A couple of weeks ago Minister Louis Farrakhan upset a lot of people in a radio interview in which he publicly told President Obama: “You can’t order him [Gadaffi] to step down and get out; who the hell do you think you are?” Many of us probably didn’t realize at the time that the controversial minister’s Chicago mosque was funded by Mr. Gaddafi; Manya Brachear reports for Chicago Breaking News:
Warning that destruction could be on America’s doorstep because it oppresses “God’s chosen people,” Minister Louis Farrakhan, the controversial Nation of Islam leader, defended Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi today, calling the U.S. action in Libya hypocrisy.
Speaking from the pulpit of Chicago’s Mosque Maryam, the Nation of Islam’s international headquarters, purchased 40 years ago with a $3 million loan from Gadhafi, Farrakhan blamed demons for altering President Barack Obama’s moral conscience and driving the assault on Gadhafi, who he calls a brother.
“It is a terrible thing for me to hear my brother called all these ugly and filthy names when I can’t recognize him as that,” Farrakhan said to the crowd assembled at the mosque on Chicago’s South Side. “Even though the current tide is moving against him … how can I refuse to raise my voice in his defense? Why would I back down from those who have given so much?”
Though they haven’t spoken since 2005, Farrakhan and Gadhafi have been allies for decades. In 1996, around the time Gadhafi shifted from pan-Arab to pan-African ambitions, Farrakhan was criticized for traveling to meet the leader in Tripoli.
The following year, Gadhafi addressed Nation of Islam members via satellite, lauding Farrakhan for being a “courageous freedom fighter” who galvanized African-Americans at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., and Muslims in nations around the world. During that speech, Gadhafi panned America for taxing poor people, who the Libyan leader said do not benefit from space exploration or support of “a Hebrew state.”
“Consequently,” he said, “the voice of Louis Farrakhan will be heard among the simple people louder than the president of the United States.”…
