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Nation of Islam leader back

Louis Farrakhan recovers from cancer and retakes the helm.

CHICAGO - A year after delivering what the Nation of Islam deemed its ailing leader's final public address, Minister Louis Farrakhan has regained control of the movement and his place in its spotlight, a top aide said.

Months before delivering the 2007 Saviours' Day speech in Detroit, Farrakhan passed daily leadership of the Chicago-based religion to an executive board as he recuperated from serious complications from prostate cancer.

Some experts predicted the Nation of Islam leadership would fracture without Farrakhan, the organization's best-known leader and charismatic speaker.

But on Sunday, a healthy-looking Farrakhan returned for another Saviours' Day, delivering a two-hour speech. Farrakhan, 74, expressed his hopes for the presidential election and outlined his view of the Nation's future tone.

Minister Ishmael Muhammad, the top assisting minister at the organization's Mosque Maryam who is widely believed to be Farrakhan's successor, said Farrakhan quietly reassumed full responsibility for the Nation during the past year.

He said Farrakhan passed daily leadership duties to an executive board for only a few months before taking back the organization's reins.

"God has spared his life and kept him here," Muhammad said. "He has work to do and complete."

In May, Farrakhan delivered a message of unity at St. Sabina Catholic Church on Chicago's South Side.

In October, he addressed a crowd of about 5,000 in a commemoration of the 12th anniversary of the Million Man March. On Sunday, Farrakhan spoke for two hours to an estimated 20,000 people during his first major address in a year.

He told followers his weight was up to a robust 192 pounds - from a low of 158 pounds in late 2006 - and suggested that he may be ready to assume a more public profile.

"Many of you have not heard much from me this year, outside of the Nation," he said. "I wanted, by the grace of God, to put the Nation on the best road possible to make us true and better servants of our people. ... But I cannot stay on the inside when so much work needs to be done on the outside."

During most of the speech, he praised Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, calling him the "herald of the Messiah" and the "hope of the entire world" for change in the United States, while suggesting that rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is the status quo.

The Obama campaign distanced itself from Farrakhan's praise, calling his support unsolicited and saying it disagreed with statements Farrakhan has made about Jews and whites.

[Last modified February 25, 2008, 23:08:31]