Farrakhan Fulminations

He is a bit player who will not get offstage. Minister Louis Farrakhan, the black-separatist leader of the Nation of Islam movement and a supporter of Jesse Jackson, has threatened a black newspaper reporter with death and called Hitler a "great man," albeit a "wicked" one. His latest provocation is to embrace Muammar Gaddafi. After returning from a visit with the Libyan dictator this month, Farrakhan reportedly told a congregation in Boston, "America, you should be ashamed of yourself. . . It is you who are the outlaw. How can a leader of a little country like Libya terrorize the world?" He told the Boston Herald, "Since it is not divinely backed . . . the state of Israel is an outlaw state."

Farrakhan's outrageous statements have been roundly denounced by liberal leaders. "We cannot pretend we do not see or hear when Louis Farrakhan predicts race war by 1986," said Senator Edward Kennedy in an eloquent speech a fortnight ago on the dangerous rifts that have come between Jews and blacks. "Such conduct can never be condoned and it must be unequivocally condemned." Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin called on Jackson to repudiate Farrakhan. George McGovern last week asked how Jackson could "swallow a self-evident anti-Semitic bigot and life-threatening bully such as Louis Farrakhan."

Jackson, who curtly dismisses questions about Farrakhan these days, has gradually distanced himself from the leader of the small (estimated 10,000 members) Black Muslim sect. Eleven weeks ago Jackson demoted Farrakhan from "surrogate" to "supporter," and the two men have not appeared on the same platform since. Nonetheless, Nation of Islam bodyguards still appear at Jackson rallies, and they served as security on a recent impromptu trip to Tijuana, Mexico. By failing to repudiate Farrakhan and his inflammatory rhetoric, Jackson continues to raise questions about his claim to be a conciliator and peacemaker.