In the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the state of Israel extends well beyond its current borders. Referred to as “Greater Israel,” the concept calls for Israel to annex more of Palestine and parts of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.

The colonial settler state attempted to occupy parts of some of those territories in the past, withdrawing from them after intense fighting from resistance forces and international condemnation.

The state’s current occupation of Lebanon and Mr. Netanyahu’s ultimate dream of the “Greater” annexation have observers wondering if Iran will be another “forever war.”

“You have two proxies of the U.S.-Israel and Lebanon,” Dr. Wilmer Leon, radio host and political science professor at Morgan State University, told The Final Call. “The concept of ‘Greater Israel’ and its stated objective of the elimination of Lebanon, Iran and Palestinians, as well, you can’t negotiate with that.”

By many accounts, President Trump, who campaigned on no more “forever” wars, was encouraged by Mr. Netanyahu to join Israel in an unprovoked attack on Iran on February 28. Iran and its support of Hezbollah in Lebanon are the primary obstacles preventing Israel from exerting full dominance in the region.

America’s war on Islam came to light when retired Army General Wesley Clark revealed in 2001 that the U.S. planned to take out seven Muslim countries. The last of those countries still in the way is Iran.

Late last year, Mr. Netanyahu raised concerns about his expansionist ideas in an interview when he stated he “very much” identifies with the vision of a “Greater Israel,” framing it as a “historical and spiritual” mission, according to the middleeasteye.net and other news outlets.

In February, U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee caused an uproar when commentator Tucker Carlson, in an interview, asked the ambassador if he supported Israel controlling historical lands described in the Bible as belonging to Jewish people, which today includes parts of other nations.

“It would be fine if they took it all,” Mr. Huckabee said. The Trump administration later said the comment was taken out of context.

But it is one held by many in the conservative wing of the Israeli government. Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid said that he would support “anything that will allow the Jews a large, broad, strong land and a safe haven for us.”

“Zionism is based on the Bible. Our mandate over the land of Israel is biblical, [and] the biblical borders of the land of Israel are clear. … Therefore, the borders are the borders of the Bible,” Mr. Lapid reportedly said.

“The whole cause of the strife is due to the ideology of Zionism that eventually developed into the state of Israel,” countered Rabbi Yisroel D. Weiss of the Neturei Karta orthodox Jewish community to The Final Call. “They use the Jewish religion as a facade, a cover for nationalist endeavors.”

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) framework to discuss peace between the U.S. and Iran calls for a total ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

Mr. Netanyahu has vowed to neither leave Lebanon nor stop fighting Hezbollah. A recent “agreement” between Lebanon and Israel, however, signals possible compromise.

Lebanon agreement raises concerns

According to the framework, Israel will withdraw from two “pilot zone” areas in southern Lebanon, transferring the sites to the Lebanese military, under the proposal signed in Washington on June 26.

Much of the agreement focuses on establishing “sovereignty” of the Lebanese government and disarming Hezbollah resistance fighters. The governments “commit to establishing a military coordination group, with U.S. support and participation, to ensure overall implementation” of the agreement.

Also, the Lebanese government “welcomes the readiness of the United States to support” militarily such efforts in disarming “all non-state armed groups.”

The signing prompted protests in the streets of Beirut, Lebanon, with many displaying flags in support of Hezbollah.

Critics of the proposal point out:

• the role of the U.S. as a potential dishonest broker;
• the inability of the Lebanese military to effectively defend the country against future Israeli aggression;
• the agreement may pit the army against Hezbollah if they do not disarm.

Critics also note that Israel will pull out of Lebanon pending the “verified disarmament” of non-state armed groups.

“The United States is unlikely to act as a neutral mediator and will almost certainly align with Israeli positions whenever disputes arise over the interpretation or implementation of the agreement,”

Said Karim Emile Bitar, a professor of international relations at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut, in an article posted on Aljazeera.com. “This creates a fundamentally asymmetric negotiating environment in which Lebanon has little leverage and few effective guarantees.”

Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers will remain in Lebanon until Hezbollah is disarmed, Al Jazeera reported.

Imad Hamad, director of the American Human Rights Coalition, told The Final Call the Hezbollah resistance “was not formed in a vacuum.” At one point Israel occupied Lebanon for more than 20 years and has a history of invading Lebanon, he said, adding, “that’s why the resistance was formed.”

Muhammad Sankara of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) suggests Israel and the U.S. are playing a game of divide and conquer. He said language in the agreement could pit the Lebanese Army against Hezbollah if carried out as written. He also said Israel doesn’t currently occupy the two “pilot zones” they agreed to withdraw from.

“It’s clear the U.S. and Israel are hoping to launch Lebanon into a civil war with Hezbollah,” Mr. Sankara told The Final Call. Their plan follows the “Gaza model” used against Palestinians: destabilize, disarm and make Lebanon a colony of Israel.

He described the Lebanese military as an “underdeveloped, under resourced, glorified police force armed by the U.S. with pre-1980s military equipment.”

Not face-to-face yet

While still debating control of the vital Strait of Hormuz and whether there will be fees charged to pass through, mediators for Iran and the U.S. reportedly reached agreement in Doha to release $6 billion of Iran’s frozen assets.

The indirect talks were mediated by Qatar and Pakistan even though the U.S. had sent envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to the region. Iranian authorities have said its negotiators will not sit down for peace talks with the Trump administration until all the points in the MoU have been upheld.

Terms of the MoU expire 60 days from its signing, which occurred on June 17. Mr. Trump said he went to war to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Professor Leon said those goals already existed before the U.S.-Israel attack.

“Everything Donald Trump claims he was trying to accomplish already existed in the JCPOA,” Professor Leon said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action negotiated in 2018 by President Barack Obama. “Whether it’s a non-nuclear Iran, an open Strait of Hormuz, all of that was already agreed to.

“Resistance forces are winning,” he concluded. “If they weren’t winning, the United States and Israel would not be talking about negotiations. They don’t negotiate when they have the upper hand.”

Will Netanyahu’s expansionist goals commit U.S. to continued conflict?

The post Another ‘forever war?’ appeared first on Final Call News.

Conflicting messages continue to be fired across the bow as the war enters its fourth month. Previous declared “ceasefires” never stopped missiles from being fired. The 14 points, or “understandings,” outlined in the MoU are interpreted differently depending on who’s doing the talking.

Shortly after signing the MoU, President Donald Trump declared the Strait of Hormuz open to ship traffic and that there would be no tolls charged for passage now or in the future.

Iranian authorities announced ships seeking to pass must get their approval and a permanent decision about the Strait, as stated in the MoU, would be decided by Iran and Oman, the two countries that border the waterway.

On June 25, Iran reportedly fired on a ship trying to navigate the Strait. A day later, the U.S. military fired on positions in Iran in response.

The MoU calls for a ceasefire “on all fronts,” including Lebanon, where Israel has continued to fire on Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed group of resistance fighters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced he has no intention to stop firing on Hezbollah or withdraw from Lebanon, which is a potential peace dealbreaker for Iran.

