KSU students, alumni and prospective students filed a federal lawsuit on May 11. An additional group of anonymous KSU students filed a state lawsuit on May 21.

Both lawsuits challenge Kentucky Senate Bill 185, which was signed into law on April 13. The bill places the university in a state of financial emergency for up to five years and restructures the university into a polytechnic institution focused on technical, workforce-oriented applied learning programs.

It also reduces academic program offerings to no more than 10 and allows for faculty terminations. In addition, the state would have increased control and oversight over KSU and would have authority over admission policies.

James Morris, of the Kentucky law firm Morris & Morris, P.S.C., serves as counsel for plaintiffs in both lawsuits. The federal lawsuit focuses on civil rights law and the issue of historic underfunding while the state lawsuit focuses on Kentucky’s constitution. Both ask the courts to halt enforcement of the bill as the lawsuits move forward.

“The state action is alleging a constitutional violation under Kentucky state law,” Atty. Morris said to The Final Call. “Our state constitution requires that in order for a legislature to pass a bill, it has to be read in both House and Senate three times.”

He alleged that SB 185 started as a four-line branch budget recommendation bill that was sent to the Senate floor three times, but on the third read, the committee substituted the previous branch budget text with a seven-page bill related to Kentucky State University.

“They never said ‘wait, guys, we just changed everything.’ They literally said, ‘We want to read for the third time. All right, reading for the third time, Senate Bill 185, an act related to branch budget recommendation.’ Then they said, ‘We’d like to do a committee substitute number one.

All right, committee substitute number one to branch budget recommendation. All in favor?’ They voted. It passed,” Atty. Morris said. “The substitute was the seven-page new text that never got read to anything because they’re using the old title.

Then, after the Senate passed the bill, they said I’d like to move to change the title to an act related to Kentucky State University and declaring an emergency.”

He pointed out several things wrong with the passage of the bill: one, by Kentucky law, “you can’t substitute a different bill and say, ‘oh, we read it three times’”; two, “you can’t have a statute that is related to a single individual or a single entity when a general statute would suffice,” and three, every bill that impacts a person’s retirement must have a financial report attached.

“The entire statute relates to Kentucky State University; not one reference to the other land grant, not one reference to the other universities. There wasn’t something that said if any university has the following problem, then we would declare a financial emergency. It’s literally written solely for the HBCU. Our constitution says that’s illegal under Kentucky law,” Atty. Morris said.

Supporters of the bill, including state lawmakers and some university officials, have presented it as a rescue plan for KSU that will stabilize the school financially.

Located in Frankfort, Ky., KSU is one of 19 HBCUs established as a land-grant institution under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, and it is Kentucky’s only public HBCU. Like most land-grant HBCUs, KSU has been a victim of severe underfunding by the state. 

As early as 1981, Kentucky was found engaging in intentional segregation and discrimination by underfunding KSU, and the state entered agreements with the federal government to fix the issue, according to Atty. Morris. “They didn’t do that,” he said.

In September 2023, then U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and then U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack sent letters to 16 governors highlighting the more than $12 billion disparity in funding between land-grant HBCUs and White land-grant institutions. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat, received one of those letters.

Land-grant institutions were first established under the Morrill Act of 1862, but the first wave of institutions, including the University of Kentucky, did not allow Black students to enroll.

When states opened a second land-grant institution to serve Black students in 1890, they did so with the requirement to provide an equitable distribution of funds between their 1862 White institutions and 1890 Black institutions, according to the letter. 

KSU, while “producing extraordinary graduates that contribute greatly” to Kentucky’s economy, “has not been able to advance in ways that are on par with [the] University of Kentucky, … in large part due to unbalanced funding,” the former secretaries wrote to Gov. Beshear.

If KSU received funding equal to the University of Kentucky from 1987 to 2020, the school would have had more than $172 million in additional funds. That $172 million could have supported infrastructure and student services and would have better positioned the university to compete for research grants, the former secretaries said.

The former U.S. secretaries also sent letters to the governors of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Of the 18 states that have land-grant HBCUs, only Delaware and Ohio equitably funded their universities between 1987 and 2020, according to the federal review

In 2022, due to financial issues, the state of Kentucky loaned KSU $23 million with the expectation that the school would repay the loan.

“We’ll loan you $23 million but we want you to pay us back, and if you can’t pay us back, then there are consequences. Well, wait, why is this a loan? Here you are $200 million in the hole, and you couldn’t find a way to give Kentucky State University $23 million?” Atty. Morris questioned.

Despite the bill’s claims that KSU will still retain its status as an HBCU and as a land-grant institution, the lawsuits argue that the bill narrows KSU’s academic and historic missions.

The lawsuits also raise concern that the bill threatens traditional degree programs, gives the state excessive control over the university and could lead to reduced educational opportunities for students, along with faculty layoffs, staffing reductions and enrollment restrictions.

“They’re literally trying to avoid decades and decades of segregation and intentional discrimination by adopting a bill that would allow them to escape the responsibility for their neglect,” Atty. Morris said. Now, with the state’s plan to transform the university, students are leaving and scrambling to find a different school, leaving “nobody left” for the state to fund, he added.

“Right now, from what we understand, there’s less than 200 students now enrolling in the fall. That means that the system’s going to shut down. So, by the legislature doing what they did at the time they did in the spring and forcing it as an emergency bill, they’re basically going to choke out K-State and make it so that it self-implodes,” he said.

KSU enrolled more than 2,800 students in Fall 2025 but has not yet released enrollment statistics for Fall 2026.

The university’s board of regents approved a new academic plan on May 28 with the deadline to submit the plan to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education by June 1.

Atty. Morris said while the new plan hasn’t been fully explained, the university has shut down its political science program and some of its music programs. Other programs, such as nursing, have been impacted, and still others, such as criminal justice, have not been listed at all.

“The board of regents has selected programs, but we have not gotten the final list. Some of the plaintiffs are directly impacted. Some of them already received letters saying their program is gone,” Atty. Morris said.

The first court date for the state lawsuit was June 1, with a full hearing scheduled for June 10.

Historically, HBCUs provided Black students an opportunity for higher learning at a time when they were locked out of White institutions due to discrimination and segregation. Today, they are still major drivers of economic success for Black people.

Though most HBCUs both public and private are underfunded compared to White institutions, Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, published an article on how HBCUs “do more with less.”

HBCUs serve only about 3% of college students in the U.S., but they produce nearly 16% of all Black U.S. graduates and are responsible for 18% of graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, according to an article by Dr. Michael L. Lomax, president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund,

On “Why HBCUs Still Matter.” In addition, he wrote that HBCUs generate $16.5 billion annually in economic impact and provide more than 136,000 jobs a year nationwide. 

Dr. Denise A. Smith, former deputy director of higher education policy and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a public policy think tank headquartered in New York City, has done extensive research into educational equity and government funding of HBCUs. She wrote an article in 2021 on funding disparities.

