Farrakhan Visits Iran to Rail Against Sanctions and Israel

November 05, 2018

Louis Farrakhan spent Sunday in Iran, according to the English language version of MEHR, an Iranian news agency, spewing anti-American, anti-Israel rhetoric.

The Nation of Islam leader, ostensibly in Iran to mark the 39th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, lashed out repeatedly at the U.S. and the Trump administration’s new sanctions against Iran. He reportedly called the U.S. a “big liar” and described the new sanctions as “how the enemies have plotted against the Iranian people.” According to The Final Call, the NOI newspaper, Farrakhan also met with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini during his visit.

A video from another Iranian media outlet, the Tasnim News Agency, shows Farrakhan leading an audience at the University of Tehran chanting, “Death to Israel.” 

Farrakhan, who met with Mohsen Rezaei, the Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council, called for unity among Muslims, saying “Satan seeks to divide Muslims and wants them to kill each other, while God tells us in the Quran to be united.”

During his meeting with Farrakhan, Rezaei reportedly said that Iran views black Americans as part of the Islamic Revolution because when the U.S. embassy was taken over in 1979 the Ayatollah ordered the release of black Americans who were captive. This, Rezaei argued “means that the Islamic Revolution saw no problem with the black people of America.”

According to the English language version of another Iranian state news agency, Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA),  Farrakhan told an audience at the University of Tehran that the U.S’s new sanctions are “making it very hard for Iran to successfully carry out its mission [the Islamic Revolution], but if you have the strength to persevere under these hard trials, the victory will be yours.”

Farrakhan also said that “the U.S. has never been a democracy…It has always favored the rich, the powerful, the connected.”

Jesse Muhammad, a member of Nation of Islam who describes himself as the “Virtual Ambassador of the #FarrakhanTwitterArmy,” shared pictures of the meeting at the University of Tehran:

Farrakhan previously traveled to Iran in 2016 and was a “special guest” at multiple high-level events, meeting with current and former Iranian government officials including Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and former Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati. According to the NOI newspaper, Farrakhan was a guest of honor at an official ceremony that was also attended by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Farrakhan frequently employs anti-Israel and anti-Semitic language during these visits. At a 2016 news conference, Farrakhan said, “Whenever America wants to destroy a nation, a people, they must first demonize them, and the Zionist-controlled media in America has chosen to demonize Iran.”