Minister Farrakhan was the featured speaker at a rally in the “cradle of liberty,” Philadelphia, on July 4th, 1996. For the past 66 years, this date has taken on a dual importance in the study of our history here in the Western Hemisphere. The American colonists declared their independence from Britain on July 4, 1776, and God, Himself, declared our independence on July 4, 1930.

At first glance, it appears that the Muslims are observing a religious holiday on that day, while the general population is observing a secular holiday. Not so!

Independence Day has simply followed the path of distortion taken by Christmas, which was projected as a celebration of the birth of Jesus, only to have the starring role usurped by a nonexistent Dutch figure named “Knickerbocker” (St. Nick), and Easter, which began as a commemoration of Jesus’ crucifixion and wound up being a promotional gimmick for the Easter Bunny.

The colonists’ chief claim to independence was that it was a God-given right. Thomas Jefferson, the chief architect of the Declaration of Independence, insisted that freedom was a status declared by “Nature and Nature’s God.”

It was, in fact, while diligently studying the Bible that Jefferson concluded that freedom was the natural state of human beings, but that there were always unscrupulous persons who saw their way clear to profit off the subjugation of the masses of people. He began to recognize principal characters in the Bible–and especially Jesus–as divinely missioned liberators. He also recognized similarities in the types of societies and governments which each liberator had to challenge.

The thing that caused Jefferson to initiate this intensive study of imperial domination in a religious framework was that he noticed that all the rulers and governments in northern Europe, from which they were fleeing, were called, and claimed to be, “Christian.” When he embarked on a course of study of Jesus’ life and works, he concluded that Jesus was crucified for opposing the same system of rulership which were now calling themselves “Christian.”

According to his own writings, Jefferson did not seek answers in “the Old Testament Bible of the Jews,” nor in the works of Paul. He concentrated on the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The truths which he uncovered in these four books, he described in a letter to John Adams as being “as easily distinguished as diamonds in a dung-hill.”

He diligently cut and pasted these scriptures, side by side, from Greek, Latin, French and English Bibles. The resultant work, called “The Jefferson Bible,” was kept secret and not made public until 1902. The original is in the National Museum of Natural History, and in 1904, Congress directed the Government Printing Office to print 9,000 copies for their use: 3,000 for the Senators and 6,000 for the Representatives.

Based on his study of Jesus’ life, as portrayed by the Four Gospels, Jefferson wrote in a letter to a friend named Charles Thomson in 1816, “I am a real Christian.”

(Reprinted from The Final Call Volume 15, Number 25—July 16, 2003.)

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It seems flesh-eaters have lost another round in the fight for survival. Usually, long after having given up the eating of animals which tread the same ground and breathe the same air as we do, many so-called “vegetarians” continue to nibble on those species of fish considered “safer” and “cleaner” than all the rest. Probably, none is more popular, nor considered safer, than the salmon.

It has always been a strong belief, spoken and unspoken, that the deeper the red color, the better the fish. As long as it has been, I remember that was the last flesh I tasted.

Imagine my chagrin upon learning, just today– June 15th, as this is being written– that the beautiful pink or red color which we all assumed indicated the richness of the fish we loved, was nothing more than food coloring, added to please such uninformed louts as I was.

Today’s CHICAGO TRIBUNE contained a story headed, “Salmon lovers see red over rosy farmed fish.” The writer, Jessica Kowal, was in Seattle, Washington, at “the busiest fish market in the Pacific Northwest.” The owner, she wrote, has bought and sold millions of pounds of salmon, without knowing, until recently, that “the bulk of fresh salmon consumed in the United States–that is, salmon raised on a fish farm–is not naturally pink.

Without two synthetic additives in their feed pellets, farm salmon would be dishwater gray.”

Having remained hidden for so long, the knowledge of the artificially colored salmon has “become front-page news in Seattle, where wild salmon are far more than a tasty choice for supper,” Ms. Kowal writes. “They are a quasi-religion, widely seen as healthy to eat and symbols of the quality of life and environmental well-being of the entire Northwest.”

