The hypocrisy displayed by the American government when it comes to accusing other countries of terrorism and human rights abuses seemingly knows no bounds. Since its founding—established on the genocide of Native Americans and the Transatlantic slave trade of Black people—America has solidified itself as the global purveyor of terrorism. The United States has a history of condemning other countries while willfully and arrogantly ignoring its own sordid history.
On Nov. 24, the administration of President Donald Trump designated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and members of his government as members of a “foreign terrorist organization” based on unsubstantiated allegations of drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, on the same day that the U.S. government announced its decision on Venezuela, the oldest and one of the last survivors of the state-sanctioned terrorism resulting in the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Ms. Viola Ford Fletcher, passed away at the age of 111. The massacre, which targeted an area of Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as Black Wall Street, is just one of a litany of examples of terrorist acts committed by this country. An angry White mob of thousands attacked and killed Black residents and proceeded to burn and destroy the town. This state-sanctioned act of terrorism was allowed because the U.S. government failed to intervene, and the Oklahoma National Guard, though deployed, failed to help Black Tulsans. The pattern of terrorist acts committed on Black folks is as “American as apple pie.”
“As White mobs laid siege to Greenwood on May 31, 1921, units spent most of the night protecting a White community from a rumored Black counterattack, which ultimately never happened. They did not stop Black homes and businesses from being looted, burned and destroyed,” noted a 2021 article published on Public Radio Tulsa titled, “Commander Apologizes For Oklahoma National Guard’s Role In Tulsa Race Massacre.”
There was no statement of condolence or any mention of Ms. Fletcher or the terrorism she survived issued by the White House upon news of her passing.
The U.S. steadily points its finger at other nations in condemnation, yet to this day, America is the only country that has dropped two atomic bombs on another country—in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, during World War II. Additionally, many countries that the U.S. has placed on its “terrorism” lists are countries that it has interfered with or fomented tensions in through its errant foreign policy. Cuba, Libya, Nigeria, Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Iraq are just a few. There are too many to name. Yet, time and time again, America has thrown a rock but hidden its hand when it comes to its own misdeeds and acts of aggression.
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, wrote about America’s penchant for troublemaking in His book, “The Fall of America.”
“America loves meddling into other people’s affairs. She just cannot stay out of other people’s business, whether they be a two-cents worth soap-box teacher or presidents and kings of countries,” He wrote in the chapter titled, “The Troubled America: No Peace.”
In pointing out the country’s hypocrisy, in the same chapter, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote, “America goes abroad and makes war against other people. Then she charges them with making war against her when she is the one who is guilty of the war-making.”
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, has also pointed out America’s duplicitous actions.
“When President Ronald Reagan was against the Sandinistas [Contras] in Nicaragua, he called on his friend, the King of Saudi Arabia, because Congress wouldn’t allow him the money to make war on the Sandinistas. After Saudi sent $10 million, the war kept going and there was a lot of killing of innocent civilians. Well, what about Rwanda? Wasn’t that a humanitarian crisis? Weren’t there many refugees? President Bill Clinton didn’t do anything there. What about The Congo? Millions of lives lost in the Congo. What about Sudan? A war raging for 20 years! What happened to America’s ‘humanitarian concerns’? I have to look at hypocrisy, and call it as I see it,” Minister Farrakhan said in his March 31, 2011, press conference from Mosque Maryam in Chicago, addressing events in the Middle East and the Libya policy of the administration of then-President Barack Obama.
While the U.S. feigns concerns about the treatment of people in other countries or the alleged actions of their governments, according to the 2025 “World Report” by Human Rights Watch, “Racial justice remained a pressing human rights concern in the United States in 2024. The U.S. ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination nearly 60 years ago, but has done far too little to implement its provisions. Living legacies of slavery and the slaughter and dispossession of Native peoples remain largely unaddressed.”
Domestically and abroad, the U.S. government has perpetrated its fair share of misdeeds, so one should always raise questions when officials slap the “terrorism” label on another country or individual.
We would be wise to remember Minister Farrakhan’s warnings.
“What America thinks of the outside world or foreign policy is an extension of domestic policy; however, America treats people within the country is the way she treats people abroad, because her foreign policy is an extension of her psyche, values and cultural upbringing. So, we can judge America’s actions toward Africa by America’s actions toward the sons and daughters of Africa,” he cautioned in his message “How the U.S. government destabilized foreign governments,” delivered July 22, 1985.
The Holy Qur’an, which is the Islamic book of scripture, states the following in Surah (Chapter) 49, Ayat (Verse) 6: “O you who believe, if an unrighteous man brings you news, look carefully into it, lest you harm a people in ignorance, then be sorry for what you did.”
We must be careful in accepting or believing blanket statements on face value when it comes to news or accusations from the U.S. government about other countries. We have over 400 years of documented and verifiable American history.
So, will the real terrorist please stand up?