Louis Farrakhan
The team said it has spoken with Jackson about the posts and called them “offensive, harmful and absolutely appalling.”
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and Americans Against Anti-Semitism slammed the outlet for considering someone as divisive as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, known for anti-Semitic and hate speech.
“I wasn’t thinking about the anti-Semitic thing, but I don’t want to take down the post because I felt the message was powerful, and a lot of people did,” she said.
“I learned a lot from watching this powerful video,” wrote Handler on her Instagram page, which has 3.9 million followers.
Despite Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s history of bigoted remarks, the comedian countered that “Hitler was responsible for killing millions of lives. Farrakhan is just responsible for his own promotion of anti-Semitic beliefs.”
It reportedly consisted of an attached flier that included a link to the Nation of Islam’s book “Jews Selling Blacks.” Recipients were urged to print and distribute “a few hundred or thousand” copies of them.
Deven Anderson has a history of praising National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has an extensive history of making anti-Jewish remarks such as “I’m anti-termite,” and that Hitler was “a very great man.”
“It degrades the brand even more that it took three years to find someone even more anti-Semitic and vehemently anti-Zionist,” said Nisi Jacobs, founder and CEO of WoMen Fight AntiSemitism.
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan delivered a four-hour keynote address at the 2019 Saviours’ Day Convention in Chicago that was streamed live on the Internet on Feb. 17, 2019.
This development comes amid accusations of anti-Semitism within the movement’s leadership, causing many organizations to drop their support of the this year’s march, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 19.
“If you tolerate or are sympathetic to those who are prejudiced against Jews, we cannot stand with you. If you deny Israel’s right to exist, we cannot stand with you,” said Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.
“The federal government should not use taxpayer dollars to subsidize one of the most infamous hate groups in the United States,” said Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.). “That’s why I’m demanding your department immediately cease all contracts with the Nation of Islam and prohibit it from receiving any contracts in the future.”
