December 1997

Farrakhan's World Friendship
Tour stops in Egypt:

Peace mission to
 North Africa

CAIRO, EGYPT

'No African nation is really free, if our economy is controlled by our former colonial masters'
-Minister Farrakhan

by Askia Muhammad
Washington Bureau Chief

CAIRO— In this land of written history's most ancient of ancients, among sites that are wonders by all standards of wonder-antiquity, longevity, enormity, ultimate precision-the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan once again recited clear arguments Dec. 18, concerning the appropriateness of the message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to America and to the Muslim world among some of the Arab world's most learned minds. 

Egypt State
Information
Service

Founded in A.D. 969 by the Fatimid dynasty as capital of Egypt, Cairo became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Cairo fell to Napoleon in 1798 and again to the British in 1801. During World War II it was Allied headquarters in the Middle East. In mid-December, 1997 the "jewel of the Arab world," was a staging ground for meetings explaining Minister Farrakhan's 52-nation World Friendship Tour III to ambassadors, professionals, and students.

"No African nation is really free, if our economy is controlled by our former colonial masters," Minister Farrakhan told applauding members of the African Society at Al-Azhar, after a meeting with Shaykh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Grand Shaykh of the world's oldest university. Al-Azhar is the seat of learning and guidance for Sunni Muslims across the world.

"And as long as we are not equal to the rest of the world," the Muslim leader said, "then what we have of Islam, we need a deeper understanding of it, otherwise we can be enslaved by rituals, rather than the practical wisdom of God that is found in the Holy Qur'an."

"Islam is not to be confined to the masajid (mosque)," Minister Farrakhan told the students, "with prayers, and fasting, and zakat (charity), and an occasional visit to the Holy House at Mecca, but we have no power to change the realities under which we suffer.

"Islam gave to Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) the power to change the realities" of the world as he found it, the Minister challenged, "which realities will you change?"

"We support him because we see he brings a message from heaven," the leader of the African Society said. Indeed, Min. Farrakhan's views "echo what people throughout the Arab world feel, especially the young," Dr. David DuBois, a visiting professor of journalism told The Final Call.

Just one day before, the Nation of Islam leader met Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul Salaam Al-Majali and Shayikh Abdul Salaam Al-Abadi, Minister of Al-Awqaf Mosque in Amman and curator of Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, supervising staff of 500.

Egyptian civilization, one of the world's oldest, developed in the Valley of the Nile more than 5,000 years ago. The rival kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were united as a centralized state around 3200 B.C. by a king named Menes, who established his capital at Memphis. A high culture developed then, and the use of writing was introduced. During the Old Kingdom (3110 2258 B.C.) Egyptian culture and commerce flourished, and the great pyramids were built.

Hundreds of years later, around 1570 B.C., the "New Kingdom" was established. During the XVIII dynasty (1570 c.1342 B.C.) ancient Egyptian civilization reached its zenith. A vast empire was established and Memphis became the political, commercial, and cultural center of the world.

"Life passes so quickly," Min. Farrakhan said later pondering the awesomeness of the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the royal burial grounds at Luxor, "and these monuments have lived so long. Just to know that thousands of years after, we are looking at the work of people long gone," is inspiring, he said.

"The wisdom that our fathers knew here in Egypt," the Muslim leader said, "was so superior to (what is known) in this age," concerning astronomy, geology, and physics. Most scholars today don't understand what the ancient Egyptians knew, he continued. "The history of the Original Nation is written in the stars."

"Everything we are looking at is related to us," Min. Farrakhan said, explaining the meaning of the ancient Egyptian sites in light of the teaching of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad. "Our Fathers knew that this generation would rise and come into full knowledge of what is buried beneath the sand, and what is symbolized by these magnificent monuments."

The Nation of Islam leader also spoke to a group of doctors, lawyers, educators, and Muslim scholars in Cairo, at the home of Dr. Ibrahim Shukri, leader of the Labor (Islamic) Party of Egypt and publisher of Ash-Sha'b (The People). That group included Al-Hudhaibi, the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, Fathi Al Banna, brother of Hasan Al-Banna, founder of that organization.

At a similar meeting at the home of Hasan Al-Tall, publisher-editor of Al-Lewa' in Amman, Jordan, Min. Farrakhan met, and was embraced by Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas. Last October, Brother Meshal survived an audacious assassination attempt directed at him in Amman by ultra-secret Israeli Mossad agents, carrying forged Canadian passports.

(Photos: #1-The Hon. Minister Louis Farrakhan is pictured with Shaykh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Grand Shaykh of Al-Azar University, in Egypt.; #2-Min. Farrakhan address reporters during his recent stop in the Gaza Strip.)

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