“I HAVE BEEN VINDICATED!” Min. Farrakhan discusses Black/Jewish relations
The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, Volume 1:
The Jewish Role in the Enslavement of the African
“I HAVE BEEN VINDICATED!”
The Honorable Louis Farrakhan discusses Black/Jewish relations
The Final Call, May 4, 1992.
EDITOR’S NOTE: For seven long years, since he came to the defense of Rev. Jesse L. Jackson during Rev. Jackson’s 1984 presidential campaign, the Honorable Louis Farrakhan has been a target of attacks by members of the Jewish community and unjustly branded as an “anti-Semite.” Minister Farrakhan granted this interview to respond to those attacks in light of the recently published book The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, a research project by the Nation of Islam which documents Jewish scholars testifying to their own crimes against Black people and validating many of the truths that Minister Farrakhan spoke publicly.
FC: You’ve said you’ve been vindicated by the publication of the book The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews. Please explain what you mean.
MLF: Since 1984, I’ve been charged by members of the Jewish community with being an anti-Semite or, to be more specific, anti-Jewish. I have taken offense at that bigoted statement, for it appears that anyone who is critical of Jewish, or Israel’s, behavior is labeled an anti-Semite.
This is done to frighten the person or persons who are critical of Jews or Israel into silence. But Jews have the freedom to write or say what they please about anyone or anything. In the last several years, especially, people dare not speak out against any outrage done by Jews.
I am vindicated in that some of our brothers in the Nation of Islam saw how I was being treated by Jewish members of the press, the media in general, Jewish leaders of organizations, rabbis and teachers. Our brothers did the research and came up with evidence from highly respected Jewish scholars and rabbis that proves that Jews were involved in bringing our fathers into this shameful and wretched condition. Jews were involved in owning the ships and plantations, the sale and misuse of our people and women, the destruction of our minds; and they were involved in keeping us in the sad state in which some of their fathers put us. Jews, therefore, were opposed to and worked against every Black leader that came truly for our liberation. And, as it was in time past, so it is today.
So, my comments and statements were not anti-Semitic. They were the truth about Jewish involvement in our enslavement and in keeping us in the wretched condition that we find ourselves in today. That’s why we say that we are vindicated.
FC: Why is it important to point out the involvement of Jews in our enslavement and our condition today?
MLF: Jewish writers and scholars have pointed out to us and the world the involvement of Arabs, Africans and other Europeans in our enslavement, but there has been a deliberate effort to hide the hand of the Jews and their involvement. Our enslavement greatly increased the wealth of the Jewish community in the New World. We published this book, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, not out of hatred, but out of a concern that our people know the truth and that Jews, particularly the Jewish youth, know the truth; so that an old relationship that is not beneficial to us might possibly be changed into a relationship that is more equitable, fair and just.
FC: You speak about an old relationship that has not been beneficial to us. Can you define what the Black/Jewish relationship has been in the past and what it is today?
MLF: In my judgment, the old Black/Jewish relationship has been that of a master and slave. We have always gone to members of the Jewish community with our hat in our hand looking to them for substance.
Jews helped found most civil rights organizations. It is interesting to note that none of these organizations founded by Jews, or aided in its founding by Jews, dealt with the economic problems of Black people. The NAACP, the Urban League and others were steered away from economics and dealt mainly with social problems, vis-à-vis, breaking down social barriers.
Therefore, Jews fought alongside Blacks to break down barriers for Blacks, but we, in a weak economic position, were not able to take advantage of the breaking down of those barriers. But the Jews were able to do so.
In effect, they were our allies, but we were the vanguard of breaking down the barriers and they (Jews), women, gays and lesbians were able to take advantage of the breaking down of these barriers while Blacks, economically and socially, have gone backwards. Since the passing of the Voting Rights Bill and the Public Accommodations Bill, Black people have noticed a serious decline in the financial support of Jews supporting Black organizations.
Then came the Bakke decision and other decisions which clearly flew in the face of laws that Black folk felt were progressive for us. That which Jews called quotas, we called righting the wrongs or opening a door to areas such as medical schools that we were not privileged to have access to in sufficient numbers.