“No longer should we be focused on questions about” the relevance of HBCUs, “but rather we should be highlighting their significant contributions—and making substantial public investment so that HBCUs’ future can be actualized,” she wrote.

“The present moment is an opportunity for this country to atone for decades of discrimination and restore what is rightfully owed to the Black community and Black colleges.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is a longtime advocate for the success of HBCUs. In a 2014 address to Morgan State University students, he warned that all HBCUs are “under attack,” because of their history of producing great leaders for Black people.

“Brothers and sisters, we have [99] Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that are just scraping by,” he said in another message titled, “Muhammad’s Economic Blueprint: Ending Poverty & Want,” which served as Part 31 of his 58-week lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

Minister Farrakhan noted that if Black people followed the economic program of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and if 16 million Black wage earners contributed one nickel a day to a national Black treasury, the resulting $291 million from the first year could be used to match the endowment figures for 37 HBCUs.

This would make “these institutions free to determine one, the direction, two, curricula and three, staffs to provide our children with an education which will surpass any on our planet,” he said.

“The HBCUs must become a part of a system where they are functioning for a bigger purpose than just to confer degrees. We want our HBCUs to be ours, and they can never be that unless they are financially independent,” he added. “Do you know our schools [and the curricula] are controlled?

The Enemy does not want you to learn what will make you free from dependency on others! But with money in our pocket, we tell them, ‘No!  This is the curriculum that has to be in here: The Curriculum that will make students that will build not only a nation but a world!’”

The post Two lawsuits challenge state takeover of Kentucky HBCU  appeared first on Final Call News.

Now, in this 21st century information and digital era, the U.S. is attempting to position itself as the primary contender in the “artificial intelligence race.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have positioned A.I. and data center expansion as part of a national “America beats China” strategy tied to A.I. dominance. The federal government is rapidly accelerating A.I. and data center deployment while straddling the line between oversight and deregulation. 

But who really benefits from accelerated development, who suffers the harms and disadvantages, and what would true regulation look like?

The White House’s A.I. push

The White House unveiled “America’s AI Action Plan” on July 23, 2025, which served as a catalyst for the government’s rapid A.I. expansion. In the plan, the U.S. government laid out more than 90 federal policy actions under three pillars: accelerating innovation, building America A.I. infrastructure and leading internationally.

Key actions included expediting permits for data centers and semiconductor facilities, removing federal rules seen as slowing A.I. and requiring federal A.I. vendors to avoid “ideological bias.” 

The president issued an executive order that same day on “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure.” The order directed the federal government to speed up the development of data centers and related infrastructure by easing federal regulatory burdens and using federal land and resources. 

In a separate executive order also dated July 23, 2025, the government communicated plans to create an “American AI Exports program” that would make other countries dependent on U.S.-built A.I. systems and standards. 

From July 2025 to April 2026, the government has proceeded to carry out its plans. Here is a brief timeline summarizing White House press releases and presidential actions.

•        September 2025: White House officials met with major tech executives from OpenAI, Google/Alphabet, Oracle, Apple, Microsoft, AMD and Meta.

•        December 2025: President Trump issued an executive order that targeted state A.I. laws, created an A.I. Litigation Task Force to challenge and evaluate state laws and threatened to restrict state funding due to laws the administration claimed would hinder innovation. 

•        March 2026: The Trump administration issued a formal response to public concern on rising electricity bills due to data centers. Major tech companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed a Ratepayer Protection Pledge agreeing to “build, bring or buy” the power needed for their data centers, cover grid upgrade costs, negotiate separate utility rates, support local jobs and contribute backup power during shortages.

•        April 2026: The White House announced the release of the “2026 Economic Report of the President.” The report included a chapter on “The Revolution of Artificial Intelligence,” which echoed the administration’s previous stances on A.I., characterizing regulation as slowing A.I. growth.

In meetings between late April and early May, White House officials reportedly told executives from Anthropic, Google and OpenAI about plans to create an A.I. working group and install a formal government review process for new A.I. models, The New York Times reported from U.S. officials and people briefed on the deliberations.

The Times reported that the working group would bring together tech executives and government officials to examine potential oversight procedures. The proposal would also give government officials early access to powerful A.I. models for national and cyber security reasons. 

Shortly after the meetings, a senior White House official clarified that the White House is looking for “partnership” with companies rather than pursuing “government regulation,” according to a May 7 article by Politico. 

The oversight contradiction

The White House press releases and presidential actions show an administration trying to make A.I. expansion into a national project by deregulating it, exporting it to other countries, protecting it from state laws and reassuring the public that big tech will pay its own way. Simultaneously, the government is looking into A.I. oversight.

The question becomes, how would A.I. oversight and A.I. deregulation exist at the same time, and who will be in the room shaping key policy decisions? 

The administration’s effort to override state A.I. laws raise questions about whether meaningful independent oversight can exist alongside rapid deregulation. Cities and states have been leading the charge on data center moratoriums, in the absence of comprehensive federal legislation. In addition, citizen concerns on A.I. and data centers are growing. 

Hyperscale data centers equipped to house A.I. require massive warehouses, enormous electricity and water consumption and transmission infrastructure.

These data centers occupy at least 10,000 square feet and require more than 100 megawatts of power, due to operation and cooling needs, according to a congressional report on data centers and their energy consumption, published in January. 

Communities across the country are fighting local data center growth, as families fear utility hikes and neighborhoods deal with threats to the environment, water usage and noise pollution. Those in the workforce worry about A.I. displacement. 

Black communities are especially disproportionately harmed by massive A.I. data centers and the resulting environmental racism and negative health outcomes that come with them, as reported in previous Final Call articles. One well-known example is xAI’s Colossus project built in a majority-Black neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee.

In previous Final Call interviews, activists voiced concerns over xAI’s usage of methane gas turbines, as methane is a toxic air pollutant that can cause or worsen breathing problems, heart disease, cancer and stroke, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. 

So far, the meetings and advisory discussions held at the White House have been attended by executives and representatives from major A.I., cloud, semiconductor and infrastructure firms, the same companies positioned to profit the most from A.I. and data center expansion. Investors, industry lobbyists and administration officials have also been present. 

Groups that appear to be absent from the conversations are labor groups; civil rights groups that have raised concerns about algorithmic bias, increased surveillance and discrimination; environmental justice advocates concerned about water usage, energy demand, pollution, land use and utility prices; consumer watchdogs; and independent oversight groups.

Americans do not want more A.I. data centers. More than 70% of Americans oppose local construction of A.I. data centers, according to a new Gallup survey.

Right now, the U.S. does not have a comprehensive A.I. law. A.I. oversight comes from existing consumer protection laws, civil rights laws, privacy laws, other rules and regulations depending on the sector (i.e., medical, finance, transportation, workplace) and state legislation.

