Nation Of Islam convention To Include UFO Talk

Louis Farakan speaking at the 2008 Saviors' Day Convention. He accepts UFOs as part of the core teachings of the Nation of Islam
Thousands are flocking to Chicago today for the Nation of Islam’s Saviour’s Day 2011 Convention this weekend.
The four main conference sessions include a serious and scientific discussion on “The Truth About the Existence of Unidentified Flying Objects” at 2:15pm Central Time, February 26. The sessions will be web cast at www.noi.org.

The UFO session speakers include Jaime Maussan (Mexico City), Ademar Gevaerd (Brazil), Dr. Roger Leir (USA), Donald R. Schmitt (USA), Antonio Urzi (Italy), Fernando Correa (Mexico), and Steve Colbern (USA). This writer was invited to speak at the UFO session but had to decline.

The topic of UFOs is one of the more controversial beliefs within the Nation of Islam. But it is quickly getting more into the mainstream. The Chicago session follows similar meetings of influential and prestigious organizations and grassroots movements:

- November 3, 2010, Initiative 300 was on the election ballot in Denver. It proposed to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver and received worldwide news media coverage.

- November 6-10, 2010, the Vatican held a conference on extraterrestrial life. One priest even declared he would baptize extraterrestrial beings.

- January 22-25, 2011, the 5th Annual Global Competiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia held a plenary session of top UFO experts to discuss, “Contact: What We Can Learn from Outer Space”, originally titled, “UFOs and Innovation”. Former heads of state Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, and Jean Cretien also spoke at the forum which was attended and addressed by top executives from many of the world’s most innovative corporations and organizations.

- February 13, 2011, a meeting of the 350 year-old Royal Society in London had no fewer than nine presentations on extraterrestrial life and its implications for various aspects of human life.Topics discussed at the Royal Society were:

The detection of extra-terrestrial life and the consequences for science and society

The evolution of organic matter in space

Predicting what extra-terrestrials will be like: and preparing for the worst

Extra-terrestrial life in the European Space Agency’s Cosmic Vision plan and beyond

The search for life in our Solar System and the implications for science and society

The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence

The implications of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life for religion

Fear, pandemonium, equanimity and delight: human responses to extra-terrestrial life

Discovery of extra-terrestrial life: assessment by scales of its importance and associated risks

- February 20, the Associated Press reported that scientists had estimated there are at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way galaxy, and 500 million of them are “not-to-hot, not-too-cold” where life could potentially exist.

The UFO and extraterrestrial themes are not limited to large conferences. An unprecedented number of feature length films about extraterrestrial intelligent beings are hitting the screens from March to June of 2011.

Is there something we should know?

 By Jeff Peckman