Farrakhan takes on America and Trump in Detroit speech

Detroit — Addressing the Nation of Islam at its annual Saviors' Day convention, Minister Louis Farrakhan said the United States is a falling nation, increasingly allied with the devil, railed against President Trump and warned him against upsetting too many people.

Farrakhan said God has revealed Trump’s plans to him, and that the president intends to go to war. He compared the country to ancient Babylon.

At other times, he lashed out at homosexuality and, a frequent target, called out two Jewish people.

“Mr. Trump, when you were running for office, you (were) talking about going into Iraq and taking the oil,” he said. “See, that’s thug talk.

“That’s the talk of a beast.”

America is "puzzling," he said. The world was looking at "a country going to hell."

 "The world was looking at a president who wants to be king when the Constitution and the Founding Fathers were trying to run away from what they suffered in Europe under the kings.”

A few minutes later, Farrakhan referred to threats on his own life, and said, “These are master assassinators.”

“And, I have to say to my president, Mr. President, please be careful, because you are upsetting a lot of people.

“What will you do if he gets a second term?” he said. “See, the hatred is building for him, because God allowed him to be president.

“Don’t you think that God isn’t interested in who sits in the White House, that holds sway over his people that he has chosen as his people?”

Farrakhan made his comments before a packed hall at TCF Center in downtown Detroit as he delivered his “The Unraveling of a Great Nation” keynote address.

Saviours' Day honors the birth of W. Fard Muhammad, founder of the Nation of Islam, and the Great Mahdi of the Muslims. The Nation of Islam considers Detroit mecca because the Temple of Islam in North America was first established here in 1930.

Farrakhan said that Satan was having a field day with America.

“You, my poor pitiful brothers and sisters, you are opting to be a part of that that is unraveling right in front of your eyes,” he said. “You see the country cascading downward. You see the moral fiber of America getting into the gutter."

Farrakhan said Trump was the terrorist when the United States recently assassinated Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani.

He said Trump had denigrated people, “that he had nicknames for everybody” and that he had said “some rough things to your generals.”

“Isn’t this the government that’s been giving us hell ever since we’ve been in America? Come on and talk to me!” he exclaimed, as the audience whooped and warmed to his challenge.

He said that like the prophet Jonah, Farrakhan said he could come to the king of Nineveh to provide warnings.

“You have 10 commandments, 10 beautiful commandments that America does not follow,” Farrakhan said, criticizing the country for repeated wars in the Middle East, including, he said, under false pretenses, and the coveting of the possession of others, like oil and natural resources.

Farrakhan, 86, said the blacks in American have been bamboozled. As Malcolm X said, he intoned: “You’ve been had.”

“Are you quoting Brother Malcolm, Farrakhan” he said. “Why not? He was my first great teacher.”

This month marks the 55th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader and Muslim minister Malcolm X by three members of the Nation of Islam.

“Malcolm X was with Elijah Muhammad for 12 years and shook the world,” he said.

And Farrakhan denied Sunday that he hates Jews.

“No, that’s not me,” he said.

The man who was banned by Facebook for violating policies against hate speech and has long been known for provocative comments widely considered anti-Semitic twice Sunday singled out two men, whom he identified as Jews, and said they had harmed blacks and the country.

Louisiana Congressman William Levy, a frequent target of Farrakhan, helped arrange a compromise that continued to count freed slaves and blacks as three-fifths of a person to protect whited enfranchisement in the South, he asserted.

And Farrakhan said that the former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz had crafted Trump’s defense against impeachment.

“Another brilliant Jewish man named Dershowitz came to Congress, to the Senate, and gave them one of the most magnificent covers for cowardice,” he said.

“He made it so that the Senate, only one of them, didn’t follow suit.”

Farrakhan has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Foundation for spreading hatred and bigotry.

“I think is message of hatred towards Jews over the decades, and also towards the LGBT community and others, is just so harmful, now; especially, in today’s world,” said Rabbi Asher Lopatin, the executive director of JCRC/AJC: A Partnership for Community Relations and Jewish Advocacy.

“Today, we feel the sense of partisanship. And, the African American community feels this sense of partisanship and hatred,” said Lopatin, who leads the merged Jewish Community Relations Council and American Jewish Committee in Metro Detroit.

“And, we’ve suffered. The Jewish community, the African American community, the Muslim community, we’ve had bombings, we’ve had shootings, we’ve had stabbings,” he said. “We’re all suffering from hatred, and that’s the last message we want to give.

“The message we want to give is: Let’s come together with love, with respect, with honesty.

“Certainly, let’s not paper-over our differences and let’s tackle the difficult issues,” LoPatin said. “But not with hatred.

Eastpointe Mayor Monique Owens; Stephen Grady, the chief of staff for Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones; and the Rev. Joann Watson, a former city councilwoman, were among local leaders who attended the speech.

cwilliams@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @CWilliams_DN