Some states passed laws related to bias audits, transparency mandates, child safety protections and other regulations, but these laws are now under attack by the federal government.

The government’s previous A.I. framework emphasized A.I. safety testing, transparency and agency oversight. President Trump replaced this framework with one centered on the idea of American A.I. dominance, deregulation and speed. 

Questions remain: 

•        If an A.I. working group were put into place, what authority would the working group actually have? 

•        What will be the transparency requirements of A.I. projects, if any? Will testing results be public? Will companies self-report risks? Who decides what counts as “safe?” Can the public challenge decisions?

•        And why are the big tech companies that are positioned to profit the most from weak regulation and massive expansion of A.I. infrastructure the same companies invited to closed-door meetings helping to shape policy around A.I.?

The administration argues that the U.S. cannot afford to lose the global A.I. race, but critics warn that prioritizing speed, infrastructure expansion and corporate partnership over independent oversight could negatively affect the people of America in the long run.

As the famous saying goes, “the race is not to the swift but to those who endure to the end.” The winners of the A.I. race may ultimately be crowned not by the faster speed but by the meaningful safeguards put in place.

The post Questions grow over White House talks on A.I. oversight appeared first on Final Call News.

—The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, “The Time and What Must Be Done,” part 41

This year marks 25 years since the events of 9/11. In the aftermath of 9/11, Muslims in America became targets of discrimination and hate crimes. Now, a new report documents a resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment tied to legislative policies targeting Muslims in America.

The report, titled “Manufacturing the Muslim Threat,” explores what it describes as a 13-month coordinated anti-Muslim campaign, from February 2025 to March 2026, involving 1,111 social media posts by 46 elected officials—including members of Congress.

State governors, and an attorney general—eight bills, and a 62-member congressional caucus. It was published by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, on April 21.

“The report that we recently published shows a highly coordinated anti-Muslim campaign that began with a single post by Greg Abbott in February 2025,” Niala Mohammad, program lead on Islamophobia and anti-migrant hate for the center, said to The Final Call.

On Feb. 24, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott posted on X, “To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are ‘no go zones’ which this project seems to imply. Bottom line. The project as proposed in the video is not allowed in Texas.”

The project in question was a proposed Muslim-led housing development in Dallas, Texas, called East Plano Islamic Center, according to the CSOH report. Claims that it was a “Sharia city” circulated online, making their way to the state’s governor. Governor Abbott’s post had been viewed more than 3.6 million times.

There has been a deliberate misinterpretation and mischaracterization of Sharia Law, which is derived from The Holy Qur’an, which is the book of Islamic scripture, and the sunnah (way) and hadith (sayings) of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Eijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, explained this in a message he delivered on October 14, 2012, titled “Guidance for Our President and Our Nation,”  which also served as Part 41 of his 2013, 58-week lecture series, “The Time and What Must Be Done.” 

“Master Fard Muhammad came, and He taught us Sharia Law,” Minister Farrakhan said, referring to The Great Mahdi and Teacher of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.  

“He taught us—and His Servant, Elijah Muhammad, taught us, and I am teaching you—how to respect The Law, so that you can go anywhere in the dominant Muslim world and be at ease in a society that imposes Sharia!  We do not smoke.  They do. 

We do not drink.  Some of them do.  But the good ones?  They won’t.  We do not use drugs, fornicate, commit adultery, kill our babies through abortion.  We followed ‘The Law’—The Law of God!  We know that imposing the strictness of Sharia, after coming out of a loose, corrupt government, is wrong! 

When a people have been under those who are the enemies of Allah (God), and have lived loosely, you have to gradually bring them back to the strictness of God’s Law!  But if you just ‘put it on them,’ then answer this question: 

Which one of you are ‘holy’ enough to kill people who offend God’s Law, when you, the leaders, are the biggest offenders of The Laws of God?” Minister Farrakhan said. 

“We have a Modern Meaning, given by Master Fard Muhammad, to ‘Sharia.’  Those of you who think Sharia is a ‘curse,’ The Nation of Islam has written a book called ‘The Restrictive Law of Islam is Our Success’:  Go take it and read it!  And call me back, and tell me that this is not a law that if we lived it, America, and the American people, would be safe!”

False conspiracy theories and the war against Islam

The CSOH report documents how “bigoted posts targeting Muslims or Islam or promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy narratives in a domestic American context” rose from an average of about 11 posts a month in the first half of 2025 to an average of nearly 177 posts a month by late 2025 and early 2026.

It describes the jump as a 1,450% increase. In March 2026 alone, there were more than 260 posts, the highest number in the dataset.

The report accused the elected officials of promoting conspiracy theories about Muslim Americans, calling for the deportation and denaturalization of Muslims, promoting negative portrayals of Islam, describing U.S. cities with significant Muslim populations as “conquered”

Or “invaded,” weaponizing domestic terror attacks to vilify Islam and Muslims even when Muslims did not have anything to do with the attack, using dehumanizing language, causing anti-Muslim hysteria and fear-mongering.

Officials based in Texas and Florida produced most of the posts. The posts fueled the introduction of eight bills in both chambers of Congress between June 2025 and March 2026, as well as the formation of the “Sharia-Free America Caucus,” which launched in December 2025 and has grown to more than 60 members.

“This is a coordinated effort. This isn’t organic. The agenda behind it, we believe, is that this campaign constructs Muslims as a civilizational and national security threat to justify exclusionary policies,” Ms. Mohammad said.

“By framing Muslim communities as engaged in invasion or Islamification, it manufactures a public fear. It’s fearmongering to legitimize any sort of legislation pushed forward to marginalize the Muslim community, to expand surveillance and to normalize discrimination towards them.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has boldly called the U.S. government’s attitude and actions toward Muslims a “war against Islam.”

“America, now, is at war with Islam, make no mistake about it,” he said in Part 14 of “The Time and What Must be Done,” delivered in 2013. “What is it about Islam that you fear? And what is Islam?” he questioned. “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us, and all Islamic scholars bear witness, that ‘Islam’ is entire submission to do the Will of God.

“The Muslims in America are most peaceful and productive; they have contributed much to the development of this society in medicine, in science, in engineering, in research and development,” he added.

“But the FBI has been infiltrating mosques and creating conditions to entrap Muslims; and then you say, through your media, that you have ‘stopped terrorists.’ This is all a part of your aim of ‘invoking a terrifying internal and external enemy,’” Minister Farrakhan said.

Targeting of Muslims in America

Muslims in America have faced ongoing prejudice and discrimination since 9/11, including violence, harassment and vandalism of mosques. President Donald Trump’s various travel bans and restrictions, including the 2017 Muslim travel ban and recent restrictions that went into effect in 2025 and early this year, 2026, have separated families.

