Memo to Neil Steinberg: Your Attack on The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan

MEMO To: Neil Steinberg

From: Jackie Muhammad

Re: Your Attack on The Hon. Min. Farrakhan

I read your article “So where has Farrakhan led his Nation” with a great deal of interest. In carefully reading your article I found many of your claims to be inaccurate, misleading, racist, and Islamophobic. Therefore, for the purpose of historical accuracy, permit me to set the record straight.

You make several fallacious claims in your missive. You question The Minister’s leadership ability, his vision of a state or territory for Black people, his relationship with foreign leaders who are not allies of the United States, and the age old Jewish canard of labeling him an anti-Semite.

You liberally call Minister Farrakhan an “anti-Semite.” Study the admonitions of the great Hebrew prophets seeking to correct the aberrant and ungodly behavior of the ancient Jewish communities of Israel and Judea. They were very hard on the wayward and recalcitrant Jews. What have the prophets ever said about the Jewish people that Minister Farrakhan has reiterated that was not true? Were the prophets anti-Semitic? No prophet was as hard on the Jews as was Jesus. Therefore, are you calling Jesus an anti-Semite?

You sit in judgment of a man who has patterned his life after the lives of the prophets. Carefully scrutinize Farrakhan’s words, and diligently compare them to those of both the Bible and the Quran and show me where there is any inconsistency between what he espouses and what the ancient prophets taught. I challenge you to study the history of the prophets from Abraham to Moses, to Jesus and even to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and show me, after a through comparative analysis, where his language, his behavior and his ways are out of sync with those of the great sages of God. So if you cannot find any distinction between them and him, as it relates to what they taught, then when you attack him who are you really attacking?

If we had the ability to time travel and Moses and Farrakhan were able to meet Moses would embrace him and kiss him on both cheeks and thank him for his spiritual leadership. Moses would not call him an anti-Semite, because Farrakhan is teaching the exact same thing that Moses taught. I challenge you to prove me wrong.

Farrakhan is known all over the world. He may not be loved by the Zionist community because he dares to tell you the truth. But he is one of the most loved and respected men in the world. He did not have to dine with President Ahmadinejad to gain the distinction as a world leader. Minister Farrakhan has been on three World Tours. He has been openly received as a Head of State in over 110 nations by over 100 million people. In the past few months alone he has been invited to meet with the leadership of Jamaica, St. Kitts and Cuba. The Russian Muslims love him so much they were willing to put their lives on the line to protect his life. He has been warmly received by Nelson Mandela as well as the current leaders of South Africa. Numerous heads of state seek his advice and counsel.

Therefore, your display of arrogance and ignorance is unworthy of a man of your intelligence, but, then again, maybe not. Your rabidly racist rants are indicative of a mindset that is blind to the accomplishments of the Minister; hence, your attempt to label Farrakhan an unsuccessful leader is laughable.

Farrakhan leads the largest independent Black school system in the nation. Our school system has become a laboratory of innovation. Our graduates are listed in the “Who’s Who of Education”, and they are taught to be independent and creative thinkers, all of which are a far cry from the products of the public school system.

No leader in this nation has sought to empower the Black community through entrepreneurship as Minister Farrakhan has done. For example, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the teacher of Minister Farrakhan, introduced the sale of fish to the Black community. The fish, imported from Peru and sold in the millions of pounds at an affordable price by the men of the Nation of Islam, created thousands of jobs. Fish restaurants were created throughout the community. New York City, under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan, became one of the largest sellers of fish in the country.

You question the impact of the Minister’s leadership, and you limit his impact to the 1995 Million Man March. Your ignorance of the impact the Minister has had over a span of 50 years is startling. In 1974 the Minister organized and led the Black Family Day Rally in New York City. Nearly 75,000 people were packed into Randle’s Island in Manhattan. The traffic jam was so heavy that the Minster had to be flown in by helicopter. Let me state that the impact of rallies and marches that Minister Farrakhan has led has affected tens of millions people. This conservative figure is inclusive of the Millions More Movement and the Million Family March. No other single individual in American history can make that claim. Clearly, Minister Farrakhan is by far one of the most popular and successful human beings in American history.

