Nation of Islam mourns death of Gadhafi
Things have changed since Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan declared then-presidential candidate Barack Obama to be “the hope of the entire world.”
Much to the chagrin of the Nation of Islam, Obama has turned out to be a relative hawk in his dealings with the Middle East, continuing Bush administration tactics, increasing drone attacks, taking out terrorists on foreign soil, working to depose dictatorial regimes and now overseeing the demise of Nation of Islam friend and supporter, Moammar Gadhafi.
When President Barack Obama committed the American military to intervene in the Libyan Civil War earlier this year, in an effort to bring an end to the Gadhafi regime, Farrakhan declared Obama to be an “assassin.”
“We voted for our brother, Barack, beautiful human being with a sweet heart and now he is an assassin, they’ve turn him into them,” Farrakhan told a crowd in New York in reaction to Obama’s efforts depose “Brother Gadhafi.”
Then on Thursday, pictures of a dead Gadhafi saturated the airwaves.
Abdul Akbar Muhammad, international representative of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, told The Daily Caller that Obama’s position on Libya was completely wrong, but that he doesn’t want his words to fuel the “racist” tea party.
“Obama, his position, is absolutely wrong. To use drone attacks to kill people, just like what happened in Yemen, we have the ability to bring people to trial. We are a nation of laws, and if a man is accused of a crime and has not been convicted, what gives you the right to say he should be killed?” Muhammad said. (RELATED: Post-Gadhafi, Obama warns other regional strongmen)
While Muhammad explained that Obama was wrong on Libya, he suggested that the policies were constructed by others in the government who turned Obama away from being the man who gave “great speeches” to the Arab world in Turkey and Cairo.
“I don’t want my disagreement with Barack’s policy to be used by a racist, right-wing tea party that is using their platform to try to get a black man out of the White House, and for him to go down in history as the worst president,” he said, “so I’m talking about policies of the government that is shaped by those around him and other people.”
According to Muhammad, the American media failed to tell the whole story about Gadhafi, namely about the good deeds that the former Libyan dictator did for blacks Africans. Many people are mourning, not celebrating, his death, Muhammad said.
Muhammad added that the military action against Gadhafi was hypocritical because there are worse dictators, such as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
“Gadhafi brought millions of black people who were in the shadows under King Idris when he took power, brought them to the forefront, afforded them education, giving them towns and opportunity. This has not been brought up,” Muhammad said, adding that he highlighted the Libyan leader’s good works in his recent “Final Call” article “The Gadhafi I Know – A Commentary on the Libyan Leader.”
While Muhammad believes that the Libya intervention “will come back to haunt us,” he is still proud that he voted for Obama.
Watch Farrakhan speak about Obama’s action in Libya:
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