Obama helped organize & attended
Farrakhan’s Million Man March
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has urged President Barack Obama to condemn veteran Jew-hater, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, for his latest outburst and threats against Jews in letters he sent to 14 American Jewish organizational leaders, including ZOA’s Morton Klein, ADL’s Abe Foxman, Conference of Presidents’ Alan Solow, AIPAC’s Lee Rosenberg, Jewish Federation’s Jerry Silverman, American Jewish Congress’ Richard Gordon and Hillel’s Wayne Firestone. The letter came enclosed with two volumes of hateful new works published by the Nation of Islam, The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, volume two; and Jews Selling Blacks: Slave Trade by American Jews. Farrakhan has also said that he has sent copies of the volumes to various media outlets and members of the Obama Administration.
In his letter to American Jewish leaders, Farrakhan accused Jewish leaders of using accusations of anti-Semitism as a means to hide the truth and to silence criticism “of what I and many others feel is Jewish behavior that has ill-affected Black people and others.”
Farrakhan’s letter claimed “… an undeniable record of Jewish anti-Black behavior, starting with the horror of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, plantation slavery, Jim Crow, sharecropping, the labor movement of the North and South, the unions and the misuse of our people that continues to this very moment … Armed with this knowledge from the pens of Jewish scholars, Rabbis and historians, we could now charge you with the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world. We could charge you with being the most deceitful so-called friend, while your history with us shows you have been our worst enemy.”
Farrakhan’s letter ended with a threat: “should you choose to make our struggle to civilize our people more difficult, then I respectfully warn you … that the more you fight and oppose me rather than help me lift my people from their degraded state, Allah (G-d) and his Messiah will bring you and your people to disgrace and ruin and destroy your power and influence here and in the world.”
Also, in a speech some weeks ago entitled ‘Who are the Real Children of Israel?,’ in which he said that he would be sending copies of the books to Jewish leaders, Farrakhan accused Jews of exploiting the talent and artistry of blacks. He said, “Today the Jewish people have developed a new strategy … They have always tied themselves to Black people. They attach themselves to our talent. They are the managers, the agents and they are the accountants and that’s why our black artists loved fame and got fame but died poor because somebody else got their money. No black man or woman becomes a multimillionaire without friendship in the Jewish community.”
President Obama’s former church in Chicago, Trinity United, which he, his wife and daughters attended for 20 years and whose former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, he called a “friend” and “mentor,” in 2007 awarded Farrakhan a Lifetime Achievement Award. Wright said of Farrakhan in the church’s magazine, Trumpet: “His depth on analysis [sic] when it comes to the racial ills of this nation is astounding and eye-opening … He brings a perspective that is helpful and honest” (Quoted in Ronald Kessler, ‘Obama and the Minister,’ Wall Street Journal, March 14, 2008). When this award came to the fore during the 2008 presidential campaign, the-Senator Obama falsely claimed that this award was given to Farrakhan for his work with black prisoners. President Obama helped organize and attended Farrakhan’s Million Man March. During the 2008 presidential election campaign, Obama denounced Farrakhan and, under public pressure from Hillary Clinton in a live TV interview, rejected statements Farrakhan made supporting his White House bid.
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “Louis Farrakhan’s letter is not only vicious anti-Semitic nonsense but deliberately threatening. Basically, he is saying that unless American Jews cooperate with whatever scheme of ‘helping’ his movement that he may have in mind, Jews everywhere will be endangered. This is a veiled call for violence against Jews. As such, it deserves to be repudiated and condemned. Who better than to do that than a black president who has spoken about healing racial divides, including that between Jews and African-Americans, and reducing the anti-Semitism that comes from some sectors of the African-American community? As noted historian Paul Johnson wrote in A History of the Jews, ‘One of the principal lessons of Jewish history has been that repeated verbal slanders are sooner or later followed by violent physical deeds. Time and again over the centuries, anti-Semitic writings created their own fearful momentum which climaxed in an effusion of Jewish blood.’
“The slave trade that brought Africans to America in chain was largely a Muslim trade. Slavery of black Africans continues in some Muslim states to this day, while black African Christians and animists have been murdered by the hundreds of thousands by Muslims in Muslim majority Sudan. Jews were among the leaders in establishing the NAACP. Some 90% of the NAACP’s money came from Jews, just as many major grants to black colleges has been from Jewish donors. At a time few were doing so, Jews were among the leaders in hiring African Americans. The truth is the opposite of Farrakhan’s lies: Jews have been among the best true friends of the African American community.
“We are concerned that these books will aid the climate of anti-Semitism that has been heightened in recent years. Surveys over many years have shown that the African American community has the most anti-Semitic attitudes of any group in America. It is therefore important that the President, who is also the nation’s most prominent African-American, condemn it.
“We fully appreciate that it is not normally incumbent upon a president to comment or condemn each and every outburst of vicious hatred that may appear in the public square. In this instance, in light of the fact of President Obama’s former church having honored Farrakhan; the president himself having helped organize and attend Farrakhan’s million man march in the 1990s; and the fact that Farrakhan has in effect solicited the views of the Administration by sending copies of the new anti-Semitic books to it, it would be of great value and appropriate for the President to publicly condemn Louis Farrakhan’s latest anti-Semitic outburst and threat to all American Jews.”