Last week I released my fourth video documenting the shocking statements of Nation of Islam spiritual leader Minister Louis Farrakhan concerning a number of topics. The main focus of the controversy regarding Farrakhan has been his blatantly anti-Jewish attacks, specifically his Saviour's Day 2018 denunciation of the Jews as "my enemy". In the course of this project, I have come to discover just how much tunnel vision there is in regards to this topic.
To be fair, I have frustrations with all sides in this matter except ironically Louis Farrakhan. That's not because I support Farrakhan, but rather with the help of the open-sourced video footage put on the web by some of his followers like Brother Ben X and Saviour's Helper it is much easier to show the world that beyond Minister Farrakhan's hateful statements on Jews he has several other nuggets of intolerance that have nothing to do with them.
Anti-Semitism is a form of prejudice, and yes it often includes very irrational and paranoid interpretations of real-world events, but the fact is that the controversy over Farrakhan's remarks are not reflective of the real contradictions of leaders within the Women's March and Congressional Black Caucus giving to or accepting support from Minister Farrakhan. In reality, as should be evident by now through the behaviour of progressive left leaders from Jeremy Corbyn to Cynthia McKinney in their minds there is nothing contradictory about supporting the most rabid anti-Jewish organizations and causes in the world and being a feminist, anti-racist, pro-worker progressive. Usually what they will do is frame these positions as "anti-Zionism" and accuse their opponents of being war crimes apologists for Netanyahu.
While I do think that that is a way of dodging the truth and an exercise in cognitive dissonance, anti-Israel demagoguery does not contradict the principles of feminism, anti-Islamophobia, anti-racism, anti-religious bigotry, and workers rights advocacy. But what I've struggled to do since starting this project is to show ways that supporting Farrakhan does indeed contradict virtually all of those causes with the exception of workers rights. That is why I have coined the term #FarrakhanFeminism for the completely contradictory position of the CBC, DNC, and Women's March concerning this topic.
To be clear, I personally have never called for Farrakhan to be silenced, and I stand by his First amendment rights to say anything he wants as long as it does not threaten anyone directly.
DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison, despite denials of any affiliation with Farrakhan, continues to suffer public embarrassment over his past role in the preacher's Nation of Islam and alleged meetings with him. (Twitter)
So let's review the areas where I have shown through video footage of Farrakhan himself and his colleagues in the Nation of Islam and his allies that he is much more of a racist than anyone that the Women's March and CBC condemns. Indeed, once you watch any one of these videos you will come away wondering why on G-d's green earth Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory and Reps. Andre Carson and Maxine Waters even call themselves women's and gay rights advocates when they won't explicitly denounce the following:
In the first episode I exposed Farrakhan's blatantly sexist opinions including that women that cannot cook are unfit to be mothers, that the media is feminizing the black man and leading to transsexualism, and a video where he openly mocks Chinese Americans with a fake accent. Prejudices found: Sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Asian prejudice.
The second episode showed the weak debate on the Jewish left over what to do about Farrakhan from CNN's Sally Kohn and Women's March activist Elad Nehorai (AKA the "Pop Chassid"). Meanwhile I reiterate that notwithstanding the truly hateful beliefs he has about Jews, nobody cares to tackle his similar ones concerning Catholics and women. Prejudices found: Anti-Catholicism, anti-Judaism, sexism.
The third episode concerns the now gathering coalition of Farrakhan allies that confronted Congressional Black Caucus members to get them to stand up for the NOI leader. These include Al Sharpton's National Action Network, Black Lawyers for Justice, the New Black Panther Party and Black Lives Matter. Included are video clips that show racist, sexist, or anti-Jewish remarks by leaders of all of those organizations, including Sharpton himself, Malik Zulu Shabazz, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, and BLM Seattle activists. Prejudices found: Sexism, anti-white racism, anti-Judaism.
The fourth and latest episode concerns the fact that not only is Minister Farrakhan openly hateful towards Jews, but he also has a bizarrely pseudo-scientific hatred towards Arabs and in particular Palestinians. He even blames them for dealing pork and guns in the inner city (a theory that would be interesting if he had proof). He says similar things about Korean shop owners, and states that blacks should seize Arab and Korean stores in black neighbourhoods. He also condemns Arabs and tells them to go to hell, and that Africans got the Qur'an without their help. As a throw away I include a clip where Farrakhan calls the mouth of the black woman a "snake pit" and threatens to throttle it. Prejudices found: anti-Korean hate, anti-Arab hate, Islamophobia, outright misogyny.
