CHICAGO, IL – JULY 23: Louis Farrakhan attends week five of the BIG3 three on three basketball league at UIC Pavilion on July 23, 2017 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/BIG3/Getty Images) Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan called Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO Jonathan Greenblatt the devil during his July 4 address.
Farrakhan’s speech, which lasted nearly three hours, was broadcast on Revolt TV, a network that rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs founded. Farrakhan said, “Mr. Greenblatt, you are Satan. Those of you that say that you’re Jews, I will not even give you the honor of calling you a Jew. You are not a Jew … you are Satan, and it is my job now to pull the cover off of Satan so that every Muslim — when he sees Satan — picks up a stone, as we do in Mecca.”
Farrakhan added that the stone is a metaphor: “When you know who Satan is, you don’t have to kill him. No. The stone of truth, that is what you have to throw.”
He went on to say, “Stop doing evil that you [Jews] believe are less than yourself and justifying it by the Talmud. If you will forsake the Talmud, God will give you more time.”
Farrakhan, 87, then suggested that the Jewish community is trying to kill him, warning: “If you [Jews] make that move, I can guarantee your destruction.”
In addition, he alleged that Israeli law enforcement taught United States police officers the knee-to-neck technique used on George Floyd, who died in police custody on May 25. “This is the technique that they use in Israel,” Farrakhan said. “Israel, let me tell you, your day is here now … the God of justice has something for you Israel. You’re troubling some waters and you won’t be there long if God gets after you.”
“Mr. Greenblatt, you are Satan. Those of you that say that you’re Jews, I will not even give you the honor of calling you a Jew.” — Louis Farrakhan
Farrakhan also discussed his infamous remarks from 2018, when he said, “I’m not an anti-Semite. I’m anti-termite.” The Nation of Islam leader claimed during his July 4 address that he was only referring to 10% of Jews as termites.
“The 10%, they know God is real,” he said. “They are the bloodsuckers of the poor. So, if you are a bloodsucker and the poor is who you’re sucking from, you don’t want to stop sucking … but I never said what I said out of any degree of hate.”
He also thanked actress Chelsea Handler, who is Jewish, for posting a video clip of him to her Instagram account on June 15 during his 1990 appearance on “The Phil Donahue Show.” Handler later deleted the post.
“Go back and listen to more of Farrakhan and get to know me,” Farrakhan said. “Not from the mouth of your lying imposter brothers; get to know me from the God within that can tell you if the minister is false.”
Jewish groups condemned Farrakhan’s speech.
“Louis Farrakhan’s trademark #antisemitism was on full display yesterday, referring to Jews, specifically me, as ‘Satan.’” Greenblatt tweeted on July 5. “This is routine for Farrakhan — give him a platform, he never fails to espouse hatred.”
Louis Farrakhan’s trademark #antisemitism was on full display yesterday, referring to Jews, specifically me, as “Satan.”This is routine for Farrakhan- give him a platform, he never fails to espouse hatred. Our experts have more on his long legacy of hate. https://t.co/NlYJeKqqG4
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 5, 2020
Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Agenda at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) Rabbi Abraham Cooper similarly denounced Farrakhan’s speech in a July 5 statement.
“At this stage of history, no one can be surprised by rants of America’s Godfather of anti-Semitism, not lurid by lurid anti-Semitic conspiracy linking Jewish state to death of George Floyd,” Cooper said.
He added: “SWC awaits condemnation of Farrakhan’s anti-Semitic screeds by leading American political, cultural and social influencers.”
Both Diddy and rapper Ice Cube, born O’Shea Jackson, promoted Farrakhan’s speech to their millions of followers on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/Diddy/status/1279404214221975552?s=20https://twitter.com/icecube/status/1279425238170652672?s=20
11am est/8am pst… https://t.co/PFGNlLbfdz
— Ice Cube (@icecube) July 4, 2020
To date, more than 750,000 people have viewed Farrakhan’s speech on YouTube.
Fox Soul, which describes itself as a “streaming channel dedicated to the African American viewer,” initially announced on June 25 that it would broadcast Farrakhan’s July 4 address. On June 29, it backtracked, announcing that it would instead stream a compilation of African American leaders’ speeches.
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