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INGLEWOOD — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan issued a call for racial and religious unity on Sunday and condemned the U.S. war on terrorism, saying “there’s a lot of ugliness in America the beautiful, ugliness that can be turned into beauty.” 

Farrakhan combined moral teachings with a long history on what he described as U.S. oil politics during a 2 1/2-hour keynote speech to thousands of followers at the Forum in Inglewood. The speech capped the Saviour’s Day annual convention, marking the birth of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. 

The convention, which carried the theme “Healing The Wounds To Bring About A Universal Family,” was held for the first time outside of Chicago, where the Nation of Islam is headquartered. 

Farrakhan, whose black empowerment message in years past has included inflammatory remarks about Jews and Christians, urged unity and condemned religiously inspired violence. 

“I’m a Jew, I’m a Christian, and I’m a Muslim,” Farrakhan said. 

He also called on Hispanics, American Indians and other ethnic groups to unite in destroying racism by achieving success. 

“You kill it with excellence from the darker people of the world,” he said. 

He also urged Americans to speak out against the policies of the Bush administration, contending that a “shadow government” has controlled U.S. foreign policy and predicting that the administration was preparing to wage war in Iraq. 

In his State of the Union address last month, Bush said North Korea and the Muslim states of Iraq and Iran represent an “axis of evil.” 

In a long history lesson illustrated with maps flashed on the stadium’s giant TV screens, Farrakhan argued that the war on terrorism in Afghanistan, along with other Middle Eastern and African conflicts, were instigated by the United States because of its “insatiable appetite” for oil. 

“If the truth were known, there would be a Nuremberg trial for American presidents,” he said. “I cannot allow them to use the American solider, black, brown and poor white, to fight a war that is unjust and wrong.” 

Farrakhan said that true patriots should speak out against bad policies and said U.S. foreign policy could ignite more hatred of the United States. 

No Muslim leader would be capable of uniting the world’s Muslims in a holy war against America, Farrakhan said, but the Bush administration “can summon the whole Muslim world against the West by how you prosecute this war (in Afghanistan).” 

Celebrities attending the speech included Los Angeles Lakers basketball star Shaquille O’Neal, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, and clergy from various religions.