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Nation of Islam and antisemitism

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A number of Jewish organizations, Christian organizations, and academics consider the Nation of Islam to be anti-Semitic. [1]

Many Orthodox Jewish, Conservative Jewish, and Reform Jewish spokespeople have stated their view that the NOI is anti-Semitic, as have the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, academics studying this subject in the B'nai Brith, and of the Stephen Roth Institute for studying Anti-Semitism and Racism.

Charges of anti-Semitism have continuously been rejected by the Nation of Islam and met with skepticism by many Black leaders and organizations.

Despite the historic discord between the Jewish community and the Nation of Islam, some moderate voices among Jewish leaders and organizations have engaged 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.

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.[2]

Catholic magazines such as This Rock have describe 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 alleged 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

Claims that "the Jews" control the economy

For many years 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 many 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)

References to Jews as "bloodsuckers"

One of the standard rhetorical techniques of NOI ministers is to refer to Jews as "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."

Then NOI minister Khalid Abdul Muhammed often referred to all 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)

Belief in conspiracy theories

Elijah Muhahammed, Louis Farrakhan, Khalid Muhammed and other NOI minsters believe in a variety of conspiracy theories concerning Jewish people. Some examples:

"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)

On Jews, Nazis and the Holocaust

Farrakhan even 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 has often 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)

Many members of the Nation of Islam deny are Holocaust deniers; they deny that the Holocaust took place, or hold that Jewish people deliberately and grossly exagerrated the extent of Jews who died during the Holocaust. For example, Khalid Abdul Muhammed, preached:

Tell us you lost 6 million. Historians, scholars, scientists, they went to some of the death camps. . . . It wasn't 6 million, it wasn't 5 million, it wasn't 4 million, it wasn't even 3 million. . . . Some of them say we'd be hard-pressed to get 1 1/2 million. Reports on the 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis were bloated, exaggerated, probably fabricated.
Speech in Brooklyn, NY, March 29, 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)

See also

References

External links

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