JABRIL.MUHAMMAD
This column is part 3 in a Series. Click here for previous Parts 1 & 2.
Address to the World Conference Against
Racism–Zionism–Imperialism
Tripoli, Libya
March 16, 1986
“Mr. Chairman, distinguished platform guests, distinguished dele-gates, on behalf of the oppressed Blacks, Indians and Chicanos in the United States of America, it is my great honor to stand here to repre-sent them to you and to the world this afternoon.
“As you know, President Reagan has issued an executive order banning all travel of United States citizens to Libya. So, all of those of the United States delegation that are present today are here under the threat of ten years imprisonment for violating the Reagan Administration’s Executive Order.
“There are those who may say that we are here in defiance of Reagan’s executive order. Quite to the contrary. We do not recognize the moral, nor legal, right of Mr. Reagan, to order a son of Africa, or the sons and daughters of Africa, whose parents were sold, stolen and kid-napped from Africa to forbid us from returning to the land of our own home.
“I am a Muslim. I reserve the right as a Muslim to travel to any country where there are Muslims and to stand on the side of all Muslims who fight against tyranny, oppression and racism in the world.
“I have never criticized the administration of the government of the United States of America while I have traveled outside of the country of my birth. However, the circumstances are so grave that I am ordered by Allah to use this platform–this occasion, this circumstance–to oppose, expose, condemn and to warn the government of the United States, particularly the White House and President Reagan, of the extreme danger of the recklessness of his present course and his threat, not only to the Libyan Jamahiriya, and its leader, Brother Muammar Qaddafi, but it is a threat to the entire world peace.
“On the night of September 17th, in a little village in Mexico, Allah gave me a vision, which involved Mr. Reagan sitting with the joint-chiefs-of-staff to plan a war. I did not know where the war was, but it is clear to me that with the ships of the Sixth Fleet in the waters of the Gulf of Surte, that Mr. Reagan, and the joint-chiefs-of staff have planned to make war on Libya to destroy the fruit of the El Fatah Revolution.
“Mr. Reagan has planned to bomb the oil fields, to destroy pipelines, to destroy military installations and communications so that Brother Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya will not be able to concern itself with the liberation struggle of peoples around the world, but will be forced by those circumstances to concern themselves with their own survival.
“Why does Mr. Reagan want to destroy Muammar Qaddafi? Why does Mr. Reagan want to destroy the Libyan Jamahiriya?
“Africa is the prize. Neither the East, nor the West, can maintain supremacy in the 21st Century without access to the tremendous wealth and the strategic metals that are in Africa. Since they cannot maintain their supremacy without Africa, they hate any leader who is concerned with the rise of Africa, with the liberation of Africa, with the decolonization of Africa, with revolutionary struggle to unseat every puppet regime in Africa, and therefore, Muammar Qaddafi and the Libyan Jamahiriya are the Number One threat to Reagan’s foreign policy with respect to Africa, Asia, Latin America and the struggling peoples around the world.
“There are 30 million Black people in America, with 2 million Indians; Chicanos and Puerto Ricans numbering about 19 million. These are strategically placed in the belly of the beast. If they form a strategic unity and link with the struggle of Third World peoples, together, we can end this Old World order and bring into existence a new social, political and economic order. Therefore, we urge you to recognize your Brothers and Sisters who struggle in the United States. For it is written in the Qur‘an, ‘Had we wished to take a past time from before Ourselves, We would have done it. Nay, We cast truth at falsehood till we knock out its brains.’ “
***
After further advancing his case, he communicated this to the audience:
“In the Qur‘an it reads, ‘By the inkstand and the pen and that which they write. By the grace of thy Lord thou art not mad. Surely thine is a reward never to be cut off. Surely thou hast sublime morals. So, soon they shall see and you too shall see which of you is mad.’ For is it not we who stand against the might of Reagan, the might of America, the might of imperialism and Zionism that are mad. For we see beyond their might, beyond their power. We see a power greater than their power. So, their power cannot last in a universe constructed on justice, with the Author of peace. We see the indomitable will of humanity to breathe free is greater than the power of an atomic weapon. So, we see victory at hand. We know who is mad.
