Perilous Times, Black and Islamic Hysteria

August 7, 2002

by Mary Mostert, Analyst - Banner of Liberty

The Apostle Paul, writing to his young friend Timothy, described the "perilous times" that would come in the "last days" before the Coming of the Messiah; an event to which Christianity, Islam and Judaism all look forward. Since all three faiths claim to believe in the same God worshipped by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses, one might expect a little bit more kindness towards one another than we are witnessing these days.

However, the Apostle Paul warned that before the Messiah returned, "perilous times" would come when, "Men will love nothing but money and self; they will be arrogant, boastful and abusive; with no respect for parents, no gratitude, no piety, no natural affection; they will be implacable in their hatred, scandal mongers, intemperate and fierce, strangers to all goodness, traitors, adventurers, swollen with self-importance. They will be men who put pleasure in the place of God, men who preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality." (New English Translation - 2 Timothy 3: 2-5)

Anyone reading my e-mail these days could make a very good case that we are in the "last days." I’m seeing a lot of implacable messages of hate in the media, the Internet and e-mail these days, spread by men like Louis Farrakhan, who heads Nation of Islam, showing "the outward form of religion."

Among the articles on Louis Farrakhan’s website is one in which he supports President Mugabe’s seizure of white owned farms in Zimbabwe. In this article, it is not mentioned once that, due to those land seizures, one third to one half of the population now faces starvation.

During his recent trip to Iraq, Farrakhan discussed with Islamic Affairs Minister Abdul Munem Saleh "ways to confront the American threats against Iraq, and was quoted in the Iraqi press as claiming that "American Muslims are praying for an Iraqi victory in a war with the United States." He also told Mugabe on his own website: "With the help of Allah, we believe we will be successful, as we believe you will too, if the people have the resolve to stay the course and not compromise their valuable principles, in spite of the negativity and the hostility."

People are starving in Zimbabwe, once a food exporting nation. Capitalism Magazine points out to Socialist Mugabe, "not because there is a drought, but because hundreds of thousands of acres of crops have not been planted. Some farms are fallow because they are occupied by armed thugs. Others are unused because of a law threatening white farmers with two years in prison if they plant without government permission, which has not been given. Other farms are unplanted simply because no one in his right mind would go to the trouble of planting crops that will be seized before he can harvest them."

Apparently starving black Zimbabweans doesn’t even rate a mention in Farrakhan’s "concern" list, much less any suggestions for a remedy. On the other hand, Farrakhan is demanding that President Bush change his policies towards Saddam Hussein and lift sanctions against Iraq because, he claims, "5,000 Iraqis die every month as a result of U.S. sanctions."

That would indicate that 60,000 people a year are dying because of sanctions, which certainly ought to increase the death rate among Iraq’s 22 million population. In the 1997 World Almanac, covering the last year before sanctions, Iraq claimed it had 7 deaths for every 1,000 population. By 2001, the World Almanac reported Iraq claimed its death rate was 6.4 deaths for every 1,000 population. It would seem that more people died in Iraq before sanctions than since sanctions.

However, in Zimbabwe the 1997 World Almanac reported 18 deaths for every 1,000 population and by 2001, its death rate was 22.43 deaths per 1,000 population, a 25% increase in deaths in four years. For purposes of comparison, the 1997 Almanac reports a death rate of 9 per 1,000 for the United States and the 2001 Almanac reports 8.70 per 1,000, putting the United States with higher death rates than Iraq, with or without sanctions.

Zimbabwe’s death rate before the threat of starvation from Mugabe’s seizure of white farms was 350% greater than Iraq’s death rate, largely because of the sexually transmitted AIDS epidemic. Of course, Farrakhan’s newspaper dismisses the personal responsibility of Zimbabwaens’ by claiming AIDS is spread by the white man using "germ warfare against Blacks."

This kind of hate propaganda by Farrakhan and his cohorts reminds me that of the Apostle Paul prophesy that the success of those "who defy the truth…will be shortlived" and "they will come to be recognized by everyone for the fools they are."

_____________________________________


Mary Mostert was writing professionally on political issues as a teen-ager in Memphis, Tennessee in the 1940s. In the 1960s, she wrote a weekly column for the Rochester Times Union, a Gannett paper and was one of 52 American women who attended the 17 Nation Disarmament Conference in Geneva, Switzerland to ban testing of nuclear bombs in the atmosphere. She was a licensed building contractor for 29 years, as she raised her six children. She served an 18 month mission as Public Affairs Director for the Africa Area for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1990-91. In the 1990s she wrote a book, Coming Home, Families Can Stop the Unraveling of America, edited the Reagan Monthly Monitor and talk show host Michael Reagan’s Information Interchange for seven years. She now operates the website, Banner of Liberty.

Send the author an E mail at Mostert@ConservativeTruth.org.

For more of Mary's articles, visit her archives.

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