Louis Farrakhan

North Carolina · connectedBorn 1933

American religious (born 1935), leader of Nation of Islam (since 1981)

Studied at Winston-Salem State University

singer, civil rights advocate, journalist, politician, violinist, anti-vaccine activist

Quotations with a citation

The die is set, and Malcolm shall not escape, especially after such evil foolish talk about his benefactor, Elijah Muhammad. Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death.

But if you harm this brother, [...] I warn you in the name of Allah, this will be the last one you harm. We are not making any idle threats. We have no weapons. We carry not so much as a penknife. But I do tell the world that Almighty God Allah is backing us up in what we say and what we do, and we warn you in His name, leave this servant of Almighty God alone.

Here, the Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call him Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn't great for me as a Black person, but he was a great German, and he rose Germany up from the ashes of her defeat by the united force of Europe and America after the first world war. Now, I'm not proud of Hitler's evils against the Jewish people. But that's a matter of record. He rose Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there's a similarity in that we're rising our people up from nothing. But don't compare me with your wicked killers.

We're goin' to make an example of Milton Colman! [...] What do [we] intend to do to Mr. Coleman? At this point, no physical harm . . . We're going to punish the traitor and make the traitor beg for forgiveness . . . One day soon we will punish you with death! . . . This is a fitting punishment for such dogs.

The Jews talk about "never again."… You cannot say "Never again" to God because when he puts you in the oven, you're in one indeed!… "Never again" don't mean a damn thing when God get ready for you!

Why should our people have to subsist on charity, or live in poor houses, when we built the country for you? Fought, bled, and died to maintain the country for you? You ask us to pay taxes like everybody else. Wait a minute! We don't get justice. We give you our tax dollar to support a police department that doesn't respect us. We give you our tax dollar to support education that does not educate us properly. We give you our tax dollars, you spend $4 billion each year on Israel, to maintain Israel in a welfare position. You send billions of dollars; you rebuild Germany; you rebuild Japan. Here we are; fought, bled, and died; made you what you are. What are you willing to come on down with to help the Black man rebuild himself?

When Jewish people remember the Holocaust, and want the world to remember the Holocaust… Why do you want the world to remember? Because if the world does not remember, it is likely to repeat itself. And Jewish persons who suffered from the Holocaust want the world to remember this, because the world turned its back while Jews were put in ovens. I, as a Black person, want my people to remember what we have suffered and what we continue to suffer so that we will say, like the Jews: Never again.

I believe that for the small numbers of Jewish people in the United States, they exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the affairs of government ...Yes, they exercise extraordinary control, and black people will never be free in this country until they are free of that kind of control ...

It seems like being gay or whatever sin you wish to be a part of is okay ... but I have the duty to lift that gay person up to the standard to ask if they want to live the life that God wants them to or live the lifestyle that they want to live.

The Jews have been so bad at politics they lost half their population in the Holocaust. They thought they could trust in Hitler, and they helped him get the Third Reich on the road.

White people are potential humans - they haven't evolved yet.

My time is up. I believe … that my time to be with my spiritual father and his sender has come. And your time to go through serious trial has come.

Our lips are full of praise, but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim. That's why the world is in the shape that it's in.

Iran should not be denied the human right to knowledge...the fear of America is Iran's attitude to Israel, and the cornerstone of America's foreign policy is the protection of Israel... If Iran believes in Allah, and if Iran believes in the power of Allah, Iran can't be frightened by America.

I know something of the good of Moammar Gadhafi that made me to love him as a brother and to feel a great sense of loss at his assassination, He died in honor, fighting for the Libya that he believed in.

You cannot find one synagogue I desecrated. You cannot find one Jewish person I have harmed, except I refuse to be silent when I know the truth. And it was Jesus who said you shall know the truth and the truth will set us free.

Death is sweeter than continued life under tyranny. ... Retaliation is a prescription from God. ... We must rise up and kill those who kill us. .. Let them feel the pain of death that we are feeling.

What about Bernie Sanders? I have to say this about Mr. Sanders: He is a Jew. Not a so-called Jew. He's trying to be decent. But he can't do what he's saying. The Messenger [Elijah Muhammad] said you should beware of the national elections, because they come promising you everything to get your vote then you never hear from them again. And she [Hillary Clinton] is telling you, "We're gonna put 2 billion dollars…" 2 billion dollars? And you jumping up and down, "Oh! Look at Hillary, she's gonna give us some money!" She gonna give you death.

The Jews have control over those agencies of government. When you want something in this world, the Jew holds the door.

Satanic Jews have infected the whole world with poison and deceit.

I'm not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-Termite.

I have not said one word of hate. I do not hate Jewish people. Not one that is with me has ever committed a crime against the Jewish people, black people, white people, no matter what your color is. As long as you don’t attack us, we don’t bother you.

