Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Sunday castigated U.S. President Donald Trump for “murdering” his “brother from Iran” Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq last month. Farrakhan added that he had not supported Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid because she had killed his “brother” Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi.
During a three-and-a-half-hour keynote address at the Savior’s Day conference in Detroit, Michigan, Farrakhan said that while Trump had justified the killing of Soleimani by saying he was a “bad man” who had killed many Americans, Soleimani was “no terrorist” and had only been “helping the people of Iraq rid themselves of an occupying army.”
“Where was a man that he killed? Did he kill him in New York? Did he kill him in Philly? Did he kill him in Colorado, or California, or Florida? Where did he kill them!? He killed them in Iraq! What the hell were you doing in Iraq?” he said.
Farrakhan recounted that during a meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he had told Khamenei that he represents the “Mahdi,” the eschatological redeemer of Islam, and that the U.S. was “No. 1” on the Mahdi’s “list to be destroyed.” America, said Farrakhan, can be “destroyed within 12 hours.”
The Nation of Islam leader went on to say that America is falling because it has become “the habitation of devils, the hole for every foul person, a cage for every hateful bird.”
He asked: “Have you become a nation of devils?”
Farrakhan shouted at President Trump, quoting from the Ten Commandments: “You shall not commit murder,” referring to the killing of Soleimani. He added, “Murder is your modus operandi … you want me dead and after today you might want to speed it up.”
Several mayors of Michigan towns attended the event, as did the chief of staff of Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones, who read a message of support to the Nation of Islam on stage.
The Nation of Islam’s new mosque is a former Jewish synagogue that was called Congregation Beth Moses. Farrakhan said in a June 23, 2019 speech that the property was purchased by a supporter of the Nation of Islam who “loved the teachings so much that he put up $300,000 of his money so that we could purchase this former Jewish synagogue.”