More than 3,000 people braved a torrential and steady rain on Wednesday night to hear Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

And he called on Bermudians to make the Island a paradise not just for those who come here on vacation but for those "who work, suffer and die here.'' His hour-long speech touched on family values, religious themes and the present threat of war between the United Nations forces and Iraq.

Minister Farrakhan made it clear that he was not anti-white, anti-gay or anti-Jewish but he said he was critical of persons regardless of race, creed or gender who possessed a "sick'' mind.

"We are lying in the mud of a dying civilisation,'' he told his listeners who huddled under umbrellas and canopies that dotted the ground.

Moreover he appealed to Bermudians to follow the example of Jesus, Muhammad, Moses, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and Abraham as they went about their daily activities.

Turning to the international scene he said that the United States had a particular responsibility to the world since it was the most powerful nation in what is now a unipolar world.

He said that he had written letters to President Clinton and Iraq's Saddam Hussein as both nations teeter on the verge of war.

"I urged him in the name of Allah and the Holy Qu'ran to allow the United Nations team free and unfettered access to the respective sites.'' And he said that if such an inspection turned up nothing then the sanctions against Iraq should be lifted because they are causing at least 400 or more deaths per day.

"As long as these sanctions remain innocent people will die. I appealed to President Saddam Hussein not to think of personal pride or of Iraq's future as a military power.'' Minister Farrakhan said that he told president Clinton that as the leader of the world's only superpower he stood in the place of God.

As a result he had the power of life and death over nations and this required that he balance that authority with "beneficence, and mercy and forgiveness.'' "I don't think that America has anything to gain from destroying Iraq,'' he said. "In fact she will put so much fear in the nations that they will look upon America and say which one of us will be next.'' Minister Farrakhan 64, who was born Louis Eugene Walcott in Boston, arrived in Bermuda on board a private jet with an entourage of 24 people as the guest of the local Nation of Islam community.

He was initially banned from the Island and placed on the stop list for remarks he allegedly made in praise of Hitler and castigated the Jewish faith by calling it a dirty religion.

Minister Farrakhan has said that his comments were taken out of context.