The MoU stipulates that Iran’s frozen assets would be made available to the Islamic Republic for use “upon implementation” of the MoU. Mr. Trump had declared that any funds would be spent to purchase agricultural and medical products from U.S. farmers and manufacturers. Iran declared it would spend its money as it pleases.

The Trump administration said it attacked Iran to destroy its capacity to develop a nuclear weapon. Shortly after the first negotiations between the U.S. and Iran on June 22, Vice President JD Vance announced that Iran had agreed to allow international inspectors back into the country.

But Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said there were no such plans, according to the BBC. President Trump posted on social media, “If they did not agree to this, there would be no further negotiations.”

Many argue that Iran won the deal … and the war to this point. Tensions have arisen between Mr. Trump and representatives of the Republican Party, over whom he has exerted considerable control.

Several Republicans joined Democrats recently to pass a War Powers Resolution, a mostly symbolic effort that calls on the president to get approval from Congress to continue the fighting. Shortly thereafter, another vote sided with the president when a few legislators voted differently or abstained from the vote.

The president’s approval ratings have fallen to the mid- to upper-30% range since the unpopular war started, according to polls. The drop is mostly attributed to disapproval of the war, rising gas prices, and the cost of food and other necessities. Even Gulf allies are souring on Mr. Trump, according to a recent Washington Post article.

The article reveals that government officials from the UAE tried to dissuade Mr. Trump against the war and they publicly lavish praise on him. Privately, however, one official expressed they got “played.”

One businessman told the Post of excitement around Trump’s announcement of a $2 trillion investment deal in the region, and a campaign promise to be a “no war president.” That changed, however, when war threatened tourism, the economy, regional security and danger to infrastructure. “We got played,” the businessman told The Post.

Phyllis Bennis, program director with the Institute for Policy Studies, told The Final Call Mr. Trump’s MoU is a ceasefire agreement, while the JCPOA agreement negotiated by the Obama administration was a nuclear inspections agreement, one that Mr. Trump tore up during his first term.

The MoU calls for opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was not closed before the war, she pointed out.  “The urgency to end the war was crucial,” she said. “The MoU was designed to be done quickly, so they left out clarity. Instead of the impossibility of going for a nuclear agreement, Trump went for a ceasefire.”

Ms. Bennis said the biggest threat to the MoU is Israel’s determination to stay in Lebanon to fight Hezbollah, an opinion activist Ajamu Baraka, agrees with.

The attacks on Iran and Lebanon are efforts to undermine the only state in the region that can challenge Israel, Mr. Baraka told The Final Call. He postured that U.S. strategy is to exert hegemony in the Americas through its invasion of Venezuela, thus hurting China’s economy by disrupting its access to Venezuelan crude, as well as consolidating power with Israel in the Middle East.

“Trump had called for unconditional surrender from Iran,” said Mr. Baraka, director of the Black Alliance for Peace Centered Human Rights, adding he feels “the MoU was Mr. Trump’s way of pausing the conflict.”

On a recent 1A broadcast on National Public Radio, Al Monitor news Editor in Chief Joyce Karam speculated that Iran is paying attention to the negative polls and the waffling of some of Mr. Trump’s Republican legislators.

“We’re at half-time,” she said of the fighting. “Iran got themselves a sweet deal and the (Trump) administration is in a tough spot. They want to end the war but don’t have enough cards to pressure Iran. [Iran] knows the American public wants an end to the war.”

She added that President Trump is “playing a divide-and-conquer” strategy by sending Vice President Vance to talk to the Saudis while sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio to talk to Gulf state allies.

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 A June 23 United Nations report says Israel continues to “deliberately target and kill” Palestinian children. The world body says Israel’s actions amount to “genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” in Gaza and war crimes in the occupied West Bank.

A June 22 report by the Zulat Institute for Equality and Human Rights accused the Israeli government and state institutions of using the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israeli concert goers to suppress freedom of expression among its Arab population. The Zulat is an Israeli policy think tank.

Both reports focus on Israeli atrocities even as the settler colonial state intentionally seeks to upend peace negotiations between Iran and the U.S.—who have published a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for peace talks—by continuing to bomb Lebanon. Iran has made a total ceasefire in Lebanon a requirement in the MoU.

The UN report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory documents Israel’s intentional targeting of neonatal and maternity care centers during its war on Gaza that began immediately after the Oct. 7 attack that resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and about 250 people held hostage.

Israel’s assault on Gaza amounted to deliberate attacks on populated areas that “wiped out entire families across two or three or even four generations, with the Israeli security forces fully aware that children would be present and that children, with their small, fragile bodies, have a higher chance of death and serious injury in such attacks,” the report said.

Thirty percent of people killed in Gaza since the war started have been children, the report said, adding Israel’s daily bombings “endangered Palestinians’ reproductive future and the survival of newborns—driving a rise in miscarriages, birth defects and lasting vulnerabilities among newborns, resulting in the destruction of Palestinian newborn life and the population’s continuity.”

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at least 21,289 Palestinian children have been reported killed in the Gaza Strip between the start of the conflict in October 2023 and early February 2026. Additionally, over 50,000 children have been injured, with tens of thousands more missing or trapped under the rubble.

An average of one child a day has been killed in the eight months since the October 2025 Gaza “ceasefire,” the UN noted.

“Palestinian children have been deliberately targeted and killed by the Israeli security forces,” said Srinivasan Muralidhar, chair of the Commission, in a UN release concerning the report. “Even after the October 2025 ceasefire, children continue to be killed and seriously injured.”

A doctor visiting a Gaza medical center noted in the report: “Children brought into the emergency department were seeing around them the chaos of mass casualty, with people screaming, limbs blown off, blood … these children were sitting in a corner, staring blankly, not talking and observing all that, without any adults helping them to process or offer any sense of security. Mental health of children has been completely jeopardized.”

Forms of severe mistreatment of children by Israeli soldiers include extrajudicial arrests, torture, and sexual violence. In addition, information has been regularly withheld from parents about their child’s whereabouts.

Last year, the Commission concluded Israeli authorities and its military have committed and continue to commit genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, defined as killing members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction in whole or in part; and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.

“Everything in Gaza was a target,” Imad Hadad, director of the American Human Rights Coalition, told The Final Call.  “The Israeli Army killed children as they walked to school or to get water. They have created an unstable and disabled Palestinian community. Many children are without arms or legs.”  Mr. Hadad described Gaza as “a new version of the Holocaust” and convicted the U.S. as a direct participant in the genocide. 

The bombings of schools and orphanages in Gaza and East Jerusalem have obstructed cognitive, social and emotional care and development and “disrupted the foundations of Palestinian society,” the report notes.

“The destruction of their health, education and development is irreversible,” Mr. Muralidhar declared.

