By Andre Wright, Staff Reporter 
Farrakhan
WITH A United States-led war on Iraq seeming more apparent by the minute, Imam Abdur Rahman Farrakhan is calling on the Anglo-American front-line coalition to ease off the pedal.
Mr. Farrakhan, who visited Jamaica two weeks ago, said, "It's a bad situation for war. People of goodwill need to come together and find a peaceful solution to resolve it."
He said, "It is troubling that the leadership is maintaining a position that is unfavourable. Leaders don't suffer in the event of war. Other people suffer when they have to go into exile while the leaders still retain power.
"The United States (US) is in a Catch-22 situation. They want to overthrow (Saddam Hussein) from within or from abroad. As a Muslim, my heart is with the people of Iraq. It's not only Muslims who will suffer, there is a significant number of Christians there also."
Imam Farrakhan says Iraq's President Hussein should disarm and co-operate with the United Nations weapon inspectors but still believes the US and United Kingdom (UK) should hold strain and pursue diplomatic channels to prevent war.
"I hope common sense will prevail. Saddam should open his doors to verify his claims, and be forthcoming with evidence," he said. "The US has power to wreak havoc and I hope it will be sensitive and conciliatory to the world, even though they are wounded by the 9/11 factor."
Mr. Farrakhan, who visits family and friends in St. Thomas regularly, is urging Muslims worldwide to be fair in their judgements and discourage those within their ranks who perpetrate violence and terrorism under the cloak of Islam. "The Qur'an says that we should be equitable. If a Muslim is wrong, he's wrong. Muslims should come against aggressors; it cannot condone folk who act arbitrarily and capriciously and are harmful to society.
"We have a right to defend churches, a right to defend synagogues, and respect the ideologies and books of all religions."
The Imam, who is currently based in New York and making plans to permanently settle in Jamaica, also says "it is disconcerting that the American Muslim community has remained silent" and hasn't lobbied vigorously through their representatives in the Senate or Congress.
Just last Thursday, Anglican and Catholic clerics in the UK also lashed the battle-hungry Tony Blair. Archbishop of the Church of England, Reverend Rowan Atkinson, said, "It is vital, therefore, that all sides in this crisis engage, through the United Nations... in a process, including continued weapons inspections, that could and should render the trauma and tragedy of war unnecessary."