So, Blacks and Jews were at odds during this period of time and, of course, in 1983 when Rev. Jackson decided to seek the nomination of the Democratic party for the presidency of the United States and we aligned ourselves with him, then the great pain in Back/Jewish relationships fully manifested.
In fact, if we go back to before 1983 and observe what happened with Andrew Young when he was the UN ambassador and he visited the PLO representative, the Jews saw to it that Andrew Young was pushed out of office and this angered Back people.
Then, with the Rev. Jackson’s political thrust, we came fully into the picture. The Back-Jewish relationship at that point had soured and was steadily souring. With my emergence and speaking the way I spoke, Jewish leaders put pressure on Back leaders to denounce me and this made us painfully aware of how much control leaders of the Jewish community have over the spokespersons of Black people: preachers, politicians, educators, doctors, lawyers, businesspersons, artists, and our athletes and entertainers.
So, any person who could be an effective spokesperson for our hurt had to tie into the agenda of the Jewish community or they would be effectively silenced.
FC: How should leaders of the Jewish community respond to the writings in this book?
MLF: If Jews are aware of how they profited, and still do, from our wretched condition, and if they are aware of what some of their fathers did to bring us into this condition, then a Jew that has some conscience or a real disposition toward fairness and justice might be moved to aid in the redressing of this grievance. However, what will be the response of the Jewish community? If they follow their pattern historically, they will be even more incensed and work even harder for the destruction of the leadership of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
FC: What about those who would say, “The enslavement of Black people was done by my forefathers and that has nothing to do with how we feel today”?
MLF: I could agree with that if the present generation of Jewish leaders were not so hostile to those Black leaders whom they do not control. The present generation of Jewish leadership is fighting the liberation movement of Black people tooth and nail. The present generation of Jews control the wealth of musical, artistic and sports talent in the Black community.
Jews control the medical associations, the bar associations, the Psychiatric [sic] associations, and all of the major educational and scientific associations. Blacks who are trying desperately in these associations to move up, find they are fighting Jews at the top. And unless they submit totally, they are in serious trouble within these associations.
So, the present-day Jews have benefited from what their fathers did to our fathers to put us in the mental and psychological condition that we are in, and their writers, teachers, scholars and movie producers, businesspersons and script writers work to keep us in the psychological and mental condition of subservience. I can’t say that this generation has shown that they are any better than their fathers. However, I believe if the younger Jews knew the truth, they might do better.
FC: During the period of slavery there was a lot of savage treatment of Black people…
MLF: I think that that’s a true statement. …. [Jews] were a part of the mechanism that brought us into slavery, they share in the guilt of the savage mistreatment of us… If you read what they have written, for example, Jewish slave owners degraded our women and were not slack in the sexual mistreatment of our females. How much more brutal can you get? If you don’t whip me with a lash, but you take our women and daughters and abuse them, that’s abuse….
Many of the Southern Jews would rather have seen slavery maintained than abolished. They fought against the abolitionists. They fought for slavery, because slavery maintained their position of economic strength and power, particularly on the East Coast and in the South. Many Jews today will fight the liberation movement of Blacks for precisely the same reason, to maintain their position of wealth and power.
FC: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad was your teacher and of course he received some opposition from the Jewish community, but it didn’t seem to be as extensive as the opposition that has come against you or as vocal and violent. Why has this been the case?
MLF: The Honorable Elijah Muhammad never mentioned Jews directly in his criticism of white people. He classified all whites as devils, regardless of their faith.
Many Jews opposed him, but they opposed him through the Black organizations and leaders over whom they held control and influence. Jews at that time did not have to come out themselves and attack the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, nor did he attack them.
Now most of those organizations don’t have the power that they once had, nor do the leaders of these organizations have the same degree of the power over the masses that their predecessors once had. Plus, Black leaders are more enlightened today than were their predecessors.
I am different in that I defended Rev. Jackson in what he said and then got into a direct confrontation with members of the Jewish community. They see me as more of a threat to them specifically than they did the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
FC: Has the focus in recent years on the Black/Jewish relationship benefited our people?
