LOUIS FARRAKHAN AND QADDAFI: THE TIES OF A BROTHERLY RELATIONSHIP

LOUIS FARRAKHAN AND QADDAFI: THE TIES OF A BROTHERLY RELATIONSHIP

By Fahim A. Knight-El

The death of President Muammar Al-Qaddafi is a tremendous lost to the Nation of Islam, in particular and all Black people in general. We have truly lost one of the greatest friends that we have ever had on the African Continent. This really saddens my heart and it is a devastating blow to all the liberation struggles of oppressed people throughout the world that he gave support to for a 42 year period. Our President, Obama is a dangerous man and in some sense he has been more reactionary than George W. Bush. Brothers and sisters, we got stuck on skin color and he being the so-called first Black president has caused us to lose sight of the steps he has made to betray the legitimate political aspirations of progressive governments throughout the world. For example, look what he has done in less than three years: he has so-called killed Osama Bin Laden (we know relative to this incident it was shrouded in CIA lies and deceptions Bin-Laden has been dead at least over 5 years and was not killed by U.S. Naval Seals), the killing of Imam Anwar Awlaki (Yemen) and now our brother President Muammar Qaddafi. He is also behind the CIA inspired uprisings that took place in North Africa (Egypt, Tunisia, and in Syria and other Middle Eastern states). Bush may have created the Axis of Evil theory, but Obama has implemented a deadly plan to take the Bush Doctrine to the next level.

Our Brother trust the devil (I am not referring to no devil in a red suit with a pitch fork) and it matter not what he does they have shown this ‘Negro’ president their raw nakedness and have voted down every piece of legislation that he has proposed in Congress—this is an example of the systemic effects of white supremacy and racism (how they have treated President Obama is beyond the concept of politics as usual). However, most of us do not understand that President Obama signed on and the moves that he has made are testimony of his commitment to their agenda. President Barack Obama is undeserving of our vote in the 2012 U.S. Presidential election. Brother Muammar Qaddafi was one of the only true friends that Black people in America had on the African continent. Yes, I do not mind saying it most of the 53 Heads of States in Africa are reactionary pawns, puppets, and rule with a colonial mentality—many of them have betrayed their people and have contributed to the suffering of Africa, but I am smart enough to know they too are mere victims of European imperialism. (Reference: Fahim A. Knight-El article titled: Africa: Who is the Blame; And How Do we Overcome Systemic Practices of Racism"; http://fahimknightsworld.blogspot.com/2010/05/africa-who-is-blame-and-how-do-we.html ).

Most of them have turned the resources of Africa over to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and live lavish Petite Bourgeoisie life styles while the masses of their people are suffering—living in stark poverty. Qaddafi socialized and nationalized the Libyan people's economy, he did not allow the United States, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Russia, Spain, Canada, China, etc., (or the Seven Oil Sisters) to exploit the oil wealth of Libya and these latest events have turned back 42 years of economic, political and social progress that the Libyan people had made under the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. This was not a NATO operation, this was a CIA led coup and these CIA agent provocateurs in Libya will one day regret the actions they took to overthrow and kill Qaddafi—they will be stricken to poverty and disillusionment under the banner of so-called democracy when the Seven Oil Sisters get finish usurping their sovereignty and stealing the Libyan's people oil wealth and enslaving them on their own land. Let me make this point President Obama announced the ending of the U.S. Combat mission in Iraq—after eight years of causing massive human and physical carnage in which over five hundred thousand Iraqis lost their lives due to a foreign policy initiative of going to war to steal Iraq's oil and in the process destabilized the Iraqi Government and betrayed their agent Saddam Hussein. Obama is ending the United States occupation in Iraq so he can eventually use some of these same troops in Tripoli to serve as the military and security watchdogs over the Seven Oil Sisters mission. The so-called ending of the Iraq War should not be viewed as a humanitarian gesture, but only as another move on the global chessboard—their eyes are set completely on the Libyan Oil Fields.

I have always respected President Qaddafi back in the early 1970s (1972 or 1973) he extended Libyan financial assistance to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Some of the Arab States have always questioned the Islamic religious legitimacy of the Nation of Islam's theology and withheld their support to the Lost-Found Nation of Islam here in the west. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad needed help and Qaddafi and Libyan Government extended a 3 million dollar loan to assist Mr. Muhammad. The Nation of Islam used this seed money to purchase the Greek Orthodox Church (now reconverted by Minister Louis Farrakhan and known as Mosque Maryam which is located 7351 South Stony Island Avenue in which the Honorable Elijah Muhammad converted to Muhammad's Temple #2, the Flagship mosque of the Nation of Islam and presently serves as the national headquarters). Thus, Qaddafi extended his generosity even further when it was time to repay the debt/loan he and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, for gave the debt and the loan became a financial gift to the Black Muslims. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad had always held high praises for Brother Qaddafi and he was considered in deed a friend to the former slaves in North America.