“The madmen are those who think that the power of their weapons can stop the onward march of those who love freedom and justice.”
Before he concluded this short, but courageous and powerful speech, he made very clear that he was not speaking on his own power or authority. On either the next night, or the night after, he made a private talk to others, in that country, providing them with details of his vision and its relevance to their immediate situation. His insights were effective.
If one makes a proper examination of the above two speeches, in full, and the circumstances under which they were made, one can only reasonably conclude that the Minister’s insights could only have come from a source of wisdom far superior to the wisdom of this world’s rulers–and in this instance, far superior to the wisdom and power of America’s rulers.
In connection with the source of the Minister’s insights, it is important to note the publication date of Sister Muhammad’s book, in which the text of these speeches appeared.
Sister Tynnetta Muhammad’s book contains the publication date of September, 1986. She had actually begun the book, while part of the delegation of Minister Farrakhan, in Africa, and completed the text by June of that year. I wrote the introduction to her book on June 28, 1986.
What makes this important? It is the need for documentation of the fact that the Minister’s vision occurred well before America’s press came out with the fact that President Reagan had planned a war on Libya in the summer of 1985.
Now, I am a witness of the dates involved in her book, as I helped her with the physical work of producing her book. This will take on more significance as we proceed.
Meanwhile, President Reagan, and the Joint-Chiefs-of-Staff, rejected the Minister’s advice and warnings. They attacked Libya. They ordered some of their troops to kill the head of state of that country. They killed innocent members of his family, in their efforts to kill Colonel Muammar Qaddafi
One major factor, which the press of America carried with a disconcerted–even a baffled spirit–was the involvement of what they called a giant UFO, which interfered with the ability of some of America’s military personnel to communicate among themselves.
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One of the interesting things which took place, while Minister Farrakhan was overseas, was the filing of a law suit against President Ronald Wilson Reagan and the United States government by the Nation of Islam.
Irv Kupcinet, a columnist who [wrote] for The Chicago Sun Times newspaper, reported that the then-Attorney General, Mr. Edwin Meese, had stated that when Minister Farrakhan returns from Libya, he ought to be arrested.
Officials in the Nation of Islam reacted. The result was the filing of a pre-emptive action in the Federal District Court, in Washington D.C. What follows, here, is an excerpt from an interview of Sister Minister Ava Muhammad–who is also a brilliant attorney–the full text of which appears in a later chapter.
She said, in part:
“So we went into Federal Court, pulled in the U.S. Attorney’s of-fice with this complaint, and it was a very brief appearance before the judge, whose name I cannot recall, but the documents exist. He was a Reagan appointee, that particular judge. When we went into court on the papers, our papers simply stated that we had this information. One of the things that we attached to our complaint was Kupcinet’s column, and the U.S. Government said to the court, these people are coming into court on a gossip column. They are suing us on the basis of a piece of gossip. So hearsay. And your honor you should not pay attention.
“So I said no. This appeared in a Chicago newspaper, a legitimate newspaper, and you did not take issue with it. If it’s gossip, and if it’s not true that Edwin Meese made this statement, why didn’t the U.S. Government request or demand that The Sun Times retract it then? Because if he said it, it is an inappropriate statement on the part of the U.S. Attorney to make that type of statement about a U.S. citizen, when he has not been charged with anything, he has not had an opportunity to be heard on why he went into Libya. He is entitled due process. And for the chief law enforcement officer, who is responsible for the safety and protection of all the residents of this country, to make that statement–this is outrageous.
“The judge turned to the U.S. Attorney, and they said, the judge said ‘Are you planning to arrest Reverend Farrakhan? You’re not going to put Reverend Farrakhan in jail, are you?’ And there was a silence in the courtroom.”
More next issue, Allah willing.
