Farrakhan to Black Youth: Study Ferguson, MO and Gaza
by Leroy Baylor

The military readiness of police in Ferguson, Missouri is a warning to all Black youth in America, according to Minister Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. In a two-hour speech Sunday, August 17, 2014 from his organization’s headquarters Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Farrakhan made a passionate plea for Black youth to see in Ferguson a tip off of what government agencies are preparing for them in the urban centers of America. As for Gaza, he said the willingness to bomb humans in tightly compact neighborhoods was a sign of how suppression could happen in Black neighborhoods here. 

Farrakhan warned that Black youth were “unknowing” conspirators to a government plan to destroy Black youth and Black people as a whole. This “collaboration,” he explained was the unchecked fratricide happening daily within America’s Black communities which, in turn, sets the stage for the “legitimate” heavy handed crushing of youth by police armed with military weapons and urban warfare tactics.

His mission, he explained, and that of other ministers and preachers is like the task assigned to the prophet Ezekial in the Book of Ezekial, 3, 17, where it states, “I have made you a watchman unto the house of Israel.” The watchman is to warn Black people and their “wicked oppressor, he explained. “But,” Farrakhan asked, “who is watching and warning the people of what you see coming? People like Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Civil Rights fighters were willing to sacrifice their lives to make a difference. They were willing to go among the people because it’s what you do after prayers in church and the mosque. The problem is in the streets. You have to go to the youth because they see preachers as pimps of the people. We must bring the word to them.”

Farrakhan then pointed to the destruction and suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza. “I’m a human being and if my heart doesn’t ache for humans bombed like the trapped people in Gaza, I would not be human. Muslim world leaders, who do not speak out against the bombing of these compact neighborhoods, are weak leaders who are so in bed with Shaitan that their sense of moral correctness is gone. Ask the Israelis to show you the damage compared to the Palestinians. Every child that dies in Gaza is a martyr. Don’t the Israelis have a right to protect themselves, of course. But, slaughter in the name of revenge is not just. The Quran states that there is life in retaliation for you. But, retaliation should not exceed the limit. Israel has exceeded the limits.”

He said that reported statements by some Israeli officials portray Palestinians as less than human. He compared that to the statement of one police official’s wife in Ferguson calling the people of Ferguson “animals.” Then he pointed to the statistics that portray Ferguson as more a colony than a viable suburb of St. Louis. “Here you have a town 60-70 per cent Black with 6 city council persons, five white, one Black; fifty police, only three Black, a white mayor; a school board predominantly white. What happened to voting rights? You have to live under a white mayor. You can’t make laws,” he stated.

“Imagine Blacks in those conditions, suffering every day. But, not once have they broke a window, before now,” Farrakhan continued. “Violence takes place in a context. It just doesn’t happen of and by itself. Ferguson is a microcosm of what’s going on all over America. The coroners are the brothers of the killers. The shooting of Michael Brown has triggered a response that has been building. I warned you back in the 1990’s that they would bring tanks against you. Your killing of one another will be the excuse for them coming to kill us all”.

While national and local government agencies were drastically looking for a formula to stop the Ferguson protests, Farrakhan’s concern was to use the happenings there to warn Black people everywhere. He was very straight forward in asking for help in reaching Black youth whom he said were the most precious in God’s eyes. He had been hospitalized, he said, as a result of complications from earlier operations but what he sees on the horizon prompted him to speak out now. “I’m willing to die on my post. Lions don’t retire. Preachers and teachers, when God allows you years, your duty is to keep on teaching a people in serious need of direction.”

He concluded his speech with advice to basketball star, Dwight Howard, who has come under attack for his expressed sympathy for the Palestinians’ plight. He directed Howard to see in Muhammad Ali the example of resisting the suppression of his rights to free speech. He called on rap artists to resist record deals that require them to make raps that promote fratricide and disrespect of women. He emphasized that Black youth must understand that at the highest levels of government are plans for their imprisonment and destruction; and, that most of all, Black people must understand that they are the chosen of God as prophesized in the Bible. “When you understand who you really are, others will not have power over you,” he concluded.

Minister Abdul Hafeez Muhammad, the New York representative of Minister Farrakhan, said that Minister Farrakhan has directed the Muslims to increase their presence in the streets and teach Black youth “where we find them.” Hafeez continued, ”the Minister asked our help in bringing the youth into the safety zone of higher wisdom and we want our people’s understanding that this task is indeed for our future and a community effort. Ferguson is a tip off as to what they are ready to do with the military equipment that creates a mentality that we are the enemy that must be destroyed. So, this Sunday our lecture at Muhammad Mosque, at 11AM is “Justice or Just Us: Eric Gardner, Remarly Graham, Michael Brown: The Boiling Point.” Muhammad Mosque is located at Malcolm X Blvd. and 127th Street in Harlem.