The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s historical consultant Dr. Harold Brackman released a report on June 30 highlighting Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s efforts “to inject anti-Semitism into our society’s mainstream.”
The beginning of the report states that the Wiesenthal Center felt the report was necessary after actress and comedian Chelsea Handler shared a clip of Farrakhan on “The Phil Donahue Show” in the 1990s in a June 15 Instagram post; Handler called it “powerful.”
“Confronted by a growing crescendo of protest, Handler deleted the post and apologized, but the damage has been done,” the report stated. “Many other prominent Americans, including politicians, social activists, NGO leaders, and cultural figures, continue to praise and endorse Minister Farrakhan, who for four decades has exploited every opportunity to inject anti-Semitism into our society’s mainstream.”
The report notes that Farrakhan took over the Nation of Islam 10 years after Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, which some have accused Farrakhan of inciting. He proceeded to become famous after hitching “his star as security head to Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 Democratic presidential primary campaigns.”
Among Farrakhan’s past remarks included in the report is Farrakhan saying in 1984, “That nation called Israel never has had any peace in 40 years and she will never have any peace because there can be no peace structured on injustice, thievery, lying and deceit and using the name of God to shield your gutter religion under His holy and righteous name.”
Additionally, in 1990, Farrakhan said, “I have warned you [Jews] 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.”
Other examples include Farrakhan blaming Jews for the Holocaust, the slave trade and the 9/11 terror attacks, calling Adolf Hitler “a very great man” and saying in 2018, “I’m not an anti-Semite; I’m anti-termite.”
The report also argues that Farrakhan has made homophobic remarks, as he once said, “God [doesn’t] like men coming to men with lust in their hearts like you should go to a female. … If you think that the kingdom of God is going to be filled up with that kind of degenerate crap, you’re out of your damn mind.”
The report argues that Farrakhan still maintains relevancy because high-profile figures such as former Women’s March, Inc. leaders Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Carmen Perez have spoken highly of him.
“How has Farrakhan, an arch-male chauvinist, been able to establish such a grip on these professed feminists?” the report asks. “The answer, I think, is that progressive ‘intersectional’ ideology has given him a weapon to ‘include out’ (to use studio head Sam Goldwyn’s famous malapropism) Jewish women from today’s social change movement because they are both feminists and Zionists.”
The report concludes, noting that the United States currently is in perilous times between the COVID-19 pandemic, the protests against the death of Black man George Floyd while he was in police custody, and economic malaise.
“Against this backdrop, Louis Farrakhan’s divisive rhetoric puts in peril the vision of American unity and tolerance that this ageless demagogue has sought to destroy for more than four decades,” the report states. “Social Justice and Equity will never be achieved by embracing or excusing Farrakhan’s hate.”
