By Demetric Muhammad
[Editor’s Note: This week The Final Call presents a special guest editorial from Student Minister Demetric Muhammad in defense of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Demetric Muhammad is a Nation of Islam student minister based in Memphis, author and member of the NOI Research Group. Follow @brotherdemetric on Twitter.]
Once again Neil Steinberg appears in the Chicago Sun-Times to push his false narrative of anti-Black vitriol. He is angry with Black America because we love Minister Farrakhan.
I am not surprised. The members of the oppressor’s class within a society never approve of the liberator of those whom they oppress. In other words, why would the slave master approve of the liberator of his slaves? In the history of American society, there were enormous fortunes made as a result of the enslavement and oppression of Black people. Wealth and a rapid rise to global prominence, on the world stage of nation-states, accrued to the ruling class of Whites in America as a direct result of her maintaining the dubious “peculiar institution” of chattel slavery.
›Mr. Steinberg reveals just how ensconced he is in the oppressor’s worldview, within his recent rant against the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. And at no time has he ever cited or documented where Minister Farrakhan’s statements have been proven to be false. Instead, he tows the line of what is becoming a popular cottage industry of “anti-Farrakhanism,” by applying a pejorative label and false characterization to the Minister’s statements without ever pointing out to his readers just where Minister Farrakhan is false. He instead makes an emotional appeal and resorts to ad hominem attacks to prove his worthiness as a bona fide “Farrakhan Hater.”
But I want Mr. Steinberg to know that his opinions of Minister Farrakhan are worthless. To refer to our beloved Minister as “a toothless old lizard” is to offend millions of us who live in Black America. To reduce our sincere love of Minister Farrakhan to what you describe as a “low rent naughty pleasure” is to insult the entire Black community, not just in Chicago, but throughout all of America. Your insulting and offensive language against Minister Farrakhan and the Black community rises to the level of that which offends Allah (God). Because the Minister is the anointed servant of Allah (God) and the Black people of America are a people Allah (God) has targeted for salvation and restoration. You cannot stand in opposition to either today and enjoy the favor of Allah (God).
Mr. Steinberg, we love Minister Farrakhan because he is the strongest leader we have in Black America. Consider what even Minister Farrakhan’s critics have concluded as to his peerless role in the Black community over the past 40 years:
National Review Magazine
“To a great extent, in other words, Farrakhan now is the black leadership–the cutting edge, the storm center, the presence against which others are measured.”
Abraham Foxman, Anti-Defamation League
“The only leadership that now exists in that community”–the “African American community”– “is Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan can assemble 20,000 people several times a year…”
Professor Michael Eric Dyson
“For the first time in African American history; a non-Christian leader is a significant, if not the significant leader within Black America.”
Author Julius Lester
“The appearance of Louis Farrakhan at Madison Square Garden on October 7 demonstrated, without doubt, that he is now America’s preeminent black leader.”
Professor Mattias Gardell
“Farrakhan is able to attract larger audiences than any other black spokesperson: 35,000 people showed up at Madison Square Garden, New York; 17,000 in Los Angeles; 26,000 in Detroit; 19,000 and then 15,000 in Atlanta; 15,000 in Chicago; 21,000 at Jacob Javits Center in New York, and 10,000 in Baltimore.”
We love the Minister because he has been the leading defender of the character and innate goodness of Black people in America and around the world. Professor Andre C. Willis said it best when he said:
“There is simply no Black person in the world that has – over so many years – been as consistent, as unrestricted, and as forthright in defending the humanity of Black people throughout the world against its attackers.”
We love the Minister because he has been kind and loving towards us. Consider the words of Henry Louis Gates as he described what legendary scholar C. Eric Lincoln said of our beloved Minister:
“Certainly the Farrakhan I met was a model of civility and courtesy. I was reminded of C. Eric Lincoln’s account of the last couple of visits he paid to Farrakhan at his home: ‘Louis insisted on getting down on his hands and knees on the floor to take my shoes off. You know, I’m overweight, and it’s a difficult task to get shoes and socks off. And so Louis said, ‘I will do that.’ And I said, ‘No, no.’ And Louis said, ‘No, I want to do it.’ He took my shoes off and rubbed my feet to get the blood circulating.”
We love the Minister because he has dared to teach us the hidden truths; the uncomfortable truths. He has been a guide to us, and when we followed his divine guidance, it has saved our lives and the lives of our children. West Coast journalist Fahiza Alim wrote of the Minister:
“Moreover, marijuana, ‘drop out,’ and ‘free love’ were the buzzwords of my generation. The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, our Pied Pipers of modernity, lured us into a dark and swirling hole of hedonism. And Farrakhan, espousing the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, brought me out of the tailspin. Until that point, I had been taking birth control pills to keep from getting pregnant. But after listening to Louis Farrakhan speak about how potent a drug must be to be capable of shutting down one of nature’s powerful biological functions–that of reproducing itself–I stopped.
It took me another 2 years to ovulate or produce eggs again. And some years later, the pharmaceutical companies revealed that we had been guinea pigs and the pills prescribed to some young women were about 10 times more potent than they should have been. ‘You are poisoning yourself,’ Farrakhan has said. ‘Why kill the fruit of your womb and prevent maybe another great Black Leader from being born? Hasn’t Pharaoh killed enough of our children?’ I am glad I heard him, I stopped taking the pill. And now I am the proud mother of 4 children: a daughter and 3 sons.”
We love the Minister because he has been a hero to us; he is our champion. Famed Law Professor Derrick Bell said of the Minister:
“I see Louis Farrakhan as a great hero for the people. I don’t agree with everything he says, and some of his tactics, but hell, I don’t agree with everything anybody says.”
We love the Minister because he is bold enough to speak out loud and on the mountain top, what we all think and feel within our private thoughts. Pulitzer Prize Winner William Raspberry put it this way:
“Farrakhan says what so many black people believe but have learned not to say in public: for instance, that Jews wield tremendous influence in the news and entertainment media … Nor do blacks doubt the disproportionate influence of Jews on American foreign policy, particularly with regard to political and economic support of Israel. But we also know that to say these things is to be accused of anti-Semitism. That’s why blacks can cheer when Farrakhan says them, even in gross overstatement.”
Mr. Steinberg, I could go on and on. But I want to publicly educate you and to condemn your vile characterization of the Black community’s love for a man whom we should love. For us not to love Minister Farrakhan would anger the God that blessed the womb of his cherished mother to serve as the portal of his entry into the world. To not love Minister Farrakhan would constitute a grave sin on our part. Our love of the Minister is not only justified, it is sanctified! And though you condemn us for loving a man whom you hate, I am happy to report that we have found that not only do we love Minister Farrakhan, he has demonstrated over and over again, he loves us to. Scholar, Professor and Chicago journalist Don Wycliff noted:
“All his hatreds aside, one thing is clear about Farrakhan: He loves black people. He loves them so much that he has made himself hated by virtually every other group in this nation to prove his love for blacks. He loves them so much that he will criticize them as no white person and dam few black people could. Indeed, he boasted about that in his overlong (but far more coherent than most critics gave it credit for being) speech at the Million Man March. ‘I point out the evils of black people like no other leader does,’ Farrakhan declared, ‘but my people don’t call me anti-black, because they know I must love them in order to point out what’s wrong so we can get it right to come back into the favor of God.’ ”
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