Farrakhan’s impact may be new to you, but it is well known to Black America. After the success of the Black Family Day Rally, the Minister addressed over 25,000 on the island nation of Jamaica, the home of the Honorable Marcus Garvey, another Black man you disparaged in your article. Minister Farrakhan has personally touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Many of those people have converted to Islam. Those who have not converted have become sympathizers. Islam has become the fastest-growing religion in America; Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam are at the epicenter of that growth.

Under the leadership of Minister Farrakhan the Nation of Islam cleaned up some of the worst drug-infested communities in the nation. The men of the Nation of Islam, known as the Fruit of Islam, have helped to free Black people who were forced to live in prison-like conditions in the ghetto projects of America. Subsequently, the FOI started many private security firms and hundreds of jobs were created for men who were previously unemployed. Finally, the Minister introduced a line of personal care products that generated revenue for untold numbers of people throughout the Black and Brown community. Each of these initiatives started as successful endeavors until members of the Jewish community intervened and undermined each program.

For example, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger persuaded the Government of Peru to stop selling fish to the Nation of Islam. Jewish politicians and businessmen lobbied the US government to end its security contracts with private Muslim-owned firms. Jewish businessmen sabotaged the personal care products initiative when they approached Black bankers and distributors and forced them to cease doing business with the Muslims.

You summarily dismiss the Minister’s vision of the establishment of a Black nation. You also besmirch the legacy of the great Marcus Garvey. However, the Zionist State of Israel started as a vision. The prophet Moses laid the philosophical foundation for a country for the Jews who the Bible depicts as having been persecuted by the ancient Egyptians. You do not belittle Moses; nor do you belittle the founding fathers of Zionism; however, when Black people dare to espouse that same vision you disparage them.

You were not incorrect when you stated that the majority of Black people were not interested in going back to Africa; however, the same can be said of the majority of Jews. Most Jews support Israel but the majority do not want to live there. Like the Jewish support of Israel, a portion of the Black community has always been interested in supporting Garvey’s vision. Black people began going back to Africa even before Mr. Garvey was born. Freed slaves began returning to the West African nation of Liberia as early as 1821. Their presence became so dominant that a new category of Black American immigrants emerged: Americo-Liberians. Presidents from that group had names like Tubman, Tolbert, etc. That trek continues to this very day in Ghana, South Africa, as well as Senegal and a host of other African nations.

By disparaging the character of an honorable man you have continued the onslaught the White Jewish community has initiated against the Black community that goes back thousands of years as enslavers of Black people in Africa, South and Central America, the Caribbean and of course, in America. Black people have been the most loyal group of American “citizens,” yet we are still treated like a hostile foreign nation. The Jewish Anti-Defamation League has spied on the Nation of Islam, the NAACP and numerous other Black organizations. But when we fight back against the Jewish onslaught, we are labeled “anti-Semitic.” The Minister has called for a rapprochement with the Jewish community. At every turn he has been rebuffed.

Farrakhan is ushering in a new reality in America. That reality calls for an end to the master/slave relationship between the two communities. Farrakhan is the first Black leader the Zionists have sought to destroy and have not seen successful. The Zionists have gone after Jesse Jackson, Malcolm X, WEB Dubois, Dr. Martin Luther King, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Al Sharpton, and even Nelson Mandela, not because these people were anti-Semitic but because they dared to speak out against Jewish racism.

The real reason for your venomous attack against The Minister is that he has successfully thwarted every effort the Zionists have launched to get the Black community to turn on him. The more you attack him, the stronger he gets. The Zionists were successful in getting Black people to turn on Mr. Garvey, but that will not happen with Minister Farrakhan.

 

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Recently I responded to your venomous attack on The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in your column in the Chicago-Sun Times (“So Where has Farrakhan led his Nation,” September 30, 2012). Because I did not have an opportunity to exhaust my response to your diatribe, I am including additional evidence of The Minister’s worldwide success as the premier spiritual spokesman and teacher for the downtrodden and dispossessed masses of the people of the Earth. His skills as a teacher, orator and spiritual leader have been the envy of many nations for the past five decades.

From the 1960s to the present time The Minister has been considered a favored son of Africa. When he first emerged on the world scene, African leaders asked the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to have him come to their nations to teach his brothers and sisters. In 1982 the world witnessed his skills as an orator at Howard University’s Crampton Auditorium, where Minister Farrakhan introduced President Ahmed Sekou Toure, President of the West African nation of Guinea. The revolutionary Pan-Africanist and pioneer in his country’s fight for independence from France broadly smiled as Farrakhan delivered a rousing introduction of him shortly after he (Toure) had met with then President Ronald Reagan.

