Reported: 22nd, April, 2013

The Gospel According to Louis

Last month Louis Farrakhan – Muslim minister, black nationalist
leader, and spokesman for the militant ‘religion’ the Nation of Islam –
came to Belize, his third visit in 38 years.  As well as giving
interviews to the media, he was given a reception and dinner by the
Government, met with religious and community leaders, spoke at the
University and the Prison (talk about a captive audience), had some
one-on-one face time with both the Prime Minister and the Opposition
Leader, and finished off with a public speech in the unlikely location
of Bird’s Isle, a small island in Belize City that’s just big enough for
a car park, a basketball court, and a restaurant & bar (he ‘held
court’ in the basketball court).

The publicity surrounding the week-long tour didn’t give very much
away, but after the minister had left, the conversations and speeches he
made contained many references to terms like “unity”, “education”,
“responsibility”, and “national pride”.  All fine ideas, and relevant to
a member of any race of people living in the developing world. 
Farrakhan even had a few choice words to say about Belize’s jaundiced
political system, and advised the kleptocrats in charge (my words, not
his!) to work together for the good of the whole country and its
people.  Being a shrewd operator, he was sensible enough to keep a
fairly tight lid on his religious beliefs – a sound idea, as Belize
(like the rest of the region) is overwhelmingly Christian (and any
devout Muslim would soon find that the minister’s version of Islam is
lax enough to make an ayatollah choke on his kebab).  And he was careful
not to alienate the Mestizo population by not focusing too much on only
the black Belizeans.  So far, so good.

But sadly, all the inspiring words in the world can’t hide the fact
that Farrakhan himself is a racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic conspiracy
theorist, and a man whose charismatic personality and gift for oratory
and colourful language have allowed him to get away with much more than
he should’ve been allowed.  Which makes it disturbing when he’s invited
into a democratic country by politicians and religious leaders – until
you realise that politicians are always happy to be seen with
charismatic orators (especially ones who claim to speak for ‘the
people’); and religious leaders can always find something in common with
each other (and in the case of the Belizean churches’ leaders and
Farrakhan, it’s an unflinching belief in God and an equally unflinching
dislike of gay people).

I first heard of Farrakhan after listening to Public Enemy’s Bring the Noise in the 80s (like any self-respecting white teenager, I listened to hip-hop!).  But I first saw him in Brother Minister,
a 1995 documentary about the assassination of Malcolm X (who left the
Nation of Islam and publicly denounced it for its racist teachings and
the sexual improprieties of its leaders).  It contains a secretly filmed
segment showing Farrakhan shouting at the top of his voice in an
NOI temple in 1993.  Verging on hysteria, he says of the murdered
Malcolm X: “If we dealt with him like a nation deals with traitors, what
the hell business is it of yours?”  His apparent admission of what had
long been suspected – that it was him and the rest of the NOI leadership
that ordered Malcolm’s killing – isn’t known by enough people, or
remembered as often as it should be.  Nor is it widely known that, two
months before the murder, Farrakhan wrote in an NOI newspaper that
Malcolm was a “Judas” and “worthy of death.”

I invite any Belizean, any black person, in fact anyone at all, to
remember those words and to look at the film of Farrakhan’s sweating,
yelling face, and to bear in mind that this self-righteous thug, who
once boasted of “dealing with” one of black America’s true heroes, is
someone now invited to Belize to tell Belizeans how to support each
other.

And Farrakhan’s immoral statements don’t end there.  He’s produced
flat-out racism (calling white people “evil”, “devils”, and
“unevolved”), and bizarre science (apparently caucasians are the result
of a sick experiment by a black scientist six thousand years ago – in
breeding out the blackness, the deranged doctor inadvertently removed
all the black man’s virtues too, and as a result, the white race has
connived to enslave black people ever since).  Then there’s his
anti-Semitism – according to him, Jews are responsible for everything
from the slave trade to the global financial crisis.  And in his
conspiracy theories, he manages to combine all of the above into a
paranoid whole – Jewish doctors inventing AIDS and infecting black
children with the disease, and the white establishment suppressing cures
in order to commit the covert genocide of blacks.  And that’s before
you get onto his quasi-religious pronouncements – Hurricane Katrina
being “God’s punishment for America’s warmongering and racism.“  And if
all that wasn’t enough, he’s also compared himself to Adolf Hitler,
accepted money from Colonel Gaddafi, and expressed an interest in
Scientology!

Any comment on Farrakhan and his rantings tends to dwell on the
negative effect that black chauvinist rhetoric has on white people.  But
why would any thinking black person want anything to do with a raving
nutbag who believes that everything that’s wrong in the black community
is the work of a white conspiracy?  Because he happens to say some
inspiring things about black empowerment when he’s not foaming at the
mouth about Israel?  I can perfectly understand why black people
throughout the Americas would be sensitive about the way their ancestors
were treated.  I sympathise with them, and I’d feel the same way too if
I were them.  But that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) excuse anyone from
saying that AIDS is the fault of the US government or that Jews were
behind the slave trade.  And the apologist for murder minister and his
equally vocal religious friends state (at least they used to state,
these days they’re subtle enough to imply) this kind of nonsense every
time they get on a podium.

All of which raises the ultimate question of why any country would
invite this loud-mouthed bigot in, or allow him to come.  Perhaps the
religious leaders of Belize saw a heady combination of enthusiastic zeal
and humble piety in him that they found attractive, and thought that he
could bring some of their lost sheep back to the flock.  Perhaps the
politicians thought (as many people do) that, as a self-made black man
living in a predominantly white society (and living through some very
racist times), he’s a respectable role model for young black men (and
with family breakdown, low education, poverty, gang membership, and
crime much more common in the Creole community, they may well have a
point about young black Belizean men needing role models).  And to give
Farrakhan some credit for a moment, he’s supposed to have toned down his
inflammatory rhetoric in recent years, and his Belizean speeches were
mainly focused on concepts like self-respect, family values, education,
and general responsibility (although the racism and the conspiracy
theories were never too far away).

So is this man, for whom the cause of every problem that’s ever
befallen black people is a conspiracy of white people and Jews, and for
whom the only solution is a total separation of races, really the best
person to be inspiring the inhabitants of multicultural, multiracial
Belize?  I guess Belize doesn’t have the political clout or the money to
have truly inspiring black figures like Nelson Mandela or Desmond Tutu
come over, and I did note with some relief that most of the people
interviewed on TV had never heard of Farrakhan, or had heard of him in
only the vaguest way.  Perhaps if the minister’s audiences can remember
his positive thoughts without ever finding out what he really stands for
(and what he’s said and done in the past), maybe then his visit won’t
have been a wasted exercise.

Source:http://johnpascoe.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/the-gospel-according-to-louis/