Through the darkness of the many hours of his life under the tyranny of apartheid and the wanton slaughter of Black people desirous of being free, he journeyed through the time of the rise of Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC), and from the beauty of his heart he desired to see racial harmony exist in South Africa. So, in fostering the Truth and Reconciliation process, people Black and White and Indian spoke the truth of their deeds and why, and repented of the evil that all sides have done making it possible for Brother Nelson Mandela to come out of prison and become the first Black president of South Africa.

Recorded without a firm citation

Kept here, labelled, rather than mixed in above.

Farrakhan: Is the Federal Reserve owned by the government? Audience: No. Farrakhan: Who owns the Federal Reserve? Audience: Jews. Farrakhan: The same year they set up the IRS, they set up the FBI. And the same year they set up the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith... It could be a coincidence... [I want] to see black intellectuals free... I want to see them not controlled by members of the Jewish community.

Sit down and talk to Rev. Jackson [...] Sit down, Jewish leaders, and talk with us. We are ready to talk with you. Sit down and talk like intelligent people who have a future at stake.

So Dr. King said it is a mockery to call it a law if it is unenforced, so to cut out Section 5 of the Voting Rights bill is to take out the enforcement to make sure the recalcitrant of some of those who never wanted us to vote in the first place would now be free to keep us going back and forth to court, litigating and litigating and litigating. Hell with litigation.

I did not deprive any Jewish person of the right to worship God in the manner that they choose, but to bomb a church is the epitome of hatred and total disrespect, so that did not come from Louis Farrakhan.

The FBI, in preparation for this war, has stepped up its campaign against strong Black political leadership. The FBI is using dirty tactics under the guise of flushing out corrupt politicians to malign and besmirch the good name of many of our strong fighters for justice; threatening them with indictments or casting them into prisons. With other weaker leaders, the government has already promised them wealth and nearness to the centers of power and to be in their councils in exchange for their being silent when the attack finally comes.

I am here to announce today that President Bush has met with his Joint Chiefs of Staff, under the direction of General Colin Powell, to plan a war against the Black people of America, the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, with particular emphasis on our Black youth, under the guise of a war against drug sellers, drug users, gangs and violence-all under the heading of extremely urgent national security.

Now, it is well documented, through the Senate Subcommittee hearings on the Counterintelligence Program of the United States government, under J. Edgar Hoover, and through information that we have received under the Freedom of Information Act, that the Government of the United States, the Justice Department and the FBI, in the name of fighting communism; and in the name of preventing a "Messiah" from rising among Black people, who would unite us; and in the name of protecting the existing social and political order, used taxpayers' dollars to employ every dirty trick that was ever used in overthrowing foreign governments deemed to be enemies of the United States, to overthrow and to undermine all Black leaders and Black organizations in the United States.

Now that I, and those with me, are working to rebuild the work of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad as a means of reforming our people and transforming their lives into lives of service and usefulness to themselves and others, the same fear of the government that was seen in times past, is now seen again in the work of members of the FBI's anti-terrorist task force and the organized crime racketeering task force, that have been working night and day to cripple and destroy the Nation of Islam, culminating in an attack on Louis Farrakhan, with the purpose of discrediting, embarrassing and ultimately causing the death of Louis Farrakhan, preferably by heightening tensions within the movement exacerbated by government agents posing as Muslims. This is the aim of the United States government, and it appears to be the aim of the President of the United States President George Bush.

Two weeks before George Bush was elected President, he made a speech before the Simon Wiesenthal Center, in Los Angeles, detailing his support of Israel and his continued support of the Jewish community. He pledged continued funding of the Justice Department in their continuing investigations and vigorous prosecution of those whom the President called, anti-Semites. And he said, "Whether they wear brown shirts, or white shirts and bow ties: whether they live in Skokie, Chicago, Illinois, or Brooklyn, New York, the villain is the same." I am sure President Bush was not referring to Senator Paul Simon of Illinois, who wears bow ties and white shirts. During the Reagan Administration, the then Vice-President Bush spoke out against me, identifying me by name. Now as he approached the Presidency he spoke of me by innuendo saying that he would continue the funding of the Justice Department, and he promised he would lead the fight against those whom he and certain leading members of the Jewish community determined to be "anti-Semites," through vigorous investigation, prosecution, and then, he indirectly referred to me as "the villain."

Evidence is now mounting that those were not empty words of the President, but those words, as in the past, have been translated into the final program and policy and war, that has been designed to destroy the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan, with a particular focus on the growing strength of Black youth.

For the past few years, the American press has been feeding the public the image of Black youth on a rampage. From the gangs called Crips and Bloods, in Los Angeles, California; the Central Park incident, to the drug sellers that are operating in the major cities along the East Coast, particularly in Washington, D.C., the image the American public gets is that when it comes to gangs, violence and drugs, that the gang leaders are Black; the violence is Black; the drug sellers are Black and the majority of drug users are Black. Our youth are being portrayed as the perpetrators of violence, and are being armed with "street sweepers," AK-47s, Uzis, MAC 10s. It is being reported that these Black youth are better armed than the local police.

