Nation of Islam and anti-Semitism
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A number of Jewish organizations, Christian organizations, and academics consider the Nation of Islam to be anti-Semitic. [1] (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~antis/papers/occasional.papers.html) The Nation of Islam has repeatedly rejected such charges as as false and politically motivated. [2] (http://www.noi.org/statements/statements_press_10-07-2000.htm).
The situation is complicated by the fact that NOI supporters, members, and leaders have made public statements that are criticized as anti-Semitic, and then the official organization (and sometimes the same people) seem to retract or reverse these earlier statements. At the same time, some critics of the NOI single out denunciations of Israeli policies in the Middle East and imply they are anti-Semitic; and some critics of the NOI have themselves used patronizing and bigoted language. There also have been attempts to build bridges and create dialogs between Blacks and Jews in an attempt to reduce tensions in part caused by this controversy.
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Charges of anti-Semitism
General claims
The Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, the left-wing advocacy group The Public Eye, government officials, academics, the B'nai Brith, Christian groups, and the Stephen Roth Institute for studying Anti-Semitism and Racism have described the Nation of Islam as anti-Semitic.
Catholic magazines such as This Rock have described the Nation of Islam as both anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic. (This Rock, Dragnet; Well-rounded bigotry, Nov., 1995)
Some articles by scholars of comparative religion have argued that the Nation of Islam is anti-Semitic and advocates Holocaust denial. For instance, in the Global Journal of Classical Theology, Professor Richard V. Pierard writes:
- Holocaust denial is a stock in trade of Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, Skinhead...and one also finds it in black hate groups like Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, some Afrocentrist writers, and in Arab anti-Israel rhetoric. The common thread running through all these manifestations is anti-Semitism; that is, hatred or dislike of Jews.
- Pierard, Global Journal of Classical Theology, 4/2, 2004
A number of prominent secular humanists have written that the NOI is anti-Semitic. Hating in the Name of God, by Benjamin Radford (Council for Secular Humanism website), and Madeline Weld's address to the 1995 annual meeting of the Humanist Association of Canada are examples of such criticism.
A report by the Stephen Roth Institute for studying Anti-Semitism and Racism states:
- Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam (NOI) which he heads, have a long, well-documented record of hate-filled and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Over the years, NOI ministers and representatives have regularly expressed anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-homosexual and anti-Catholic sentiments in their speeches. Furthermore, The Final Call, the NOI's official organ, reflects the anti-Semitism of Farrakhan and his organization.
- Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1997/8. Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam
British Home Secretary Jack Straw and lawyers for the Home Office have also described Farrakhan's views as "anti-semitic and racially divisive", and as a result he has been banned from the United Kingdom since the 1986.[3] (http://www.rickross.com/reference/nationofislam/nationofislam18.html)[4] (http://www.rickross.com/reference/nationofislam/nationofislam14.html) [5] (http://www.rickross.com/reference/nationofislam/nationofislam8.html)
Claims that "the Jews" control the economy
For many years certain Nation of Islam (NOI) ministers have been preaching that "the Jews" control the American economy and the world economy. Statements to this effect can be found in their newspaper, The Final Call, and in speeches given in their mosques and on college campuses.
For example, the Dallas Observer recorded this dialogue between Nation-of-Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and an audience he was preaching to:
- Farrakhan: "Is the Federal Reserve owned by the government?"
- Audience: "No."
- Farrakhan: "Who owns the federal reserve?"
- Audience: "Jews."
- Farrakhan: "The same year they set up the IRS, they set up the FBI. And the same year they set up the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith… It could be a coincidence… [I want] to see black intellectuals free… I want to see them not controlled by members of the Jewish community." (Source: Dallas Observer on-line, August 10, 2000)
Belief in conspiracy theories
Elijah Muhahammed, Louis Farrakhan, Khalid Muhammed and other NOI ministers believe in a variety of conspiracy theories concerning Jewish people. For example:
We are not giving them {Jews} power by getting into the debate, they already have power. They control Black intellectuals, they control Black politicians, Black preachers, Black artists – they control Black life. I’m not against Jews, I’m against control by any group, of us… I don’t know how you can talk about Black liberation without confronting that and not talk about those who stifle Black thought, freedom of Black liberation. (Source: Daily Challenge, 10/12/00)
Farrakhan gave a speech attacking then National Security Advisor Sandy Berger, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and presidential advisor Rahm Emanuel. In regards to their names, he stated that "Every Jewish person that is around the president is a dual citizen of Israel and the United States of America...And sometimes, we have to raise the question, 'Are you more loyal to the state of Israel than you are to the best interests of the United States of America.'" (Source: News conference at the National Press Club, October 19, 1998)
References to Jews as "bloodsuckers"
Some NOI ministers have called Jews "blood suckers". For example, in his Saviour's Day speech in Chicago, February 25, 1996, Louis Farrakhan preached:
- And you do with me as is written, but remember that I have warned you that Allah will punish you. You are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell. But I warn you in the name of Allah, you would be wise to leave me alone. But if you choose to crucify me, know that Allah will crucify you."