She further points out that, “To defend the sanctity of salmon and to stop what lawyers describe as ‘negligent misrepresentation’ of farmed fish, four Seattle-area residents sued three national supermarket chains in April. They complained that the grocers had failed, despite requirements by the Food and Drug Administration, to label colorants on packages of farmed fish to sell more.”

Another of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs complained, “There’s no way I would have spent my money buying salmon that was colored with a chemical additive to give it the red or orange or pink color.”

The lawsuit alleges that fish farmers use a Salmo-Fan, an “artist’s color wheel” to select the preferred hue.

“The supermarkets named in the suit,” writes Ms. Kowal, “are Albertsons, which owns the Jewel-Osco chain in the Chicago area; Safeway, which owns the Dominick’s chain; and Kroger Co., which has Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago area.”

The writer states that “Some people object to artificially colored salmon on ethical grounds,” and points out Seattle journalist Joel Connelly, who states that he is offended when he sees brightly colored farmed salmon at grocery stores. “It simply strikes me as dishonest.”

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The above title paraphrases an observation made by my longtime friend and brother, Muhammad Ali, when the attempt was made to draft him into the U.S. Army. His point was well made, that the people he was being urged to fight against had been less abusive to him than the people he was being asked to fight for. Syndicated columnist Derrick Z. Jackson takes a similar position in his column which appeared in the March 3rd issue of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE. His article is entitled: “BLACKS HAVE CAUSE TO OPPOSE A WAR IN IRAQ.”

He begins by referring to a poll by Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which showed that “44 percent of African-Americans support the use of military force in Iraq. That compares with 73 percent of White Americans. Other polls show black support to be far less. To illustrate this, he referred to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Zogby America poll which found that only 23 per cent of African Americans strongly or somewhat supported a war, compared with 62 per cent of White Americans. He further pointed to an October poll taken by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, “which generally does the most extensive polling of African-Americans, found that only 19 per cent of African-Americans supported a war with Iraq.”

The reason, he points out, are obvious. African-Americans are 12 per cent of the general population but make up 21 per cent of military personnel and 30 per cent of Army enlistees. He further reveals that we made up 23 per cent of the troops sent to the 1991 Gulf War. As to why Blacks so disproportionately enter the armed services, Mr. Jackson points out “why Blacks go into the service in the first place. Many of them are refugees from a job and collegiate environment that is disproportionately hostile to them.” President Bush, the writer points out, “recently stoked the hostility by filing a brief to the Supreme Court opposing the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action program.

“Time after time,” Columnist Jackson states, “war after war, African-Americans fought and died for the nation’s agenda only to see the nation ignore or reject their issues. Black folks fought in the Revolution and slavery lasted nearly another century. Black soldiers were promised land after the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812 and never got it.

“In the Civil War, African-Americans, then 14 percent of the population, were 20 percent of the Union casualties. Yet segregation and second-class opportunities were the rule for almost another century. Black folks fought in World War I in the hopes of winning full citizenship. They were rewarded with White race riots. Participation in World War II and Korea further emboldened African Americans to protest for desegregation in the military, public accommodations, school desegregation and voting rights.”

He quotes Dr. Martin Luther King’s observation that we were “paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam.”

When will we get enough?

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Of course, we all are aware that we are approaching that time that occurs every year called “Christmas.” And, most of us assume that the holiday, or “Holy Day,” began with the Birth of Jesus, since this is what we are generally taught.

But look into THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, and you will find the statement, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the church.” And if you study the religion known as “Mithraism,” you will find that the Romans and Greeks, way back when, celebrated December 25 as “The Nativity of the Unconquered Sun” long before the Birth of Jesus.

If, indeed, we are celebrating the birthday of Jesus, why do all these other people–including ourselves–get presents also? How many other people get gifts on your birthday, because it is your birthday? You spend all the money, and an unknown called “Santa Claus” gets the appreciation (not the “credit”–you have to pay for that).

