By CHESTER ROBARDS

Tribune Senior Reporter

crobards@tribunemedia.net

ALTHOUGH Nation of Islam Leader Louis Farrakhan admits The Tribune reported “perfectly” the words of a speech he gave at the College of the Bahamas Thursday, he claims a spin was put on his words that made them “mischievous” and “suggestive”.

His lawyer, Koed Smith, suggested at a press conference at the Executive Airport on Saturday that Mr Farrakhan is considering suing The Tribune over the article.

He also suggested that The Tribune represents Lyford Cay millionaire Louis Bacon, who has been at odds with another Lyford Cay millionaire, Peter Nygard.

However, Tribune publisher Eileen Carron has emphatically denied that The Tribune represents Mr Bacon.

“I neither know Bacon nor Nygard,” she said, “although I do know of their feud.”

Meanwhile, Mr Farrakhan has confirmed that it was Mr Nygard’s plane that flew him from Miami to the Bahamas.

According to Mr Farrakhan and Mr Smith, while the quotes used in The Tribune article were accurate, they were represented in the story “out of context”.

In fact, the article quoted Mr Farrakhan’s comments at some length. No interpretation or suggestions of his comments about “sending women to him” was made in the article.

Nevertheless, Mr Smith criticised the “impression” given by The Tribune’s coverage of these comments.

Mr Smith also tried to explain what Mr Farrahkan meant when he said: “I’m not looking for sport and I’m not looking for play. So you can’t send me no woman except to learn, and I don’t mean sex education.”

Pointing to a photo of Mr Nygard dancing with a Junkanoo dancer on a previous occasion, the lawyer said that although there were Junkanoo dancers present at the recent event, “there was no costuming like that. The Tribune in the caption to the photo, which was used to illustrate the article, made it clear that the photo was not taken at the event given for Mr Farrahkan.

Pointing out some people in attendance at the press conference, Mr Smith said the dancers were dressed in a similar way – in “cloth with a message”.

He added: “And so these things were suggested, especially when you take out of context this comment about women and sending women.”

“And so these things were so reprehensible that I’ve been now instructed by my client, Mr Farrakhan, to take steps toward finding legal remedy and recourse for this.”

“It is injurious,” Mr Smith claimed. “Minister Farrakhan is the spiritual and religious leader of an organisation and group of people who frown on that kind of behaviour. And so to say something like that and to give the impression that he was in the company of people who were even trying to make certain overtures is reprehensible and I do on behalf of the Bahamian people condemn The Tribune for having taken that sideswipe at our – and when I say our, I mean Bahamians – at our guest.”

Mr Farrakhan was invited to the Bahamas by former Progressive Liberal Party politician Keod Smith. Mr Farrakhan said he had never met Mr Nygard before attending a party in his honour at the millionaire’s Lyford Cay residence.

Mr Farrakhan said of his words printed in The Tribune: “I made no comments about women, and any comments I made about women, if you have those correct words that you quoted in the article, you would have known what I said. But I always speak of women in a very spiritual way because that is our teaching. We never ever downgrade or degrade women. To do that is against our teaching.

“The reason I take umbrage of reading such an article is because the mischief inherent in that article is first to say that I came to this island and rebuked Mr Nygard.

“Second, all on this island who have benefited from Mr Nygard’s kindness, now they saw me, they heard me and for them to read an article and they would think that Minister Farrakhan came, and this was put in his honour, and this is what he did to Mr Nygard.

“Then, it puts me at odds with the people that I love and the people that I come to serve. And that is the mischief of a mischief maker using the media to divide and to put hatred between friends and brothers, or to break up a friendship even before the friendship is formed.

“I am not a liar nor would I come to the Bahamas to disrespect a man who hosted me in his home. I know nothing about Mr Nygard except the good that I saw and the good that I felt and the good that I heard. Now if you know something else, that’s on you.”

Mr Farrakhan returned to the US Saturday afternoon.

LOUIS FARRAKHAN QUOTE IN FULL

Mr Keod Smith, issued the following quote at Saturday’s press conference from the speech given by Mr Farrakhan at the College of the Bahamas.

“Rich people come, this is a paradise for everybody else but you. And we sit back and we allow ourselves to be put in a condition and it’s not other people’s fault.

“I was at the home of Mr Nygard, way out somewhere, a gated community. Some black people can’t go in there except as a servant, a cook, a butler, to care for the lawn.

“Last night they had something there that I was invited to. That was amazing to see all the black people that came and they put on a Junkanoo show for me.

“Now you know, I’m a very simple man. My staff can tell you I’m not a sightseer. I done seen palm trees. I’m not a person that go looking for bush, I’ve seen bushes.

“When I go, I come to do a job, to teach my people what God has blessed us to have, to teach them and I go back to my hotel. I’m not looking for sport and I’m not looking for play. So you can’t send me no woman except to learn, and I don’t mean sex education.

“So I was in a place last night that was magnificently beautiful and there were all these black people that came past the gate because Mr Nygard wanted them there on that piece of ground that most black people just keep driving by, don’t even go that way.

“And when white people come and own the land the first thing they do, they make it a gated community. And they don’t want no riff-raff.

“You come, you do your work and get out. When night time come, go. And there is always somebody to ask you ‘what you doing here?’ In your land. Did you hear me?

“Now either this is yours or you’re not the owner any more of this. But you paid a price and the land is being sold right out from under your foot.”