Silencing Palestinian citizens of Israel

The Zulat report on suppression of free speech indicates that since October 7 and throughout the Gaza war, “a widespread perception has taken hold that the exercise of freedom of expression and demonstration among the Arab public constitutes a security threat that must be thwarted in advance, or at the very least significantly restricted.”

Titled “If You Speak, a Policeman Will Come—The Silencing of the Arab Public During the War,” the report said the entire Arab public was viewed as “an enemy” regarding the exercise of  freedom of expression and the right to protest. The report describes the systematic silencing of the Arab public, including political persecution, from the beginning of  the Gaza war in 2023 until the signing of a ceasefire agreement in October of 2025.

The report said the “silencing policy” had the support of the Israeli police, the Knesset (Legislative branch), the government (Executive branch), the State’s Attorney’s office and the Supreme Court. Arab Israeli citizens were labeled as supporting terrorism or treason and experienced social ostracism, job loss, suspension or expulsion from universities and subject to unwarranted criminal investigations.

The message: “It is forbidden to oppose the war, voice grief over the killing and starvation in Gaza, question the version of events of the government and security forces, or express solidarity with Palestinian victim,” the report noted, adding, “This policy effectively silenced the Arab public.”

Showing support for Palestinian victims or showing solidarity with their cause was viewed by the Israeli government as supporting terrorism or being traitorous. Severe restrictions were placed on Arab demonstrations and protests, as well as social media comments, the report said.

The contention over Arab Israeli rights has further called into question the label of Israel as a democratic state. The report highlights the government’s efforts to undermine the legitimacy of Arab participation in elections, criminalizing the display of the Palestinian flag, threatening and detaining Arab journalists and falsely accusing Arab politicians of being terrorist operatives or supporting terrorism.

 “It is a cliché that Israel is ‘the only democracy’ in the Middle East,” said Mr. Hamad, a Palestinian whose parents and grandparents were exiled to Lebanon, where he was raised, during the first Nakba (catastrophe). Arab citizens of Israel “have citizenship but they are not treated equally.” “Israel is a racist country, and racism is the core of Zionism,” he said.

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The MoU was signed by President Donald J. Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian at the Palace of Versailles in France at a dinner hosted by President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the highly anticipated G7 meeting of powerful nations.

By most accounts, Iran gets the better of the deal—if it holds—as the Muslim nation gets outcomes similar to or slightly better than those of a previous agreement signed by former President Barack Obama in 2015, which Mr. Trump tore up during his first term as president.

For example, the MoU does not stipulate inspections of Iran’s nuclear activities. There are, however, many “red lines” for both sides in the MoU and anger from both sides of Congress is palpable.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Trump supporter, said the president “got very poor advice when it comes to this deal.” Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who lost his recent re-election bid to a Trump-backed challenger, in a post on X said the deal is “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades.”

“This is not the art of the deal, this is the art of surrender,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in an interview on MS Now. The senator was taking a jab at Mr. Trump’s co-written 1987 book “Trump: The Art of the Deal.” He went on to describe the MoU as “one of the worst foreign policy disasters” in U.S. history.

At various moments during the G7 gathering, President Trump showed the stress of the pressure on him because of what Iran wins.

President Trump commented that it is acceptable for Iran to maintain a ballistic missile arsenal, stating it is “fair” in relative proportion to other nations. “I’m saying that if other countries have them, it’s a little bit unfair for them not to have some,” the president told reporters on June 18.

While at the G7, he also explained the decision to unfreeze some of Iran’s assets. “The unfreezing … we have taken a lot of their money. And we have their money. We have taken their money, its not our money, it’s their money and we froze it.

At a certain point in time, I guess we’re going to have to give it back. You know, if we didn’t give it back, nobody would ever invest in the dollar again,” he said, reported several media outlets.

Among other things, the 14-point MoU stipulates:

• An immediate and permanent end of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon
• Removal of the U.S. naval blockade on Iran
• Termination of U.S. sanctions against Iran in an agreed upon schedule
• U.S. will make available for use the frozen or restricted funds and assets of Iran.

For its part, Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for oil, fertilizer and other materials and reaffirm its commitment not to develop or obtain nuclear weapons, something it had affirmed in the previous 2015 agreement. (See full MoU on page 23.)

At Final Call press time, the planned June 19 public signing ceremony with U.S. Vice President JD Vance was canceled due to Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon. Such attacks cross Iran’s red line established in the MoU. The document had been signed on June 17 by presidents Trump and Pezeshkian.

It had been argued that warring parties were playing a waiting game: Trump betting that Iran’s economy would collapse and create internal rebellion; Iran betting that the decline of the world economy would pressure the U.S. to back off so ships can flow through the Strait.

“Iran is moving from survival to ambition … using the MoU to gain power,” University of Chicago professor Robert Pape surmised on the Danny Haipong YouTube channel, pointing out that any oil that moves through the Strait now would not make it to market before the end of the year. By that time, oil reserves of most nations will be near empty.

If the U.S. or Israel violates the agreement, Iran shuts down the Strait again. “This is the escalation trap,” said Professor Pape, author of “The Escalation Trap” Substack site.

Charles Barron, an activist and former New York assemblyman and council member, said the MoU was President Trump’s way of “trying to find a graceful way out, and there was none.”

Mr. Barron, a radio host and host of the Speaking Truth to Power podcast, explained that many Republicans were against starting a war with Iran, especially as a midterm election approaches. He said the expertise of Iran’s negotiators now makes Iran a stronger regional power and an emerging world power.

The president was emboldened by his taking of Venezuela and arresting President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. “But Iran is no Venezuela or Cuba,” Mr. Barron explained. “This is further evidence of the declining American empire and we’re witnessing the birth pains of a new world order.”

Observers suggest that any final agreement will not differ significantly from Mr. Obama’s 2015 plan, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). A major contention by opponents of the MoU is a $300 billion reconstruction plan—demanded by Iran prior to the agreement—and who will pay for it?

Under the MoU, $300 billion is separate from the U.S. commitment to issue waivers for Iranian oil exports and allowing access to frozen funds immediately after the agreement is signed. In contrast, the JCPOA provided for a more gradual lifting of sanctions, with many non-nuclear sanctions remaining in place.

Observers also quickly point out that Mr. Trump’s claim that Mr. Obama gave a planeload of cash to Iran is misleading. It was Iran’s money.

A Yahoo.com “fact check” article points out the money “represented a settlement of a decades-old legal dispute over $400 million Iran had paid the U.S., before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, for military equipment it never received, plus about $1.3 billion in interest.”

Israel: America’s friend or foe?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been vocal about his MoU opposition and his commitment to attack Lebanon, which has caused death and destruction with its actions being compared to the regime’s genocide in Gaza. Public disputes between Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu have grabbed headlines in recent weeks. Whether Israel will relinquish before the MoU totally collapses is the question.

According to reporting by NBCnews.com, on June 16 at the G7, President Trump said, “Without me, there would be no Israel,” and reportedly also called Prime Minister Netanyahu “crazy” and used an expletive to describe his poor judgment. He also criticized Israel’s continued bombing of Lebanon.

