From The Final Call Newspaper

Distress, dissatisfaction and discontentment among nations

By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- April 4, 2023


Tens of thousands Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's judicial overhaul plan outside the parliament in Jerusalem, Monday, March 27, 2023. (AP Photo)


“And there shall be signs in the sun and in the moon and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity …” Luke 21:25

The nations are in conflict and confusion; a time of darkness has enveloped the Earth and leaders have been impotent and perplexed about solving world crises. Divine Warning and Guidance have come concerning a time such as this. It is an hour of great upset where nations are stockpiling weapons of war and mass destruction. Angry citizens are on the streets of major capitals engaging in anti-government protests, and peace and stability stand far off, if on the horizon at all.

For nine decades, warnings to the nations about this hour and its requirements were given by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam. They warned a universal change fostered by Allah (God) Himself is underway. An old world of tyranny, oppression, war, and exploitation is going out, and a new world structured on righteousness, freedom, justice, and equality is coming in. In Chapter 13 of His monumental book, “The Fall of America,” the Honorable Elijah Muhammad explained that “evil has spread far and wide.”

“Never since the creation of Adam and Eve have there been such chaotic times as we are witnessing today—with the worst yet to come!” He wrote. “There is no peace among the nations of the earth.”




During a presentation on The Ummah Reflects Podcast opening the Muslim Holy Month of Ramadan on March 23, Minister Farrakhan spoke on world crisis, the prophesied “War of Armageddon,” and The Great Mahdi (Self-Guided One) of the Muslim world.

“This blessed Ramadan, I want to remind us that the War of Armageddon has already started,” the Minister said. “The War of Armageddon is a holy war: It is a war that God Himself is very much a part of; and He is The Commander of the forces of righteousness, and He is The Commander of the army of Allah who now must unite and be ready to take on the unrighteous rule of Satan,” he explained.

“As this war drags on—and we just passed the first year—more and more people are wondering where this is going,” said Madea Benjamin of Code Pink, the anti-war group.

People are growing weary, and some conclude there will be no winning on the battlefield and are questioning why governments keep pouring more weapons into it.

“People are also concerned about the danger of a nuclear war or World War III,” added Ms. Benjamin. “I think as this becomes more unpopular among the American people, there are more people who are speaking out, going to demonstrations (and) putting pressure on their Congress people,” she explained.

A major gathering of anti-war activists and organizations was in the streets of Washington, D.C. and simultaneously in other cities to demand, “No To Endless U.S. Wars!” The March 18 demonstration coincided with the 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Dubbed the “National March on Washington: Fund People’s Needs, Not the War Machine!” challenged the U.S. penchant for war and militarization. Organizers condemned the nearly $1 trillion defense budget while healthcare, education, and the social welfare needs of everyday folks go inadequately met.

 


Analysts say the growing dissatisfaction is not surprising as the U.S. spent over $100 billion on Ukraine in a war that is increasingly being seen as a U.S.-NATO proxy war against Russia—the world’s foremost nuclear power.

“Let’s face it, the American people don’t benefit from a war with Russia or China,” Ms. Benjamin told The Final Call. “We benefit from putting our resources into addressing the climate, poverty, education, people’s real needs. But we have to do more to stop those in power, who think that war is the answer,” she said.

But if Russia was not enough, late last year the heavily U.S.-influenced North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) declared China an existential threat to Western power that must be stopped.

The War of Armageddon is gathering all nations and preparing the men of war to fight. Conflicts are popping off from Africa to the Middle East; distant places in the South Pacific, and from Asia to Eastern Europe where war has been raging for over a year between Russia and Ukraine. Peace advocates say if conditions remain, popular anti-war and antigovernment pushback will only grow.

 
Tens of thousands protest against plans by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to overhaul the judicial system in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, March 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Temperatures of hostility are rising in the Asia Pacific region centered on China, North Korea, and an expanding military ambition of Japan. Despite Japan practicing decades of military pacifism, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida won national elections in 2022 with a promise to “substantially” increase defense spending. His ruling Liberal Democratic Party promised to double the military budget to about 10 trillion yen ($68 billion) within five years, reported Reuters.

That extra money will pay for longer-range missiles that can strike distant warships and land targets in China or North Korea. Each of these actors, including America is increasing defense budgets to stockpile more war ware. Although America is declining as a power, it continues to increase its bloated defense budget, now using China as the latest pretext. Defense officials are requesting congress to approve enormous amounts of money to prepare.

 
Nina, 60, shows her destroyed house in the liberated village Ruski Tyshky, Ukraine, Monday, March 27, 2023. After the winter, many residents of the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region return home to rebuild their homes after the fighting between the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

“The $842 billion fiscal year 2024 budget request for the Defense Department is driven in large part by strategic competition with China,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin, told the Senate Armed Services Committee in a March 28 hearing.