This writer can remember back in the early 1980s Minister Louis Farrakhan was still in the early rebuilding stages of the Nation of Islam which was totally destroyed by Elijah Muhammad's late son Wallace D. Muhammad (Imam Warith Deen Mohammed) who so-called transitioned the Nation of Islam into mainstream Islam and towards Sunni Islam; I have always believed that he was a CIA and FBI agent who was systematically used to dismantle perhaps one of the most successful organization in the history of black America next to the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) that was Founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914. Farrakhan reached out to Muammar Qaddafi for financial help during his early mission. Minister Louis Farrakhan was a well international traveler as the National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam who had made trips to Africa, Middle East, Caribbean, etc. However, there was one trip that sticks out in my mind, perhaps it was in 1985 or 1986 in which Minister Farrakhan and his delegation was desiring to tour Libya and West Africa in which I think on the first leg of the tour he was supposed to have made a public speech in London to the Black Britons, but British authorities actually arrested/detained him at Heathrow Airport along with his sons and I believe along with a couple of his aids (this action led to the United Kingdom passing a resolution to denounce Minister Farrakhan as an anti-Semite and banned him from the United Kingdom for almost 20 years—I think within the last few years the U.K. lifted the travel ban on Farrakhan) British authorities did not allow him and his delegation to enter the United Kingdom.

Minister Louis Farrakhan was scheduled to speak in Lagos, Nigeria, but the British and United States Intelligence (CIA) had contacted Nigerian governmental officials mandating them to cancel Minister Farrakhan's scheduled speech and venue; although, the Nation of Islam officials had secured a huge soccer field where thousands of Nigerians were lined up anticipating Farrakhan's speech on that hot summer day. Dr. Minister Khallid Abdul Muhammad (he made tremendous sacrifices for the Program) and others were on the ground level working out the logistics for Minister Farrakhan to speak in Lagos. However, the Nigerian Government had acquiesced to the dictates of their British colonial masters and Minister Farrakhan was prohibited from entering Nigeria and arm soldiers turned thousands of citizens away who were anticipating on hearing the black American leader. Minister Farrakhan was forced to fly to Accra, Ghana where even a bit of suspiciousness surrounded him and his delegation as they flew into Accra, but Flight Lieutenant President Jerry J. Rawlings allowed Farrakhan into Ghana (this relationship became second to Qaddafi and Libya as one of the most important international ties—Nation of Islam even held their first international Saviour's Day Convention in 1994 in Accra) and provided him with different speaking venues in Ghana in which the Nation of Islam spent 13 days in Ghana where he overwhelmingly won the confidence of President Rawlings and the Ghanaian people.

Minister Farrakhan traveled to Libya on this trip and Muammar Qaddafi has always extended love and solidarity to the Black Muslims of America (Qaddafi has always treated Minister Farrakhan as a head of state). Minister Farrakhan and his delegation also made Hajj to Mecca in fulfillment of the fifth Pillar of Islam (should not the Hajj fulfillment silence his critics relative to whether or not if he is a 'true' Muslim). Minister Farrakhan during the early 1980s embarked on tapping into the millions of dollars industry of black health care products and beauty products—cosmetic line which were being consumed by black consumers. He became the face and image of an idea that the entrepreneur Bill Wellington and Wellington group out of Philadelphia had established and introduced Louis Farrakhan to the idea. The concept initially was named People Organized and Working For Economic Rebirth (P.O.W.E.R) at Last and for ever. Minister Farrakhan being the gifted orator that he is traveled throughout America during the early 1980s promoting the P.O.W.E.R concept and trying to get African Americans to buy into the concept of purchasing black health care products from themselves or POWER. The relationship between the Wellington Group and the Nation of Islam eventually came to an end. But I think Minister Farrakhan still believed that the health care and beauty concept had economic validity. Minister Farrakhan culminated the POWER speeches on October 7, 1985 where over 35,000 black people packed Madison Square Garden and the Felt Forum to hear his POWER at last and forever speech.

