How The Charge of Anti-Semitism Negatively Impacts The Black Community
Once upon a time it was understood that the limit to “free speech” was that you couldn’t do things like yell “fire” in a crowded theatre. But today we are seeing that the limit to “free speech” in America is that you can’t say anything critical of Israel and the Jewish community.
If you do, regardless to how benign, tepid or balanced your criticism is, you will more than likely be labeled as an anti-Semite. And once labeled as an anti-Semite, you can loose your job or loose important relationships that are necessary for your survival. High profile persons like Marc Lamont Hill,Rick Sanchez and others have lost jobs in the media. Professor Tony Martin had his academic career put into jeopardy. In fact, the book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews volume 2: How Jews Gained Control of the Black American Economy introduces us to a long list of prominent Black/African-American men and women who were injured in their professional lives by being labeled an “anti-Semite.”
What is amazing is that non of these leaders did anything to threaten physical harm to Jews or Jewish properties and institutions. None of them deserved to be negatively profiled as anti-Semitic.
Many in the Black community don’t really understand this charge, so ResearchMinister.Com will complete several Blog Posts to help the larger community of Black people in America understand how this charge negatively impacts our community. To start, we consider the history of the most effective and powerful group that has ever arisen within the Black community-The Nation of Islam.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan for the past 40 years has worked tirelessly to rebuild the Nation of Islam as an institution that has always been a cherished entity within Black communities all over America and the world. From the Nation of Islam Black America received luminaries such as Muhammad Ali, Dr. Naim Akbar, Malcolm X, Dr. Abdul Alim Shabazz, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, Sonia Sanchez, Etta James, Kool and the Gang, the Delfonics, Public Enemy, and Joe Texx.
The Nation of Islam inspired the use of the term “Black” to replace the pejorative term “Negro”-a word originating from the Latin language formerly as ‘necro’ which means “dead”. Numerous activists, entertainers, organization leaders, political leaders, academics and athletes drew inspiration and posessed a feeling of solidarity and appreciation to the Nation of Islam. In our book Hail Elijah, we document scores of previously hidden testimonies from famous and legendary individuals who pay a debt of gratitude to the Hon. Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. The Nation of Islam began the movement for independent Black schools for the proper education of Black students. And it was this critical aspect of the Nation of Islam’s work that first brought the Nation into a conflict with law enforcement in the city of Detroit, Michigan.
Make no mistake about it, the Nation of Islam has been indispensable to the very survival of Black people in America. This brings us to the first area that we want to point out, and that is key quotes from the Jewish community that describe the Nation of Islam from their perspective. These quotes help to frame just how the charge of anti-Semitism has negatively impacted the Black community by interfering with the beneficial work of the Nation of Islam.
QUOTE NO.1: “Despite the NOI’s political marginalization, American Jewish Committee officials still feared Muhammad. His charismatic personality, willingness to confront racism in the most dramatic rhetorical terms and ability to inspire even non-believing African American listeners concerned Jewish leaders. The NOI leader, they feared, could earn the respect of his Black audiences, even if they chose not to join his movement.”-Prof. Marc Dollinger, San Francisco State University, 2005
QUOTE NO.2: “Only one movement (The Black Muslims), though looked upon by disfavor by the major black civil rights groups, remains strong, consequential, strong, cohesive, influential and it is a movement that encompasses a significant strain of anti-Semitism.”-Philip Hoffman, American Jewish Committee, 1972
QUOTE NO. 3: “Time magazine notwithstanding, we have no documentable evidence of anti-Semitism on the part of the Temples of Islam movement or Elijah Muhammad.” -Arnold Forster,Anti-Defamation League B’Nai B’rith, 1959
What we learn from these quotes is that the Jewish leaders saw the NOI as the strongest and most influential group among Black people. We learn that they feared the Hon. Elijah Muhammad’s influence with non-Muslim Blacks. And we learn a particularly important truth, that they concluded from their spying and investigating the NOI, that the NOI is not at all anti-Semitic! And yet despite they’re knowing that the Nation is not anti-Semitic, they continued to label the NOI as anti-Semitic.
Now lets look at several of the major episodes Jewish interference with the work of the Nation of Islam to negatively impact the Black community.
EPISODE 1: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan supported and became a part of the presidential campaign of Rev. Jesse L.Jackson Sr. A Jewish group called Jews Against Jackson promised to ruin Rev. Jackson and his campaign. Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam defended Rev. Jackson against this group and it was after the Minister’s defense of Rev. Jackson that he was labeled an “anti-Semite” and was called “Black Hitler.” In this episode the Black community wanted to elect one of their own to be president, but because Rev. Jackson favored equal rights for the Palestinians in their conflict with the Israelis he became a target of the Jewish leaders.
EPISODE 2: Minister Farrakhan borrowed 5 million dollars from an African head of state, Libyan leader Muammar Ghadaffi. He invested the money into producing a personal care product line known as “Clean and Fresh.” This was part of a major economic initiative called POWER. This was an acronym that stood for People Organized Working for Economic Rebirth. Jewish leaders threatened both Mr. George Johnson of Johnson Products and Independence Bank, which was a Black owned bank in Chicago that the Minister deposited the $5 million dollar loan proceeds in. In this episode the Black community was deprived of the great opportunity to engage in international trade and commerce and to build a brand of personal care products that we would own. A Black bank was deprived of receiving loan proceeds of $5 million dollars.
EPISODE 3: Minister Farrakhan’s male followers, the brothers of the Fruit of Islam established security companies that patrolled apartment complexes in the Black community. They ultimately grew to the point in their success and fame that they were able to secure contracts with the federal government through HUD(the Housing and Urban Development division). This initiative provided safety for the poor Black residents who lived in these apartment communities that had been plagued by crime and drug abuse before the presence of the Fruit of Islam. This initiative also employed Black men who desired to help their communities, but also needed gainful employment. Jewish groups like the ADL pressured the U.S. Congress to find a way to end the contractual relationship with the Nation of Islam security companies. In this episode the Black community’s safety was compromised by the sabotage of the Muslim security companies. The Black men who were employed by these companies also had their livelihoods taken away.
EPISODE 4: Minister Farrakhan and Dr. Ben Chavis began closed-door meetings with Black leadership from the broad and diverse array of groups and organizations. This historic coming together of operational unity among Black leaders was dubbed NAALS(National African American Leadership Summit). Yet while the Black leaders were meeting, conferring and settling their respective differences to find the path to unity of all Black people, Rabbi Michael Lerner and others were outside protesting that they were meeting with and answering the call of Minister Louis Farrakhan. In this episode, the long-sought for “Black Unity” had its greatest chance at realization in all of Black history in America. Yet the fear of the Jewish leaders ultimately made some groups to back away and some leaders to renege on their promises to continue to work within the NAALS framework to collectively solve the problems of the Black community.
Notice and reflect that in all of these episodes, you have the “strong, consequential and influential” Nation of Islam’s work, on behalf of the Black community, interfered with and sabotaged. None of these initiatives were for the personal benefit of Minister Farrakhan. None of these efforts were conceived of as being for the exclusive benefit of the registered membership of the Nation of Islam. They were instead works, projects and initiatives that the Nation of Islam was pursuing for the benefit of all of our suffering people.