Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan at St. Sabina Catholic Church in Chicago, Illionis on May 9, 2019. | Source: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / Getty
Minister Louis Farrakhan has sued the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for allegedly misusing the terms “anti-Semite” and “anti-Semitic,” both of which terms the leading Jewish advocacy group has assigned to the Nation Of Islam Leader.
The Nation Of Islam announced the lawsuit in a press release on Saturday.
“For over 40 years, the Defendants have falsely labeled Minister Farrakhan and the NOI as ‘anti-Semites,’ and as ‘anti-Semitic’ because of a difference in theological viewpoints, and for his pointing out misbehavior of some members of the Jewish community, among other things,” the press release said in part. “This false labeling has hindered Minister Farrakhan in his Mission, which is to deliver the Truth taught by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad that will correct the condition of spiritual, mental and moral death of the Black man and woman of America that came as a result of the 310 years of chattel slavery and over 150 years of oppression and suppression thereafter.”
The complaint, filed in District Court in the Southern District of New York, seeks nearly $5 billion in “declaratory relief, attorneys’ fees and costs, and any other relief warranted as a result of Defendants’ actions.”
The press release also claims the ADL has “indiscriminately and arbitrarily mislabeled countless politicians, entertainers, athletes, authors, educators, public speakers, academicians, comedians, and others, as being ‘anti-Semites’ and as ‘anti-Semitic,’ simply because, in many instances, the speaker did not agree with the Defendants’ point of view and, in some instances, simply because the person made a favorable comment about Minister Farrakhan and/or the Nation of Islam.”
Read the full lawsuit by clicking here.
Nearly a year ago, Farrakhan made an impassioned defense of the rapper formerly known as Kanye West as well as NBA star Kyrie Irving, both of whom were accused of antisemitism by the ADL and others in separate high-profile instances around the same time.
“These people aren’t antisemitic,” Farrakhan said of Irving and Ye. “They’ve never done nothing against you as a Jewish person.”
He added later without specifically naming the ADL: “We don’t like what you’re doing to Kyrie or to Ye.”
Notably, Irving and Ye each lost valuable corporate contracts worth tens of millions of dollars following their accuations of antisemitism.
Farrakhan has repeatedly refuted accusations of anti-Semitism over the decades.
The longtime leader of the Nation of Islam in 2019 was banned in Facebook and Instagram for what the social media platforms declared was hate speech.
The year prior, CNN described a speech delivered by Farrakhan as “anti-Semitic” after he said during an address in Chicago that “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”
What is antisemitism?
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 adopted the following non-legally binding definition of antisemitism:
Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.
The term has been increasingly used in the weeks since Hamas, a Palestinian Islamic militant group, attacked Israel earlier this month in Middle East violence that’s killed more than 4,000 people, including civilians like women and children.
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