Farrakhan Criticizes Bush, Urges Community Activism

BOSTON—Leader of the Nation of Islam Louis Farrakhan returned to his native Roxbury Friday to denounce President Bush and to call on the community to take action to improve their lives.

Before an audience of about 500, Farrakhan accused the Bush administration of allowing the Sept. 11 attacks so it could trounce on civil liberties and, with Israel, dominate the Middle East

He then urged the audience to turn their frustration with society’s problems into political activism and become “friends with God.”

Farrakhan entered the building surrounded by several guards and was welcomed with boisterous applause and chants of “long live Muhammad,” the founder of the Nation of Islam.

He spoke out against a U.S. attack on Iraq and asserted that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is not in possession of weapons of mass destruction.

“If the mightiest nation on Earth will send its forces to Iraq...many tens of thousands of lives may be lost, and what’s it all for?” he asked.

He answered himself and said the Bush administration’s real motives are the control of oil reserves and a desire to secure Israel as the strongest country in the Middle East.

He said that Israel is in possession of enough weapons of mass destruction to destroy the entire Middle East, and that the U.S. wants to attack Hussein to eliminate a threat to Israeli authority in the region.

“Israel doesn’t want to have to sit at a peace table,” he said.

Like the attack on Iraq, he said, the attack on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers was motivated by Bush’s secret plans.

After calling Bush a “different kind of human being,” he claimed that the president ignored intelligence predicting the Sept. 11 attacks so that his administration could become more powerful in a time of emergency.

He compared Bush’s actions to Hitler’s burning of the Reichstag as a way to elicit popular support for a fight against a nonexistent enemy.

“He couldn’t seem to get on track on September 10th. But on September 11th, 12th, 13th, the country suddenly united behind its president,” he said. “Who benefited from the coming down of the World Trade Center? It wasn’t you; it wasn’t me.”

He said the attack not only allowed Bush to oust the Taliban from power and build a fuel pipeline through Afghanistan to Central Asia, but also to infringe upon Americans’ civil liberties.

“Now they can search you, tap your phones—not that they weren’t doing that before—but now legally,” he said. “They can try you in a military court and shoot you. They’re tearing up the constitution little by little in the name of security.”

He also condemned the U.S.-imposed sanctions on Iraq.

When traveling recently in Iraq, he said he witnessed the immense suffering the sanctions were causing among the Iraqi people.

He said he believed that the U.S. instituted the sanctions in order to spark the Iraqi people into an uprising against Hussein.

He then shifted from foreign affairs to speak to the audience about their lives.

Farrakhan urged them to sacrifice the temporary pleasure of material diversions for a true understanding of God and a life-long fight against society’s ills.

“You’re out here partying and dancing...but the country is gone. It’s in the hands of the few instead of the hands of the many,” he said.

Pounding his fists on the podium, he shouted “Wake up! Your country is going down!”

He said that merely expressing bitterness and hatred about injustice is ineffective, though such emotions are vital to ensuring that past injustices will never be forgotten.

“I didn’t always love America,” he said. “In fact, I hated America.”

But eventually, he said, he found a way to turn that hatred into a desire to correct society’s wrongs.

He said that he found the courage to fight back and take a radical political position by developing a close relationship with God.

Even though he said his politics have made him many enemies, he still takes his strength from God.

“I’m not insane. I don’t want to die,” he said. “But I’ll give my life for what I believe.”