Calling this weekend's earthquake in Chile a divine precursor to his planned speech, controversial Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan predicted on Sunday that America will face its own imminent disaster and must prepare.
Delivering a message titled "The Time and What Must Be Done," Farrakhan addressed thousands at Chicago's United Center as part of an annual celebration of Saviours' Day, marking the birth of W. Fard Muhammad, who founded the faith 80 years ago.
"It's not an accident that a great earthquake took place in Chile," Farrakhan, 76, said an hour into his three-hour address. "It was a precipitate of what I have to tell you today of what's coming to America. You will not escape."
"I will speak to the kings and rulers of the world. I will speak to the pope and the religious leaders because you have to know that your time has come," he said. "I desire to guide you and warn you of things that are coming that you must try to prepare yourselves for because we are absolutely living in the change of worlds."
Though some of Farrakhan's past remarks have been labeled anti-Semitic and racist, his supporters say he has been misunderstood and misrepresented by the media. In his speech Sunday, he recounted events in the 1980s where he was barred from hotels and other destinations after declaring support for Libya, implicated at the time in acts of state-sponsored terrorism. On Sunday, he blamed the international cold shoulder on the "reach of the Zionists."
Farrakhan also pointed out that dignitaries in many countries other than the U.S. treat him like royalty.
"I can't even get a meeting with a congressperson if a white man's watching," he said to thunderous applause.
The keynote address capped a weekend of workshops focused on self-improvement, community service and how to provide assistance to Haiti.
Citing numerous texts including the Quran, the Bible and a book by Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard, Farrakhan expressed concern for President Barack Obama's life; called for the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the former Haitian president now in exile; and described a spiritual experience in 1985 in which he ascended into a flying saucer and heard the voice of Elijah Muhammad predicting historical events that did come to pass.
"Some people think I'm a prophet," Farrakhan said. "But I have to say, the word 'prophet' is too cheap a word. Prophets come in the absence of God like moonlight comes in the absence of the sun. I come to fulfill that which you have read from the prophets."
