Farrakhan Appeal Uses Koran--and Bible : Ministry: The Muslim leader tailored his recent speeches for non-Nation of Islam followers. But his racial doctrines put off some in his audiences.

When Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan thunders his message of pride, independence and equality for black America, he evokes the fiery tones and images of a revival preacher.

And the Muslim minister’s associates accent his religious role, referring to him as “the champion of the cause of redemption,” and a man “backed with the might of almighty God.”

In two recent Los Angeles appearances, Farrakhan studded his talks with religious language and references to Allah, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed and Satan.

At the funeral of Oliver Beasley, shot on Jan. 23 by a sheriff’s deputy trainee during a scuffle in South-Central Los Angeles, Farrakhan eulogized the young black Muslim, who was reared as a Christian. Beasley was the “first martyr in the new dispensation of the rise of the Nation” of Islam, Farrakhan said. “It shall be recalled that not a Muslim died, but a Muslim-Christian. A Christian-Muslim. . . .

“His tragedy becomes the beginning of our touching each other as Muslims and Christians--Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses. . . . “

And, continuing his cross-over appeal to Christians in the capacity crowd of 16,000 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena last weekend, Farrakhan deftly drew from passages in the Bible and the Koran, speaking about “God’s sacred gift of life” given to each individual. “God made Adam from black mud,” he said, paraphrasing the Genesis account of Creation. “But . . . we are not animals, brothers and sisters; we have been raised in dignity.”

A theme Farrakhan weaved through much of his 90-minute message was taken from the New Testament Book of Revelation, Chapter 6, which describes the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The rider of the “pale horse,” he observed, was “death; and hell followed close behind.”

“Death is riding the neighborhood,” he added, interpreting the text to mean that wherever “Caucasians have gone . . . you brought death to the (black) people . . . and hell.”

But, despite Farrakhan’s reputation for speaking long and loud on religion, most people didn’t come out to hear him preach a religious message, judging from a sampling of interviews at the Sports Arena. Rather, people came because they thought Farrakhan could help stem the violence that has racked the city’s streets.

“I want to stop the killing,” said Dr. Clarence Littlejohn, a Los Angeles pediatrician, referring to the theme of Farrakhan’s speech. “If a little bit of religion will help that, that’s fine.”

“Deep down,” added Rosa Toulon, a member of the Baha’i faith who was visiting from Hawaii, “I think he’s trying to bring people together rather than separate them. But he (Farrakhan) leans toward blacks being superior. Baha’is believe in being loving to everyone.”

The Chicago-based Farrakhan leads a branch of Islam that was founded in Detroit in the 1930s, and he follows the black supremacy teachings of the late Elijah Muhammad. According to the Final Call, the Nation of Islam newspaper, Farrakhan’s group believes that Allah (God) appeared in the person of Master W. Fard Muhammad in 1930, “the long-awaited ‘messiah’ of the Christians and the ‘mahdi’ of the Muslims.”

Farrakhan has increasingly garnered support from black Christian clergy. He met privately with 70 of them in Los Angeles before his speech in the Sports Arena on the night of Feb. 2.

And he gained a show of support from the orthodox Muslim organization, the Islamic Center of Southern California. The center gave $5,000 for Farrakhan’s ministry at the meeting.

But some black members of orthodox Islamic mosques in Los Angeles are cool toward Farrakhan’s version of the world religion.

Abdul Askia, 35, a Los Angeles youth worker, had been a follower of the Nation of Islam for 15 years but left recently. Farrakhan’s teaching “is radical . . . and very selective in its presentation,” Askia said, adding that, in his opinion, Farrakhan’s doctrine of racial superiority inflames young blacks and sets the stage for their confrontation with law officers.

“Being told that the black man is a god--no wonder they are standing up,” Askia said in an interview. “This is what the people are responding to. . . . There is Islam and there is ‘Hislam,’ . . . Farrakhan is doing his thing . . . claiming to be a Muslim and not living (it). Excluding Caucasians is not the Islamic way of life.”

Saddiq Saafir, the imam , or spiritual leader, of Ibaadillah Mosque on Jefferson Boulevard, said there are basic differences between Nation of Islam and orthodox Muslim doctrine, particularly in understanding the roles of Fard Muhammad and Elijah Muhammad.

“The Nation is based on some Koran, some Bible and the belief that Elijah Muhammad is a messenger of God,” he said.

“God-consciousness,” or taqwa in Islam, is not based on skin color, according to Saafir, who is an African-American. “But they (the Nation of Islam) see it as being so.”

“The differences are there, but we don’t argue or discuss them,” Saafir continued. “We have to live within the context of the Koran and the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. . . . We cannot innovate, change or alter that content.”

At the Sports Arena, Farrakhan made no apology for his scriptural recitations, and the audience appeared familiar with the style of delivery and content of black preaching that Farrakhan emulated.

“No man can be hip without a knowledge of the Scripture,” he declared. “If we could read . . . the Bible and the Koran and understand what it says, we’d become wiser than the newscaster, because we’d know the news before it happens.”

And referring to a conversation in the Koran between Allah and the devil, Farrakhan challenged the rival Crips and Bloods gangs--groups of each sat in separate sections in the arena--to be “one family. . . . They are not natural enemies. . . . The enemy (Satan) has intervened between brothers.”

Perhaps a fourth of the audience responded at the end of Farrakhan’s message when he invited people to raise their hands if “you want to unite with me and become part of the Nation of Islam . . . and 1 billion Muslims all over the Earth.”

“Visit the local mosque,” he said before launching into a lengthy prayer of dismissal in Arabic and English.