Republican Congress Targets Minister Farrakhan

By Charlene Muhammad -National Correspondent- | Last updated: Mar 20, 2018 - 12:53:27 PM

Resolution seeking to condemn Farrakhan, blasted by activists, analysts: Congressional targeting of Minister denounced as driven by racial fears, double standards

Min. Louis Farrakhan (R) Republican Rep. Todd Rokita thanks supporters at an election night rally after winning Indiana's 4th Congressional District in Indianapolis, Nov. 8, 2016. Photo: AP/Wide World photo

After failing efforts to get some Congressional Black Caucus members to repudiate Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, a staunch supporter of Israel targeted the outspoken leader by sponsoring a House resolution to condemn him.

Several analysts and Nation of Islam officials blasted the resolution as indicative of a racial double standard in the country and efforts to control Black people. Min. Farrakhan, nor the Nation of Islam are anti-Semitic, added Black activists.

Republican Todd Rokita of Indiana introduced House Resolution 772 on March 13 claiming Min. Farrakhan promotes ideas that create animosity and anger toward Jewish Americans and the Jewish religion.

“This is insanity! Min. Louis Farrakhan is the only person in contemporary history who has been targeted by Congress for his views,” remarked Julianne Malveaux, Ph.D., economist, author, and former president of Bennett College.

“We have not seen the people in Charlottesville who killed the woman targeted. So the only person you could think of to target is a Black man who loves Black people,” she argued, referring to deadly violence that erupted during a Unite the Right rally in Virginia last May.

“We have tens of thousands if not millions of people, Black people, in these United States who are members of the Nation of Islam. They are productive people in our community, who many of us interact with, work with, on a daily basis. Min. Farrakhan is their chosen leader,” stated Dr. Malveaux, who also emphasized she doesn’t agree with everything Min. Farrakhan says.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux

She continued, “They are not racist people. They are not anti-Semitic. They are Black people. So, until these Jewish people who are running around asking Black people to buck dance, until they ask White people to buck dance, I ain’t having it! I’m just not having it!”

“If we’re gonna run around condemning people, I got a list! How come we have not condemned David Duke,” she asked, referring to the Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and former Republican state lawmaker in Louisiana. “What is this nonsense?”

Rep. Rokita’s proposed resolution came amid an onslaught of attacks on Min. Farrakhan in mainstream and social media by Jewish and Zionist groups, and repeated demands for some CBC members’ resignations.

The Republican Jewish Coalition was able to force Representatives Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), and Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) to rebuke Min. Farrakhan, but Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), Andre Carson (D-Ind.), and Al Green (D-Texas) did not. The Republican Jewish Coalition targeted lawmakers after photos of them with the Minister surfaced, and after learning the CBC met with the beloved Muslim leader.

It is certainly not the first time federal U.S. lawmakers have targeted Min. Farrakhan. In 1984, the all White U.S. Senate voted unanimously 95-0 to condemn the Minister based on the same false and unfounded charges of anti-Semitism.

Ishmael R. Muhammad, Min. Farrakhan’s student national assistant, condemned the media for repeating lies and mischaracterizing Min. Farrakhan’s words as hateful and anti-Semitic during a Feb. 25 Saviours’ Day address in Chicago.

They have not challenged the truth of his statements, or addressed the truth the Minister spoke during a three-hour long message, argued Ishmael Muhammad, during a March 18 address from Mosque Maryam, the NOI’s national headquarters in Chicago.

“You should not be surprised that the enemy is showing his face. He’s an accuser of the brethren. He throws out lies and the best he can do is resort to the most childish of behavior, name calling. ‘He’s a hater. He’s homophobic. He’s an anti-Semite. He’s anti-American. He’s a this. He’s a that.’ But is he a liar?” asked Ishmael Muhammad rhetorically.

“Did he lie? Were his statements false?”

In his address, Min. Farrakhan spoke of Jewish power in American society and its ability to shape behavior through media influence as well as Zionist power exerted over Black people and Black politicians. These evil ones are not true Jews, but do wrong and try to hide behind their religion, causing the Bible to condemn them as members of the “synagogue of Satan,” the Minister said. He has also said the “synagogue of Satan,” an evil cabal, includes Christians, Muslims and others who engage in and support massive immorality, filth and evil.

At press time Rep. Rokita’s resolution was in the House Committee on the Judiciary. Mr. Rokita, a conservative Republican, is a member of the Congressional Israel Victory Caucus, which is devoted to defending Israel, the Zionist state’s right to exist and its right to defend itself.