“There are many within the Israeli cabinet that would want to continue bombing Lebanon and thwart this eventual peace deal,” said Terek Khalil, attorney, activist and Education Chair with the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). This vision of creating a greater Israel needs Lebanese territory, not to mention Syrian territory, Jordanian territory and the rest of historic Palestine.

“On that basis, there will be a lot of political motivation to continue their expansionist campaign in Lebanon,” he said.

Mr. Khalil and others point out that the Strait of Hormuz was open prior to the unprovoked U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran, and the Muslim nation never threatened to impose a tariff on ships for passage, as they now are suggesting they might do. Nor were U.S. military bases in neighboring Gulf nations being attacked. Now they are.

“The Strait will be open for 60 days, but after 60 days it’ll be subject to a decision between Iran and Oman,” Mr. Khalil noted. “They will ultimately decide what the future holds for the Strait of Hormuz. That could have an economic impact on the United States. So, the situation post Memorandum of Understanding could be worse for the United States than pre-war.”

Mr. Khalil noted that the war has taken focus off the genocide occurring in Gaza. With the assault on Iran, America is complicit in the “crime of crimes”—genocide with Israel in Gaza and the unprovoked military attack and blockade of another nation.

“This is a shameful stain on the United States of America and we’re doing it at the behest of a foreign entity, a foreign government, Israel. That is something that Americans should abhor. We must end this so-called special relationship because it is a damaging one for U.S. interests.”

Reuters reports 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in Gaza since an October 2025 ceasefire agreement, with many injured victims dying due to the closing of crossings manned by Israeli soldiers and the inability to be extracted to a medical facility.

All of Gaza is occupied, Mr. Khalil explained, but the physical presence of the Israeli army has a stronghold over 70% of the Gaza Strip.

“It looks like the vision is to occupy, physically, 70% of the 365 square kilometer territory known as the Gaza Strip and further consolidate their gains and suffocate the Palestinian people. That’s something that you will not see in mainstream news anymore.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, has consistently warned the American Government that Israel will drag it into a war that will end its power. He has also warned Islamic nations against being divided by the enemy that threatens them all.

“America: Even though you plan well, there is another Planner over and above your plans—that is The Best of Planners. And your plans, under His Plan, is causing you to fulfill the scripture that says ‘you will lay a trap and get caught in it, and you will dig a ditch for others.

But you will fall in it yourself,’” the Minister warned the American Government in Part 34 of his 2013 yearlong series “The Time and What Must Be done” titled “America’s Errant Foreign Policy.”

In that same message, Minister Farrakhan said to the Islamic nations: “My dear brothers and sisters, leaders of the Islamic world: What you are doing under the guidance of America and Europe will cause the whole Middle East to be destroyed, and possibly lead to the bombing of our Holy City of Mecca.

Whether you know it or not, the rightful place for The Righteous will be bathed in blood as a ‘purifying agent’ for The Mahdi and The Messiah to bring The Real People of God back to their proper and rightful place in Mecca, in Medina, and the whole Muslim world!”

The post Iran finds road map to rising power Stumbling blocks and Israel trip up Trump’s peace efforts appeared first on Final Call News.

Hours after his announcement to the press at the White House, Iran’s news agency IRNA published points in the agreement causing Mr. Trump to lash out.

According to firstpost.com, points included: Permanent and immediate cessation of war on all fronts, including Lebanon; complete lifting of the naval blockade within 30 days; and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within 30 days under arrangements determined by Iran, among others.

The information amounts to “Fake News” that has “NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” the president wrote on his Truth Social site.

The leaked information amounts to “Fake News” that has “NOTHING to do with the terms that were agreed to, in writing,” the president wrote on his Truth Social site.

He wrote that Iranian authorities are “Very dishonorable people to deal with. … They better get their act together, and FAST!”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted on X that, in fact, an MOU “has never been closer.” He called on media outlets to “refrain from entering speculation about its content.”

The MOU agreement stipulates there would be a cessation of fighting for 60 days while the finer points of contention are hammered out, according to press reports.

Parties in agreement with the MOU in its current form include Israel, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others, President Trump acknowledged in a Truth Social post, adding the U.S. Naval blockade of Iran would remain until the agreement is signed.

At Final Call presstime, President Trump announced yet again that a peace deal had been reached. The Iranian outlet PressTV.ir, reported on June 14 that.

“The secretariat of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has confirmed that Tehran and Washington have finalized the text of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the war, bringing an immediate and permanent halt to military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon, and terminating the US naval blockade against Iran.”

In an April ceasefire agreement, Iran stipulated lifting of U.S. sanctions and unfreezing of Iranian assets, continued Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, reparations for damage done in the war, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from bases in the region, among other demands, many of which still stand.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance recently addressed some of these points: “If the Islamic Republic of Iran meets its obligations, then economic benefits will flow to them and to the entire region,” he posted on X.

On the other hand, the U.S. Treasury Department has announced it will use Iranian assets to help America’s Gulf allies to recover from war damages caused by Iran, according to cbsnews.com.

Days before the MOU announcement, President Trump increased attacks on Iran partly because of the downing of a U.S. Apache helicopter over the Strait of Hormuz but also because Iranians were “taking too long” to reach an agreement.

He announced through Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth that the U.S. would “negotiate with bombs.” The president also announced a desire to capture Kharg Island, an important Iranian port to store oil.

“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela …” Mr. Trump said on social media.

The U.S. already has enforced a Naval blockade on Iranian shipments. Capturing the island would almost certainly involve U.S. boots-on-the ground, a situation the president said the American public probably would not support.

“Iran is not Venezuela,” commented historian and University of Houston professor Dr. Gerald Horne, adding that President Trump’s persistent promises of ceasefires and peace deals “is an attempt to manipulate the price of oil and stock markets.”

Critics have consistently voiced frustration with the president’s regular contradictory announcements regarding ceasefires and pending peace agreements. Bombs have fallen throughout the April 8 “ceasefire” announcement, partly due to violations from Israel through their attacks against Hezbollah resistance fighters in Lebanon.

At one point, the disagreement grew into a public spat with President Trump scolding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for potentially derailing a peace deal.

Who’s in charge?

When Iran launched a June 7 attack on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli assault on Hezbollah in Lebanon, President Trump appealed to Prime Minister Netanyahu to stand down and not retaliate.

“I call all the shots. He doesn’t call the shots,” the U.S. president was quoted saying in response to a question from reporters. The next day, Israel launched attacks into Iran, apparently ignoring Mr. Trumps appeal.

The public disagreements have observers wondering who’s in charge.

Dr. Wilmer Leon, professor of Political Science at Morgan State University, doesn’t consider either leader “in charge” of the direction of the war.

“When you look at how much money AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has poured into this, when you look at the interests of Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas, and General Electric, the military industrial complex is in charge of this,” he declared.

