Allah's pulpit thumper

Louis Farrakhan makes a bid to unify Islam in America -- and to be its No. 1 evangelist.

By Ted Kleine

Feb 28, 2000 | Louis Farrakhan wants to be Allah's apostle to all Americans.

"Islam is to consume America," he prophesied Sunday in a speech marking Saviours' Day, the annual convention of his Nation of Islam. "Islam is to consume England, and one day, these great nations will become servants of God. If God is going to establish his kingdom at the top of the mountain, who is the top of the mountain? America!"

But before Farrakhan can become the Muslim Billy Graham, he's got to do two things: show Arab-Americans he's a true believer, and convince white people he doesn't want to burn them at the stake.

On Sunday in Chicago, Farrakhan held the Second International Islamic Conference, a bid to bring his rogue sect into the mainstream of world Islam. When he gave his Saviours' Day speech at the United Center, the main floor of the arena looked like a bazaar in Mecca: bearded Arabs in skullcaps, Pakistanis in blocky Nehru caps, Asians in business suits, women hidden inside long white robes. It was the first time Farrakhan had attracted such a cosmopolitan crowd.

The majority of Islam's believers have long considered the Nation of Islam no more Muslim than the Shriners, and refused to worship with them.

"People thought that because we weren't from overseas and we weren't born Muslims, that we weren't Muslims," said Herbert Muhammad, a Farrakhan follower from Hartford, Conn.

But there are significant reasons for the split. The Nation once held that W.D. Fard, the man who developed the church's belief system, was Allah come to Earth. Fard, a silk salesman and ex-con who appeared in Detroit in the 1930s, taught that blacks ruled the world until a mad scientist named Yacub created a race of pale-skinned Satans. He also prophesied an Armageddon wrought by a "Mother Plane" carrying 1,500 bombers designed to plant explosives under the Earth's surface. Elijah Muhammad heard Fard's preaching, the story goes, and started a movement.

Lately, Farrakhan has been guiding his movement toward orthodoxy by sacrificing some of its science fiction-like cosmology. He hopes to bring the Nation in line with the rest of Islam. He's fasting on Ramadan, praying on Fridays and promising to give up the racist rants that repelled traditional Muslims.

Some say the 66-year-old Farrakhan may finally be ready to join the ummah -- the worldwide community of Islam -- because he nearly died of prostate cancer last summer. While he was recuperating, he prayed with members of the Islamic Society of North America, which is dominated by Middle Eastern immigrants. Sayyid Syeed, the society's secretary general, was at Farrakhan's bedside during his illness. This weekend, Syeed prayed publicly with Farrakhan and sat behind him on the dais during the Saviours' Day speech.

Farrakhan has also reconciled with W. Deen Mohammed, son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad and a rival for power when the movement split apart in the mid-1970s. The plodding, phlegmatic Mohammed led his followers toward traditional Islam and disappeared from the spotlight. Meanwhile Farrakhan, one of the most dynamic pulpit-thumpers in American religion, continued preaching black nationalism and came to symbolize his race's rage. Farrakhan once called Mohammed "a cheap hypocrite," but they embraced on stage Sunday, their first amicable moment in 25 years.

"Let me give my special greetings of peace and love and undying friendship to Minister Louis Farrakhan," said Mohammed, who said he believes Farrakhan is a "new man" since his cancer surgery.

Next Page: Allah has but one evangelist in this country, and his name is Farrakhan

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