He said the amount is a 3.2 percent increase over 2023 figures and is 13.4 percent higher than 2022. “This is a strategy-driven budget—and one driven by the seriousness of our strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China,” Mr. Austin said, justifying the amounts.

In addition, The Pentagon is also putting the beg on Congress for more than $300 billion for weapons procurement to replenish arms and munitions the Pentagon sent to Ukraine, as well as for research and development in the upcoming 2024 budget, Bloomberg reported.

 
This photo made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, March 29, 2023, shows a Yars missile launcher of the Russian armed forces being driven from a shelter in an undisclosed location in Russia. The Russian military on Wednesday launched drills of its strategic missile forces, deploying Yars mobile launchers in Siberia in a show of the country’s massive nuclear capability amid the fighting in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)

Mr. Austin said in the face of China in the Indo-Pacific region the Department of Defense is investing in a “more resilient force posture” that includes expanding the size and complexity of war exercises with allied nations in the region. In short speak—it means more war preparation. Washington’s cantankerous posture toward China is worsening with a reciprocal sentiment from Beijing.

Asia watchers argue that Washington must take ownership of what is quickly deteriorating towards a perilous outcome—which is war.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote the old world must be removed to make way for the new world and there would be no peace until the peace-breakers are forcibly removed by God.

He wrote citing the Bible Book of Isaiah that God, Who is orchestrating the change is “despised and rejected” and “evil is accepted and honored” and “justice stands afar off, and equity cannot come in.”




Mr. Muhammad further wrote: “The Holy Qur’an warns us to fear a day when evil is spread far and wide in the days of God’s presence at the end of the satanic world to bring it to naught. Allah (God) causes the evil world to be upset since they have been the enemies of peace and the haters and destroyers of the righteous who would have brought them peace if they had accepted those worthy (the Prophets).”

There is a universal struggle being waged against the beginning of the new world and according to recorded history the efforts by the old world opposing the change will fail, as did former opponents of Allah (God), said the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The social and geopolitical upset can be attributed to the fall of White world rule and their response to the change and God’s or Christ’s presence to destroy this evil world. “This false regime should be destroyed by the Christ, the Crusher of the wicked, the Great Mahdi of Islam (Allah ‘God’ in person),” He said.

 


Angry citizens in the streets

Minister Farrakhan has also warned that the powerful are at the crossroads of reaping what they have sown. They sow war, bloodshed, and looting of natural resources and mineral wealth of marginalized nations. They will reap the bitter cup of their own demise and diminution of fruits.

For the warmongers and mischief-makers who expend much, and wax rich on war in foreign lands, while their people suffer from depleted resources at home, they too will pay, he warned.

While resources are always available for war-making, the peace breakers are now experiencing backlash at home from citizen uprisings against massive inflation.

Germany had one of the largest worker walkouts in decades as Europe’s biggest economy reels from inflation. The 24-hour strike of airport and railway workers on March 27 brought the country to its knees. Employees are demanding higher wages to offset the debilitating effects of 9.3 percent inflation. Germany was greatly dependent on Russia for gas prior to the war in Ukraine and was hard hit financially as it scrambled for new energy sources.

The strike is part of a ripple of recent labor strikes in wealthy European countries including France and Britain, where hundreds of thousands of transport, health and education workers are demonstrating.

Sparked by adverse pension policy changes, French workers turned cosmopolitan Paris into a theater for weeks of anti-government protests and violent clashes with authorities. In addition, industrial actions disrupting French refineries have left some petrol stations short of fuel, also hitting liquefied natural gas terminals, power supply and nuclear reactor maintenance.




In the Middle East, a “Satan casting out Satan” scenario is playing out in the Zionist State of Israel pitting Jews against their ultra-rightwing government, aiming to hijack control of its judiciary. Thousands of disgruntled Jews demonstrated on the streets against the power grab. Meanwhile, as Israel implodes, a potential “Third Intifada” like resistance is brewing among Palestinians, suffering the worst onslaught of Israeli occupier violence in two decades. The occupied West Bank is home to about 2.9 million Palestinians and an estimated 475,000 Israelis who live in “state-approved” settlements, illegal under international law.

Minister Farrakhan has explained that such unrest is part of an “intensifying universal cry for justice,” pushing people to rise up against unjust leaders and tyranny. He has stated the function of “The Great Mahdi” is to eradicate tyranny and establish a universal government of peace and echoing the Honorable Elijah Muhammad: it is time for the God of Justice to rule. The Minister has also warned America that what is seen overseas will soon make its way to its shores.

Although the world is spinning in death and destruction, the invitation to balance and choose life is still available, but the window of opportunity is narrow, the Minister noted.

“This is a time for all of us to seek a refuge in Allah, because there is no refuge anywhere!,” cautioned Minister Farrakhan.