MLF: We helped to make manifest something that Blacks in leadership have known all along: that practically all of our leadership has been and is today controlled by members of the Jewish community. This is not good for us as a people.
The fact that some Jewish leaders and politicians were not able to get Black leaders to condemn or repudiate me in the manner they decided frightened those Jews, causing them to charge that the Black community gradually was being filled with the spirit of anti-Semitism. However, as you read the history of Black-Jewish relationships, you can’t find Black people painting swastikas on synagogues or defiling the religious houses of Jews in any manner. You can’t find us attacking Jews or boycotting Jewish stores and trying to do things to hurt the Jewish community. You just can’t find that in our history. But Volume 1, 2 and 3 of our research will show that we have more right to paint Jews as anti-Black than they have to paint any of us as anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish. We have overwhelming proof that they have worked against the best interest of Black people, while they have no proof at all that we have worked or are working to deter their legitimate progress in any way.
FC: The term “anti-Semitic” has been used to paint a broad stroke over anyone who speaks contrary to what Jews would like for them to speak. Can you define for us what you think the term “anti-Semitic” really means and how does it differ from the way Jews use the term?
MLF: The term as it is used now is bigoted, because the Jews are acting as though they are the only Semitic people. If the Arabs are Semites, and they are, and we have friendly relations with the Arabs then wouldn’t it be proper to say that we are anti-Jewish rather than anti-Semitic?
The term is conveniently used by members of the Jewish community to stop criticism, as I said earlier, and it changes in its definition as the need arises. Many of those who are referred to as Jews are not Semitic people at all; they are Europeans.
FC: Where does the current situation then leave Blacks who also claim to be Jews?
MLF: Most Blacks who are Jews with whom I come into contact feel the suffering of their people and they feel the racism directed against them by their brethren in faith who are Caucasians. We feel the same thing as Muslims.
There are some of our Arab brothers who just don’t have good feelings for Black people and there are some of our Indian brothers who are Muslims who don’t necessarily like Black people and vice-versa. So, we have this racism in Islam, Christianity, and in Judaism. It is an ugly thing that has to be uprooted today in all religions in order for us to relate to each other as brothers.
FC: In your lectures, you have dealt with the question of Jews being the chosen people. Who are the chosen people? And if those who claim to be the chosen people are not the chosen ones, then why are they making such claims?
MLF: A man may choose a wife and if that relationship does not work out, he may divorce that wife and choose another. God chooses people to serve as instruments of His Will. Maybe in this way, the Jews were chosen. However, when you are chosen you have a responsibility. If you do not carry out your responsibility, God doesn’t keep his choice there. He takes His choice somewhere else. It seems as though all of those who have been chosen to carry the light of God to those who walk in darkness have in some way failed.
The Jews have not shared the light of God that they received freely with the Gentiles. So, God raises up others. Here you have a Christian population, and I am speaking mainly of Caucasians, who have spread the gospel all over the earth, but with what intention in mind?
So the cross, or Christianity, has been used as an instrument of white supremacy. They have spread the gospel, but not for the Kingdom of God; more for the maintenance of the kingdom of white supremacy.
The Arabs came into the light of Allah and the Qur’an and spread Islam to the known world at that time, but they became corrupt and began to lose their power and a new hemisphere was discovered and now it is populated with over a half a billion people or more who have never heard the message of Muhammad and have a version of the message of Moses, Jesus and the Prophets that contains truth, but it is not altogether true.
As a result, the Western hemisphere has grown up as a bastion of white supremacy and racism that has seen the darker people, or the original inhabitants of this hemisphere, just about destroyed.
So, now God takes His choice from a people that were no people at all. They were rejected and despised according to the Scripture. The Scripture says that they would be a foolish people, but God would choose them and make them His people and He would be their God. He refers to them in the Scriptures of the Bible as “the lost sheep.”
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), said that the sun of Islam would rise from the West in the latter days and we know that Prophet Muhammad was born in Arabia, not in the West, but yet Muhammad, in the Qur’an, was called a “light-giving sun.”