“When you look at Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, they’re in charge of this. Donald Trump is merely a figurehead.”

Dr. Leon said the U.S. and other western nations want to maintain the “settler colonial project known as Israel” in the region and western Christian Zionists have a religious interest in maintaining the status quo.

“I think it was (former president) Joe Biden who said, ‘if Israel didn’t exist, we would create one,’” he noted. “Then you have the Christian Zionists and their interest as it relates to Armageddon and the whole belief of the rapture.”

Appearing at a recent Congressional hearing, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX.) whether Israel has nuclear weapons. Rep. Castro prefaced his question stating that he and 29 other representatives wrote Rubio a letter expressing the need to understand the “full risk, including the nuclear risk” involved in the Iran war. With American soldiers in the region, Congress needs to know if Israel would use nuclear force, he implied.

Rep. Castro said the response from Rubio’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs department was Congress should “ask Israel,” a response he described as “very bizarre.”

“Will you tell us … whether Israel, in fact, possesses nuclear weapons?” he asked.

The secretary did not answer the question directly, saying only that “most of the world assesses that they do.” The question was more appropriate for a “classified and sensitive” setting, Sec. Rubio said.

“The reason he can’t answer that question,” said Dr. Leon, “is because as soon as he admits that Israel has a nuclear weapon, that changes the legal dynamics that the United States now finds itself engaged in.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned America about her efforts to destabilize foreign nations and warned Muslim leaders to stand united.

“Iranians have the right to resolve their own problems without outside interference, just as the U.S. has claimed its right to conduct elections free of Russian influence,” Minister Farrakhan said in a statement regarding his 2018 trip to Iran and message to Iran and America. Self-determination is a right of every nation, Minister Farrakhan said.

“The Muslim World needs unity and must find the path to reconciliation despite efforts to pit Muslims against one another. Satan seeks to divide Muslims and wants them to kill each other, while Allah God tells us in the Qur’an to be united.”

A view of the damages at Hypercar, an auto service center, which according to the company’s officials were caused by strikes on March 1, in Tehran, Iran, March 28. Photo: AP/Vahid Salemi

The post Is agreement to stop Iran war near? appeared first on Final Call News.

With distrust rising among warring parties and fractures appearing in President Donald Trump’s grip on Republican legislators, the war could explode into all-out battle again, particularly due to Israel’s attacks and expansion into Lebanon. 

Iran has said continued attacks into Lebanon is a red line to peace talks.

Such attacks moved President Trump to launch an expletive-laced scolding of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a June 1 conversation.

“You’re f***ing crazy. You’d be in prison if it weren’t for me,” axios.com reported based on conversations with its sources familiar with the tense conversation. “I’m saving your a**. Everybody hates you now. Everybody hates Israel because of this.”

The goal of Israel’s attacks in Lebanon “is to destroy even the slightest possibility for the ongoing diplomatic processes to lead to improvements in the situation,” Iranian Foreign Minister Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement,” adding, “We can’t consider the U.S. and the Zionist regime as two separate agents.”

Critics are further concerned that legislation before the U.S. Congress could deepen U.S.-Israel cooperation on weapons technology, research and production.

The United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative appears in Section 224 of the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual U.S. defense policy bill, Al Jazeera news reported.

Passage would join America and Israel even more than they already are in technology, critics warn, noting Israel’s “iron dome” technology.

Paying $3.8 billion a year in taxpayer dollars for Israel’s defense has become very unpopular, said Phyllis Bennis, director of the Institute for Policy Studies. The funding is based on a memorandum of understanding (MO) and the prospect of negotiating another MO that lasts 10-20 years “was not looking very hopeful,” she said.

So, some members of Congress decided to include it in the NDAA, she said.

“They won’t get direct military aide. Instead, they would get a partnership of production of weapons that would make the U.S. even more complicit in Israeli war crimes,” Ms. Bennis said.

President Trump, by many accounts, was persuaded to attack Iran by Prime Minister Natanyahu, who advised that Iran would surrender within days of a U.S.-Israel joint attack. Ms. Bennis disagrees.

Trump was a war-making president already, she said, adding, now, there are significant differences between the two leaders.

“Netanyahu’s goal from the beginning is to maintain a war against Iran until he can claim that the Iranian regime has been completely defeated. … Without that, he is nothing. Now that puts him in direct contradiction with Trump, who just wants to get out from under this war. He’s bored with it, as he says himself,” Ms.  Bennis explained.

The ultimate pressure point to bring Prime Minister Netanyahu in line may be to threaten to stop arming Israel, she concluded.

Pressure from criminal charges Mr. Netanyahu faces once he’s no longer prime minister and criticism from Israel’s far-right national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir may give the prime minister fuel to persist in war.

“You said that a strong prime minister tells the President of the United States ‘yes’ when possible, and ‘no’ when necessary. Now is the time to say to our friend, President Trump, ‘no,’” Mr. Gvir wrote on his Telegram channel, according to newarab.com, a London-based English language news site.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, spoke of America’s current predicament in chapter 69 of His phenomenal book “Fall of America.”

“With nations rejecting peace offers and nations laughing and making mock of you forever seeking peace and friendship—as it is written, ‘Peace is desired more than fine gold!’ …

“We did not know that we would see such a Goliath—such a giant—falling. Goliath! who has defied the nations of the earth to come out and fight with them, as Goliath did before Israel. Now, nations make mock of the great giant of the earth, America.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, during Saviours’ Day 2024, warned President Trump of being pulled into a war due to Mr. Netanyahu’s blood thirst.

Speaking of the genocide on Palestinians, Minister Farrakhan explained that in the night hours, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad had shown him in a vision the wicked King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.

“And that man, Nebuchadnezzar: Allah turned him from a human to a beast,” Minister Farrakhan said. “And when I looked at what was happening to our Palestinian brothers and sisters, I saw why Allah showed me Nebuchadnezzar; because Netanyahu was becoming a beast in human form, with no feeling at all for the Palestinian people and for what they were causing the Palestinian people to suffer.”

The long game

Analysts speculate that the U.S. and Iran are playing a long game of who can hold out, as President Trump is banking on Iran’s economy to totally collapse and Tehran gambles that global economies will put pressure on Mr. Trump.

Politico recently reported that executives have warned the White House that U.S. oil reserves are “hitting rock bottom” due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the Islamic nation’s strongest strategy and position in the war. Trump officials denied any conversation.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced millions of people are being pushed further into hunger, even as President Trump did a June 5 midterm election campaign visit to Wisconsin to tout his agenda for farmers.

“The situation is being compounded by a lack of funding for humanitarian operations. … If the crisis continues for another six months, an additional 9 million people could lose access to aid,” WFP announced.

Oil and fertilizer are impacted by closure of the Strait.

With deaths rising above 3,500, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry since early March, Jordan Esparza-Kelley, a communications spokesperson for CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), told The Final Call that Israel’s goal is to achieve their “greater Israel project,” which includes taking  Palestine and land from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.