The unprecedented recognition that The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has received from religious leaders from around the globe has eclipsed the recognition and the accolades of almost every contemporary religious leader in the world.

First, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam and the teacher of Minister Farrakhan, said that The Minister is more valuable to him than a truckload of diamonds. On another occasion he said that Farrakhan was more valuable to him than all the wealth in the Earth. But if you don’t accept Elijah Muhammad’s word, what about the words of Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The Grand Mufti of Australia called him the Mujaddid, a term referring to a reformer who appears every 100 years to renew the faith. It is one of the most revered titles in Islam.

In 1997 hundreds of Muslims from around the world converged in Chicago at the International Islamic Conference in conjunction with the World Islamic People’s Leadership and placed a symbolic turban on the head of The Minister. Some referred to his work as the prophetic work of the Mujaddid. These were not wild-eyed irrational, fanatical Muslims; these were sober-thinking Islamic scholars. The Minister did not say this of himself—these global Islamic representatives of 1.6 billion Muslims said this of him.

Islamic theology may not have any bearing on you, but what about Jewish theology? Members of the Orthodox Jewish community, very strict observant Jews, have identified Farrakhan as “that Elijah who comes after Elijah that will lift fallen humanity.” Isn’t it interesting how similar their language is to the language of scholarly Muslims?

But that’s not all. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has become one of the most sought-after speakers on the Black Christian church circuit. Hundreds of Black Christian ministers rally to him. He has successfully blurred the line that distinguishes Christians from Muslims. Is he not bringing to life that biblical saying that “in Christ there is no Christian or Jew, but we are all one in Jesus”? There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) In Romans 15:5 we find a similar passage: “So it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” Have you ever wondered why there is so little sectarian warfare between Black Christians and Black Muslims? Well, you can blame that on Farrakhan’s leadership.

Also, when The Minister addressed nearly two million men at the Million Man March, his audience was 90 percent Christian. His appeal has always been ecumenical, non-denominational and universal.

The Parliament of World Religions, described as the UN of world religions, an organization that meets once every 100 years, had him address their assembly. He was chosen by the Black Christian clergy to speak on their behalf. Among the participants at the meeting was the Dali Lama as well as the leaders of all the world’s religions.

Platform magazine, a Christian publication, named The Minister the Chuchman of the Year. And Rev. Jeremiah Wright and the members of Trinity United Church of Christ named him “Person of the Year.” Sepia magazine called him the “Miracle Man of the Muslims.”

Those are all mainly Blacks or Muslims speaking highly of him you might say. Well, what do White publications have to say?

Time magazine identified him as one of the top 25 most influential people in America. Vanity Fair magazine said that he is “one of 65 international leaders who shape and rule the world.” As you may know, the world comprises over 6 billion people and weighs 6 septillion tons. That’s a lot of weight to put on one man.

When he was the top box-office draw in Hollywood Bruce Willis—before the ADL pressured him to recant—said: “I still hold Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King up as heroes. These are guys who knew they were bucking the system and still raised their hands. Martin Luther King raising his voice got him capped for sure. He stood for civil rights, for fairness, equality of men. In this country today, 1998, down South black men and women are still being discriminated against. I’ll tell you somethin’: If I were black, I’d be with Farrakhan too….A lot of people feel Louis Farrakhan stands for a lot of negative things. But he is raising his voice against inequality. Anybody who stands up against injustice is a hero of mine.”

New Africa magazine listed him as “one of the greatest Africans of all time.” Compare that with Ebony magazine identifying him as one of the 100 most influential Black people in America. Your characterization of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is therefore at variance with that of the rest of the world. You may want to adjust your myopic viewpoint to bring it into focus with the rest of humanity. In the future, before you launch another diabolical attack on The Minister, you might want to do some fact-checking concerning the contributions The Minister has made throughout the world over the past 50 years.

Your poison pen articles may give delight to some of the information-challenged readers who scan your writings, but for the millions who have benefitted from the teachings of Minister Farrakhan, your hate-filled diatribe against him carries not an ounce of weight.