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Louis Farrakhan

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1997 photo of Farrakhan, the leader of the NoI. He is staring to the right, away from the camera, and wearing a suit.
Farrakhan, pictured 1997.

Louis Eugene Farrakhan (born May 11, 1933) is an American religious movement leader, political activist and writer.

Overview

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Ideologically, Louis Farrakhan is a Black supremacist.[1] He is the leader of the Nation of Islam (NOI), a movement founded on a unique interpretation of Islam.[1]

Life

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Farrakhan was born Louis Eugene Wolcott in The Bronx, New York. He started playing the violin when he was six years old. He went to the Boston Latin School. Farrakhan now lives in Kenwood, Chicago. In 1953, he married Khadijah Farrakhan. They have nine children. In 2007, he retired at the age of 64.[2]

Popularity

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News Conference of Louis Farrakhan the Leader of the Muslim American Movement in the conference hall of Press TV channel, 8 November 2018.

In 2020, he was classified by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as the most popular antisemite in America.[3] Farrakhan is fairly popular among Black Americans.[4]

Among Black Americans

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In October 1995, he mobilized 440,000 Americans to attend the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.,[4] the tenth-largest march in American history,[4][5] when he called himself "a prophet sent by God to show America its evil".[6] Afterwards, he threatened to sue the National Park Service due to the low estimate from the Park Police.[7] Just as Malcolm X,[8][1] Farrakhan is an iconic figure in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement,[1][9] appearing in graffitis painted by BLM activists.[9]

Among American feminists

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Despite Louis Farrakhan's antisemitic[10] views, he is appreciated by prominent American feminists, including but not limited to Linda Sarsour, Carmen Perez and Tamika Mallory,[11] the organizers of the Women's March, which took place on January 21 ‒ 22, 2017.[11] The march has been the third-largest march in American history as of February 2025. Sarsour, Perez and Mallory are found to be admirers of Louis Farrakhan.[11] Mallory attended one of his speeches, where he repeatedly called Jews the "Satanic Jews",[12] accused Jews of "feminizing" Black men with marijuana, and "gave a shoutout" to Mallory.[12] While acknowledging their Jewish allies' concern in November 2018, the trio were reportedly neither willing to condemn Farrakhan's antisemitism nor distance themselves from him.[11]

Influence

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Along with Farrakhan's former allies Malcolm X,[8] Fred Hampton,[8] James Baldwin[13] etc., Farrakhan is one of the pro-Soviet Black supremacists who mainstreamed Soviet antisemitic tropes in American society via circulation among academics and Black Americans.[8][1] In American society, Soviet antisemitic tropes were normalized over the decades and engendered a form of new antisemitism,[8][14] where Jews are accused of being the "beneficiaries" of "White privilege"[8][14] and "embodiment of evil"[15] allegedly coordinating Western governments to "support Israel at the expense of Palestinians".[8][16] As per a 2016 survey by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL), 23% Black Americans held negative beliefs about Jews,[17] while a 2023 survey reportedly showed that one-eighth of Black Americans doubted whether the Holocaust really happened.[18]

Racism

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Further information: Just Asking Questions § Holocaust denial

Farrakhan is well-known for his antisemitic and anti-White views,[8][1] despite his and his group's denial.[1] Many believed Farrakhan to have been involved in plotting the assassination of Malcolm X as Malcolm X reportedly abandoned his racist views about those he considered White.[19]

1980s

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In June 1984, Farrakhan went to Libya to visit her dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Upon return, Farrakhan smeared Judaism as a "gutter religion [...] structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit" that "abused" God's name for self-defense.[20] In 1985, at an NOI meeting, Farrakhan said that the Jews deserved the Holocaust by screaming that "And don't you forget, when it's God who puts you in the ovens, it's forever!"[21]

Connections with White supremacists

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In September 1984, former KKK member Tom Metzger[22] donated $100 to Farrakhan's NOI after being impressed by his antisemitic rhetoric at a Los Angeles event,[1][23] a prejudice shared by both White supremacists and Black supremacists.[1][23] The donation was followed by Metzger's gathering of 200 White supremacists to pledge support for Farrakhan's NOI.[8]

1990s

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In 1995, Farrakhan accused Jews of causing the Holocaust themselves, a false claim common among antisemites,[24][25] by alleging that "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".[26]