The surge of activity by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Minneapolis in January and February caused many of the city’s Somali population, who are predominantly Muslim, to live in fear.

In recent news, Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee and a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, was detained by ICE agents on March 30 and is being held at a detention center in Indiana.

These incidents persist amidst the wave of anti-Muslim legislation. Ms. Mohammad explained how speech on social media transforms into real-world violence.

“These recent actions, including the Sharia-focused legislation, immigration enforcement narratives, the targeting of Muslim communities, the surveillance of Muslim communities, reflect the campaign’s core framing,” she said.

“Muslims are consistently cast as security threats or demographic dangers, which is then used to justify policies like deportation proposals or expanded enforcement actions.”

Corey Saylor, research and advocacy director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), pointed to previous times when elected officials used their positions to demonize Muslims.

“This exact effort to ban Islamic religious practices really started in 2010. 2011, according to the Othering and Belonging [Institute] at [the University of California, Berkeley], was the year that the introduction of anti-Islam bills peaked,” he said to The Final Call.

“The last couple of years, until 2025, it essentially disappeared. There was anti-Muslim bigotry, but this effort to turn it into policy, the law of the land, the use of public office to demonize Muslims, really had disappeared in this way.”

One example from 2010 is Oklahoma’s introduction of a “Save Our State Amendment,” which sought to restrict the state’s courts from considering Sharia law or international law in decision-making. Federal courts deemed the law unconstitutional.

“It was ruled unconstitutional, and yet this same thing that’s already been ruled unconstitutional is what these elected officials are pursuing,” Mr. Saylor said. “In Oklahoma, a legislator this year introduced a ‘Save Our State Amendment’ that uses the exact same language as the 2010 Oklahoma bill, which means he’s introducing something that’s already been ruled unconstitutional.”

U.S. foreign and domestic policy

Anti-Muslim sentiments by American politicians affect both Muslims in America and abroad. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Mar 3, 2004, where he addressed the war in Iraq and then President George W. Bush’s so-called “War on Terror.”

During the press conference, he quoted terms used by journalists and government officials, including “religion building,” the need for an “Islamic reformation,” and the goal of the “war on terrorism” being “Islam’s modernization.”

“What America is seeking is actually to change Islam, to make Islam suitable and non-threatening to Western hegemony over the entire world. So, the war is not just against brutal dictators; the war, at the root, is against Islam.

The government will not admit to that, but I see signs,” Minister Farrakhan said. “In the neo-conservative idea, America must reshape the world in America’s image or be shaped in the image of the world.”

Now, that same mindset has seeped into domestic politics.

“Domestic anti-Muslim narratives draw heavily from foreign policy frameworks that portrayed Muslim majority regions as threats. These narratives are imported into domestic politics,” Ms. Mohammad said.

Mr. Saylor illustrated how anti-Muslim sentiments are often tied to U.S. politics and have become campaign issues in the past. He said CAIR (The Council on American-Islamic Relations) saw a spike in Islamophobia cases in late 2023, following Israel’s renewed hostilities toward Palestinians.

“42% of our incoming cases that we got in 2023 came in the last three months of the year, 2024 stayed significantly elevated the entire year and 2025 is the highest year on record since we’ve been tracking it since 1996,” he said.

“There’s no doubt that events overseas, in terms of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, definitely played a role in the spike in Islamophobia, and this movement we’re seeing today is essentially just politicians building on that.”

Student Minister Ilia Rashad Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam Research Group, authored the book, “Exposing The War Against Islam: An Analysis that Uncovers the Causes, Culprits, and Conspiracies Behind the Orchestrated Rise in Islamophobia,” in 2017.

He learned from his teacher, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, so in the book, Student Min. Ilia Rashad highlighted how, throughout history, White Europeans and Americans have seen Islam as a threat.

“The Islamophobic sentiments that we see and hear being expressed by powerful government officials are nothing new, because the White Western world was established hoping that Islam would never get a stronghold in the West because of the effect that Islam has historically had on the darker nations,” he said to The Final Call.

“Islam militarized and disciplined the Black African, making it difficult for Europeans to subvert those Africans where Islam was present, because Islam requires that anybody fight back to protect the life that has been given to us. So, in a nutshell, Islam, its principles, its values, are a direct threat to White supremacy.”

He classified the rise in “Islamophobic propaganda” as part of the campaign for the U.S. government to forward war efforts. But, he said, “Those lies aren’t working like they used to, because people can now see that America and Israel have been the real culprits all along.”

The beauty of Islam

Islam has been the fastest-growing religion in the world since 2010. Pew Research documented that the Muslim population in North America grew more rapidly from 2010 to 2020 than the non-Muslim population.

Islam promotes a healthier lifestyle among its followers, with dietary restrictions and guidance against activities that contribute to negative health outcomes, such as smoking and drinking.

In particular, the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and the continued guidance from His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, have cleaned up and resurrected Black people in America from self-destructive lifestyles.

Student Min. Ilia Rashad Muhammad argued that the resurrection power contained in Islam poses yet another type of threat to the U.S. government.

“Our resurrection is deemed by them as insurrection, because they lose money; they lose power when we get off of their drugs, their tobacco, their prostitution, their pornography, their pedophilia, which is what their world is based on,” he said.

“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Farrakhan and their Teaching of resurrecting and cleaning up our people and all those who listen is a direct threat to U.S. government objectives.”

In Part 14 of “The Time and What Must be Done,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan warned those who seek to destroy Islam.

“You can’t kill or destroy Islam, because Islam is the Nature of God, and it is the nature in which He has created this universe,” he said.

The post Pushing back against the latest U.S. anti-Muslim propaganda   appeared first on Final Call News.

“The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan teaches us that the Messiah’s love for God must be so magnificent and so profound that he completely subordinates himself to the Will of God until he becomes one with God. As women of God, we strive to walk in the footsteps of the Messiah, whose deep love is reflected through his sacrifice, service, and care for others,” she said in a statement to The Final Call. “We desire for our actions to mirror the spirit of the Messiah in service to our people. Therefore, we are deeply grateful to be honored for our service, as it serves as the encouragement and motivation needed to continue going into the highways and byways, following the divine example set by Jesus.”

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Ten years later, on May 8, 1942, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad was arrested in Washington, D.C., on false charges of draft evasion.  Later in September 1942, law enforcement raided the Temple in Chicago and the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s home.

“The Teachings that Master Fard Muhammad had left with him were taken from the home and The Temple.  Later, he was questioned by the F.B.I. on the drawing of The Wheel and his writing about it, that they had taken from The Temple,”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, said in Part 52 of his 58-week lecture series, “The Time and What Must be Done.”

Eighty-four years later to the very date, on May 8 of this year, the U.S. government released 162 files on what it calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP), popularly known as “unidentified flying objects” (UFOs).

Though government officials have praised the release as a moment of transparency, the U.S. government still refuses to declassify the truth about the wheels and what it learned from the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s documents.

