In his first major public address since a cancer crisis, Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan said that presidential candidate Barack Obama is the "hope of the entire world" that the US will change for the better.
The 74-year-old Farrakhan, former leader of the black Muslim group, never endorsed Obama outright, but spent much of his nearly two-hour speech on Sunday to an estimated crowd of 20,000 people praising the Illinois senator.
"This young man is the hope of the entire world that America will change and be made better," he said. "This young man is capturing audiences of black and brown and red and yellow. If you look at Barack Obama's audiences and look at the effect of his words, those people are being transformed."
Farrakhan compared Obama to the religion's founder, Fard Muhammad, who also had a white mother and black father.
"A black man with a white mother became a savior to us," he told the crowd of mostly followers. "A black man with a white mother could turn out to be one who can lift America from her fall."
Farrakhan also leveled small jabs at Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination, suggesting that she represents the politics of the past and has been engaging in dirty politics.
Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said: "Senator Obama has been clear in his objections to Minister Farrakhan's past pronouncements and has not solicited the minister's support."
Farrakhan rebuilt the Nation of Islam in the late 1970s after W.D. Mohammed, the son of leader Elijah Mohammed, moved toward mainstream Islam.
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