what is and what shall be. I feel a burning within my soul, not just to deliver a speech, but to deliver a message that will appeal to the minds of intelligent people that they will hear and hopefully reason with.
I would like for the message to be so clear and so filled with the Light of Allah (God) and so full of His Spirit that it will awaken a consciousness in all those who hear it and create a valley of decision–that either we will choose to be better human beings, to be a part of Allah’s (God’s) Will and Desire, to make a new and better world for ourselves and our children to live in, or we will go along with the wicked powers that rule this world and go down to complete ruin, abasement, death and destruction with them.
I see it as the name “Furqan” as the Qur’an describes–a point of discrimination that will separate people from people and cause people to see more honestly and truthfully into themselves as well as others.
FC: What words of inspiration and guidance can you give to the Believers around the country who are working to make this Saviours’ Day 2004 the greatest in our history?
HMLF: If we understand the concern of Master Fard Muhammad for our people and His travel 9,000 miles to walk, suffer and work among us, to choose a guide for us and to develop a teaching that is the healing for that which the enemy has done in the destruction of us, then we will work like we have never worked before to make sure that every venue is filled to capacity.
I, Louis Farrakhan, am inviting those who judge me as anti-White, anti-American, anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and even anti-Muslim and anti-Islam to come and hear me for yourselves. This is not a message only for the Black man and woman. Since the Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught me that Black is not national but universal, this must be a universal message that touches every human being that walks upon this earth. This is because all things start in darkness and come to birth in the light.
So the whole earth and its people are invited to hear this message–Reparations. What will it take to repair the Black man? What will it take to repair the White man? What will it take to repair humanity since all are in need of repair? What does America owe, or what does Europe owe and what does God promise in His desire to repair the brokenhearted, the spiritless whose spirit is broken and who are under the burden of sin due to Satan’s rule?
What does God promise and is He able to fulfill His promise?
So, I pray that President Bush and his administration will listen, that the government will listen, that the kings and rulers of the earth will listen and that the common people will listen. Then, judge me as you see fit, but not based on what the media says and has said concerning me, but based on what comes out of my mouth from my mind and heart. Then, you will be judging with a just yardstick, if Allah (God) pleases.
I pray that Allah (God) will grant all who come, all who read these words the Light of Understanding, as I greet all of you in peace, As-Salaam Alaikum.