The police are saying that they have insufficient arms to combat these drug groups and, therefore, they either need heavier weapons, or the back-up of the National guard, and Federal troops. However, information has come to us that the police have great fire power available to them. And certain areas of the country have been targeted to test these new weapons. Armored personnel carriers that can travel at speeds up to 70 m.p.h. with high caliber machine guns are being stored in the armories of the major cities and the use of certain kinds of gases is being planned. This is being planned to be executed against Black youth in several major cities in the country, one of which is Washington, D.C.

Well, first I think the council did a commendable thing because I believe that Dr. Alim {Abdul Muhammad} and the brothers and sisters who work with him in the Washington area have done a most commendable thing with drugs and the scourge of this city and this nation. It should be interesting to note that Minister Alim went into Mayfair Mansions and Paradise Manor, comprised of nearly 8 or 9 thousand people which you know were crime-ridden and drug-infested, and not with money, and not with guns but with a moral authority has literally almost completely ridden that community of drugs and it is almost completely crime-free.

We are not rich people. We are poor people. But with the word that we have been taught by the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, as espoused by Minister Alim, that miraculous result was brought about and so the city council should be commended for recognizing that effort.

Now to speak to the charge of antisemitism. To say that Louis Farrakhan is an antisemitic is an improper and unjust characterization of me. To say that I have been critical of Jews and critical of the state of Israel is true. But I have been critical of blacks, critical of our leaders, critical of Arabs, critical of whites, and yet my own people don't call me anti-black and Arabs don't call me antisemitic and they are also semitic people. The term is wrong. And is wrongfully applied. My criticism of Jews should be taken in that light. And criticism, sir, with all due respect, is not necessarily born out of dislike of the person, but dislike of the condition that maybe these persons are involved with...

Certainly I said some Jews were responsible on the ships that brought our fathers into slavery. All Jews didn't own those ships. Some Jews have been responsible for characterizing black people as clowns and buffoons using the movie industry to get that message over...

I have no reference whatsoever to the religion that Jews practice. Listen to me carefully, please. I said this morning that I was referring to the actions of the state of Israel using God and religion as a cover for what I said was lying, stealing, murder, using God's name as a shield for your dirty religion, meaning you're preaching one thing, but you are practicing another. And when I said I have no reference to Moses and what Moses revealed, there is nothing in any way, shape or form in any of my speeches that you have ever heard me say that I condemn Moses and what Moses taught to the Jews, or condemned Jesus and what Jesus taught to the Jews, or condemned Muhammad and what Muhammad taught to the Arabs. But I do condemn our actions in direct contravention to what we profess we believe as taught by the prophets. And I said in that paper that Jews, some of them practice dirty religion; some Muslims practice dirty religion; some Christians practice dirty religion, and that's why we're in America in the condition that we're in under religious people who went in direct contravention to the teaching of their prophet. That's my statement. I never ever mention Judaism in that context, nor will I ever.

There are righteous Jews, and there are righteous Christians, and there are righteous Muslims; and there are unrighteous Jews and unrighteous Christians and unrighteous Muslims. There are righteous blacks and there are unrighteous blacks, and now if we're going to get into lumping everyone together, then I think we would be guilty of making an error.

I couldn't honestly say that. But, you know, it's like a knee-jerk reaction, because when {there's} a person like myself, and, you know, as a white person or as a Jewish person you're not used to hearing any black person criticizing Jewish behavior, not publicly. I could be wrong. But I don't recall any black person ever being lambasted like Louis Farrakhan {has been lambasted} as a bigot and {an} antisemite.

I feel that there is a certain sensitivity -- that Jewish rabbis and I have sat down and talked about -- that Jews have, and that we have as a persecuted and an oppressed people. And maybe in that sensitivity there has been a reaction to statements made by Louis Farrakhan as we react to anything that opens a sore with us like the {CBS-TV commentator Andy} Rooney thing recently and the other fellow on CBS, Jimmy the Greek. We're very sensitive and Jews are very sensitive. And in that sensitivity, I think care has to be taken by us. And sometimes when you say something and people say, "Ouch!" and you learn that you have offended, then you're conscious of being careful.

For those who are students of history, we are very suspicious to be very honest with you, because we know the history. We know that in this country to decimate the population of the Indians, blankets were sent to the Indians containing smallpox. We know that in this country {there was} the Tuskegee experiment, where a hundred black men were given the most virulent form of syphilis and a program was set up that they would never be treated for syphilis and these men cohabited with many, many women, spreading syphilis among our people. This is documented. We do know that in New Zealand, in Australia, in the Congo -- wherever whites have wanted that particular area -- there has been a genocidal plot against the lives of those native people, and it goes on to this day. And we respectfully submit that we are deeply concerned because we have a population of between 30-40 million people much of whom are useless to this society. And we watch how this society treats the elderly who have served this country well, and we watch how this society treats those who have outlived their usefulness.