One former NOI minister Khalid Abdul Muhammed referred to Jews as "bloodsuckers".
- I called them [Jews] bloodsuckers. I'm not going to change that. Our lessons talk about the bloodsuckers of the poor in the supreme wisdom of the Nation of Islam. It's that old no-good Jew, that old imposter Jew, that old hooked-nose, bagel-eating, lox-eating, Johnny-come-lately perpetrating a fraud, just crawled out of the caves and hills of Europe, so-called damn Jew. . . and I feel everything I'm saying up here is kosher." (Speech in Baltimore, MD, February 19, 1994)
Portraying Jewish people as slumlords and "the devil"
Quotes from then-spokesperson Khalid Abdul Muhammed
"Who are the slumlords in the Black community? The so-called Jews. . . . Who is it sucking our blood in the Black community? A white imposter Arab and a white imposter Jew." (Speech at Kean College, NJ, November 29, 1993)
"I say you call yourself Goldstein, Silverstein and Rubinstein because you [sic] stealing all the gold and silver and rubies all over the earth. . . we call it jewelry but it's really Jew-elry, Jew-elry because of your deiving [sic] and stealing and rogueing [sic] and lying all over the face of the planet earth." (Speech in Baltimore, MD, February 19, 1994)
"Now it is time to stand up and fight back. . . . There are no good crackers, and if you find one, kill him before he changes." (Speech at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, February 17, 1992)
"The white man is not only practicing racism and Zionism, and with the prostitution ring, the so-called Jew man with the Jew woman all over the world to make a few dollars, he is also practicing sexism. He's a racist, he's a Zionist, an imperialist. He's a no-good bastard. He's not a devil, the white man is the Devil." (Speech at San Francisco State University, May 21, 1997)
Response to charges of anti-Semitism
Charges of anti-Semitism have continuously been rejected by the Nation of Islam.
Despite the historic discord between the Jewish community and the Nation of Islam, a handful of Jewish leaders have declared that it is worth attempting to engage the Nation of Islam in dialogue to foster better relations. For example, Prominent Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) held a private meeting with Minister Louis Farrakhan. Jewish leaders who engaged in this outreach stated that they hoped this would lead in a change of tone and content from NOI spokespeople in regards to the Jewish people. Since then, however, further attempts at dialogue have faltered.
Commenting on Rabbi Schneier's willingness to engage in dialogue with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, black political commentator Cedric Muhammad wrote:
If the FFEU's mission of fostering direct, face-to-face dialogue between ethnic groups is a sincere one and is accepted by the Black community; and if the organization's leader, Rabbi Schneier can resist pressure from AIPAC and the ADL and continue to demonstrate an unusual degree of courage and openness in meeting with Black leaders selected and supported by the Black community, and not hand-picked by philanthropy and political parties; indeed, a better relationship between Blacks and Jews in America can be worked out in the near future.[6] (http://www.blackelectorate.com/print_article.asp?ID=639)
During a 1991 speech at the University of Illinois, Minister Louis Farrakhan respondng to the controversy between him and members of the Jewish community:
"In my hands is a manuscript, brothers and sisters, that arose out of the controversy between myself and the Jewish community. I want to tell all of you I have never been antisemitic. I have never been a hater of Jews, nor am I now that, but I discovered in my tussle with them that they were on me because I had the nerve to pull the cover off of some deceitful practices that they practice on us and on others. And so they tried to make me the worst Black man in history. When they did that, some Muslims in the Nation rose up to defend me and went into libraries and did research and compiled a manuscript of over 300 pages from their own writings not from us. And not one scholar that we quote is an antisemite. Here are Jewish rabbis, Jewish scholars, Jewish writers. They document their own hand in the slave trade. They document their own hand in owning the ships, running the ships, buying and selling our fathers - it's here.[7] (http://www.blacksandjews.com/Farr_%26_Jws.html)
On Jews, Nazis and the Holocaust
Farrakhan makes the claim that "the Jews" financed the Holocaust. "German Jews financed Hitler right here in America...International bankers financed Hitler and poor Jews died while big Jews were at the root of what you call the Holocaust...Little Jews died while big Jews made money. Little Jews [were] being turned into soap while big Jews washed themselves with it. Jews [were] playing violin, Jews [were] playing music, while other Jews [were] marching into the gas chambers..." (Source: Sermon delivered at Mosque Maryam, Chicago, March 19, 1995)
Khalid Abdul Muhammed preached that the Jews deserved to be exterminated by the Nazis. Echoing white supremacy propaganda, he holds that Jewish people undermined German society, and thus deserved to be targeted by the Nazis.