After a March 17 forum on gun violence, The Final Call Newspaper asked Democrat Danny Davis of Illinois, who was running for reelection in the Seventh Congressional District, and challenger Anthony Clark about the House resolution condemning the Minister. Mr. Clark was unfamiliar with the resolution, but stood by his condemnation of Min. Farrakhan. He called Min. Farrakhan’s words anti-Semitic and anti-gay. While the Minister speaks to Black empowerment, but you cannot tear down other groups, said the suburban teacher and activist. He was also critical of Rep. Davis, saying it took too long for the congressman to condemn Min. Farrakhan. “I don’t hate Min. Farrakhan, but I don’t agree with some things he said,” added Mr. Clark.

Rep. Davis told The Final Call, while unfamiliar with the resolution, it was not something he felt he would likely support. He also said he read and heard some comments from Min. Farrakhan’s late February speech and disagreed with comments about “Satanic Jews” and taking down Whites. It was those statements that were objected to, but there was no condemnation of the Minister, Rep. Davis said. He also conceded that there could be politics in the call for Black Democrats to resign from the Republican Jewish Coalition, but none of the Black lawmakers are likely to step down, he said.

“I’ve never shied away from working with the Nation of Islam on issues that I agree with. I got the permit for the Million Man March. So if I didn’t have some feeling about the work that is done, than obviously I never would have done that,” Rep. Davis said.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee an effort to repudiate the evils of proven White supremacist groups went nowhere. A state representative sponsored a resolution in the Tennessee legislature to denounce White nationalism and neo-Nazism. “The House State Government Subcommittee rejected House Joint Resolution 583 … without any explanation. The measure’s sponsor, state Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville, says he was stunned,” reported Nashville Public Radio. “I was completely surprised,” said state Rep. Clemmons. “I fully expected this to be passed straight through.”

“White people will not go after each other on our behalf, but we’re willing to go after each other on their behalf,” commented Atty. Ava Muhammad, Min. Farrakhan’s national spokesperson.

Can’t defeat truth?

The Nation of Islam Research Group asked Talmudic expert Michael Hoffman, who is White, to review some of the Minister’s words from Saviours’ Day. He replied in an article entitled, “Farrakhan Spoke the Truth about the Talmud.”

“The typical rabbinic and Zionist response to the truthful description by Min. Farrakhan and others of what the Talmud teaches about Jesus, is to lie and say that in this passage in the Talmud is referring to ‘another Jesus,’ rather than Jesus of Nazareth,” Mr. Hoffman wrote.

“The ADL expects us to believe that depicting the Christian Savior being boiled in feces is not inflammatory, while any critical observation that Mr. Farrakhan dares to utter concerning Judaism is nothing but inflammatory. The hypocrisy is all too familiar,” Mr. Hoffman continued.

Longstanding denials by Talmudists and Zionists and their gentile apologists concerning the supposed absence of Jesus in the Talmud, are slowly being discredited after having held sway for centuries.

Part of Zionist and Anti-Defamation League problems with Min. Farrakhan’s address is he uncovered hatred for Jesus by referring to passages from the Talmud, a Jewish holy book, that said “Jesus is in hell, boiling in excrement.”

“Why don’t you call your own rabbis anti-Semites?” asked Ishmael Muhammad.

Pitting brother against brother

Min. Farrakhan has taken plenty from his own people and has never turned on them, noted Ishmael Muhammad. The focus should be on the puppeteer, who thought he could use the strings he has on Black politicians to make them dance, he said.

Ishmael R. Muhammad, student National Assistant Minister to Min. Farrakhan(left) and Richard B. Muhammad, editor-in-chief of The Final Call were recent guests on the Midday Show hosted by Perri Small on 1690 AM WVON in Chicago. Photo: Haroon Rajaee

There was also an apparent instance of misreporting or half-reporting by the media. In a recent Fox News article, Elizabeth Llorente, wrote that analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Ph.D., indicated Min. Farrakhan’s clout had been dimming. Dr. Hutchinson told The Final Call he made no such statement. “What I did say was, to put it in a broader context of the Nation of Islam, many people, primarily the Congressional Black Caucus, some civil rights leaders and others that have criticized the Minister, they feel that he is not as relevant anymore, so that wasn’t actually coming from me,” he said.

“That’s the feeling on their part, but people have to remember that’s primarily because he’s really not a civil rights leader and never been seen that way because that’s not his mission and that’s not the Nation of Islam’s mission historically,” Dr. Hutchinson stated.

“I also said when you really look at Min. Farrakhan’s work that he’s done in the Black community, as he said Saviours’ Day, work in self-help, economic independence, Black pride, willingness to challenge authority, that resonates with the Black community.”