And we are afraid when we see a population ever growing, millions of unemployed, millions of unemployable and angry youth. And we see drugs flooding into our community and you know we don't produce the drugs, we don't bring them in. You know, sir, that because of the deep economic condition in the black community, you can't offer young blacks a job at Wendy's or McDonald's as an alternative to selling crack. And if Mr. Bush can see the wisdom in providing some economic solutions to the growers of the cocoa leaf in Peru and Bolivia, then surely Mr. Bush should see there has to be an economic solution to drugs in America and particularly in the black community. So I am saying we are dying. Blacks are dying in America at an inordinate rate. Is there a plan? We believe there is.

America, since the 1954 Supreme Court decision and since the civil rights acts of 1964 and '65, has created a larger black middle class sort of as a buffer between the white community and the black community. And this middle class that has been created as a result of the struggle of the poor, the youth that were out on the marches with Dr. King, the youth that were rioting, the youth that were throwing the Molotov cocktails, the youth that got shot down in the streets -- it was their effort that caused you {black journalists} to be here. You weren't here before then, I don't think. It's the suffering, the poor black people that opened the door for us sitting around the table.

We built your country and this civilization has turned us so backward mentally that you let us go under the Emancipation Proclamation, passed the 13th Amendment against involuntary slavery knowing that {because of} the mental condition that our people were in, we would become your volunteer servants. And so we have served America, fought in all her wars, bled and died on every field of battle. We helped you beat Germany, and now Germany is reunited and we can't get together. The walls are tumbling down between Eastern Europeans, but no walls are tumbling down with us because there are those who don't want to see us reconcile our differences.

Since the prisons are full and you really don't rehabilitate prisoners, you loved Malcolm X, so you say. Well, look at Malcolm. He was a thief, a hustler, a pimp, a user of drugs, a seller of drugs, a bank robber. Would you love him in that condition? Would you accept a picture of him on your wall in that condition? But who reclaimed him? We did. And the brilliance of that man is the same brilliance that's hiding in prisons all over America. Malcolm was not the exception. Malcolm is the rule. There are many brilliant black people. All they need is a chance.

Gentiles and Jews worked together with the aid of America, England, France, the United Nations and set up the state of Israel, took land from the Palestinians, but you created a state for Israel and you created hope for Jews. All Jews are not there, but all Jews know that they have the right to go there.

And I'll close by saying, you know Mr. Bush, the president, I think a week before he was elected, was standing before the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and he pledged his support to Israel. And then he turned around and said that he pledged continued support, funding the Justice Department in their vigorous investigation and prosecution of antisemites whether they wear brown shirts, white shirts and bow ties, whether they live in Skokie, Chicago or Brooklyn, the villain is the same. I don't think they were talking about Sen. {Paul} Simon {D-Ill.}, who wears white shirts and bow ties. That to me says that this president has in his heart for me what Reagan had in his heart for {Libyan leader Moammar} Gadhafi. And I'm saying that's a mistake. Through The Washington Post, I'd like to say to Mr. Bush, that would be unwise. And it is unwise because you, Mr. Bush, are in the position of a modern pharaoh and Pharaoh lost his army, his government and his power over his rejection of an honorable and just solution to the problem posed by the unwanted presence of the Israelite slaves. And so it is today.

I believe that there is {a} continuing investigation and I believe that Mr. Bush and those who fear the rise of black people see me as much today a threat as they saw my brother, Martin Luther King, when he made that speech, a really innocuous speech in Washington in 1963 where he hoped that black and white and Jew and gentile, Protestant and Catholic would get together. The next day, J. Edgar Hoover received from his staff people a memo saying that Martin Luther King Jr. was the most dangerous Negro in America and then this government through the Justice Department investigated Dr. King vigorously, and I doubt that the government can escape culpability in that man's assassination or in the assassination of Malcolm X. And I firmly believe that they have something similar in store for me.

We thank all of the Black newspapers, radio stations, commentators, disc jockeys who really talked up the Million Man March. The mass media did not get involved until the last minute and it seemed as though they got involved with another agenda in mind. But to all of you, and we thank you the mass media too, because even though you planned it for mischief, God planned it for good.

We’re standing at the steps of the United States Capitol. I’m looking at the Washington Monument and beyond it to the Lincoln Memorial. And, beyond that, to the left, to your right, the Jefferson Memorial. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of these United States and he was the man who allegedly freed us. Abraham Lincoln saw in his day, what President Clinton sees in this day. He saw the great divide between Black and White. Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton see what the Kerner Commission saw 30 years ago when they said that this nation was moving toward two Americas–one Black, one White, separate and unequal. And the Kerner Commission revisited their findings 25 years later and saw that America was worse today than it was in the time of Martin Luther King, Jr. There’s still two Americas, one Black, one White, separate and unequal.

Abraham Lincoln, when he saw this great divide, he pondered a solution of separation. Abraham Lincoln said he never was in favor of our being jurors or having equal status with the Whites of this nation. Abraham Lincoln said that if there were to be a superior or inferior, he would rather the superior position be assigned to the White race.