You see, everybody always talk about Hitler exterminating 6 million Jews. . . . But don't nobody ever asked what did they do to Hitler? What did they do to them folks? They went in there, in Germany, the way they do everywhere they go, and they supplanted, they usurped, they turned around and a German, in his own country, would almost have to go to a Jew to get money. They had undermined the very fabric of the society. (Speech at Kean College, NJ, November 29, 1993)
NOI cooperation with bigoted groups
NOI cooperation with Holocaust deniers
Accoring to The Public Eye, "One Revisionist author, Dr. Arthur R. Butz, was invited to share the stage with members of the Nation of Islam and other guests at a February 1985 Chicago NOI forum." [8] (http://www.publiceye.org/frontpage/911/black_nationalists.html). There has been cooperation between supporters of the Nation of Islam and Holocaust deniers such as the Institute for Historical Review (IHR), and the Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust. A Nation of Islam supporter's website quotes from these groups, and these groups reciprocate. For example The Institute for Historical Review links to BlacksandJews.com, a website run by supporters of the Nation of Islam.
The Nation of Islam's official position does not deny the Jewish holocaust. Tim Russert, during a 1997 Meet the Press interview with Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan posed the question, "Do you believe there was a Holocaust in which six million Jews perished?"
Of course I believe that Jews perished in Germany, and (those) same Jews perished in Germany while the Pope Pius XII looked the other way and the government of America looked the other way. Now there is reconciliation between Jews and Catholics and the government of the United States. What is wrong with reconciliation between those who looked the other way when my fathers were being brought into America as slaves, and to this very moment have not received justice? I think atonement, reconciliation and responsibility should be the watch word for this time, and I am willing to sit down with any who wish to discuss atonement, reconciliation and responsibility.[9] (http://www.finalcall.com/national/mlf-mtp5-13-97b.html)
Cooperation with LaRouche groups
Since the 1990s the NOI and the Lyndon LaRouche network have been cooperating with a joint presentation making alarming and arguably anti-Semitic claims about vast conspiracies hatched by the Anti-Defamation League. NOI writers have been published in LaRouche publications and vice versa.
White supremacists
In 1961 and 1962, George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American Nazi Party, attended Black Muslim events and praised the group. At a Michigan meeting of neonazis and White supremacists in 1985, Farrakhan was praised as someone who understood that the real enemy is the Jews, and the need for separate White and Black nations. However the Nation of Islam has not openly reciprocated these gestures of support.
See also
References
- "An historian critiques the book The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews" (http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~antis/papers/occasional.papers.html) by David Walter Leinweber, H Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, retrieved April 3, 2005
External links
- University of Virginia on Nation of Islam (http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Nofislam.html)
- B'nai Brith Audit of Antisemitic Incidents (http://www.bnaibrith.ca/publications/audit1996/audit1996-06.html)
- MSN Encarta: Louis Farrakhan (http://encarta.msn.com/text_761580649__1/Louis_Farrakhan.html)
- Anti-Semitism Worldwide 1997/8: Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw97-8/usa-int.html)
- Equal Opportunity and Social: Justice African American-Jewish Relations (http://www.jewishpublicaffairs.org/publications/JPP_94-95_equal_african-am.html)
- Rev. Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (http://www.publiceye.org/rightwoo/rwooz9-36.html#P584_232920) from The Public Eye
- The New anti-Semitism (http://www.danielpipes.org/article/288)
- Farrakhan unrepentant after meeting Jewish leader (http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/4990/edition_id/91/format/html/displaystory.html)
- Nation of Islam requests meeting with Anti-Defamation League (CNN) (http://www3.cnn.com/US/9510/megamarch/nation_adl.html)
- Anti-Defamation League documents and webpages:
- Nation of Islam (http://www.adl.org/nation_of_islam/)
- ADL Focus on Nation of Islam (http://www.adl.org/focus_sheets/focus_islam.asp)
- Anti-Defamation League report Nation of Islam (http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/american/adl/nation-of-islam/noi-01.html)
- Final Call/Nation of Islam webpages:
- Farrakhan and the Jewish Rift; How it all started (http://www.finalcall.com/perspectives/rift.html)
- Zionism, not Farrakhan is the problem, rabbis say (http://www.finalcall.com/national/rabbis2-28-2000.htm)
- Minister Farrakhan and Jewish Delegation meet in Chicago (http://www.finalcall.com/national/mlf_rabbis11-25-99.htm)
- Interview with UIC Professor Michael Lieb (http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1100.shtml)
- Nation of Islam leader pays historic visit to synagogue (http://www.finalcall.com/national/jamaica04-02-2002.htm)
- Review of "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume One" (http://www.blacksandjews.com/review.D.Muhammad.html#anchor2982944) by Donald Muhammad, The Final Call, November 18, 1991
- Jude Wanniski's Polyconomics webpages:
- An Interview with Nation of Islam leder Louis Farrakhan, Pt. 1 (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-11-00.html) -On relations with Jewish community
- An Interview with Nation of Islam leder Louis Farrakhan, Pt. 2 (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-12-00.html) -On relations with Jewish community
- An Interview with Nation of Islam leder Louis Farrakhan, Pt. 3 (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-16-00.html) -On relations with Jewish community
- Memo: To Howard P. Berkowitz, National Chair, Anti-Defamation League (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/10-28-98.html)
- Judaism is a gutter religion (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/03-08-00.html)
- Another View of Blacks and Jews (http://www.polyconomics.com/searchbase/07-16-98.html)