Detroit ? Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stressed religious unity Sunday in what was expected to be his last major speech, saying the world is at war because Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths are divided.

The 73-year-old Farrakhan told the tens of thousands at Detroit’s Ford Field that Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad would embrace each other with love if they were on the stage behind him.

“Our lips are full of praise, but our hearts are far removed from the prophets we all claim,” he said. “That’s why the world is in the shape that it’s in.”

The fiery orator spoke for the first time since ceding leadership of the movement last year because of illness. The speech at the home of the National Football League’s Detroit Lions capped the Nation’s three-day convention in the city where it was founded in 1930.

“My time is up,” Farrakhan said in describing his exit from the leadership stage.

The leader of 1995’s Million Man March said he is leaving at a time of great conflict in the world, citing the war in Iraq specifically, and that he believes God is angry with leaders who are putting politics and greed above serving their fellow man.

He said President Bush should be impeached or at least censured for his “wicked policies,” and urged young people to avoid joining a military that will have them “leave one way and come back another.”

The downtown venue was not filled to capacity, but seats on the field and in the lower levels were packed. There were empty seats in the upper levels of the stadium.

The Nation of Islam, which promotes black empowerment and nationalism, was rebuilt by Farrakhan in the late 1970s after W.D. Mohammed, the son of longtime leader Elijah Mohammed, moved his followers toward mainstream Islam.