Minister Louis Farrakhan, who heads the Nation of Islam, made headlines on Monday after Fox Soul TV announced they would air his speech on the 4th of July. Soon after, CNN anchor Jake Tapper Tweeted that Farrakhan was an “anti-LGBTQ anti-Semitic misogynist,” while rapper Ice Cube defended the Minister’s reputation.
Although Farrakhan’s speech was no longer televised on Fox, it was streamed online. His polarizing address, which among other things claimed that Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda wanted to depopulate the earth, followed a decades-long career of shady behavior.
“Dr. Fauci, Bill Gates and Melinda, you want to depopulate the earth.”
“Do not take their medications.”#Farrakhan pic.twitter.com/eipfTEtL2d
— Longbow Foolride (@LFoolride) July 4, 2020
Here are just a few of Farrakhan’s major controversies.
He was allegedly involved in Malcolm X’s Murder
Malcolm X’s family has often accused Farrakhan of being involved in the 1965 assassination just one year after Malcolm publicly criticized the Nation of Islam. In a 1994 interview, Malcolm X’s wife, Betty Shabazz, told a reporter that Farrakhan spoke openly about murdering Malcolm and that he wore it as a “badge of honor.”
In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2000, Farrakhan admitted that he had played a role in the murder and said he “regretted” the incendiary language that might have encouraged it. He did not, however, admit that he was directly involved in plotting the assassination.
He praised Adolf Hitler in a 1984 radio interview
After he was referred to as a “Black Hitler” by the Village Voice, Farrakhan said in a radio interview that he was flattered by the comparison.
“Hitler was a very great man,” he said. “He rose Germany up from nothing.”
There have been several instances since in which Farrakhan has attacked Jewish people. In a speech in March, he asked a crowd of thousands: “What Black man do you know has been more ridiculed and evil spoken of by these Satanic Jews other than the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan?”
Misogyny, Homophobia, and Transphobia
In a 1993 speech in a New York City-owned theater, Farrakhan banned women from attending. One year later, he gave a speech encouraging women not to “abandon homemaking for careers.”
More recently, in a speech he gave in Chicago on February 23, Farrakhan said that same-sex attraction was “created by Satan and his manipulation of biology and chemistry.”
Although Farrakhan has long advocated for Black lives and Black emancipation, he continues to be highly divisive for his methods and polarizing rhetoric.
Once you let White people know your level of intelligence.. they know they can’t Master you and will begin to move you out. Minister Louis Farrakhan is preaching! #LouisFarrakhan pic.twitter.com/neJQA7qVpW
— Eddie (@Nomorefreegigs) July 4, 2020