That means there would be a Muhammad coming up out of the West from among a people who were no people, foolish, despised and rejected, and God would choose them for His glory.
We believe that that people are the Black people of the Western hemisphere and specifically the Black people in the United States of America. We have been chosen by God, not to walk around with our chest puffed out in arrogance and vanity, but chosen out of our suffering and affliction that we, in whose hearts is a love for God and humanity, might do a service to the totality of the human family after a service is done by God for us.
This is why Jesus’ first mission was to the lost sheep and then he told his disciples to, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” I believe that that good news is among us today and that good news will have to be preached by us after our hearts are purified of the rancor and bitterness that comes from our sojourn in slavery and our evil mistreatment.
We must now come up out of that and recognize that that was our furnace of affliction to purify us for God’s ultimate service.
FC: Do you fear any retribution for your position with regard to Black/Jewish relations?
MLF: The Jews refer to me as Hitler, and any Jew who knows what Hitler did to members of the Jewish community would believe that I had that same thought in mind for them because I am critical of them. Any Jew who would feel that I am a new Hitler would want death for me.
I am not only hated by Jews, but what does Mr. Bush and the government and its powers think of me? What does the Arab world, the leadership in particular, think of me because I believe in Elijah Muhammad and in Master Fard Muhammad as the great Mahdi? There is a whole camp of hatred against me.
The scriptures refer to our people, and most all human beings, as lost sheep, easily led in the wrong direction but hard to lead in the right direction. The wickedly wise are not good leaders of the sheep, they are evil misleaders of the sheep and this is why Jesus is referred to in the scripture as the “Good Shepherd.” He leads the sheep in a direction that is beneficial to the sheep and out of harm’s way.
I can definitely say I am in the valley of the shadow of death and if God is not with me I am finished. But He, Allah (God), has prepared a table for me in the midst of my enemies. My cup runneth over and He (God) anoints my head with wisdom until my cup runs over. I don’t fear that evil will come to me. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I plan to dwell in the house of the Lord.
FC: Is the relationship between the United States and Israel detrimental to the United States?
MLF: I would say that any lobby that effectively sways the representatives of the people against the will of the people is robbing the people of true representation and is robbing the people of democracy.
In that case, these lobbies are detrimental to the democratic process and any person who uses their monies and organizational strength to punish those whose views are different from theirs, even though that leader’s views may be representative of his own people, those kinds of persons are detrimental to that group and are ultimately detrimental to America. My personal feeling is that the way the Senate and Congress responds to the needs of Israel and the way Congress fails to respond to the needs of the American people shows that the strength of the Jewish lobby is detrimental to the good and well-being of the citizenry of the United States.
FC: Are there any closing comments?
MLF: This book, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, is being sent to Jewish leaders, to Black leaders and Black politicians for an honest comment in hopes that a proper dialogue will begin based on truth.
What I am in favor of creating through this writing is an honest dialogue where a new relationship, if any is to be formed, can be formed based on equity, justice and fairness; a relationship that’s mutually beneficial and profitable to both Jews and Blacks.
For members of the Jewish community to say that this book is slander when it came from their own pens shows the lengths to which members of the Jewish community will go to hide the truth.
The truth will come forward as both the Scriptures of the Bible and Qur’an teach. The Bible teaches that nothing that is done in the dark will remain there, it will be brought out into the light.
The Qur’an says, “Though it be the weight of an atom hidden in a rock and the rock buried in the earth, yet will Allah bring it forth.”
This is the day when all of our defects will be manifested and you will find nations kneeling down before the record of their deeds and we have to bow down before the book of our deeds as well. The Jews, Arabs, Africans and America as a nation will have to kneel down before the record of their deeds, for we are living in the Day of Judgment and justice.
So, those whose deeds of good are light and their deeds of evil are heavy, it is they who should tremble today in the presence of God. But those whose attempts are to do good and yet have evil in their lives, if our good outweighs our evil then God promises that He will admit us into His mercy, and hopefully, we will be able to see the hereafter.
FC: Thank you, Minister Farrakhan.
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