Nation of Islam’s Farrakhan defends Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi, blasts NATO ‘coalition of demons’

NEW YORK — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan on Wednesday lambasted the U.N., the U.S., and the "coalition of demons” that he said makes up NATO, accusing them of trying to assassinate Moammar Gadhafi and promote regime change in Libya.

Farrakhan said the United Nations and its 15-member Security Council, who he referred to as "the terror council,” have no legitimate right to exist for passing the resolution that has allowed NATO to take military action in Libya.

The Chicago-based Muslim clergyman, addressing a news conference a block from the U.N., defended his "brother leader Gadhafi” and praised his leadership of the North African country for more than four decades.

Farrakhan also encouraged Gadhafi to resist pressure for him to step aside.

"What has Moammar Gadhafi done to deserve what this united coalition of demons is putting on him?” Farrakhan said to murmurs of approval from his supporters. "They say he has lost the moral right (to rule) because he has killed his own people. But you have never proved that charge. Check the record.”

A Libyan diplomat who was among more than a dozen based at the U.N. who disavowed Gadhafi’s government earlier this year took issue with Farrakhan’s characterization of the leader as blameless. He said Libyan forces had indeed killed unarmed protesters.

"He didn’t talk about how Gadhafi’s forces were shooting at the people,” said Dia A. Alhutmany, a second secretary who still works at the Libyan mission, but now on the rebels’ side.

"He made Gadhafi out to be an angel,” added Alhutmany, who quietly attended the Farrakhan news conference. (...)
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