Minister Abdul Akbar Muhammad (Larry 4X Prescott) who served as the international representative of the Nation of Islam had traveled throughout North Africa and all of Africa building diplomatic relationships for Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. But no relationship would prove more valuable than the one he forged with Tripoli and the Libyan Government. Minister Farrakhan in 1985 via satellite broadcast Muammar Qaddafi as one of the keynote speakers at the annual Saviour's Day Convention held in Chicago given in honor of the Nation of Islam's founder Master Wali Fard Muhammad. I was invited by Minister Ray Muhammad, the former minister of Muhammad's Mosque #34 in Durham, North Carolina and I flew to Chicago to hear Colonel Muammar Qaddafi address the Saviour's Day Convention in a broken English dialect and what I remembered about Qaddafi's speech on that day was that he cited there were over four hundred thousand black United States arm forces members in service and encouraged them to quit the arm forces (the white man's military) and get behind the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan in which he would train and arm them. But Minister Farrakhan immediately rejected Qaddafi's offer in which Chicago-Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune, in particular writer Clarence Page lambasted Qaddafi and demanded that Farrakhan repudiate such unpatriotic words made by Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.

Minister Farrakhan thanked Qaddafi, but was not interested in arming black America, but he needed Qaddaff's help in another way. Qaddafi and the Libyan Government became the principle financiers of what eventually became the Clean-N-Fresh products (a beauty and cosmetic line) and manufactured and distributed by the Nation of Islam. The legendary George Johnson (owner of Johnson's Products) initially agreed to manufacture Farrakhan's cosmetic line. Qaddafi and the Libyan Government gave the Nation of Islam a five million dollar interest free loan. Thus, part of the money helped finance the Salaam Restaurant billed as a fine dining eatery on the Southside of Chicago; the edifice was exquisitely designed in which one of Minister Farrakhan's daughters played a huge role. Let me be quite honest with my readers about my opinion—the Nation of Islam leadership made some very poor business decisions and squandered away many business opportunities to make the Nation of Islam (which is really 40-50 so-called American Negroes self-sufficient) and quasi independent.

Elijah Muhammad only had a third or fourth grade education, but no black leader other than Garvey who preached day and night the importance of doing for-self was more successful than the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Mr. Muhammad left the Nation of Islam with a proven template of economic success and as I traveled throughout black America, I do not see the Honorable Elijah Muhammad's program—I have come in contact with many groups and organizations (and ego-driven NOI sect leaders and ministers) claiming to be the heir apparent to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad theology and program.

Muammar Qaddafi transferred 5 million dollars over to the Nation of Islam and Minister Farrakhan in which he had difficulty getting a black bank to receive this lofty deposit of 5 million from the Libyan Government; some of the United States black banks did not desire to be associated with Farrakhan (the alleged anti-Semite) and Qaddafi (allege strongman and dictator stigma) because of the false anti-Semitism charges that were waged by a sector of Zionist Jews against the Nation of Islam and Minister Louis Farrakhan, it frighten many of the so-called black intelligencer away from helping the Nation of Islam leader. It was a conglomerate of negative propaganda and disinformation that had influenced how they were going to treat the Nation of Islam leader and this money from Qaddafi being transferred to Nation of Islam. Although, the United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control had approved of the international aid coming to the Nation of Islam from the Libyan Government (the U.S. Government initially wanted Minister Farrakhan to register as a foreign agent for Libya)—these 'Negroes' were running scared.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Malcolm X, also were accused of being anti-Semitic and Minister Farrakhan during the early 1980s had this volatile and contentious relationship with American Jews (let me again make a distinguish Zionist Jews)—which manifested itself during Reverend Jesse Jackson's 1984 bid to become president of the United States of America (the Zionist had labeled the good Reverend as an anti-Semite because of his "Hymietown" slur). These Negroes were so afraid that even George Johnson and Johnson's Product Company who had agreed to manufacture Farrakhan's cosmetic and body line products backed out of the agreement and reneged when it was made public who Farrakhan's financier was in which many in the black community believed that it was Zionist influences and pressure who covertly put the squeezed on Mr. Johnson to rescind his agreement with the Nation of Islam, which to manufacture the POWER Products and even the black banks did not want the Libyan Government gift in their banks because of being fearful of Zionist reprisals (this was a despicable and sad moment in the history of Black/Jewish relationship). These ‘Negroes’ were continually running for cover and eventually the POWER movement and/or the Clean-N- Fresh products line was derailed and the full economic potential would never be known.