Everybody was not in accord with this hand-made holiday. In 1659, the Puritan Colony of Massachusetts passed a law against celebrating Christmas. Boston rebelled against the move until finally, in 1856, the legislature made it a legal holiday.

To those Biblical scholars among you, if you celebrate the day we have come to know as “Christmas,” does it ever bother you when you read the 10th Chapter of Jeremiah, which begins with a warning from God not to follow the ways of the heathen nations–such as cutting down a tree, fastening it in place, then decorating it “with silver and gold”? There are no instructions in the Bible for the exchange of gifts, but the practice is found in all of the pagan mid-winter “festivals.” I was quite amused by a statement in one writer’s column that, “If we believed in Jesus, we would respect Him too much to get drunk and act a fool on His Birthday!”

This raised another question: “Where in the Bible do we find “Santa Claus” and “Easter Bunny” as we see them portrayed around the churches? One writer suggested that children learn an old song and sing it to their elders, to wit: “How can I believe you when you tell me that you love me, when I know you’ve been a liar all your life?”

One writer suggests that we “Reflect on how Xmas is celebrated–including the predominance of liquor and illicit sex–and ask yourself if such behavior is fitting to honor a Righteous Man!”

The question of “equal rights” arouses, to wit: “On what grounds can a parent punish children for lying, then tell them lies like virgins giving birth and rabbits laying eggs?” (Christmas and Easter!).

A headline on the December 18, 1968 Phoenix Gazette stated that the “BIRTH OF CHRIST NOT CELEBRATED UNTIL 5th CENTURY.” Obviously, there were no witnesses present at the celebration.

Ever wonder what the “Christmas tree” represented? I have, and finally got the answer. Sun-worshipers believe that the mother of Adonis, the “Sun God,” was mystically said to have been changed into a tree and, when in that state, to have brought forth her divine son–hence, the “Christmas Tree”!

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Someone very close to me was complaining recently about a speculated harm that resulted from eating beans. As I listened around, I found a few other people saying similar things. Of course, everything they were using as “reasoning” was 100 percent false! The attempt was to discredit the healthy legumes, and use their natural need for proteins as an excuse to continue eating poison animal flesh! It doesn’t matter what kind of animal it is. Every animal has means of excreting the poisons which gather in its body, but its body is never completely free of them. So, though you may take the guts out of a fish or fowl, there is more of what the gut is full of throughout the animal’s body, having not yet made it to the proper organ to be disposed of. So, if you eat any part of the animal, you are eating what he has not yet had a chance to get rid of!

In my file, I found an article which I had saved from the April 18, 1999 issue of THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE. It was entitled “HOW THE BEAN SAVED CIVILIZATION.” The author’s name was Umberto Eco, and the subhead read, “Forget electricity, the microchip and the car. Without legumes, we wouldn’t have made it out of the Dark Ages.”

“As the population became smaller and less strong physically,” he wrote, “people were mowed down by endemic diseases (tuberculosis, leprosy, ulcers, eczema, tumors) and by dread epidemics like the plague. It was always risky to venture demographic calculations for past millennia, but according to some scholars, Europe in the seventh century had shrunk to roughly 14 million inhabitants; others posit 17 million for the eighth century. Underpopulation combined with undercultivated land left nearly everyone undernourished.

“But what I really want to talk about,” the writer continued, “is beans, and not just beans, but also peas and lentils. All these fruits of the earth are rich in vegetable proteins, as anyone who goes on a low-meat diet knows, for the nutritionist will be sure to insist that a nice dish of lentils or split peas has the nutritional value of a thick, juicy steak.

“We believe that the inventions and the discoveries that have changed our lives depend on complex machines. But the fact is, we are still here—because of beans.

He closed with: “Secondly, we have all known for a long time that if the West ate unmilled—brown rice, husks and all (delicious, by the way), we would consume less food and better food.”