Fighting fear using freedom
It is OK in my mind to be indignant personally about only the anti-Judaism part of Farrakhan and the left, but being as we are living in the real world not everyone cares about the Jews. The ADL, or as I prefer to call them the Aiding & Abetting Defamation League, has made a mess of fighting Jew hatred by using the counterproductive method of encouraging social media platforms to employ censorship mechanisms to restrict the free speech of participants.
This has had zero effect on combating Jew hatred, but rather has actually been like pouring gasoline on the fire. Those that are censored on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are now turning to alternative technology sites like Gab.ai, Minds.com, and BitChute. There are many who are NOT anti-Semitic like myself (an openly Jewish ex-IDF serviceman) that have also embraced those more open and free platforms while traditional social media is taking a beating in the stock market.
Women's March national co-chair Tamika Mallory sparked the current controversy due to her effusive praise of Farrakhan and fawning reaction to his Saviour's Day festival during which he called Jews "my enemy" (CBS News).
Since this scandal has broken out I have continued to call this saga #FarrakhanFeminism explicitly to call attention to the real issue here: The Women's March, Democratic National Committee, and CBC have all embraced "Intersectional Feminism" as their public position. For those that do not know, intersectional feminism holds that different social justice causes must cooperate as they are all subject at a certain "intersection" to the same hand of patriarchal, white, Christian oppression. Here are some examples to that point:
An NOI affiliated photographer withheld publication of an image of then-Senator Barack Obama with Farrakhan from 2005.
DNC chair candidate Sally Boynton Brown, a white woman leading the party in Idaho, made a desperate pitch to delegates to vote for her on the basis that she would tell white people "when to shut up" when minorities are talking. She ultimately would resign from her next position as president of the Florida Democratic Party over allegations of covering up sexual harassment allegations.
Women's March co-chair Linda Sarsour has come out as the face of the intersectional progressive left and feminism, but has been widely lampooned for her advocacy on behalf of Sharia that restricts women's rights. Sarsour has denied evidence of her own anti-Jewish beliefs despite attacking the "Jewish media" during an anti-Semitism conference! Sarsour has also attacked a fellow panelist for being a "privileged white woman" criticizing her as a "woman of colour" notwithstanding the fact that she herself has claimed that without her hijab she is "just another white girl from New York City".
Fellow co-chair Tamika Mallory, who is the direct catalyst of the current conflict over Farrakhan, and has scorned requests to denounce the NOI leader. Mallory, a former aide to Vice President Joe Biden and Executive Director of Sharpton's National Action Network, has yet to address Farrakhan's blatant attacks on women, gays, and Asians.
DNC Deputy Chair Keith Ellison, a former NOI spokesperson and congressman from Minneapolis-St. Paul, has dissembled and obfuscated regarding his own role in Farrakhan's organization. In a Medium post from March Rep. Ellison denied being a Nation of Islam activist ever, notwithstanding articles and activities of his stretching from 1989 at University of Minnesota Law School through the late 1990s.
CBC member and Illinois Democratic congressman Danny K. Davis has stated openly that the reason he seeks NOI support and Farrakhan's endorsement is the need to get elected.
By not denouncing Min. Louis Farrakhan, Linda Sarsour may be unwittingly legitimizing an anti-Arab bigot, a touch of true irony for the former Arab American Association of NYC leader. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Ultimately, this campaign to hold the Women's March, DNC, CBC and their leaders to public account is doomed if the focus is exclusively on anti-Jewish activities. Does this mean that hatred of Jews in and of itself should be waved off? Absolutely not. But the reality is that the contradictions between progressive liberalism and #FarrakhanFeminism extend far beyond Jewish issues to those that include women, gays, Asians, Catholics, white people, and yes even Arabs. The progressive left, paralleling the religious right, has acted for decades to restrict free speech so long as it defines it as "hateful". By highlighting the comical and creepy ways that Farrakhan's own statements from the pulpit contradict the very ideals of liberalism regarding all of those groups, we can show that intersectional feminism has always been a smokescreen for the ultimate fake philosophy: #FarrakhanFeminism.
Original article available here through the Hard News Network: https://hardnews.network/farrakhanfeminism-the-myopia-of-focusing-exclusively-on-anti-semitism/