The Zionist New York Congressman Peter King and other politicians waged political war against the Nation of Islam and actually imposed domestic sanctions against the Black Muslim movement. Moreover, Congressman King even used his political influence to rescind the United States Government backed security contracts that were awarded to various Nation of Islam security outlets throughout the country during the late 1980s and 1990s. Minister Farrakhan on October 16, 1995 called over one million black men (actually 2 million showed up) to Washington DC for the legendary Million Man March and the world watched a sea of black men gathered at our nation's capitol to rally around atonement, reconciliation and responsibility. I personally do not think any other black leader in America could have pulled this march off, but Louis Farrakhan (God gave Minister Farrakhan the vision, I do not mean that mystery God that does not exist—there is no God outside of the original man—you are God stop looking outside of yourself for divine vision). And let me be clear I have my own personal criticism of the Million Man March looking back on it sixteen (16) years later, but this article is not about my disagreements with the Nation of Islam (and I have some) or condemning Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Minister Farrakhan as the chief convener and keynote speaker at the Million Man March had garnished the world's attention in which so many people were moved and touched by this act of solidarity that had taking place on the nation's capitol—this gathering was peaceful, loving, and without incident and I as a black man who attended the march felt nothing short of brotherly love, it truly was an amazing day; however, based on the Minister's own testimony he stated that after the march he became depressed and this led him to gather his staff and embarked on another World Friendship Tour which led him to Libya and other countries in Africa and the Middle East (the western media called his trip an itinerary of embracing “Rogue Nations” and dictators and this was used to take some of the momentum and steam away from the success of the Million Man March) . There have been various accounts that Colonel Muammar Qaddafi offered the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan over a billion dollars in order to assist him in his mission of resurrecting the black man and woman of America. Some others even claim that Qaddafi said that he was willing to put all the wealth of Libya behind the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan. We do know this much the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and his team of lawyers did file application with the United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control under the guise of seeking to secure humanitarian aid (financial assistance) from the Libyan Government. Farrakhan's request for international transfer of funds from a foreign government who at the time had no diplomatic relations with the United States and had imposed United Nations sanctions against them led to the Nation of Islam request being denied (of course we know that it was much more to this decision than what was revealed publically).

This is how United States Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control defined its mission: "The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions based on US foreign policy and national security goals against targeted foreign countries and regimes, terrorists, international narcotics traffickers, those engaged in activities related to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and other threats to the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States. OFAC acts under Presidential national emergency powers, as well as authority granted by specific legislation, to impose controls on transactions and freeze assets under US jurisdiction. Many of the sanctions are based on United Nations and other international mandates, are multilateral in scope, and involve close cooperation with allied governments." This was a paralyzing decision for the Nation of Islam and we can only imagine what might have been and where black people may be economically in 2011, if Qaddafi was allowed to financially assist the Nation of Islam. He was in deed a friend of black America.

Farrakhan, perhaps has been one of the only uncompromising black leader that we have had in the last thirty-five years—yes most of our so-called black leaders are controlled pawns, agent provocateurs, sell outs and have always worked in the interest of the white establishment. I am on record to let my readers know that none of these so-called ‘Negro’ leaders speak for me—what damn sense does it make in 2011, we are still marching on Washington for jobs and justice (begging the system to take care of us). Why do not these $3,000 dollar suit wearing, $1,000 dollar reptile shoes wearing, $250.00 neck tie and $80,000 Cadillac Escalade driving pimps and hustlers create jobs for black people as opposed to begging our former slave masters for a job—crying and whining that President Barack Obama Jobs Bill failed in the Senate—get-up slave and do something for yourselves and stop looking toward the Federal Government to save our Black asses. The United States Government is rapidly and steadily falling and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us that one day as opposed to welfare—he was going to say to us Farewell that time has arrived in America.

Lastly, in 2003 President Muammar Qaddafi allowed himself to be duped by the United States and United Nations in which he took partial responsibility for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Lockerbie, Scotland airline incident that occurred on December 21,1988 killing 270 people, which was characterized by the West as a "terrorist" attack. Qaddafi and the West began to normalize diplomatic relations and Libya was once again given full diplomatic status by President George W. Bush and the United States Government. Qaddafi of all people trusted his enemies and these recent events are the results of that trust which can be characterized as betrayal (Reference: Fahim A. Knight-El article titled: "Libya and Qaddafi : The War to Steal More Oil" http://fahimknightsworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/libya-and-qaddafi-war-to-steal-more-oil.html ).

I know that Muammar Qaddafi will be missed by his friend and comrade Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam and by all of Africa and I send my condolences to his family and the Black Muslim leader who stood with Muammar Qaddafi until the end, a true testimony of love and friendship.

Fahim A. Knight-El Chief Researcher for KEEPING IT REAL THINK TANK located in Durham, NC; our mission is to inform African Americans and all people of goodwill, of the pending dangers that lie ahead; as well as decode the symbolism and reinterpreted the hidden meanings behind those who operate as invisible forces, but covertly rules the world. We are of the belief that an enlightened world will be better prepared to throw off the shackles of ignorance and not be willing participants for the slaughter. Our MOTTO is speaking truth to power. Fahim A. Knight-EI can be reached at fahimknight@ yahoo.com.

Stay Awake Until We Meet Again,
Fahim A. Knight-El