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(FinalCall.com) – As I pondered, as I often do, over what would be of interest to our readers at this particular time, I was going through my mail and up popped a magazine which I take, with the answer. The magazine is THE PHILADELPHIA TRUMPET, and above the name were listed three featured articles, one of which was entitled “THE EASTER MYSTERY—Colored Eggs and Christ?”

I turned to the page, in the middle of which was a picture of some colored eggs, with the title printed over them, “WHAT’S SO SACRED ABOUT EASTER?” It begins:

“The Easter Service—considered the most sacred observance of the year——focuses the Christian community on the miracle of His resurrection much like Christmas focuses it on His birth.

“But on a day that is considered so sacred, people worship with bunny rabbits, hot cross buns and colored eggs. What do these things have to do with worshiping Jesus Christ or commemorating His resur-rection? Moreover, why didn’t anyone observe Easter in the Bible?”

Calling it “The oldest feast of the Christian Church,” the writers notice that “… the apostolic fathers do not mention it” and that when we first heard of it, principally through the Controversy of the Quartodecimans, is purely accidental.

“That’s right: The word Easter is never even mentioned in the Bible. Although ‘Easter’ is found once in the King James translation, scholars today agree that the Greek word translated ‘Easter’ (pascha) in Acts 12:4 should be translated ‘Passover.'” The English term (Easter) … relates to Estre, a Teutonic goddess of the rising light of day and spring … the Babylonian name for this goddess was Ishtar. The Phoenician name was Astarte, the wife of the sun god, Baal, the worship of whom is continually denounced in the Bible as the most abominable of all pagan idolatry (I Kings 22:53; Jer. 32:35).

“This goddess is actually ancient Semiramis, the mother and wife of Nimrod, the mighty warrior who rebelled against God (Gen. 10:8-9).

“A controversy calling for the annual Sunday observance of ‘Easter’ continues for almost 200 years, until Easter was officially adopted by the church at Rome at the time of Constantine in A.D. 325.

“At the time of Jesus Christ and the apostles, no one had ever kept Lent—the 40 days of abstinence preceding Easter. Much like Easter, it has pagan origins: It was “directly borrowed from the worshipers of the Babylonian goddess,” says Alexander Hislop in his book “THE TWO BABYLONS.” “Such a Lent of 40 days, in the Spring of the year, is still observed by the Yezidis or pagan devil worshipers of Kurdistan, who have inherited it from their early masters, the Babylonians.”

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(FinalCall.com)–If you are not a Muslim follower of the Honorable Louis Farrakhan, and have never visited one of us, you may be totally unfamiliar with the routine of removing your shoes before entering the home of your host. But, on the other hand, you may have encountered the same situation visiting the more civilized among non-Muslims–especially in Chicago. In my files, I ran across a feature article, with pictures in color, which took up a page-and-a-half of the August 29, 1999 issue of THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, entitled “Shoeless in Chicago.” The sub-head read, “Citing cleanliness, floor care, cultural–even spiritual–concerns, a growing number of people are just saying no to shoes inside the home.”

The opening sentence read, “It protects hardwood floors, it keeps your carpet looking new and it can make your home a quieter place.” The writer, Monica Eng, further notes that “A growing number of Americans are adopting this housekeeping secret that many Asian, Middle Eastern and European cultures have known for a long time.” She quotes an interior designer, to wit, “Lately I’ve noticed young American couples who are very sensitive about their fresh floors. They are trying to protect their newly refinished environments–mostly hardwood floors or marble floors–and so they take off their shoes. I experienced it recently in three different households.” One interior designer is quoted as stating, “I’ve seen a lot of young yuppie men who do it because they don’t want women with heels or wedgies to wreck their wood or marble floors.”

One woman said she instituted the “no-shoes rule” when her landlord installed new light-colored carpeting. “And so I would just take my shoes off when I was inside and, lo and behold, five years later, it was still perfect carpeting.”

