Nation of Islam leader slams Gadhafi’s ‘assassination,’ says rejoicing
will turn to sorrow
("Associated Press," October 25, 2011)
Chicago, USA - Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Tuesday said the
killing of ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was “an assassination” and
predicted the U.S. was unprepared for the looming backlash from his
overthrow.
During an interview with a Chicago radio station, Farrakhan laid Gadhafi’s
death at the feet of the U.S., Great Britain and France. Gadhafi was killed
last week, two months after being ousted following a 42-year reign that
turned his oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal
fiefdom.
Farrakhan, who considered Gadhafi a friend, said those nations’
establishment of a no-fly zone to stop Gadhafi’s planes and offers of
humanitarian
relief to the Libyan people were intended to help oust Gadhafi from power and
gain access to Libya’s oil wealth.
“They succeeded in being the authors of the successful assassination of a
sitting president,” Farrakhan told WVON-AM in Chicago, adding that it placed
America’s interests in danger. “No one can trust the United Nations
because it is a pawn of the Western world. No nation will give up their
weapons
of mass destruction like Gadhafi did, because it is the only protection
they have against the wicked witches of the West.”
Farrakhan also noted that the people now claiming leadership of Libya are
advocating Islamic Sharia law, something that he contends the U.S. has
opposed.
Farrakhan earlier this year portrayed Gadhafi as a fellow revolutionary who
has lent millions of dollars to the Nation of Islam over the years. The
group used $3 million it borrowed from Libya in the 1970s to acquire its
opulent headquarters on Chicago’s South Side. A $5 million loan was used years
later to pay back taxes and costs for the home of the movement’s former
leader Elijah Muhammad.
“It wasn’t the money, but the principles that made me his brother,”
Farrakhan said Tuesday.
Farrakhan, who became acquainted with Gadhafi in the 1970s and 1980s, also
said Libyan oil revenue was used to build schools and universities that
increased literacy, and he credited Gadhafi with establishing a health care
system that he said was the best in the Third World.
Gadhafi, 69, was buried Tuesday along with his son, Muatassim, and former
Defense Minister Abu Bakr Younis after the military council in the city of
Misrata ordered a reluctant Muslim cleric to say the required prayers. The
National Transitional Council is under international pressure to investigate
the circumstances of Gadhafi’s death.
Farrakhan said America “doesn’t know what it’s gotten itself” into with
the Gadhafi overthrow. He said he didn’t believe Gadhafi when he said
al-Qaida was involved in efforts to oust him, but now Farrakhan believes that
was
true.
The Chicago-based Nation of Islam has espoused black nationalism and
self-reliance since it was founded in the 1930s, though in recent years has
made
efforts to recruit other ethnic groups
--
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