Dr. Hutchinson continued, “Somebody from FOX asked me about Min. Farrakhan and that’s what I told them. Years ago I wrote a piece in the Grio, and they must have pulled from that, but I have not written anything in several years … and I never used the word dimming,” Dr. Hutchinson said.

It’s opportunistic, convenient and hypocritical for a group to make Minister Farrakhan’s comments the focus of anger about “bigotry” or “racism” when Donald Trump is in the White House, said activist and author Tim Wise.

It “is pretty hypocritical of these Jewish Republicans,” continued the anti-racist activist. “These are members of a party whose head essentially said last year that there were very fine people in Charlottesville amongst a group of neo-Nazis,” he told The Final Call.

“There are many times over the years that I have disagreed profoundly with Min. Farrakhan and have criticized certain things that he’s said. But I’ve also insisted that I am very disturbed by the White folks, in particular, some of whom are Jewish, like I am, but others who are not, have used Min. Farrakhan as an all-purpose boogie man, as a Rorschach Test almost for White America, sort of holding up the ink blot saying, what do you see?

“What do you see, and if you don’t see the devil, then there’s something horrible about you, and if you don’t allow Min. Farrakhan to be this boogie man or to distract you from the problem of institutional White supremacy, then they come for you,” Mr. Wise observed.

For 30 years, White racists have used this distraction every time White racism has been on the rise, he noted.

“What about Farrakhan? What about Farrakhan? It’s sort of like a deer who gets distracted by the dog when the hunter has the rifle aimed at the deer,” Mr. Wise said.

As a Jewish person, he’s never felt threatened or attacked by anyone in the Nation, but he has felt threatened by evangelical Christians, Mr. Wise continued.

The Women’s March lost some supporters and staffers after co-convener Tamika Mallory refused to denounce Min. Farrakhan. She was condemned by media for attending the Minister’s Saviours’ Day speech.

Cleo Manago, Ph.D, founder of Black Men’s Xchange, a same-gender loving group, told The Final Call it’s irrational for Whites to call on Blacks to denounce Min. Farrakhan, given his history of truth and love, and their history of hate and lies.

Those who don’t accommodate Whites 24-7 are labeled haters, said Dr. Manago, who pushed back on claims that Min. Farrakhan hates the LGBT community. Those attacks are a diversion, because people who don’t see Blackness in a powerful way see Min. Farrakhan as problematic, he stated.

“LGBT actively discourages Black folks from actively addressing issues of Blackness. … That’s because Whiteness, through Christianity, through Democratic-Republican politics, through LGBTQ, all of these mainstream contexts, are nothing but the left side of White supremacy, as opposed to the Republican Party, which is the right side of White Supremacy,” said Dr. Manago.

Fear of Black solidarity

“There is something about, I call it ‘afrophobia.’ There is fear of Black solidarity, and that’s what this is about. ‘I don’t want these Negroes talking to each other,’ ” said Dr. Malveaux.

Dr. Malveaux faced the “Farrakhan litmus test” when she ran for public office in San Francisco in 1984, the very year the ADL began attacking Min. Farrakhan for defending Rev. Jesse Jackson. She lost her bid for Board of Supervisors, but in the process, one of the Jewish Democratic clubs asked her if she would repudiate Min. Farrakhan, according to Dr. Malveaux.

“My reply was I ain’t nobody! Min. Farrakhan don’t care whether I repudiate him or not. I was an assistant professor of economics. At the time I wasn’t on the national scene. I said, well what kind of nonsense is this! This will be a litmus test? Black people have to ‘repudiate’ Min. Farrakhan?

“Excuuuuuse me! In the history of our nation’s racism, with people being lynched even today, James Byrd being dragged in Texas, and we can call the roll, why don’t they repudiate George Zimmerman, who killed Trayvon Martin? … No! You’re going to go after Black people, and Min. Farrakhan has never picked up a gun and shot anybody. These people need to just back off,” Dr. Malveaux argued.

She understands how his critics feel about anti-Semitic statements, but be consistent, she continued. “If there is a standard for repudiation, let’s have it across the board. Otherwise, let’s let this brother do what he does best, to lift up Black men and women, inspire us to be our very best, lead us to do economic development, teach us to be responsible servants with what the Lord has given us, meld the Bible and the Qur’an, and that’s what he does, he melds the Bible and the Qur’an in the interest of our spirituality,” Dr. Malveaux said.

This story was updated March 24 with additional comments from Dr. Julianne Malveaux.

(Final Call staff contributed to this report.)

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