Field Museum Anthropologist Madeleine Tudor is quoted as saying, “Outside dirt should be kept outside in a figurative and spiritual sense as well. The dwelling is a sacred space, and so it is important to remove shoes and the outside world before entering.” A well-known Chicago party hostess includes a reminder in her invitations to choose their socks taking into account that they will remove their shoes upon entering. As a result, she too, reportedly has beautiful floors.

One problem which arose was the result of the written rules of a cable company in Chicago, based upon the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s requirement that installers leave their shoes on. They settled it by laying down plastic sheeting or asking the workers to wear booties over their shoes.

The space taken up by the shoes will naturally vary according to the length of the guest list, the space available and the ingenuity of the host and/or hostess. Most experienced hosts agree that the solution which is by far superior is built-in shoe shelves.

As one hostess observed, “When people come in the back way and they see the shoe shelves, they ask right away, if they should take their shoes off.”

As one host observed, “In terms of reducing dirt, it just makes sense.”

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(FinalCall.com)–To those of us who are barely acquainted with the Holy Qur’an, if at all, fasting, that is, going without food, not eating faster, is a stranger with whom we are attempting, be it ever so slightly, to become acquainted. Some of us have eating habits which would make skipping lunch a painful ordeal, let alone going an entire day without feasting on something!

Yet, we who follow The Honorable Louis Farrakhan do our ultimate best to eat no more often than once every 24 hours. This does not mean just one whole meal a day; it also means no snacks in between. Of course, with our history, we find this regimen difficult to adopt.

Under the tutelage of Minister Farrakhan, we learn that the healthiest of diets consist of a MAXIMUM of one meal a day, with no snacks in between. Practically every book in the Bible–both OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS–prescribes (ORDERS, NOT SUGGESTS) fasting as an integral part of our lives. It seems so pitiful that some of our people who are quickest to quote the Bible, are the slowest to abide by it.

Fasting is universally agreed in the medical field to be irreplaceable as an aid to better health. But let us not hide behind the fact that most of us have never studied medicine and the other sciences which would lead us to this profound knowledge. How many degrees does a dog have? Yet, you know that you can tell when a dog is ailing, because the first thing he does is stop eating! No matter what is ailing him, he has sense enough to know that ingesting more food at that time would hinder, rather than help, his recovery. And right now, if someone told you that you were dumber than a dog, you would be ready to fight them for telling you the truth.

But before you become violent, stop and remember–when was the last time illness caused you to fast? Some of us even twist the truth to make it match the lies that we are living. I am sure that you have heard the lie, “You have to feed a cold and starve a fever.” The greedy pigs who created that saying did so by tampering with a true saying–that “If you feed a cold, you will later have to starve a fever!” All food contains calories, and calories are measures of heat. Therefore, the more food you eat, the more heat you create, and vice versa.

Fasting, authorities say, is the quickest way to lose weight, and gives the body a physiological rest. It is also credited with “slowing the aging process.” Fasting is credited with lowering and normalizing cholesterol and blood pressure levels, as well as relieving tension and insomnia. While it rids the body of toxins by providing an “internal shower,” a shower in no way deprives the body of essential nutrients. The medical world has learned the value of fasting when used in schizophrenia treatment and other mental illnesses.

Medical officials point out that fasting is a rite in all religions, and that the Bible alone has 74 references to it. Doctor Allan Cott, in his book “Fasting As A Way Of Life,” quotes Patricia Bragg as stating, “Fasting is not starving; it’s nature’s cure that God has given us.”

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Brother Nuri Muhammad just faxed me a copy of a LOS ANGELES SENTINEL article announcing the death of a close friend and loyal Brother of ours, Celes King III– a skilled and dependable bail bondsman, and a glowing example of the meaning of the word “friend.” A former Tuskegee Airman, Celes became known as the most efficient, and the most caring bail bondsman I have seen or heard of anywhere. The article quoted family members as stating that he “expired peacefully, despite suffering from ailments including gangrene and kidney failure.”

