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Nation of Islam and racism

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During the early 1960s, Malcolm X (left) and Muhammad Ali (right) helped raise the profile of the Nation.

Nation of Islam (NOI) is a Black nationalist religious movement founded in 1930,[1] which played a considerable role in the Civil Rights Movement (1954 ‒ 68) in the United States (US).[1] Since its founding, it has been a subject of controversy due to its promotion of ideas commonly seen as racist.[2][3]

Antisemitism

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A common form of racism for which the NOI has been criticized is antisemitism.[4] Several figureheads of the NOI, including Elijah Muhammad,[5] Malcolm X[2] and Louis Farrakhan,[3] expressed antisemitic views within their lifetime.

Elijah Muhammad

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In the 1960s, Elijah Muhammad, as the leader of the NOI, partnered with Neo-Nazi groups due to their mutual support for racial separatism.[5] Muhammad worked with the KKK to buy farmland in the Deep South with a view to building Black-only colonies,[5] one of which was founded as the Temple Farms, now Muhammad Farms, in Terrel County, Georgia.[5] In the following 10 years, Elijah received huge funding from White supremacist Texas oil baron H. L. Hunt, which was used by Elijah to build luxurious homes for his own family.[5] George Lincoln Rockwell, American Nazi Party's founder, praised Elijah Muhammad as "the Hitler of the Black man".[5]

Malcolm X

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Malcolm X was an NOI member until March 8, 1964.[6] Malcolm X had made a series of antisemitic speeches,[2] which promoted the The Protocols of the Elders of Zion among Ivy League-based academics and Black Americans.[2] He accused Jews of being "bloodsuckers [...] perfecting the modern evil of neocolonialism".[2] He also engaged in Holocaust denial[7] by blaming Jews for having "brought it upon themselves", based on his distorted view of certain events.[2] In 1961, he spoke at an NOI rally along with George Lincoln Rockwell, the leader of the American Nazi Party, who claimed that Black nationalism and White supremacy shared a common vision.[8]

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

NOI's leader Louis Farrakhan is well-known for his antisemitic[4] views,[2][3] despite his and his group's denial.[3] Many believed Farrakhan to have been involved in the assassination of Malcolm X because Malcolm X reportedly abandoned his racist views about those he considered White. In 2020, Louis Farrakhan was classified by the American civil rights group Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "the most popular antisemite in America".[9]

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.[10] 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!"[11]

1990s

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In 1995, Farrakhan accused Jews of causing the Holocaust themselves, a false claim common among antisemites,[12][13] 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".[14] In October, he mobilized 440,000 men to attend the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.,[15] the tenth-largest march in American history,[15][16] when he called himself "a prophet sent by God to show America its evil".[17]

2020s

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Just as Malcolm X,[2][3] Farrakhan is an iconic figure in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement,[2][3] appearing in graffitis painted by BLM activists.[18]

Connections with White supremacists

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In September 1984, former KKK member Tom Metzger[19] donated $100 to Farrakhan's NOI after being impressed by his antisemitic rhetoric at a Los Angeles event,[3][20] a prejudice shared by both White supremacists and Black supremacists.[3][20] The donation was followed by Metzger's gathering of 200 White supremacists to pledge support for Farrakhan's NOI.[2]

Influence

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Along with Farrakhan's former allies Malcolm X,[2] Fred Hampton,[2] James Baldwin[21] 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.[2][3] In American society, Soviet antisemitic tropes were normalized over the decades and engendered a form of new antisemitism,[2][22] where Jews are accused of being the "beneficiaries" of "White privilege"[2][22] and "embodiment of evil"[23] allegedly coordinating Western governments to "support Israel at the expense of Palestinians".[2][24]

Similar movements

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Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI)

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A similar, and equally influential, movement is the Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI).[25] The BHI is founded on the pseudoscientific belief that African Americans are the "real descendants" of ancient Israelites.[25] Some factions of the movement also see Native and Latino Americans as the descendants of ancient Israelites.[25]

From the 1970s onwards, followers of the BHI have a history of committing terrorist attacks on American Jews, including but not limited to the 2019 Jersey City shooting (7 dead and 3 injured) and the Monsey Hanukkah stabbing (1 dead and 4 injured).[26] While differing in theology, the BHI and NOI are both antisemitic.[3] Particularly, they both believe that "Jews ran the Atlantic slave trade" and "European Jews descended from the Khazars".[3]

Black Hebrew Israelites, who refuse to believe that Jesus was Jewish, protested in San Diego, California against the long-standing depiction of Jesus as a "White man" rather than a Black man.
A propaganda poster made by the Black Hebrew Israelites implying that Black and Native Americans are the "real" descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The Black Hebrew Israelites allege that the said peoples have been "wrongfully" classified by White imperialists into different ethnic groups across the Western hemisphere.

