New York, NY, February 20, 2015… The virulently anti-Semitic Nation of Islam (NOI), fronted by notorious hatemonger Louis Farrakhan, is holding its annual convention in Chicago on Sunday, where Farrakhan is expected to address his audience with a message that most likely will include strident anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which monitors the activities of Farrakhan and his organization, has noted an increase in anti-Semitic messaging on the NOI Research Group’s website in advance of the annual Saviours’ Day event. Given the history, with past NOI conventions being used as a vehicle for Farrakhan to promote his typical brand of anti-Semitism, ADL believes this year’s event, which will be simulcast online, will probably be no different.
“Year after year, Farrakhan has used his platform at the Saviours’ Day event in front of tens of thousands to spew hatred and anti-Semitism,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “It has always been an extension of the organization’s year-round efforts to demonize Jews in public statements and online. We anticipate more of the same this year. These messages need to be rejected whenever and wherever they appear.”
Past Saviours’ Day remarks by Farrakhan include:
- During Part 1 of Saviours’ Day 2014, in front of 18,000 at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, Farrakhan compared himself to Henry Ford and made allegations -- both explicit and implicit -- about Jewish control over African-Americans and various industries. In Part 2 of 2014’s Saviours’ Day at Mosque Maryam in Chicago, Farrakhan received a standing ovation after stating that “Satanic Jews…control everything and mostly everybody.”
- During Saviours’ Day 2013 in Chicago, Farrakhan made a number of anti-Semitic claims, including, for example, that ADL, the Federal Reserve, and the IRS were set up in tandem to control the fiscal policies of the U.S.
- Farrakhan’s address at Saviours’ Day 2012 in Chicago included accusations of Jewish control over government, media, finance and entertainment. Farrakhan told his audience that “The government of America is owned lock stock and barrel by those Zionists that love Israel above the United States of America.”
- Minister Farrakhan's 2011 Saviours’ Day keynote address in Rosemont, Illinois featured a range of conspiratorial messages about Jews and Zionists, including blaming Jews for killing Jesus and claiming that Jews were responsible for Black suffering through history.
- In front of 20,000 people at Saviours’ Day 2010, Farrakhan accused “Zionists” of controlling Congress and the Obama administration. He charged that elected officials from both parties align “whenever something comes up that Israel does not like…because the Congress is controlled.”
The NOI has ramped up the anti-Semitic content on the website of its “Research Group” and the Research Group’s associated social media accounts in advance of Saviours’ Day.
“The articles on the NOI Research Group site read like a grab-bag of age-old racist and anti-Semitic slurs, coated with a layer of purported historical evidence and justification,” said Mr. Foxman. “If these articles are any indication of the content of this year’s address it is imperative for community leaders, particularly those in the African-American community, to speak out and condemn the bigotry regularly promoted by Farrakhan and the NOI.”
Updated: February 20, 2015
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