“For over 30 years Netanyahu has aimed for this to happen and finally there was a U.S. President gullible enough to do it. The concern is always when attention drifts from Gaza that the genocide committed by Israel intensifies,” he said regarding lack of media attention to the continued bombing, killing and land grabs in Gaza and the West Bank.

He said CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, is focusing on domestic issues like the NDAA weapons legislation.

“Parallel to these global issues is the use of inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric by local, state, and federal elected officials, which stoke the flames for terror attacks” on Muslims, he said.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric is used as a vehicle to bolster defense budgets and create a state of paranoia in the U.S. by manufacturing an enemy abroad and at home, he concluded.

Four Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives joined Democrats June 3 to pass a War Powers resolution that calls on President Trump to either pull out of the war or get approval from Congress to continue. The resolution is mostly symbolic as it can be vetoed by the president, which then Congress would have to override.

The post Trump and Netanyahu play dangerous game in Iran war appeared first on Final Call News.

Because of these truths, he has been falsely called and labeled a hater, anti-Semitic, and an enemy of the American people. But speaking truth and warning of approaching danger, even if it hurts, are the characteristics of a true friend.

American presidents are fond of the word “patriot.” Past presidents have called on Americans to be “patriotic” citizens and respond to their drumbeats for war and invasion of other nations under the false pretenses of America under attack or threats of terrorism.

They call on “patriots” to perform their duties even when the presidents themselves and Congress knowingly lie to justify invading or bombing other nations to overthrow regimes or gain access to mineral wealth.

The lives of many American soldiers have been lost based on these lies. Lies pulled America into the Vietnam War. Lies pulled American soldiers into invading Iraq.

Tens of thousands of innocent civilian lives have been lost on the receiving end of U.S. bombs and American weaponry supplied to Israel in their genocidal attempt to exterminate the people of Palestine, Lebanon and other Muslim nations.

Today, America is involved in a war against Iran, a war that was not declared by the U.S. Congress. The war does, however, complete a larger strategy launched by so-called neoconservatives in the late 1990s and significantly impacted by the administration of President George W. Bush.

That strategy, which accelerated after the 9/11 attacks on America, was to destabilize the Middle East by overthrowing the governments of seven Muslim nations—Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran. 

At this writing, every one of those nations have been destabilized—except Iran.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has warned every U.S. president, from Ronald Reagan to Donald J. Trump, of the dangers of pulling the lynchpin into Armageddon, the war to end all wars spoken of in scripture.

He has repeated the forecast spoken by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, that once this war starts there would be blood “and plenty of it.” 

Once Armageddon is in its full fury, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad told the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan that America would send their soldiers over in the tens of thousands, but they would come back in the fives and tens.

“I have been reading that the plans are already made for America to attack the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Minister Farrakhan said in an April 8, 2007, message at Mosque Maryam, referencing the 2003 bombing of Iraq to remove leader Saddam Hussein. “The United States can’t win a ground war in Iraq, and it can’t win a ground war in Iran,” he continued.

The only way for America to defeat Iran is to use nuclear force under the pretense that America is destroying Iran’s nuclear capabilities, while all the time killing civilians, the Minister forecasted.

Minister Farrakhan warned President Trump in his first term (2016-2020) that his character and thinking would be to the detriment of his administration, a warning manifested more fully in his second administration.

Mr. Trump’s second administration has drawn the distrust of America’s closest ally, Canada, by suggesting that the U.S. could annex its northern neighbor.

He has caused distrust among allied European nations by unilaterally applying exorbitant tariffs on their exports, called countries nasty names, ridiculed friendly leaders and threatened to withdraw from NATO.

An April Alliance of Democracies Foundation survey confirmed Minister Farrakhan’s warning, showing that “[G]lobal perceptions of the U.S. have deteriorated for a second consecutive year and are now worse than views of Russia.”

The Denmark-based foundation said the U.S. was also most frequently named in response to which country posed the greatest threat to ​the world, after Russia and Israel, Reuters reported.

Minister Farrakhan has warned that Mr. Trump’s plan for American dominance through fear is what is pushing smaller nations to want weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Trump invaded Venezuela and kidnapped its president, Nicolas Maduro and his wife, while also taking control of that nation’s oil exports and revenues.

Even as he pursues war in Iran, Mr. Trump has announced Cuba as his next target—announcing indictments on former Cuban President Raul Castro, increased the military presence in the Gulf, placed economic sanctions and an oil embargo that have caused near 24-hour power outages and Cuban suffering.

In the book “Closing The Gap” by Brother Jabril Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan said in answer to a question, that obtaining a nuclear weapon is a deterrent to American aggression.

“To make Syria afraid; to make Iran afraid; to make North Korea afraid; to make any little, small nation afraid is to say to them as the scripture says, ‘Wake up the mighty men of war.  And let them turn their plow shares and their pruning hooks into spears and swords’ because this is a time of global war.

“Their efforts for peace may be noble, but they will not come to pass until war has decimated the warmongers. And many, many, many, many millions of human lives will be lost,” he said.

To Muslim leaders in the Middle East, Minister Farrakhan warned in a Nov. 8, 2018, news conference in Tehran, Iran, that President Trump is  “making toxic the divisions between Sunni and Shia” Muslims and “openly saying they should reject their brother Iran.” He said new sanctions on Iran is the predicate for a new war.

“I am begging our president and the government that support him to be very, very careful because if  the trigger of war in the Middle East is pulled by you using your surrogates at the insistence of Israel, then the war will trigger another kind of war that would bring China, Russia, all of the nations into a war,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“It bothers me to say this to you, Mr. President, but the war will end America as we know it.  I am a warner to you.  I am a friend to America, not an enemy.  But if you do not heed the warning and correct your path, death will come.” —James G. Muhammad, Contributing Editor

The post Despite divine warning, America falling into the abyss appeared first on Final Call News.

The third rail carries electricity that powers the train, and it is extremely dangerous to touch. It is something that should not be approached without the proper equipment. It could kill you.

There is a conversation emerging in public more prominently today than in the past, mostly because the issue had been considered settled and to raise it in a way counter to the popular narrative could put one in an uncomfortable position.

That question is, “Who are the real children of Israel,” or put another way, “Who are Allah’s (God’s) Chosen People?” Answering this question correctly and acting accordingly would put the world as we see it today in a position to receive mercy from Allah (God) for its transgressions.

Answering the question incorrectly or making it uncomfortable to have a public dialogue on the question gives us the condition we see the world in today—fear, chaos, confusion, war, rumors of war, and increasing natural disasters.

President Donald Trump recently participated in a public event titled “America reads the Bible” where he quoted from 2 Chronicles, verse 14, which says, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

It’s the verse that served as the guiding scripture for the historic 1995 Million Man March called by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and attended by nearly two million men.

