Nation of Islam Receives Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Federal Funds, and What do They Believe?

Anti-Semitic Louis Farrakhan sure has been in the news a lot lately (here and here).

But Farrakhan isn’t merely anti-Semitic; he’s anti-lots of people.

For those who don’t know, according to the Nation of Islam, once upon a time, the world was a peaceful place. Humban beings — aka black people — lived prosperously as kings and queens. 

But then:

A sinister being, known as the Big Head Scientist, took the world’s prisoners and employed them in a scheme to create pure evil: white people.

The large-noggin’d, nefarious nuisance restricted mating among the world’s worst, such that breeding produced lighter and lighter skin. And, since purity was inherent to the darkness of skin, the lighter the shade, the crappier the creatures. On the way to total absence of goodness — otherwise known as total absence of blackness, otherwise known as Caucasian — all the world’s races were created, the lighter indicating the more treacherous.

That’s you, if you’re not black. That’s everyone, if they’re not black.

That’s the foundation of the Nation of Islam.

And that’s the foundation of 84-year-old Louis Farrakhan, sitting atop a religion which teaches the above.

The same Farrakhan embraced by the Women’s March (here and here).

Regardless, according to The Washington Examiner, since 2008, the Nation has received $384,000 in federal dollars, via “contracts and awards.”

The funding was designed to provide “Nation of Islam religious services,” “Nation of Islam spiritual guide services,” “Nation of Islam study services,” and other related programming led by the organization’s leaders, according to Bureau of Prison records. The Nation of Islam has been labeled a hate group by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

New York Republican Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence, told the Washington Examiner the funding was “beyond the pale.”

He said: “Categorically, no group or entity or individual associated any way with Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam should receive any federal funding. What Farrakhan preaches is hatred and anti-Semitism and racism, and to use any federal money for any group that’s he’s involved with that do any type of teaching or proselytizing is just wrong.”

Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, called the funding “really outrageous and remarkable.” He noted that a court ruling in 2003 prohibited federal prisons from banning Nation of Islam reading materials on First Amendment grounds. But he said this ruling doesn’t require the U.S. government to provide money to the organization.

Aid to the Nation peaked during Obama’s presidency:

The highest spending year appears to have occurred under former President Barack Obama in 2012, when the federal government gave over $47,000 in contracts to Nation of Islam programs. Funding has dropped under the Trump administration. In 2018, the programs received $17,000 and the total obligation for 2019 is $8,250.

Here’s a little more on the religion’s background:

The Nation of Islam was founded in 1930 as a black nationalist offshoot of Islam, but Potok said many of its beliefs are seen as heretical by mainstream Muslims — including the group’s claims that white people are inherently evil and Nation of Islam founder Wallace D. Fard, or Wallace Fard Muhammad, is a deity.

“The Nation has, right from the beginning, extremely anti-Semitic, anti-gay beliefs,” said Potok. The group has promoted theories that Israel carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and claimed the U.S. government has secretly poisoned black men with a chemical that would turn them gay. Farrakhan, who has led the organization since 1978, once called Adolf Hitler ‘a very great man’ and routinely denounces Jews and white people as evil.

“White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that satanic Jew, and I’m here to say, ‘Your time is up. Your world is through,’” Farrakhan said in a speech last February.

The Left is obsessed with race, constantly shouting claims of racism. Yet, Farrakhan is a welcome participant in the arena of ideas, so far as it seems concerned. 

Doubtlessly, the majority of the mainstream media’s audience isn’t aware of the NOI’s teachings. And those tenets aren’t likely to be highlighted by MSNBC any time soon. 

America was founded upon freedom of religion, and people should believe whatever they feel to be true. In the case of the Nation of Islam, it seems to me, non-members understanding the organization’s foundational beliefs is a good thing: It’s enlightening to situations where taxes are being funneled or the faith is featured by networks or Farrakhan’s group is utilized by the Women’s March (here). 

Moreover, federal funding being provided to an organization which encourages racism is certainly worth rethinking. 

Just as much as is racism itself.

-Alex

Relevant RedState links in this article: here, here, here, and here.

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Source: https://www.redstate.com/alexparker/2018/12/27/nation-of-islam-federal-funding-beliefs-farrakhan/