Four files have been removed from the government’s online database since the release. The remaining 158 files contain documents, images and videos from the Department of State, the Department of Defense/Department of War, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.).

Files from the State Department include memorandums and diplomatic cables from several countries overseas; from the Defense Department, memorandums, correspondence, intelligence and mission reports, military “UAP” encounters and infrared/full motion videos from 1945 to January 1, 2026;

From the F.B.I., case files with investigative records, eyewitness testimonies and public records concerning “UAP” documented between 1947 and 1968, along with images from recent years; and from N.A.S.A., images and reports from astronauts on unexplained lights, dots and objects from the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s.

Though the government described the files as “new” and “never-before-seen,” in its May 8 news release, “UFOlogists” have taken to social media to point out that several of the files have been in the public domain for years. They also took issue with the content of the photos and videos.

“The general public sees UFOs all the time, and the UFOs that they describe are nothing like what’s in these files. They’re large craft …, that are hovering silently over people’s houses and that are doing dramatic things like accelerating off to the horizon in a split second or making right angle turns in a split second,”

Christian Stepien, chief technology officer with the National UFO Reporting Center, said to The Final Call. “There’s enough of those reports that come in over and over and over again that it’s almost impossible to believe that all these people are just making this stuff up or hallucinating it. So, the big question is, why is none of that in any of this government reveal?”

Student Minister Ilia Rashad Muhammad, member of the Nation of Islam Research Group and author of “UFOs And The Nation Of Islam: The Source, Proof, And Reality Of The Wheels,” was not impressed with the U.S. government’s “disclosure” efforts and called the released videos “questionable.”

“I’ve seen more convincing videos that more clearly delineate these wheels that came from ordinary people and citizens than what the government released. It’s like they just gave us anything and expect the American people to accept it as authentic,” he said. “Don’t fall for their tricks of conflating the real wheels with the enemy’s crafts and concoctions that are designed to throw you off.” 

The truth about so-called UFOs

The origin of the wheels that the American people and the world witnessed for decades was revealed, taught, and explained nearly a century ago, in the early 1930s. The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught of a “Great Wheel” or “Mother Plane” carrying 1,500 smaller planes (baby wheels or baby planes).

When He was arrested in 1942, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad explained to the U.S. government and the F.B.I. the aim and purpose of The Wheel, Who made it and why it is above America.

In Part 52 of “The Time and What Must be Done,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan recounted the words of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad described The Wheel as “a masterpiece of mechanics and engineering” and said it is “the greatest military weapon ever developed in the annals of the history of Allah (God) and man in this universe.”

He shared information about the making of The Wheel, stating that it was made on the island of Nippon (Japan) by some of the finest brains of The Original People and that it sits above the U.S., 40 miles out of the Earth’s atmosphere in space.

“He said that the Vision of this Wheel was seen thousands of years before it came into being or became a reality.  He said that this weapon was made for the purpose of destroying this present world in The Final Battle with the forces of evil that had ruled our present world,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said.

“The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that this Great Wheel was made for military purposes, for it was to engage in The Great ‘Battle in the Sky’ that would end this world and usher in that world that the prophets exclaimed would come at the end of the 6,000-year rule of the enemy of Allah (God) and the enemy of the Aboriginal People of the Earth.”

That 6,000-year ruler is the Caucasian White man whose time of rulership is now up.  In an article titled, “Ezekiel’s Wheel: Mother Plane—Battle In The Sky,” published in Muhammad Speaks newspaper on May 25, 1973, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote how the Caucasian has conquered both land and sea travel and is now casting his eyes into space.

He asked a series of questions inquiring about their motive: “What is their plan for wanting to land on the moon since they know they cannot make the moon their home? … Why are they spending billions of dollars just to go and look at these planets or try to land people on the moon?

What are their plans for Mars and Venus since they cannot live on these planets? Do they think these planets serve as great fortifications of God and they could cast their bombs on these planets and destroy them? … Do they think that they could fight God from the moon?”

In another article, dated June 8, 1973, titled “Ezekiel’s Wheel: The Battle in the Sky,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad shared how the “Black Scientists knew at the time they built the Mother Ship that the Mother Ship and its well-trained crew would have to fight with her (America) and the other Nations of the earth.”

“The well-trained crew of the Mother Ship, the Wheel, can dodge the enemy and make the enemy look for the Wheel where the Wheel is not.  As the word goes, the crew of the Wheel can elude the enemy anywhere in the sky that this crew desires to elude them,” He wrote.

This is the true reality of so-called “UFOs” or “UAPs” that the U.S. government has refused to share with the public.

The year 1945 is the earliest incident date marked in the government’s database contained with the newly released files. A few additional files are marked with the years 1947 and 1948. Noticeably missing is the year 1942.

Nation of Islam Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad, member of the Nation’s Shura Executive Council and N.O.I. Research Group, said the years 1945-1947 are the floor for the U.S. government, with 1942 lying in the basement.

“They don’t want to deal with 1942. Most ufology presents the ‘grandfather’ event as Roswell, July 4, 1947. But Roswell was not the ‘grandfather’ event of ufology. The so-called Battle of Los Angeles of February 1942 has a much greater claim,”

Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad said to The Final Call, referencing the U.S. military’s encounter with The Mother Wheel and baby planes off the coast of Los Angeles on February 24-25, 1942. During the event, the military fired more than 1,400 anti-aircraft shells at the flying crafts.

“The Wheel floated unbothered up the coast and back down the coast. This was the predicate for the arrest of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in May 1942,” in Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad’s view.

“This is the event that the current disclosure effort won’t touch.  So, it will stop at ‘47.  It’ll hover around ‘45, but ‘45 I’m suspecting is the floor they won’t go under,” Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad said.

Student Min. Ilia Rashad Muhammad accused the government of failing to publicly acknowledge what’s in their files about the interrogation of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad about the wheels.

Both he and Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad classified the government’s disclosure effort as a “limited hangout,” an intelligence operation where the government discloses a secret of minimal significance to hide a more important secret or to steer the public away from a greater truth. 

The secret of secondary importance is the advanced technology the wheels possess, display and demonstrate, which government officials and military personnel have testified to in congressional hearings and Pentagon reports describing a “mothership” that releases

“small probes” and flying crafts that can maneuver in any direction and accelerate at extreme speeds. But the secondary secret is drawing attention away from who first taught and revealed the origin and reality of the wheels, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam.

“Government disclosure is truth serving deception,” Student Min. Dr. Wesley Muhammad stated.  “The government is willing to acknowledge some truth about the craft, the technology. 

What they are dead set against leaking, disclosing or even allowing the public to come anywhere close to a knowledge of is the reality of the of the pilots of the wheels.”