It is a verse that has consistently underscored Minister Farrakhan’s appeals to his people to seek atonement for our sins and for presidents and the government of America to give justice to the descendants of her former slaves, so the country could delay God’s Wrath.

Many seek to answer the question using the Bible as their sole “evidence.” Specifically, Genesis 15:13, where Allah (God) promises His servant Abram that his seed will be saved and awarded a great future after being subjected to brutal slave conditions for 400 years.

During a 2010 speech before thousands in Atlanta, Ga., Minister Farrakhan raised the question: “Who are the real Children of Israel? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad has said that Almighty God Allah revealed to him that the Black people of America are the real Children of Israel. And we are the choice of God; and that unto us He will deliver His Promise.”

These are powerful and controversial words, but he backed them up with a challenge to the world’s scholars of religion and history: “This question says that somebody has usurped our position.

This question says that somebody has taken The Promise of God to the Children of Israel and claimed it for themselves. But those of you who are scholars of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam: If you can disprove this, then I’ll pay with my life for lying.

“My declaring this, I know, will divide scholars, theologians, Jews, Christians and Muslims. But it is time, now, that a proper dialogue be set up to answer the question that I’ve raised, and answered.”

Interestingly, no scholar or clergy accepted the challenge. The only reaction was verbal stones thrown by those who fear Minister Farrakhan’s words, labeling him with terms aimed at detracting public attention from his message.

Meanwhile, in 2026, the world is watching a genocide of a whole people and the expanded seizure and occupation of land that belongs to others—all under the guise that the land is promised to the “chosen people” who are now taking back their land.

Why does such a simple question cause discomfort among people and nations that no public dialogue can be had on the various positions on the question? Why are people who raise the issue labeled “anti-Semitic,” “bigots,” “haters” and other ugly names?

There is overwhelming agreement among religious and academic scholars that, based on historical and archaeological evidence, or the lack thereof, the enslavement of the Children of Israel in ancient Egypt never happened.

And that “history” certainly has no connection to those who occupy Palestine today and who continue to encroach on the surrounding lands of its Arab populations.

Could it be that Shulamit Aloni, the former Israeli Cabinet member and former Minister of Education, was correct when she told Amy Goodman in a 2002 interview on Democracy Now!

That the use of the term anti-Semitism is “a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic.”

If the definition of semite and semitism at one time referred to the various ethnic groups and languages prominent in the Middle East and parts of Africa, how did the term “anti-Semitism” come to refer solely to those who are “hostile” or “prejudiced” against Jewish people?

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches that the enemy has twisted the word of Allah (God) to cause the people to view Biblical scripture as 75% historical and 25% prophetic, when, in fact, the opposite is true—it is 25% historical and 75% prophetic—meaning most of what is written would happen in the future of the writing.

And since there is no evidence of Jews of today being in bondage to Pharaohs of ancient Egypt for 400 years, who is the promise referring to? If evidence can be presented confirming the promise refers to those occupying Palestine today, so be it.

If it is not, and there is evidence of a people today who have been in bondage in a strange land and persecuted for over 400 years, what then should be done?

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has called the scholars of the Abrahamic faiths—Muslims, Christians, Jews—to the table for dialogue to answer the question. Why hasn’t anyone accepted the invitation?

James G. Muhammad is a former editor-in-chief of The Final Call and is currently a contributing editor.

The post The ‘third rail’ question: Who are the ‘Chosen People?’ appeared first on Final Call News.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, causes and teaches us to understand that the mental, moral and even physical deterioration of our health is a result of the miseducation and mistreatment of the Black man and woman by the slave master and his children.

Psychological sciences testify to the effect that historical traumas have on the attitudes and, therefore, actions of our people. A study of epigenetics rewards our research.

Hatred of self was instilled in our ancestors for centuries as they suffered horrible abuse. Babies were separated from their parents and raised by our enemies;

Fear of the slave master was seared into the core of our being as we watched the rebellious ones among us tortured and brutally killed before our eyes. This created negative inbred attitudes and behaviors that we exhibit today.

That is a reason the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan pronounced the National Center—Mosque Maryam and Muhammad University of Islam—a center for retraining and re-education for the Black man and woman.

Some of us have been able to reach heights of success unimaginable by our ancestors. Nevertheless, as the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches, no single individual can rise above the condition of his or her people.

If your people are viewed as not worthy of respect, then the individual’s success and status in life isn’t really what it appears to be. Given the right circumstances, that individual would be told where his or her place is.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad worked tirelessly for more than 40 years to liberate the Black man and woman physically and mentally from the chains of oppression of White society. He called for separation: “

Since we cannot get along with them [Whites] in peace and equality, after giving them 400 years of our sweat and blood and receiving in return some of the worst treatment human beings have ever experienced.

We believe our contributions to this land and the suffering forced upon us by White America, justifies our demand for complete separation in a state or territory of our own.”

He tries to reach our minds through His publications “Message to the Blackman in America,” “Our Saviour Has Arrived,” “The Fall of America,” “How to Eat to Live,” Books 1 & 2, and other writings.

He labeled White people as “the devil” and “the enemy.” Many of us thought he was name-calling, when, in fact, He was and is describing the nature and actions of Whites, past and present, toward not only Black people in the U.S., but around the world.

Blacks in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and Asia cry out for the foot of colonialism to be lifted from their necks. Search every continent and you will find that, generally, Whites are in power or the lighter skin is placed higher in society than the darker. It’s a sickness.

America and Europe salivate over the mineral riches of Africa; the same ones whose boot has been on the necks of African rulers under colonialism and the slave trade. Today, they take a kinder, gentler approach to gain access to mineral wealth unless they are forced to threaten those nations with military options—examples are Venezuela and Cuba.

Why are Black leaders who seek independence for their people castigated and even killed for their ideas for liberation? The list includes Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral … even the great Nelson Mandela of South Africa was once labeled a “terrorist.”

Today’s threat to the White power structures in Africa comes from leaders like Ibrahim Traoré of Burkina Faso and others in the region who have kicked France out and are trying to empower the people based on terms of independence.

The enemy is very scientific. He knows he can’t assassinate or imprison a popular leader without first maligning their character and turning the people against the leader with lies.

The people backed the historical Jesus until his enemies branded him a threat despite the miracles he performed. He was crucified with criminals. The enemy’s pattern has not changed.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Harriett Tubman and others who fought for Black freedom have U.S. postage stamps with their faces on them. They are dead now and are no longer a threat to the power structure, except through their words.

But their images and ideas are controlled by a media that perpetuates the softer stance these leaders represented rather than their liberation messages.

Martin’s image today is as a “dreamer” rather than an opponent of the war in Vietnam and his fight for economic justice that he expressed toward the end of his life. He would be in opposition to the genocide in Palestine and the war with Iran if he were alive today.

Malcolm’s message from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad revolutionized the Black nationalist and later the Pan-African movements before his death. The U.S. government is at the root of their assassinations.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan continue to preach that our unity is more powerful than an atomic or hydrogen bomb. That’s the kind of power that keeps an enemy at bay.