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president. Thomas Jefferson, the third president, and 16 and 3 make 19 again. What is so deep about this number 19? Why are we standing on the Capitol steps today? That number 19! When you have a nine, you have a womb that is pregnant. And when you have a one standing by the nine, it means that there’s something secret that has to be unfolded.

Right here on this mall where we are standing, according to books written on Washington, D.C., slaves used to be brought right here on this mall in chains to be sold up and down the eastern seaboard. Right along this mall, going over to the White House, our fathers were sold into slavery. But, George Washington, the first president of the United States, said he feared that before too many years passed over his head, this slave would prove to become a most troublesome species of property. Thomas Jefferson said he trembled for this country when he reflected that God was just and that His justice could not sleep forever. Well, the day that these presidents feared has now come to pass, for on this mall, here we stand in the capital of America, and the layout of this great city, laid out by a Black man, Benjamin Banneker. This is all placed and based in a secret Masonic ritual. And at the core of the secret of that ritual is the Black man. Not far from here is the White House.

You came not at the call of Louis Farrakhan, but you have gathered here at the call of God. For it is only the call of Almighty God, no matter through whom that call came, that could generate this kind of outpouring. God called us here to this place, at this time, for a very specific reason. And now, I want to say, my brothers, this is a very pregnant moment, pregnant with the possibility of tremendous change in our status in America and in the world. Although the call was made through me, many have tried to distance the beauty of this idea from the person through whom the idea and the call was made.

We are standing on the sacrifice of the lives of those heroes, our great men and women that we today may accept the responsibility that life imposes upon each traveler who comes this way. We must accept the responsibility that God has put upon us, not only to be good husbands and fathers and builders of our community, but God is now calling upon the despised and the rejected to become the cornerstone and the builders of a new world.

Oh, but you better look again, Willie. There’s a new Black man in America today. A new Black woman in America today. Now brothers, there’s a social benefit of our gathering here today. And that is, that from this day forward, we can never again see ourselves through the narrow eyes of the limitation of the boundaries of our own fraternal, civic, political, religious, street organization or professional organization. We are forced by the magnitude of what we see here today, that whenever you return to your cities and you see a Black man, a Black woman, don’t ask him what is your social, political or religious affiliation, or what is your status? Know that he is your brother. And if he needs help, you are obligated to help your brother because he is your brother.

You must live beyond the narrow restrictions of the divisions that have been imposed upon us. Well, some of us are here because it’s history making. Some of us are here because it’s a march through which we can express anger and rage with America for what she has and is doing to us. So, we’re here for many reasons but the basic reason that this was called was for atonement and reconciliation. So, it is necessary for me in as short of time as possible to give as full an explanation of atonement as possible.

Now, Martin Luther King, Jr. was probably one of the most patriotic Americans. More patriotic than George Washington. More patriotic than Thomas Jefferson. More patriotic than many of the presidents because he had the courage to point out what was wrong in the society. And because he pointed out what was wrong, he was evil spoken of, vilified, maligned, hated and eventually, murdered. Brother Malcolm had that same road to travel. He pointed out what was wrong in the society and he had to suffer for pointing out what was wrong and he ultimately died on the altar for pointing out what was wrong. Inside the nation, outside the nation, to the greater nation and to the smaller nation.

For every deed has a consequence. And we can never be granted protection against the faults that we refuse to acknowledge or that we are unwilling to confess. So, look. Who should you confess to? I don’t want to confess. Who should you confess to? Who should I confess to? Who should we confess to? First, you confess to God. And everyone of us that are here today, that knows that we have done wrong, we have to go to God and speak to Him in the privacy of our rooms and confess. He already knows, but when you confess, you’re relieving your soul of the burden that it bears.

Now, look brothers, sisters. Some people don’t mind confessing. Some people don’t mind making some slight repentance. But, when it comes to doing something about the evil that we’ve done, we fall short. But atonement means satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury. It means to make amends. It means penance, expiation, compensation and recompense made or done for an injury or wrong. So, atonement means we must be willing to do something in expiation of our sins so we can’t just have a good time today, and say we made history in Washington. We got to resolve today that we’re going back home to do something about what’s going on in our lives and in our families and in our communities.

I must hasten to tell you, Mr. President, that I’m not a malicious person, and I’m not filled with malice. But, I must tell you that I come in the tradition of the doctor who has to point out, with truth, what’s wrong. And the pain is that power has made America arrogant. Power and wealth has made America spiritually blind and the power and the arrogance of America makes you refuse to hear a child of your slaves pointing out the wrong in your society.

