The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of President Barack Obama, offered the traditional Muslim greeting — “salaam alaikum” — at the beginning of his speech at the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March in Washington on Saturday.
Then the pastor emeritus of Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ launched into an appeal for “Palestinian justice” and for blacks to stand with them.
Image source: C-SPAN
Image source: C-SPAN
Not mentioning Israelis, he called Palestinians the “original people” — and then offered the crowd a reminder.
“Please remember, Jesus was a Palestinian,” Wright said.
He added that Palestinians are fighting against those who say “their god told them they could have somebody else’s country,” calling it “one of the most egregious injustices in the 20th and 21st centuries.”
Wright also said that youths in Ferguson, Missouri, and youths “in Palestine” have “united” and that blacks should join them.
Wright made headlines in 2008 after his sermons were examined and Barack Obama — then campaigning for the presidency — was forced to renounce his former pastor‘s controversial statements (e.g., “No, no, no, not God bless America! God damn America — that’s in the Bible — for killing innocent people.”)
After Obama’s election, Wright commented in 2009 that “them Jews” were keeping him from the new president. ”Them Jews ain’t going to let him talk to me,” Wright told the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia. “I told my baby daughter that he’ll talk to me in five years when he’s a lame duck, or in eight years when he’s out of office.”
Here’s the clip from Wright’s Saturday speech:
This story has been updated.