2010s

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In March 2015, Farrakhan accused "Israelis and Zionist Jews" of being involved in the September 11 attacks,[27][28] while believing that Jews control mass media and the Hollywood to "turn man into women and women into men".[29] On October 16, 2018, he implied that Jews were termites by posting on Twitter that "I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm anti-Termite."[1] On July 4, 2020, he also accused Jonathan Greenblatt, a Jewish American serving as ADL's CEO, of being "Satan masquerading as a lawyer",[30] while gaslighting the public by denying that he is antisemitic: "If you really think I hate the Jewish people, you don't know me at all [... I've never] uttered the words of death to the Jewish people."[31] In addition, he has been the biggest promoter of the disproven conspiracy theory that "Jews ran the Atlantic slave trade",[1] which is believed by many Islamists worldwide.[8][1]

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11
    • "Louis Farrakhan". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved October 27, 2024.
    • "Black Radicalism". SAPIR Journal. 2024. Retrieved October 27, 2024. Antisemitism runs deeper in the black radical tradition than many realize
    • "Antisemitism in the Black Hebrew Israelite and Christian Identity Movements". Pogram on Extremism, George Washington University. 1 August 2024.
    • "Black Hebrew Isralites Are Not Jewish: Tova the Poet Unpacks the Dangers of the Extremist Fringe Group Posing Harm to Jews". Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA). 10 March 2023.
    • "Extreme Black Hebrew Israelite Movement" (PDF). Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC). December 2022.
    • "Rabbi Dies Three Months After Hanukkah Night Attack". The New York Times. 30 March 2020.
    • "Center on Extremism Uncovers More Disturbing Details of Jersey City Shooter's Extremist Ideology". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). 17 December 2019.
  2. ↑ "Nation of Islam at a Crossroad as Leader Exits". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  3. ↑ "Farrakhan Remains Most Popular Antisemite in America". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "The 3 to 5 Million Man March". January 16, 2009.
  5. ↑ Agrawal, Nina (January 21, 2017). "Before the Women's March on Washington there was the Million Woman March…and the Million Man March". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 22, 2025.
  6. ↑ Wilgoren, Debbi (October 22, 1995). "Farrakhan's Speech: Masons, Mysticism, More". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  7. ↑ Janofsky, Michael (November 21, 1995). "Federal Parks Chief Calls 'Million Man' Count Low". The New York Times. Retrieved September 14, 2011.
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1
  10. ↑ "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Lockhart, P.R. (March 8, 2018). "Why Women's March leaders are being accused of anti-Semitism". Vox. Retrieved February 22, 2025.
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1
  15. ↑ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  16. ↑
  17. ↑ "A Survey about Attitudes towards Jews in America" (PDF). Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  18. ↑ Leonard, Ralph (December 10, 2023). "More than one in eight African Americans deny the Holocaust". UnHerd. Retrieved October 27, 2024.
  19. ↑
  20. ↑ Shipp, E. R. (June 29, 1984). "Tape Contradicts Disavowal of 'Gutter Religion' Attack". The New York Times. pp. A12. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  21. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (2007). God Is Not Great. London: Atlantic Books. p. 219. ISBN 9781843545743.
  22. ↑ "Tom Metzger". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved February 22, 2025.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1
  24. ↑
  25. ↑
  26. ↑ "Farrakhan In His Own Words" (PDF). The Anti-Defamation League. March 20, 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 14, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  27. ↑ "Farrakhan: 'Israelis And Zionist Jews' Behind 9/11 Terror Attacks". CBS DC. March 5, 2015. Retrieved May 5, 2019.
  28. ↑ Boorstein, Michelle (November 16, 2017). "Saying God picked Trump, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan portrays him as both truth-talking hero and racist villain". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 10, 2020.
  29. ↑ Greenwood, Max (February 28, 2018). "Tapper rips Farrakhan after anti-Semitic speech". The Hill. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
  30. ↑ Kerstein, Benjamin (July 8, 2020). "Public Campaign Launched to Remove Three-Hour Antisemitic Speech by Louis Farrakhan From YouTube". Algemeiner. Retrieved July 9, 2020.
  31. ↑ Oster, Marcy (July 6, 2020). "Louis Farrakhan rebuts charges of antisemitism in July 4th speech". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved July 18, 2020. They tell lies to make you think I am a bigot or antisemite, so that you won't listen to what I'm saying. So far they've been pretty successful.
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