BHI and NOI: common beliefs about Jews

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In an article, historian Eunice G. Pollack outlined the beliefs about Jews held by both the BHI and NOI:

BHI and NOI: differences in beliefs about Jews

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Name Beliefs
Black Hebrew Israelites (BHI)
Nation of Islam (NOI)

New Black Panther Party (NBPP)

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The New Black Panther Party (NBPP), a Black nationalist successor to the Black Panther Party (BPP), is also known for sharing similar ideas as the NOI.[29] Before a 2006 Democratic primary runoff in Georgia, the NBPP made an antisemitic public speech:[30]

So-called Jews in Israel in what's really Palestine [...] who the Book of Revelation […] calls the Synagogue of Satan.

When the NBPP-backed candidate Cynthia McKinney lost to her rival Hank Johnson, NBPP's members claimed that it was caused by "Jewish electoral domination".[31]

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1
    • Curtis, Edward E. (2002). "Islamizing the Black Body: Ritual and Power in Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam". Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. 12 (2): 167–196. doi:10.1525/rac.2002.12.2.167. ISSN 1052-1151.
    • "The Muslim Program". NOI.org Official Website. 2013-10-08. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
    • "Nation of Islam (NOI)". crcc.usc.edu. 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2024-03-10.
  2. ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Working Definition Of Antisemitism". World Jewish Congress. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
    IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism :
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5
    • Evanzz, Karl, The Judas Factor, The Plot to Kill Malcolm X, pp. 205–206, Thunder's Mouth Press, NY, 1992; Marable, Manning, Along the Color Line Archived March 3, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, reprinted in the Columbus Free Press, January 17, 1997.
    • Rolinson, Mary, Grassroots Garveyism, p. 193, UNC Press Books, 2007.
    • Washington Post, May 6, 1967, p. E-15, July 2, 1967, January 30, 1975, p. B7; Hakim Jamal, From the Dead Level, pp. 247–48; Louis Lomax To Kill a Black Man, pp. 108–09; Karl Evanzz, The Judas Factor, pp. 284–86, The Messenger, p. 303.
    • "The Messenger Passes", Time, March 10, 1975.
  6. ↑ Handler, M. S. (March 9, 1964). "Malcolm X Splits with Muhammad". The New York Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  7. ↑ "Working Definition of Holocaust Denial and Distortion". International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). Retrieved October 17, 2024. Distortion of the Holocaust refers, inter alia, to:
    • Intentional efforts to excuse or minimize the the Holocaust or its principal elements, including collaborators and allies of Nazi Germany
    • Gross minimization of the number of the victims of the Holocaust in contradiction to reliable sources
    • Attempts to blame the Jews for causing their own genocide
    • Statements that cast the Holocaust as a positive historical event. Those statements are not Holocaust denial but are closely connected to it as a radical form of antisemitism. They may suggest that the Holocaust did not go far enough in accomplishing its goal of "the Final Solution of the Jewish Question"
    • Attempts to blur the responsibility for the establishment of concentration and death camps devised and operated by Nazi Germany by putting blame on other nations or ethnic groups
  8. ↑ Heer, Jeet (May 11, 2016). "Farrakhan's Grand Illusion". The New Republic. Archived from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved June 26, 2019.
  9. ↑ "Farrakhan Remains Most Popular Antisemite in America". Anti-Defamation League (ADL). July 15, 2020. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  10. ↑ Shipp, E. R. (June 29, 1984). "Tape Contradicts Disavowal of 'Gutter Religion' Attack". The New York Times. pp. A12. Retrieved July 18, 2020.
  11. ↑ Hitchens, Christopher (2007). God Is Not Great. London: Atlantic Books. p. 219. ISBN 9781843545743.
  12. ↑
  13. ↑
  14. ↑ "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.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 "The 3 to 5 Million Man March". January 16, 2009.
  16. ↑ 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.
  17. ↑ Wilgoren, Debbi (October 22, 1995). "Farrakhan's Speech: Masons, Mysticism, More". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  18. ↑
  19. ↑ "Tom Metzger". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Retrieved February 22, 2025.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1
  21. ↑
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1
  23. ↑ Yossi Klein Halevi (October 10, 2024). "The End of the Post-Holocaust Era". Jewish Journal. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
  24. ↑
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 25.2
  26. ↑
  27. ↑ 27.00 27.01 27.02 27.03 27.04 27.05 27.06 27.07 27.08 27.09 27.10 27.11 27.12 27.13 Pollack, Eunice G. (December 9, 2022). "Kyrie Irving and Louis Farrakhan are 2 variants of Black antisemitism. What's the difference?". Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). Retrieved February 25, 2025. A "documentary" that demonizes Jews and delegitimizes Judaism and the Jewish state helped Kyrie Irving "know who" he is.
  28. ↑ Descendants of Cain.
  29. ↑ "New Black Panther Party". Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Archived from the original on 10 February 2025. Retrieved June 25, 2019. The New Black Panther Party is a virulently racist and antisemitic organization whose leaders have encouraged violence against whites, Jews and law enforcement officers.
  30. ↑ "New Black Panthers Exploit Gaza Conflict To Promote Anti-Semitism". Anti-Defamation League. Archived from the original on 28 January 2022.
  31. ↑ "Panthers Blame Jews for Congresswoman's Defeat". Anti-Defamation League. 25 August 2006. Archived from the original on 24 July 2013.
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