Following are excerpts from an interview with Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on April 24, 2011.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2902.
Louis Farrakhan: "Naturally, there is anger in the Muslim world over the condition of Muslims. Even some Christians... namely, Franklin Graham, the son of a very wonderful evangelist, Billy Graham, has said that Islam is a religion of violence and is of the devil.
"Daniel Pipes, a Jewish Zionist, has said that Muslims in America are its fifth column – like they said of German-Americans or Italian-Americans during World War II, and of course, they were taken from their homes, arrested, and put in concentration camps. So were the Japanese.
"So this is building in America now toward a similar action, now that America is involved in killing people in Pakistan, in Yemen, in Djibouti, and in Somalia. So this is a wide war that is not being talked about, but everyone that is being ill-affected is in the Muslim world. [...]
"9/11 was very very strange. 19 Muslims were put before the American public and the world two days after this heinous attack. Korans were found...
"But before this, the neo-cons that were surrounding President Bush, who were the architects of something called a 'Project for a New American Century,' said that America needed something like Pearl Harbor.
"9/11 was America's new Pearl Harbor – to summon the American people in their anger and horror over what happened. [...]
"So now, I think, as a Muslim, that we need to open our eyes. There is nothing wrong with questioning government decrees. That is the bliss of living in America. I am not being irresponsible for what I am saying – I am asking for answers, and we, the American people, deserve answers.
"It wasn't only those few white families that died in that attack. It was Muslims, it was Christians, it was Jews, it was Hindus, it was Buddhists, it was people from the whole world. How, then, could you single out Muslims, and say: 'You [i.e., the Cordoba Center] are too close to this hallowed ground?' What makes it hallowed?" [...]