The government says this is just the first file drop and has communicated its plans to release more files on a rolling basis.  But Student Min. Ilia Rashad Muhammad questioned the credibility of the U.S. government as long as the true authority on the “UFO” topic is ignored.

“Any person objectively seeking true UFO disclosure should consult the source of this phenomenon. That source will lead you to the Nation of Islam,” he said.

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That 10-year-old boy was the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam.

“It was a terrible sight to behold, a man who had never been before a court of justice, his body dangling from a tree limb. There was no friend for him there; no attempt to determine his innocence or guilt. He was judged by murderers and shot to death in the midst of his own people,” the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad said in an article published in Muhammad Speaks newspaper. “My friends, these things have been going on for many years.”

Despite 1981 being marked as one of the last recorded lynchings, modern lynchings are still happening today, according to a report released earlier this year by JULIAN, a civil and human rights organization founded by civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson.

The 222-page report, titled “A Crimson Record,” authored by Ms. Jefferson, analyzes modern-day lynchings, hate crimes resulting in death, and suspicious deaths in seven Southern states—Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee, and Alabama—from 2000 to 2025. 

JULIAN documented 75 modern-day lynchings and 83 hate crimes or suspicious deaths across the seven states in a 25-year time span.

The report’s premise argues that modern-day lynchings are not “historical echoes,” but are, instead, evolved and adapted forms of racial violence. JULIAN defined a “modern-day lynching” as “a discriminatory killing in the late 20th or early 21st century, under the pretext of administering justice, committed by more than one person for an alleged offense with or without a legal trial.”

Others link the concept of modern-day lynchings to the racial terror Black people continue to experience in the U.S. After the slew of killings in 2020, including the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, United Nations experts condemned “modern-day racial terror lynchings,” which they described as involving “impunity, particular disregard or depravity toward human life and the use of public spaces to assert racial control.”

In the 1800s and 1900s, a lynching might have consisted of a mob of White men hanging a Black person from a tree. Lynchings were often public, neighborhood spectacles, with families and children attending. Black people were not only hanged from trees; they were tortured, mutilated, decapitated, and sometimes burned alive.

The report released in February notes that “historically, describing a lynching as a ‘suicide’ was both a cover-up and a cruel joke—a way for White authorities and communities to deny culpability in racial killings while mocking the victims and their families.”

“From the late 19th through the mid-20th century, local law enforcement, coroners and newspapers in the South often recorded lynchings as suicides or accidents. When Black men were found hanging from trees, bridges or jail rafters, the ‘official’ verdict was frequently: ‘Death by suicide,’ ‘No foul play suspected,’ or ‘Accidental death by hanging,’” the report added.

Today, a modern-day lynching might occur in jail or prison or during a police encounter. JULIAN found that 23 cases involved police officers or correctional guards, and 12 took place in carceral (restricted) settings. Most of the cases examined were classified as suicides, homicides without a proven discriminatory motive or conventional hate crimes, according to the report. 

Yet, JULIAN found that many of the cases included premature conclusions, lack of psychological autopsies, compromised crime scenes, shoddy investigations and evasive reporting. 

Mississippi
The report documented 20 modern-day lynchings and seven hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Mississippi. Mississippi had the highest number of modern-day lynchings out of all seven states, and JULIAN found that cases have been increasing since 2021.

The report goes into the “disturbing pattern” found in Rankin County, Miss., in particular, a county known for its racism, brutality, and sundown towns. “Black men would often go missing around the same date and place every couple of years,” the report alleges.

Texas
The report documented 13 modern-day lynchings and 22 hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Texas. It noted that Texas has seen a sharp rise since 2019, with a high concentration of migrant deaths and disappearances.

Georgia
The report documented 14 modern-day lynchings and 11 hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Georgia. JULIAN found a consistent pattern of racially charged deaths in the state, with more than one-third occurring in custodial settings, jails, prisons or during police encounters and several clustered in rural counties.

Louisiana
The report documented 11 modern-day lynchings and 14 hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Louisiana. The state saw a surge after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and renewed activity after 2020. 

Florida
The report documented 11 modern-day lynchings and 20 hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Florida. The state’s “stand your ground” law played a role in several of the cases. 

Tennessee and Alabama
The report documented five modern-day lynchings and four hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Tennessee and one modern-day lynching and five hate crimes or suspicious deaths in Alabama.

JULIAN faced difficulty in documenting cases from Tennessee and Alabama. 

In Alabama, the organization found that autopsy reports, investigative records and police body camera footage were not automatically public, and local newspapers often relied on police press releases. 

In Tennessee, the organization was challenged with misclassified cases and transparency issues, including delays in autopsy releases, incomplete incident reports and limited updates.

The story of Don’Tavia Bryant
Don’Tavia Bryant, a 31-year-old Black man, had just parked his car at a casino in Bossier City, Louisiana, on February 26, 2023, when police officers approached him. Mr. Bryant, who was standing outside of his vehicle, suddenly ran from the officers. Officers chased him to a nearby river, and he was never seen again.

Mr. Bryant was on his way to meet friends at the casino when someone called the police on a suspicious White man with a gun. His mother, Shereba Bryant, told The Final Call that the last time anyone had heard from him was when he texted his friends to ask where they were parked and said he was “pulling up.”

Video footage captures officers with the Bossier City Police Department chasing Mr. Bryant. There is also an audio recording of the man who called 911, speaking to police. “He’s a White guy. This is a Black guy they were chasing,” the 911 caller said. 

Ms. Bryant filed a missing person’s report after days of her son being missing.

“That’s when the police said they had an encounter with him and that because he had a warrant, they said that he didn’t want to be found,” she said. “They said that a missing person has the right to go missing or to not be found, and I disagree with that.”

Mr. Bryant was living in Texas before he disappeared. His mother said subpoenas were filed for police body and car camera footage. She also claimed the Bossier City Police Department turned the case over to the U.S. Marshals in 2025, but she alleged that all evidence pertaining to her son’s case was destroyed before the case was turned over. When asked if she considers her son’s case an example of a modern-day lynching, she said, “Yes.”

“It goes through my mind every day. During the time that all this took place, what happened? What was he thinking? How was he feeling? What was going through your mind when the police were after you?” she questioned. “You just wonder what happened.”

Mr. Bryant’s case is one of the examples listed in the report. The report included other cases of people who went missing under strange circumstances. 

It also included high-profile cases and cases that received national media attention. The Final Call reported on some of the cases brought up in the report, including the cases of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old Black woman who was found hanging in her jail cell in Waller County, Texas, in 2015; Quawan “Bobby” Charles, a 15-year-old Black boy who was found dead in a sugarcane field in Iberia Parish, La., days after being reported missing, in 2020; Rasheem Carter, a 25-year-old Black man from Mississippi whose dismembered body parts were found after he went missing in 2022; Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man fatally beaten by five Black police officers in Memphis, Tenn., in 2023; Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man killed by three White men in a neighborhood near Brunswick, Ga., in 2020; Qaadir and Naazir Lewis, 19-year-old twins found dead at the top of a Georgia mountain in 2025; Kendrick Johnson, a Black teen who was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat in Valdosta, Ga., in 2013 and Jordan Davis, a Black teen killed after listening to loud music at a gas station in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2012.

