and of course, louis farrakhan- certainly you've heard of louis farrakhan- he, like a, you know, a lightning rod, he attracts negative attention from the media because he's a controversial and powerful figure, and he holds to elijah muhammad's teaching of a separate nation of islam, and he keeps to the quest here, at least to put it in my terms, of empowering african-americans and raising their self-esteem so that they can take care of themselves. now this gets mixed in with a variety of islamic traditions, islamic rituals- it's a wide-open question. one in this class, we've talked about this so many times, about the question of religious truth versus the question of religious power, whether one believes that teachings of the nation of islam are traditional islamic doctrine or they waiver from that. nevertheless, the power, the impact on the community is astounding. in fact, sometimes- people always say have you ever had any negative experiences in the classroom teaching- you know, when you teach a controversial subject. and remarkably- don't ask me why, but very, very few- but the most nega

a single information that he saw farrakhan.as buddies. but then again he was a friend of every terrorist bomber in 1960. >> greg: bill ayers. >> i'm not talking about -- >> greg: you don't need to be friends to make at it problem. >> i'm talking about reverend wright and louis farrakhan. >> bob: what does it have to do with president obama? >> eric: you asked if reverend wright used g.d. america line yet. he was probably friends with farrakhan by that time. >> bob: coming up, former vice president dick cheney says the obama administration is over its head over the terror attack in libya. you'll hear from him next on "the five." ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. governor of getting it done. you know how to dance... with a deadline. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. you can even take a full-size or above, and still pay the mid-size price. this is awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is, business pro. yes, it is. go national. go like a pro. >>> i'm bret

the nation of islam leader louis farrakhan organized the event as a rally against socioeconomic problems support it including then chair woman of the u.s. commission on human rights mary francis berry who blasted farrakhan as anti-semitic, sexist, and homophobe bic. others said the march wasn't about one man but those who had pledged to clean up their lives and neighborhoods and the march happened 17 years ago today.

. >>> louis farrakhan will be in our area today. the longtime leader of the nation of islam is set to speak. organizers say they want to challenge students' self-ideology. it's part of bowie's i am lecture series. >>> right now there are hundreds of snow plows casing local streets. news 4's megan mcgrath joins us live this morning from prince george's county with more on why you might see those plows. megan? >> reporter: that's right, aaron. a lot of people are talking about hurricanes and sandy. here in prince george's county, they are actually talking snow and preparing for snow. take a look at the snow plows here. they've got their equipment all lined up. they have actually been leaving the public works depot here and hitting the streets, making sure that everything is in line for their crews should they have real snow. this is a dry line. vanessa gordon watson, you have been doing this for 25 years. talk about what this dry run is all about, what you'll be doing. >> we'll be going around looking for manholes, debris in the road,

. >>> louis farrakhan will be in our area today. the longtime leader of the nation of islam is set to speak at bowie university. organizers want to challenge the students' ideaologys. >>> and one group wants to protect deer in rock creek park. the group in defense of animals is going to court to prevent the national park service from killing white tail deer. the population can be controlled without having to kill any animals. the park service plans to use sharp shooters and bow hunters to thin out the population. >>> consider this when you get behind the wheel. sometimes it can be tough. there's a lot of traffic. >> yes, that is the case. let's talk about the weather. or do we want to talk about deer? are we still talking about deer? your odds of hitting a deer. >> apparently, the odds of hitting a deer is in 1 in 114 in maryland. you're more likely to hit a deer in virginia, 1 in 102. in d.c., you're more likely to hit a opossum than a deer. >> if you didn't know, now you know. tom kierein has the forecast. >> good morning. >>> we

we'll come back to the nation of islam, elijah mohammed, louis farrakhan, and if you look at the original teachings of elijah mohammed, it's a fascinating turntable mythic story in which whites are a devil race created by an evil force who have been made to oppress black folk; but when the justice is done, that evil race will be wiped out. now, elijah backed off that in his later years, but what he had to do was raise up the self-esteem of african americans - empower them - and he used a mythic force. true or false? open question. but it had the key point here. another key thing they do is they order existence - they tell us who we are, where we're going, what we're doing, what's important, what isn't important. and we're going to come back to civil religion in this class, but all you have to do is walk through the paper plate and napkin section of k-mart and watch the colors change, from your little reds and whites on valentine's day to your st. patty's day, to memorial day, fourth of july, and what you're seeing is a liturgical, mythic cycle happening inin the secular leve- it provides