Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Louis Farrakhan rebuts charges of anti-Semitism

(JTA) — Bumped from FOX Soul TV, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan took to YouTube this weekend for a three-hour July Fourth address in which he addressed criticism of his record of anti-Semitism.

“They tell lies to make you think I am a bigot or anti-Semite, so that you won’t listen to what I’m saying. So far they’ve been pretty successful,” he said during his speech, which also addressed racism, police brutality and the coronavirus pandemic.

Farrakhan, who has led the Nation of Islam, a Black Muslim group, since 1977, has a long history of anti-Semitic comments. He has praised Adolf Hitler, repeated longtime stereotypes about Jewish control and manipulation, referred to Jews as “termites” and repeatedly denounced what he calls the “Synagogue of Satan.”

During his speech, Farrakhan, 87, repeated criticism of Jews, who he said had supplanted the Torah with the Talmud. “They made that word in their minds and in their believers’ minds greater than God’s word,” he said.

But he said he harbored no ill will toward Jews. “If you really think I hate the Jewish people, you don’t know me at all,” he said. “[I’ve never] uttered the words of death to the Jewish people.”

He also thanked Jewish comedian Chelsea Handler for posting a video of a Farrakhan appearance on once popular talk-show “The Phil Donahue Show.” Handler removed the video and apologized after coming under fire for supporting him owing to his anti-Semitic and homophobic rhetoric.

His speech, titled “The Criterion,” originally was to be broadcast Saturday by Fox Soul TV,  a streaming TV channel launched earlier this year by 20th Century Fox focused on reaching Black Americans. But five days after announcing the speech, the channel had drawn so much criticism because of Farrakhan’s record that it replaced him with a program featuring speeches from Black leaders throughout American history.

The post In 3-hour Fourth of July speech, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan rebuts charges of anti-Semitism appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.