‘Justifiable Homicide’
JULIAN’s report takes inspiration from Ida B. Wells, an investigative journalist and anti-lynching activist who documented lynchings in the U.S. and compiled the data, along with individual case studies, in a pamphlet titled “A Red Record: Tabulated Statistics and Alleged Causes of Lynching in the United States, 1892–1893–1894.”

In a message titled “Justifiable Homicide: Black Youth in Peril,” delivered on Oct. 28, 2007, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, explained how White people began lynching former slaves after the Emancipation Proclamation as a way to stop Black people from progressing, and how the culture of lynching has evolved in modern times.

“Those freed slaves who would want to make a free step; those that would challenge their former slave master by wanting to vote, purchase land, pursue education or striving to do anything but plantation labor—these kinds of Black brothers and sisters would be dealt with harshly by the former slave-masters, and there was no deliberative body that would judge our affairs with justice,” he said. “Therefore, every killing of a Black man or woman; every lynching of a Black man or woman was excusable.”

He called lynchings a “monstrous form of public homicide” that White America began to engage in more frequently during the country’s Reconstruction period. 

“This ritualized community murder masqueraded as crime fighting, but it was actually a strategy to instill terror in the hearts and minds of the Black population,” he said. “Now, this atmosphere is beginning to spread again in America. I want to really make it clear to you today what we are going to face, what we are facing, as it will increase in the days ahead,” Minister Farrakhan warned.

Minister Farrakhan pointed out how in several of the Southern states also covered in the report—Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas and Georgia—Black people are still intimidated and gripped by fear. 

More than half of modern-day lynchings documented by JULIAN were of teenagers and people in their 20s. In his message, “Justifiable Homicide,” Minister Farrakhan spoke directly to Black youth who are the frequent victims of present-day lynch mobs.

“I want Black youth to hear this message, because police authorities are the same today as they were during slavery. In fact, this is how policing began. Police were formed to catch runaway slaves, bring them back to their masters and make examples of them to throw fear into other slaves. It’s the same today. Police authorities are trained to kill, as well as to protect. But where Black people are concerned, police legitimize their mob attacks under the name of ‘back up.’ Police back up is often no different than the lynch mobs 100 years ago,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“The killing of our people, shooting them with many bullets when one would have done the job. And then, that deliberative body which is to discuss the brutal murder of our people by looking into the facts, comes away calling it justifiable homicide.”

He ended the message asking the following questions: “Is there only sacredness and value to White life, and not Brown, Red and Black life? Is there value to a dog in this society, and yet no value on the life of a human being such that people can go to jail for mistreating a dog, and the same person who kills a Black youth can go home to dinner with his children with no feeling of having done something wrong, because in his own heart and mind, he did society a favor by killing another Black person? What do you think God has to say about this?”

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This has been the clarion call of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, for decades.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, during a time when Black men were portrayed in the media as “menaces” to society, he recognized early on that directive and call to inspire Black men to take control of their communities.

“Come on, brothers! Let’s fill the churches up with men! Let’s fill the mosques up with men! And let us never let religion and the labels divide us ever again from one another. Never again!” he said in a “Men Only” meeting delivered on April 11, 1994, in Houston, leading up to the historic Million Man March in 1995 in Washington, D.C.

Minister Farrakhan then posed the following questions: “Are you interested in making our own communities a more decent place to live? How many of you brothers would like to accept a training that would cause you to be self-disciplined; and then we, in turn, take the responsibility of disciplining our community—making it safe for our women, our children and our elderly?”

Today, Black men in Atlanta are taking on that same principle, motivated by the work of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Atlanta’s Muhammad Mosque No. 15, the Nation of Islam’s Southern Regional headquarters, hosted a Men-Only meeting on April 25, under the theme “We Must Make Our Community a Decent and Safe Place to Live.”

The meeting was a collaborative effort spearheaded by Atlanta Fruit of Islam (F.O.I.) Student Regional Captain Oliver Muhammad, Student First Officer Bro. Terrance Muhammad and a team of F.O.I. 

Brother Meeko Muhammad was part of that team. “Whenever you can conceive something in your mind and bring it into existence, that’s really the ultimate aim of life. 

And so, in that regard, the fact that we planned it, organized it, pulled it off without any glitches that we are aware of, is a tremendous win for us, and it’s only the beginning,” he said to The Final Call.

“As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has instructed us, our work is in the community with our people, and we intend to continue the effort,” he said.

During the meeting, held at Hillside International Truth Center, words were shared by Rev. Dr. Jerome Maultsby, a pastor at the church; Alfreda Stukes-Hall, founder of the Atlanta-based organizations Men of Distinction and Women of Distinction;

Muhammad Hafeez, director of community engagement with the Policing Alternatives and Diversion Initiative; Greg Clay, deputy chief of staff with the mayor’s office; Natalie Ammons, president of the Georgia chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives;

Major Antonio Clay, police commander of the city’s Zone 4, covering Southwest Atlanta; Bro. Dr. Jabril Muhammad, an assistant professor of microbiology, biochemistry and immunology at the Morehouse School of Medicine and Bro. Patrick Muhammad of Your Faith Farms.

Rev. Dr. Maultsby has facilitated the men’s group for Hillside International Truth Center for years. For him, the meeting dispelled myths related to the differences in Christianity and Islam.

He has attended meetings with the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in the past, and the church itself hosted Minister Farrakhan in 1998, for the inauguration of Sister Dr. Ava Muhammad as the Nation’s Southern Regional Student Minister (may Allah be pleased).

“This men’s meeting dispelled many myths on that Saturday. It showed the brotherhood between the mosque and Hillside,” Rev. Dr. Maultsby said to The Final Call. “There was an energy in our sanctuary, bar none; it was just reverberating of positivity, of love, of respect and of awareness.”

He compared the moment to a family reunion and looks forward to the church continuing its relationship with the mosque.

“I’m reminded of the Million Man March, which I attended. We were all given a calling to not just show up there for one day, but to continue to show up. So, our goal is to continue to show up,” he said.

Bro. Jahi Muhammad, also part of the team of F.O.I., served as emcee. He believes the meeting was necessary to help curb the violence and the killings of Black youth in Atlanta. He explained to The Final Call how the F.O.I. built upon relationships they had already developed within the community to make the event happen. 

More than 400 Black men and boys attended the meeting. Program speakers emphasized the need for unity and the importance of personal transformation and collective action.

They spoke about men stepping up to take responsibility, the role of community in raising young Black men, alternative responses to criminal justice issues and the need for community partnerships.