The relationship that grew between Celes and The Nation was not devised or orchestrated. It simply grew, being sincerely nurtured by all concerned. We were not the only ones who recognized the brilliance and value of Brother Celes, which is why he was able to successfully establish his own bail bond agency, as well as the California Bail Agents Association. He retired from the California National Guard as a Brigadier General. He was a past president of the NAACP, as well as state chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a position from which he resigned six months before his death. His son, Celes King IV, is quoted as saying, “He was a man who carried multiple banners. This country is going to miss his influence.”

We had established such a relationship with him that he responded to any of us, not just the Leadership. One occasion sticks out in my mind constantly. A few brothers (three carloads) had driven up into the San Joaquin Valley and were selling MUHAMMAD SPEAKS newspapers. They were stopped by the local police and arrested. Unable to reach me immediately, they called Celes. He hopped a plane to Fresno, freed the Brothers and returned home. As he expected, he was fully reimbursed–that was the kind of relationship we had established.

Celes was born in Chicago, but was moved to California by his parents, who were best known for their ownership of the legendary Dunbar Hotel, where all the famous Black people stayed when they came west.

His son, Celes IV, has been quoted as stating, “My father was just a man to me as a son, but he had a mission to constantly change life. He would always wonder, What can I do to make things better?’”

I bear witness that Celes possessed the type of character that would encourage you to take such a question to him. He always seemed to be the kind of person that other people could depend upon, whether he had known them all his life or just met them. May others accept him as a role model!

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Many years ago, while listening to and/or reading the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, we all became acquainted with his oft-used phrase “POISON ANIMAL EATERS.” Immediately, we assumed that he was referring only to eaters of the filthy pig, or “pork,” as they like to respectfully call it. As we matured in The Faith, however, the picture became clearer as we increased our study, to the extent that those of us who were both attentive and sincere reached a level of understanding which enabled us to recognize that he was referring to “The eaters of animals–ALL of which are poison.” Of course, some are more poisonous than others, just as some weapons are deadlier than others, yet they all are weapons.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (DOA), has identified salmonella bacteria as the poison most likely to be lurking in food which is not properly prepared, or which should not be eaten at all. For instance, many desserts call for uncooked or lightly cooked eggs, but the scientists at DOA warn that “even Grade A eggs with clean, uncracked shells can be contaminated with salmonella bacteria.”

Department experts further warn us to “Avoid licking the spoon or bowl used to make cookie dough or batters,” and “Always use recipes that call for thoroughly cooked eggs, never raw ones.”

Nutrition experts make the point that studies show most Americans eating less produce in winter–fewer high-nutrition, low-calorie fruits and vegetables at a time the body really needs something light and fresh. Eating fruits and vegetables consistently, research shows, is key to overall better health. According to a seven-year study of men and women, eating fruits and vegetables throughout the year appeared to provide more heart and cancer protection than eating them just in the warmer months.

Back in December 2002, TIME magazine reported that “Large-scale outbreaks of food poisoning from school meals have risen on average of 10% each year, from 25 outbreaks in 1990 to 50 in 1999, sickening a total of 16,000 children across the country with everything from salmonella to hepatitis A, according to a report released by the U.S. General Accounting –At a time when childhood obesity is skyrocketing–there has been an almost threefold jump in the number of overweight teens since the 1970s–some school cafeterias look a little different from food courts at the local mall. Many serve burgers and pizzas rife with full-fat meats and cheeses or simply turn the prep work over to franchisers like Burger King and Papa John’s, which have a burgeoning side business in catering school meals. Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University’s Center for Eating and Weight Disorders, is quoted as stating, “If nothing changes, a generation will be having heart bypasses by the time they’re 25,” and of adding, “The school cafeteria is a toxic food environment.”

As many of our readers know, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad used to make frequent references to “poison animal eaters.” As far as I knew, all of us who heard him thought the phrase referred to people who ate a particular class of meat, which came from a particular group of animals that had been singled out as “poison.” Thankfully, we have grown to recognize that his reference was to ALL animals–none of which are fit to eat!

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