Farrakhan Lauds Obama as 'Hope' of World

CHICAGO — In his first major public address since a cancer crisis, Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam said yesterday that a presidential candidate, Senator Obama, is the "hope of the entire world" that America will change for the better.

Minister Farrakhan, 74, addressing an estimated crowd of 20,000 people at the annual Saviours' Day celebration, never outrightly endorsed Mr. Obama but spent most of the nearly two-hour speech 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."

Minister Farrakhan compared Mr. 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.