Recall after the Haiti earthquake, Pat Robertson blamed the Haitians for their misfortunes, invoking the historical libel about Haiti’s founders making a “pact with the devil”.

Now, in the wake of this weekend’s earthquake in Chile, Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan has struck the same judgemental tone, calling it a warning to America:

“It’s not an accident that a great earthquake took place in Chile,” Farrakhan, 76, said an hour into his three-hour address. “It was a precipitate of what I have to tell you today of what’s coming to America. You will not escape.”

“I will speak to the kings and rulers of the world. I will speak to the pope and the religious leaders because you have to know that your time has come,” he said. “I desire to guide you and warn you of things that are coming that you must try to prepare yourselves for because we are absolutely living in the change of worlds.”

Of course 9-11 was also a warning to America, as far as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were concerned. They told Americans on September 13th, “You helped this happen.”

The continuum from the likes of Falwell, Robertson and Farrakhan to the likes of Osama bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki is not a very long one at all.