Inside of one month, we would have over $100 million. And in one year, we would have $1.2 billion. What will we do with that? I would love for the leadership up here to form a board and call in Myrlie Evers Williams and ask her, what is the budget of the NAACP for this year? It’s $13 million. It’s $15 million, write a check. Now, next year you have to become accountable to the board, and the members of the NAACP will be on the board too, which means that no Black organization will be accountable to anybody outside of us. But accountable to us and we will free the NAACP, the Urban League and all Black organizations to work in the best interest of our people. How many of you would like to see all our Black organizations free? Now, look brothers, an economic development fund for $10 a month is not a big price to ask to begin to build an economic infrastructure to nurture businesses within the Black community. Soon the leadership is going to meet and work out the details of an Exodus, Exodus Economic Fund.

Oh, before we say that prayer, the brother of my leader and teacher, the honorable Elijah Muhammad, is here with me and with us. He’s like my father in the absence of my father. He knows this history of the Nation of Islam better than any man in America and I thank God that he lived long enough to see the day that he suffered and worked for, for now 65 years. The brother of the honorable Elijah Muhammad, brother John Muhammad.

Women are beautiful and the female body is attractive, but a real man cannot think sane thoughts with the female form on his mind. Girls look at television, watching beautiful Beyonce with her beautiful body, but her moves are so provocative. The child does not know anything about sex, but sees that adults approve of those provocative dances, and begins to imitate Beyonce. As young as four and three, girls are learning to shake their bodies in vulgar dances, yet no one seems to be speaking to this as the destruction of potential virtue.

Some men have become so sick that they try to push themselves in a sexual way into a baby, splitting them. Fathers are sexually abusing their daughters, along with uncles, brothers, cousins and even aunts; and now the lesbian craze is in. We are so undervalued because of our ignorance and lack of the potential for honor and respect.

So some women tell themselves they do not need a man for anything. It is not that our women want to be lesbians, but another woman understands the pain that another woman is going through or being put through in her interaction with men. When they get tired of the game playing, they fall on each other and find more comfort in another woman than they find in a man. But I do not care if you call yourself a lesbian, when a real man comes along, a real man will awaken that spark in you because you are a real woman—a beautiful woman, but a very abused woman.

If a virtuous woman is more precious than silver and gold and you wake up in a place where there are 70 virtuous girls who have never been touched by a man, where did you wake up? You do not have to physically die to see that paradise, but you have to die as a n----r. You have to die as the creature that the White man made. When you wake up from that death, you will want to see virtuous women, because the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said, "Where there are no decent women, there are no decent men, for the Black woman is the mother of civilization."

We are a sick people and there is no way we can expect White people to show respect to us and submit to our desires when we are so fractured and broken as a people. But no one wants to address the real problem: respect for authority. Who is the Supreme Authority of this creation? It is our Creator. Does the Creator have a right to expect from us respect, honor and obedience?

Many of us drive automobiles, which came with an owner’s manual in the glove compartment when we bought it. If we really want to get the best out of our vehicles, we have to follow certain guiding principles in the owner’s manual from the maker. Some of us use beauty products, which have instruction on the bottle. If we fail to pay attention to the instructions, we may lose our hair.

So since the Creator is the author of our existence, should not He have the right to give us instructions and should not we respect His right to guide us in how to use the life that He so beautifully and wonderfully gave to us? The Bible and Holy Qur’an both contain instructions on how to use the life that Allah (God) has given. Scriptures are not romantic stories of foolishness; they offer many wonderful guiding principles. In our ignorance, we defile our bodies, but there is a consequence for rebellion against God, Who is the highest line of authority.

When men have an outside interest in another female, and they have made a vow to their wives; and because there are so many women with so few men, men feel that they can play with women, who do not respect marriage. In the Islamic world, adultery is punished by death penalty. Allah (God) gave Moses a law that the fornicator and adulterer should be stoned to death, because marriage is the cornerstone of family. Family is the cornerstone of nation and anything that will interfere, corrupt or destroy marriage and family is ultimately a disease that will undermine and sink that nation.

Your wife may believe your lies about your whereabouts at first, but eventually you cannot fool your wife when another woman interferes in her house. She knows something is wrong; your touch does not feel the same. When she confronts you with actual facts, you become a master liar and manipulator. You put on a macho front and threaten her. But either you are going to come clean or you undermine yourself by lying.

She argues with you because she is hurting. She feels betrayed. She does not mind calling you out of your name. Your children are listening. When the fight is over, the children talk to each other about what you called each other. If the father smacks the mother, the children tend not to take their father’s side. The woman brought them into the world. They are on her side because nature tells them to be on her side. Babies will throw their bottles at their fathers for hitting their mothers.

While it is natural for a man to be attracted to the beauty of a woman, Brothers, we must restrain ourselves to protect our marriages and families. The face of the enticing beauty of women is a great test, which most of us fail. Men believe there is free pleasure, but there is no free woman. Every woman costs money and it costs money to play. To play with your wife, family and the future of that family is self-destructive and almost suicidal behavior.