One reason the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran is that they do not want Iran to have nuclear weapons, even though they both have them, and the U.S. is the only nation that has used an atomic weapon on a population.

The enemy does not want to see Black people unified because our unity is just that powerful!

—James G. Muhammad, Contributing Editor

The post The power of unity and why we don’t have it appeared first on Final Call News.

Hundreds of friends, family and believers filed into Mosque Maryam for the janazah (funeral) service of Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad, a close companion of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, a man who has traveled and established relationships around the world on behalf of Minister Farrakhan, and a man who endeared himself to many as a mentor and friend.

Abdul Akbar Muhammad was “my best helper, my most faithful helper, my most loving brother,” Minister Farrakhan said, speaking at Bro. Akbar’s coffin, which was draped with a blue prayer rug with gold trim. “Allah gave special recognition to brotherhood, but even greater recognition when brothers become friends. I found in Brother Akbar a friend,” he said.

Minister Farrakhan had approached the coffin, thanking Allah (God) for Bro. Akbar, “a servant who showed us how to live a righteous life.”  He thanked the audience for coming to give respect and honor to a servant “who has earned a place of honor with us all.”

Wearing a tan fez and matching suit, Minister Farrakhan explained his 61-year friendship with Bro. Akbar. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad assigned Minister Farrakhan to the New York then-Temple No. 7 after Malcolm X left the N.O.I. Though he was born in New York, Minister Farrakhan explained he had never lived there.

It was an assignment the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said would either break Minister Farrakhan or make him a stronger man, the Minister explained, adding he knew how to teach the word well but needed assistance in running the mosque of his new assignment. Minister Farrakhan said Min. Akbar came to his side to help.

“I could not have made it if not for Brother Larry (as Bro. Akbar was known at the time). I needed a friend, somebody who could show me things I didn’t know,” he said.

The relationship blossomed into work, travel, and more work, said Minister Farrakhan, who would later assign Min. Akbar as his first and only International Representative.

Born Lawrence James Prescott Jr. on June 9, 1942, in Hampton, Va., Bro. Akbar graduated from Aviation High School and later attended Hunter College. However, his real education would be acquired as a member of the N.O.I. 

He married Maryam Aziz (born Marion Williams) at 17 years of age and joined the N.O.I. in 1961. He worked hard and rose through the N.O.I. ranks to become an assistant minister at a new temple in Corona, Queens.

When Minister Farrakhan was named minister of the New York temple in 1965, Min. Akbar became his top assistant and was instrumental in organizing numerous major initiatives, including the 1974 Black Family Day held at Randall’s Island in New York, where 70,000 people attended, and heard a message from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. That same year, he helped to organize and coordinate Minister Farrakhan’s visit to Jamaica at the invitation of Prime Minister Michael Manley.

During the years 1975 and 1976, upon the departure of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and a change in the N.O.I.’s direction, Min. Akbar was assigned to revitalize Mosque No. 28 in St. Louis, Mo., and Mosque No. 28B in East St. Louis, Ill. He was later transferred to Chicago to serve as Special Assistant to Imam Wallace D. Muhammad, who had assumed leadership, and was given the name Karriem Abdel Aziz. 

He would later answer a call from Minister Farrakhan to help rebuild the N.O.I. and was later given the name Abdul Akbar Muhammad by his brother and friend. As the International Representative of the N.O.I. and Minister Farrakhan, Min. Akbar traveled to 154 countries, 44 of which were on the African continent, meeting with kings, presidents, prime ministers, heads of state, and other dignitaries. 

He played a major role in planning peace missions, three World Friendship Tours, and numerous fact-finding missions for the Black press. He opened an office for the N.O.I. in Ghana at the invitation of the late Ghanaian President Jerry John Rawlings and opened the Ghana Mission to serve the Ghanaian people and spread the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Min. Akbar organized the first Saviours’ Day Convention, held outside the United States in Accra, Ghana, where nearly 2,000 Black Americans traveled. Min. Akbar returned to Allah on March 17 at age 83.

An exclusive class

Delivering words of comfort, Student Minister Ishmael Muhammad, National Assistant Minister to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, emphasized the Nation’s gratitude for Min. Akbar Muhammad. “A grateful Nation honors its soldiers, honors its founding fathers and mothers,” he said. “Women and men are honored equally. You have much as a family to be grateful for.”

He said men and women like Bro. Akbar are in an “exclusive class,” having laid a foundation for the future generations to do a greater work. He admonished the audience that the present moment is the perfect time to show honor and respect for one another because the next moment is not guaranteed. 

He said the community is saddened, yet grateful for the life of Min. Akbar. “We mourn the loss of the physical presence of Bro. Akbar. But his contributions in the cause of Allah will never be forgotten. The work he did in the establishment of freedom, justice and equality live on,” he said.

Muslims vow in their prayers that their sacrifice, life and death are all for Allah, he said, adding, “We believe Bro. Akbar fulfilled his vow.”

To Bro. Akbar’s children, he said, sometimes they may have felt an injustice because their father was often away. He said it is a sacrifice for those who devote themselves to a mission of uplifting a fallen people to establish a nation.

The solution, he said, is for the children to “embrace the cause that their fathers and mothers have devoted their lives to.”

“They do good not seeking any benefit or favors,” he said to the audience. “Stop living a vain and selfish existence. Live in service to others.” 

With a large photo of Bro. Akbar on one side of the coffin and a large photo of Bro. Akbar with Minister Farrakhan on the other, guests entering the sanctuary were greeted with soft music and a photo collage on a large screen featuring scenes of Min. Akbar and his travels and relationships.

Min. Akbar’s children and grandchildren read the obituary and gave remarks. A colorful moment occurred when his daughter, Sister Najah Aziz, brought the crowd to laughter while recounting personal stories about her father.

She started by reciting a song, “I’m Late,” detailing how Bro. Akbar would be rushing to get ready for the day ahead. She dedicated the day to her mother Maryam Aziz and told the audience how her mother would tell the children, “Y’all better get y’alls Black dresses ready,” because Bro. Akbar was doing too much, jokingly implying their father was working himself to death.

She said Bro. Akbar taught his daughters to be independent, and for birthdays, he would give them each an amount to match their age … until it got to be a bit much.

The girls would play mosque, setting up chairs and playing recordings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and songs by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Bro. Akbar made them watch the news so much that Sister Najah said she thought about becoming a journalist.

Lastly, she described her father as an “entrepreneur at heart,” describing his businesses Zoom Ice Cream, Books n Things and Shabazz Honey Bean Pie. The ovens were in the basement and “I was responsible for the crust,” she said to laughter from the audience.

Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad was interred March 29 during a private burial in his hometown of Hampton, Va.

May Allah be forever pleased with His faithful servant, Abdul Akbar Muhammad.

To view the replay of the janazah, visit media.noi.org.

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