“In an open letter to members, the 73-year-old said he was suffering pain like that he had felt in 1998 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He requested that his followers carry on with his movement after his death. He supports African-Americans having their own nation and is regarded as one of the most controversial and charismatic African-Americans alive. He has also been accused of being an anti-Semite. He revealed his health problems in a letter on Friday to Nation of Islam members in its newspaper, the Final Call, in which he compared his health problems to those of Fidel Castro. “
Here is the text of Farrakhan’s Open Letter: “In this period of testing, you can prove to the world that the Nation of Islam is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality of Louis Farrakhan.”
TheStateOf . . . Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam. I (J) have always had mixed emotions about Farrakhan (due to the killing of Malcolm) and the N.O.I. (due to brainwashing). In terms of his message to Black Americans, however, I can’t think of another black leader in the last 30 years that can speak to blacks without being beholden to white money or opinion in the way Farrkhan can. In that vein, Farrakhan has a special insight into the African American mind. He affirms the black family, which no one else has done. Whatever happens, let’s define Farrakhan in our own way, good or bad, and not by what others say. Farrakhan may be the last “black leader.”
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