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THE NATION OF ISLAM
For more than a decade, ADL has exposed the racism and anti-Semitism of the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan.
The Nation of Islam (NOI) first garnered mainstream media attention in 1983 when Louis Farrakhan offered vocal support for the Presidential candidacy of Jesse Jackson. Founded more than 60 years ago by Elijah Muhammad, the Nation of Islam originally taught Blacks that they were "the first and last maker(s) and owner(s) of the universe," and maligned whites as "the devil race." Elijah Muhammad attracted a sizeable following and amassed a substantial financial empire. After Elijah Muhammad's death in 1974, Mr. Farrakhan took his mentor's place, continuing to promote the racist dogma.
The Nation of Islam's literature is clearly anti-Semitic. The group's weekly newspaper, The Final Call, has published anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. In 1991, the organization's "Historical Research Department" released The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, a vile tract falsely alleging Jewish domination of the African slave trade.
In 1992, ADL published Jew Hatred As History: An Analysis of the Nation of Islam's "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews" in response to its anti-Semitic charges and distortions. The ADL report is an invaluable resource on college campuses, a perennial focus of Nation of Islam propaganda activity.
ADL has noted since its 1991 report, Louis Farrakhan: The Campaign to Manipulate Public Opinion, the troubling fact that Mr. Farrakhan and his organization have been given a disturbing measure of legitimacy by prominent political and media figures, as well as government agencies. Under his leadership, the Nation of Islam has expanded in both size and influence, operating mosques in over 120 cities. Funded by millions of dollars in federal contracts, Nation of Islam security companies have policed public housing projects in at least eight U.S. cities while spreading the organization's beliefs and recruiting members from within the housing projects -- a situation vigorously protested by ADL and the subject of our 1995 report, Federal Funds for NOI Security Firms: Financing Farrakhan's Ministry of Hate. For a variety of reasons, many of the contracts with these security companies have been terminated. The Abundant Life Clinic, an AIDS facility operated by the Nation of Islam in Washington, DC, has lobbied for and received federal grants, despite the organization's long record of homophobia and the fact that its director, "Health Minister" Abdul Alim Muhammad, has accused Jewish doctors of injecting Blacks with the AIDS virus.
As a counter to Mr. Farrakhan's claim of "moderation," in 1994, ADL published Farrakhan Unchanged: The Continuing Message of Hate, and Louis Farrakhan: In His Own Words, reports spelling out the record of public bigotry by Mr. Farrakhan and his lieutenants. ADL spokesmen were quoted widely in the print and electronic media as the controversy grew.
In March 1995, ADL delivered testimony before a House Banking Subcommittee that emphasized the impropriety of awarding government security contracts to an organization that promotes intolerance. ADL urged the public to protest the use of federal funds to support the Nation of Islam.
After Mr. Farrakhan's speech at the Million Man March in 1995, he soon lapsed back into hatemongering. Speaking at the Nation of Islam's Saviour's Day gathering in Chicago in February 1996, he called Jews "wicked deceivers of the American people" and referred to the American Government as "rotten to the core."
In Travels With Tyrants: Minister Louis Farrakhan's Anti-American World Tour, ADL describes the itinerary of hate of his 27-day January 1996 "World Friendship Tour." Under the pretense of relaying the "message of moderation" of the Million Man March to African and Middle Eastern nations, Mr. Farrakhan visited the dictators of such terror-sponsoring states as Iran, Iraq, the Sudan, Libya and Nigeria. The report describes the unholy alliance of Mr. Farrakhan and Moammar Qaddafi and a political deal whereby the Libyan dictator promised to bankroll a $1 billion Muslim lobby in the U.S. to help destroy "white America."
In its report, The Nation of Islam: The Relentless Record of Hate, ADL documents Mr. Farrakhan's use of the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of white extremists. His anti-Jewish scapegoating continues, as illustrated during appearances on NBC's "Meet the Press" in 1997 and 1998.
During 1997, ADL condemned efforts by such mainstream figures as economist Jude Wanniski and columnist Robert Novak to legitimize Louis Farrakhan in the eyes of the Republican Party. Major GOP figures and leading conservatives have rejected such efforts.
During his 1997-1998 "World Friendship Tour," during which he expressed support for several tyrannical regimes, Farrakhan met with Libya's Qaddafi and repeated the allegation that Jews exploit Blacks. At NOI's annual Saviour's Day gathering in Chicago in February 1998, Farrakhan continued his pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Farrakhan spent most of 1999 out of the public spotlight recovering from prostate cancer. He reemerged in February 2000 for the Nation of Islam's annual Saviour's Day convention claiming to be a "changed man." While he has certainly toned down his rhetoric, he has not apologized for his past anti-Semitic and racist statements. Perhaps Farrakhan's most noticeable "change" is his embrace of an extremist sect on the periphery of the Jewish community, the Neturei Karta. During Saviour's Day 2000 Farrakhan offered the group a platform to spread their unique brand of anti-Zionist and anti-Israel hostility.
Farrakhan also appeared at Lincoln University in March claiming that "white people are potential human beings...they haven't fully developed yet." Proving that he would sharpen his attacks and turn on anyone who confronts his history of questionable behavior, Farrakhan claimed that Mike Wallace and CBS wanted to "contribute" to his "murder" after 60 Minutes aired an interview with him and the daughter of Malcolm X. In the interview he once again acknowledged that he helped create an atmosphere which led to Malcolm X's assassination.
ADL speaks out against Louis Farrakhan as part of our job to lead in the struggle against anti-Semitism and bigotry. By doing so, ADL hopes to encourage Black leaders to distance themselves from Mr. Farrakhan, and to persuade mainstream leaders to avoid giving him unwarranted legitimacy.
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