The Muslim world is a caricature of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). A caricature is the gross enlargement of characteristics for the purpose of mockery or fun. Do you think the Prophet would be happy to see Shiite and Sunni Muslims slaughtering each other in Iraq? That is a caricature. The Muslim world is corrupted with conduct that the Prophet taught against: kings and rulers bringing in women and liquor from Europe, getting drunk in their palaces, coming to America and spending millions of dollars in gambling places and on prostitutes. This conduct is a caricature of the Prophet. We have to come back in our own house and end our caricature of Islam.

Many of you look so beautiful in your uniforms and regalia for coming to the mosque. But as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said during one lecture when our Muslim Brothers from the East were sitting on the rostrum, they are not here to see that you are clothed in a long, white dress or a long, black dress; they are here to see if you are clothed in the principles of your religion.

We have fallen a long way and it is time to recognize that. The outside world already recognizes it. They already know. They are waiting for us to catch up to what we have shown them. There was a time when you could not go in any ward where Black people live and you could not find a Muslim with the Muhammad Speaks. There was a time when Black women, even though they never came to a mosque, felt safe when they saw a Muslim because they knew we would protect them. There was a time when gang violence would never rear its ugly head because the F.O.I. was strong. But today, when the light goes out in the house, there is nothing for the people to hold onto. So should the show go on? Should the masquerade ball continue? Or should we say that the masquerade is over and let’s go home and recommit our lives to Allah (God) and the righteous principles that we know we have been taught; recommit our lives to our spouses and children.

So we may be divine, and we are, but we have acted differently. It’s not our fault—it really is God’s doing. “You mean our savage behavior is God’s doing?” What kind of God would permit evil on our planet, and subject humanity to evil where we have become reflections of rebellion to God? “Did You do that, God?” May I answer? I will answer from God Himself, His words from the Holy Qur’an (Surah 2, verse 30). God was with the angels, according to The Qur’an, and He made a declaration. He said: “I am going to place a ruler in the earth.” And the angels said, “But what will You place in it other than that which will create mischief and cause the shedding of blood?” Allah knew the angels extolled His holiness and His righteousness, but He answered tersely, but truthfully: “I know what you know not.”

So evil was allowed a period to rule, and a people were made to fulfill that which God permitted. We can say with knowledge that the rulers of this world, who happen to be Caucasian, have not been good. We are proof of that. And their history proves that they have not been good, not only to Black, Brown, Red and Yellow, but they have not been good to themselves and their own people. Nevertheless, the last message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1974, February the 26th, he said: “Who is responsible: The Potter or The Clay?” (Saviour’s Day address “When The Sun Rises in The West”). He said, “The White man could easily say, and rightly so, ‘I did not make myself.’ ” So you geneticists, and students of biology, you know that “white” is an absence of color that came from color. So if he is not the “original man,” and he is not; and he is not the “aboriginal,” and he is not. … He is not “man” as such, he is mankind: A kind of a man, made in the image and likeness of the Original Man.

We had an infinity of time: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that God taught him over 78 trillion years of time on our planet—not his (the White Man.) Our planet, in Our universe—we are the makers of all that you see of creation. And when a son would be born to end the rule of the enemy of God, his (the enemy’s) job would have been made complete. Now, you can be angry with White people if you want to, and you could curse them out and say ugly things, because they have done ugly things. But wait a minute: They couldn’t have done any of this if Allah (God) didn’t permit it. He (the White Man) justifies his existence as a “devil” by being himself.

Now, I’m asking you to reason with the Honorable Elijah Muhammad; I want us to look at what Elijah Muhammad put on the back page of our newspaper, The Final Call. He introduced The Muslim Program during a lecture delivered in July 1962 at the Arie Crown Theater in the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, Illinois; then in the next year it was on the back page of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper. And from that day to this, we have kept his Program before the world (“What The Muslims Want” and “What The Muslims Believe”).

Now, (as we have seen during football games): Is that flag horizontal? That’s disrespect of the American flag. And when my brother takes a knee, and his brothers join him, the president of the United States calls us “sons of bitches.” Now, when I was young, say something about mom: those are fighting words, brother. And to add insult to injury, the National Football League, and the Department of Defense have been paid millions of dollars to display the flag in that way, and play the national anthem. It leads to people joining the armed forces. It doesn’t have anything to do with “patriotism,” they get millions of dollars from the Department of Defense for displaying the flag in a disrespectful manner. It’s about money. It’s about recruiting. It’s about using the patriotic zeal of the people.

Mr. Trump has changed the narrative. Black people don’t hate the flag, as such; they don’t hate America as such, but they just wanted to draw attention to what we are suffering under the flag. And the police that shot us down, they have a flag somewhere on their uniform. When we go to court, the flag is there—and we can’t get justice. My son’s father-in-law fought in World War II, and he saw his buddies shot down, blown to pieces, on Normandy Beach. So every time he sees the flag, he stands, puts his hand over his heart; not so much for the flag, but for the noble men and women who have died for that flag. But Mr. Trump: When did your father get here from Germany? And you so-called “patriots,” see, when you all came here from Europe, you had a country to come home to. The Statue of Liberty welcomed you: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” It never was a golden door for us. The first man to die in the Revolutionary War that gave America a nation was a Black man. Black folk died in the War of 1812; Black folk died in the Civil War on both sides, North and South. Black brothers have died in World War I, World War II, Korean Conflict, Vietnam, and the army is full of them now.

