Leader of "Nation of Islam" Louis Farrakhan Explains: Major Nidhal Hassan Was Cursed by Superiors and Fellow Soldiers

Following are excerpts from an interview with “Nation of Islam” Leader Louis Farrakhan, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on November 6, 2009. The sub-titles follow the English original, where audible.

Interviewer: Let us begin with the most recent development on the American front, and the racial discrimination against Muslims and their persecution – the incident associated with Mr. Nidhal Hassan, a Muslim psychiatrist of Arab origin, who killed 13 soldiers at the US Fort Hood base. To what extent might this incident affect the Muslims in the US and make them targets of persecution?

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Louis Farrakhan: As you know, since 9/11, in America and in other parts of the world, those anti-Islamic forces have stepped up their efforts to make Muslims... to cause the Muslims to be looked at as uncivilized, savage, or wicked people. This is an attempt by anti-Islamic forces, and some members of the Jewish community, and some members of the Christian community, who have united to condemn Islam and to speak ill of our Prophet Muhammad, and to even go so far as to say that the Muslims worship the devil.

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It is because, my dear brothers and sisters, Islam was making so much progress in the United States that those anti-Islamic forces are trying to stem the tide of the progress of Islam.

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This recent unfortunate event, which took place at the Fort Hood base in Texas, has only added fuel to the fire. On behalf of all the Muslims in the Muslim world, we are saddened by the loss of these 13 American soldiers and the thirty others who were wounded in the incident. No human being would be pleased to see that kind of slaughter, coming from a fellow officer in the US army.

However, we have to look at Major Nidhal Hassan. What happened to him? What kind of stress was he under? What kind of insults had he borne?

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When there are Muslims who love America, and who join the armed forces to protect America, and to serve the interests of America, and then America, unfortunately, under the falsehoods of the George. W. Bush administration, launches attacks against Iraq and against Afghanistan, and now, those soldiers are killing Muslims... So when they go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the kind of hatred that is built up in the American forces, when they call the Muslims “ragheads” and “desert niggers,” and then, in the Abu Ghureib prison, Muslim women were raped, and Muslim men were sodomized... All this affects Muslims serving in the army. So when you are being insulted by your superior officers or by your fellow soldiers, at some point, a person might break. Unfortunately, I believe this is what happened to Captain Nidhal Hassan.

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Interviewer: Let me take this phone call from Germany. Mr. Jibril.

Mr. Jibril (by phone): Hello. I have a complex question, which I’d like you to let me finish. It is directed to Mr. Farrakhan.

Interviewer: Go ahead.

Mr. Jibril: The Africans in America – or rather, the Afro-Americans – were subjugated for many years, and conducted a very long struggle for justice and equality, so they, of all people, best understand the issue of justice and equality. You are visiting Tripoli. You are, as a matter of fact, visiting a tyrannical regime, which is subjugating the Libyans and plundering their money. You are receiving impure money, plundered from the Libyan people. You are receiving it from Al-Qadhafi. Years ago, Al-Qadhafi killed 1,200 Libyan political prisoners within a matter of hours. He annihilated them. So how can you accept this, in the name of Islam, and in the name of our Afro-American brothers, who have tasted such suffering? How can you accept impure money from a tyrant?

Interviewer: We got the idea. Do you have any other question?

Go ahead, Mr. Louis Farrakhan.

Louis Farrakhan: I’m saying to you, sir, that we are not pillaging the wealth of Tripoli or Libya. Libya is not offering us money. The progress we have made in America is by the pooling of the nickels, and the dimes, and the dollars of the poor people who backed Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. Let me ask you this, my dear brother. Is there one leader, one king, one ruler in the whole world who is not guilty of some sin?