Filed under: News, Profiles, Politics, President Obama
In a wide-ranging two-hour speech, Minister Louis Farrakhan stepped up his anti-Obama Administration rhetoric for the second time in as many weeks, condemning officials for waging war in Libya on Moammar Gadhafi.
Farrakhan warned that Obama's action could result in Biblical-like destruction of the United States for its arrogance of power and repression.
The flamboyant Nation of Islam leader spoke before a packed house of mostly followers in the sprawling Mosque Maryam on Chicago's South Side. Dressed in a gray suit, white shirt and white bow tie, Farrakhan spoke in his stylized Southern preacher drawl:
"I don't care what Gadhafi has done,'' he said before a roaring crowd. "He is not the mad dog you see on TV. Donald Trump sounds more like a gangster to me.''
Farrakhan referred to the Libyan leader as "Brother Gadhafi" on several occasions and expressed sorrow for his predicament and invoked the Book of Revelation, which foretells of unprecedented natural disasters and war on unforeseen scales, to illustrate how God's wrath will destroy America because of attacks on his chosen people, such as Gadhafi.
"The reason that judgment is on America is not because of America's bad policies and what she has done to other nations of the world,'' he said at first in a whisper then a boom. "But the reason that his anger is kindled against America and his threat to destroy America is because of what it has done, is doing and plans to do against the people that God has chosen.''
He struck hard at President Barack Obama, whom he says to his peril is being used as a puppet to attack Gadhafi. Although the president is not allowed to make all decisions, he said Obama could be used to bring him down.
Farrakhan, who has long been criticized as an anti-Semite, and the president used to have a working relationship when Obama worked in Chicago as a community organizer. All of that changed when Obama was elected senator and went on to the White House.
"They've [the establishment] always wanted to find a black man to destroy me,'' citing that while Martin Luther King Jr. was sitting in the White House with Lyndon B. Johnson celebrating the passage of the civil rights law, someone was down the hall plotting his death:
"What future does he [Obama] have, a brilliant, black giant?'' Farrakhan asked pointedly. "I warned him to be careful because the steps you are taking you will ruin your future with Africa and the Middle East.''
This is not the first time that Farrakhan has defended Gadhafi.
Earlier this year, during the Nation of Islam's annual convention, Farrakhan suggested that the United States should steer clear of the conflict in Libya. And last week in Mississippi, he said the U.S. lacked the moral authority to intervene in the uprising.
Meanwhile, he urged everyone to stock their shelves with food and drink enough for three months in case of an earthquake that shuts down stores, chokes roadways and floods streets -- far worse that what the world saw in Japan.