From CNN.com

Farrakhan woos orthodox Muslims
Islam Saviour's Day events get underway in Chicago

February 28, 2000 Web posted at: 9:06 a.m. EST (1406 GMT)

CHICAGO (AP) -- At times, he sounded as much like a Baptist preacher as a Muslim, calling for stronger families and prayer in school. There also were shades of the old Louis Farrakhan -- one who said he believes U.S. society "is set up on the principle of white supremacy."

But the Nation of Islam leader spent most of his time Sunday reaffirming his pledge to reconcile his breakaway movement with orthodox U.S. Muslims, a move aimed at healing one of America's most contentious rivalries.

"Has Farrakhan abandoned us? Has Farrakhan changed?" he asked the audience of more than 20,000 who attended the annual Saviours' Day speech. Among them were former Washington mayor Marion Barry and Benjamin Muhammad, formerly known as Benjamin Chavis, once head of the NAACP and now a Nation of Islam official.

"Yeah, I have," Farrakhan said. "Everybody should be changing ... but I haven't abandoned you."

Much of Farrakhan's attention went to W. Deen Mohammed, the leader of the black orthodox Muslim American Society and the son of the late Elijah Muhammad.

"He and I will be together," Farrakhan said Sunday after sharing several embraces on stage with his former rival. "Not for evil but for love -- not for hatred, but in good."

Elijah led the Nation of Islam for decades, but after his death in 1975, his son led the movement toward orthodoxy. In 1978, Farrakhan broke away to revive Elijah's teachings under the old Nation of Islam name.

In the Nation's theology, Elijah's teacher in the 1930s, W. D. Fard of Detroit, was given divine status and Elijah was the final prophet to mankind. Orthodox Muslims believe the final prophet was Mohammed of Mecca, who founded Islam in the seventh century.

At a prayer service Friday, Farrakhan and Mohammed -- who spells his last name differently than his father's -- vowed to bury their differences.

Nation of Islam leaders, including Farrakhan's chief of staff, Leonard Muhammad, have insisted that the move toward unification is not new. Farrakhan has, for example, instituted the traditional Friday prayers, observed by millions of orthodox Muslims worldwide. The Nation of Islam also now observes Ramadan, a period of fasting.

Perhaps most important to orthodox Muslims, Leonard Muhammad says that all Nation of Islam followers now adhere to the Muslim creed: "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger."

That suggests Elijah Muhammad wouldn't be regarded as the final prophet by Nation of Islam members -- which Farrakhan confirmed during his two and a half hour speech on Sunday.

"I love prophet Mohammed," he said. "I know that he is the end of the prophets."

He said he simply chose to veer from W. Deen Mohammed's orthodox path out of fear that Elijah's legacy would be forgotten.

"I did it because I feared that the man I loved would be written out of history," said Farrakhan, who became a member of the Nation of Islam after hearing Elijah's Saviours' Day speech in 1955.

Today, the core membership of the Nation of Islam is between 50,000 to 100,000, according to conservative estimates by Lawrence Mamiya, a Vassar College expert on black American religions. He said the Muslim American Society has about 200,000 core members.

The overall following is thought to be much higher. Experts estimate there are about 4 million Muslims in America -- about one million of them black Muslims.

Farrakhan urged the mostly black audience to pursue a "moral, spiritual and political advantage" by attending the "Million Family March" scheduled for October in Washington that is modeled after the "Million Man March."

Throughout his speech, Farrakhan often included Christianity and Judaism in his calls for unity. But there were hints that he wasn't speaking about all Jews -- especially given remarks made to the crowd by Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a New York-based leader of the Neturei Karta International orthodox Jewish community.

Among other things, Weiss -- whose group opposes the current existence of the state of Israel -- told the crowd that the Holocaust was punishment on the Jewish people for allowing Israel to be established.

"They stole the Jewish name ...," Weiss said of Jews he would only call Zionists. "Please know that there is a difference between Judaism and Zionism."

Assem Fadel, a Muslim from Canada who is not a member of the Nation of Islam, applauded the distinction and said Farrakhan's speech provided him with "proof" that a Muslim unification was possible among U.S. groups.

But such remarks are likely to anger Jews, who are already seething over Farrakhan's past comments -- including calling Judaism a "gutter religion."

"It's hardly a way to pursue reconciliation," said Michael Kotzin, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.