Farrakhan on Obama's Victory

Louis Farrakhan, that famous anti-Semite and Barack Obama backer, commented on the ramifications of Obama's success.

Farrakhan hails Obama's win, warns of racial tensions

Louis Farrakhan, controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, on Sunday hailed US president-elect Barack Obama as an extraordinary leader but warned his victory would stir up racial animosity.

Farrakhan, 75, said that Obama's presidential candidacy had excited the nation in a way not seen since Robert Kennedy ran for the White House in 1968, and that he had been moved by the "oneness of spirit" he saw among voters, particularly on election night in Chicago.

But he said the country remained "divided and polarized," and he warned that the president-elect faced a daunting task in taking the reins of the nation during one of the most troubled periods in its history.

Many of the voters that backed Republican Senator John McCain "were older Americans and most reside below the Mason-Dixon line where racial attitudes and traditions die hard," he said in a reference to the American South.

"We can change laws, but it's difficult to change attitudes," he told a congregation of about 1,200 people at Mosque Maryam on Chicago's South Side.

He cited news reports that gun sales had surged since Obama's electoral victory, and told of how fights reportedly broke out in some schools, with white students chanting "white power," while blacks students chanted "black power."

"I'm sure that many of our people have unfortunately lost their lives because of the absolute hatred that is manifested now that one of our own has risen to such a high office," he told the crowd at the national headquarters of the Nation of Islam.

...On Sunday, he also said that the gracious concession speech given by McCain had not assuaged "the pain of loss and frustration and disappointment to those who felt great pain at Obama's rise."

And he said that for some people, the prospect of a black family in the White House, was a "sacrilege."

Farrakhan is the one stoking racial tensions.

This is absolutely ludicrous: "I'm sure that many of our people have unfortunately lost their lives because of the absolute hatred that is manifested now that one of our own has risen to such a high office."

"MANY of our people" have lost their lives because "one of our own" was elected president?

Are people dying because Obama won?

That's nuts, truly nuts.

For Farrakhan and others, this is all about race. This is all about polarization. Farrakhan is about hate.