Mr. Trump, no wonder the general is a little kind of “p.o.’d” at you; because these same Black men whose mother you referred to in such a negative way for producing giants in the world of sport and play, you’re going to be calling on them to fight the war that you’re building up to now.

They say if you want to hide something from a Black man, put it in a book. And if you want to hide the Birth of a Saviour for the Black man, hide Him in the ghetto.

There is nothing that I have done, nothing that I have been blessed to say—all the wonderful things that I have been guided to do up to this very moment came from the mind of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He told me that he wanted my mind. He wanted me to line my mind up with his mind so that it would be one mind. I did not know how that could be accomplished. One day I was talking with my friend and confidant, Brother Jabril Muhammad, and I told him what The Messenger had said, and I said, “Gee, how … do I get his mind?” He said, “Oh, brother, that’s easy!” He said, “He has to bring you in the same path that God brought him, and you will walk right up into his mind.” To my Christian family, the scripture teaches, “Let this mind be in you the same that was in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5) Here, God is offering to the people of His choice the greatest gift of all, because their suffering, under served, has made them heirs to the greatest gift of all, The Mind of God Himself through Jesus.

I have been in front of you for a lifetime. I have been in front of you for the last 40 years in the absence of my teacher. If you really want to know how good a student is, just leave the classroom: Children don’t mind monitors; they say, “That’s the teacher’s pet.” He left me with you.

If I did not love God with all my heart, my soul, my strength, I could not have withstood what you put on me. If I did not love God and The Mission of the resurrection of Black people in America and all over the world, White people would have destroyed me a long, long, long time ago—But Here I Stand! With His power, He raised me. I am not a Negro! I am not a colored boy! I am a young God, growing up in The Classroom of God! My brother Malcolm stayed in The Class for 12 years and shook the world. My brother Muhammad Ali stayed in The Class for about 10 years and shook the world. It’s real easy to follow a man in the cool of the evening, but how many can follow him in the heat of the day?

I don’t care what they put on me. The government is my enemy; the powerful Jews are my enemy; scared-to-death Negroes are my enemy; and weak Muslims and hypocrites are my enemy! But here I stand, unfazed by a government that wants my life! I told President Trump what he was planning. He tweets about everybody else—he doesn’t tweet back at me.

I, like my teacher, looked beyond our faults and saw our needs. I never try to judge you (as crazy as you are), because I love you. I just can’t help myself! I was born to love you. My teacher (told me), like his Teacher told him: “Take plenty. Take plenty.” I have taken plenty and I don’t complain.

America is in deep trouble today. The Nation of Islam can help you. Those poor young children down in Parkland, Florida, at Stoneman Douglas High School: Seventeen precious lives lost. And the sheriff’s deputy, with his gun, he’s standing on the outside; he’s supposed to run to where the shots are being fired! We don’t know how many lives he could have saved, but a punk with a gun. Guns don’t make a man. A gun is an extension of your manhood—if you are a man. But if you’re a punk with a gun, and you’re looking for somebody to be afraid because you’ve got a gun, and that person is not afraid? The punk will wonder, “Oh hell, what did I run into here?”

I would say to the president: Mr. Trump, you’re trying to arm teachers. Teachers are not trained to use guns. You send the children to school to be taught. But when you have a racist mind you’re talking about the inner cities. You can’t come in the Black community, as a teacher, and not expect something from your Black students; so maybe you’d like to have a gun in a Black classroom so you could shoot down a Black boy or girl who is challenging you. Whether you like it or not, there is some knowledge coming to Black children that will make them challenge a teacher that is talking crap in the name of "education."

We thought the Million Man March was great, and it was, but when those sisters rose up all over the world (on the day after the inauguration of President Trump), that sent a message to every government on this Earth: Women have not been treated right in any government on this Earth. That man, President Donald J. Trump, made women angry. Imagine all the groping that he (has done). We’ve got a lot of gropers. And when our beautiful Black sisters go to work downtown, sometimes they will not come home and tell you what they are up against; you (men) may be home in the bed when you should have been working—she’s out there working! And the enemy feels when he’s got a woman, I don’t care whether she’s White or Brown or Black, he feels, "If I am the boss, I have the right to abuse you." And if you (women) don’t submit to that, you’ve just lost your job. We, as men, are not protectors of our women. And for that we will have to answer to God.

The FBI has been the worst enemy of Black advancement. “Can you prove that, Farrakhan?” Yes. See, the Jews have control over those agencies of government. This enemy: he is so angry with Farrakhan, that now if you like me you have to either hide it (or lie about it), especially if you want advancement in the White man’s world.