Student Minister Abdul Malik Sayyid Muhammad, the Western Re-gional Student Minister of the Nation of Islam, who is an Atlanta native, delivered the keynote address. His message stressed the need for Black unity, self-sufficiency, education and economic empowerment.

“Our communities are unsafe. They’re not decent. … We’re here now and following the dictates of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. We want to work to do our part, and we want to work in collaboration with others of good intentions and noble intentions,” Bro. Meeko Muhammad said.

Morehouse School of Medicine conducted free screenings for prostate cancer, testing 145 Black men, its largest screening in history. A resource center was also available for attendees, providing an opportunity to engage in dialogue with program speakers and others who offer services. 

“What I hope they took away from that is the dire need to change, and it starts with the family,” Bro. Amin Muhammad, who was part of the F.O.I. organizing team, said to The Final Call.

“The Minister (Farrakhan) said self-improvement is the basis of community development, so making your community a decent and safe place to live begins with self-improvement.”

The team of brothers all agreed that their efforts to make their communities decent and safe places to live would continue and Insha’Allah (God-Willing) would expand throughout metro-Atlanta and to other cities across the Southern Region of the Nation of Islam, which includes all of Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and parts of Tennessee.

“The inspiration for all that we do of good is the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and following his example, not only the mantra/theme ‘making our communities a decent and safe place to live,’

But also a very powerful message that the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan delivered on July 9, 2012, entitled, ‘Help Our people See the Value of Making a Change,’” Bro. Meeko Muhammad said.

“That’s where he organized the F.O.I. to go out into the community, and we’ve been carrying that into practice since that date. And as long as Allah (God) will give us breath and strength, we intend to continue to do so.”

The post Atlanta’s ‘men-only’ meeting aims to make the Black community a decent and safe place to live appeared first on Final Call News.

South Carolina statehouse Republicans are pushing to defund the state’s only public four-year HBCU (Historically Black College and University) after the school rescinded a commencement speaker invitation to S.C. Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette.

Just 10 days before the ceremony, students organized peaceful protests, voicing to school officials they did not want the lieutenant governor to speak at their commencement due to her opposition against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

Her defense of an AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, her push to open immigration detention facilities and her views in favor of eliminating a predominantly Black voting district in South Carolina.

“Students at South Carolina State didn’t want Ms. Pamela Everett speaking because her morals do not align with the principles of any of the classes in the student body here at State,” Kameron Sutton, a 20-year-old civil engineering major, said to The Final Call.

He is part of the university’s campus activity board and serves as junior class president. He helped organize the protest and ensured it remained peaceful and that the students stood by their principles and morals.

“This isn’t about politics. This is about representation,” Zaria Tucker, president of the university’s Student Government Association for the year 2025-2026, said in a Facebook post articulating student views. 

“Commencement is one of the most important moments of our collegiate experience; it should reflect the voices, values, and lived experiences of the students it celebrates.

Right now, many students are speaking out, not to divide, but to be heard,” she added. “At an HBCU, our legacy is rooted in advocacy, equity, and the power of our voices. When decisions are made without us in moments that belong to us, it matters.”

Ms. Tucker and Yolanda Williams, president of the S.C. State National Alumni Association, were selected as the new commencement speakers.

Along with the campus protests, students put together a Change.org petition requesting a new commencement speaker. The petition now has more than 24,000 signatures.

In a statement, university president Alexander Conyers said the decision to invite Lt. Gov. Evette was rooted in her record as a business leader and entrepreneur. He cited safety concerns as the reason for the cancellation. 

Lt. Gov. Evette, who is running for South Carolina’s governor, has made several social media posts about the university’s decision.

“Just like President @realDonaldTrump, I pull no punches. So here’s the truth: the protests and pressure to cancel me was solely about my political viewpoints. If colleges can’t defend free speech, then we can’t continue to fund them. Full stop.

Merit over DEI,” she posted on X on May 1. In a video following the decision, she described the student protests as “woke mobs coming after” her.

“I was taken by shock when I saw that there was any backlash from us using our First Amendment right,” Mr. Sutton said. “… you would think that our First Amendment right would be protected above all else,” he added.

Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who was arrested as a student protester and activist during the Civil Rights Movement, attended the May 8 commencement ceremony with surviving classmates from the university’s 1961 class. They celebrated their 65th graduation anniversary. He also issued a statement in defense of the student protesters. 

“(I)n 1960, March 15, my classmates and I joined more than a thousand other students from State and Claflin and marched on the square in Orangeburg, to challenge segregated lunch counters. Nearly 400 of us were arrested on that day,” he wrote. 

“I was very disappointed when our Lt. Governor referred to those students as a woke mob. Now I must admit, I don’t know what woke means. But I know what mob means. I know what a mob is,” he added. “And students peacefully protesting is not a mob mentality.” 

Nine Republican state legislators signed a letter calling the university’s decision “shameful” and “inexcusable.” They emphasized that the school is state-funded and supported by taxpayers’ dollars and requested that no funding be included for the school in the state’s upcoming budget.

Despite the emphasis on the school’s status as a state-funded institution, South Carolina State University receives only a fraction of what the federal government says it should receive. 

In the Fiscal Year 2025-26 State Budget, the HBCU received a little over $34 million, according to a local ABC News affiliate. Meanwhile, Clemson University and the University of South Carolina, two public, predominantly White institutions, received more than $219 million and $325 million, respectively. The ABC News affiliate noted that in 2023, “the federal government told the state that the school is owed almost $500 million.”

Graduating students at Morehouse School of Medicine, an HBCU in Atlanta, are also challenging their school’s commencement speaker. Congressman Dr. Rick McCormick (R-Ga.), a graduate of the school, is slated for the May 16 ceremony. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, current students say his views and votes do not align with the school’s mission.

Despite the backlash, students at S.C. State are willing to continue to fight.

“The climate on campus has been amazing. People have been very happy for the win that we’ve been able to have, but we also understand that the battle is just beginning and we are ready to continue moving forward,” Mr. Sutton said.

The post South Carolina HBCU faces backlash after rescinding commencement speaker invitation appeared first on Final Call News.

From people in the boardrooms to brothers and sisters in the streets, from the rappers, activists and athletes, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, is one such man who has impacted the world.

Turning 93 on May 11, he has, through his immeasurable love, reached the hearts of Black youth far and wide, calling young Black people to embrace a destiny of fulfillment. And when God calls, the youth answer.

“Unalike attracts and like repels. The Minister is so unalike. He’s so unalike this world, and he’s like a torchlight. He’s the light of the world,” Brother Aidan X from Mosque No. 75 in Las Vegas, Nevada, said to The Final Call. “When you see Minister Farrakhan, you don’t see a man who is in his 90s, but you see a man who’s so full of light, so full of energy and so full of life that his age doesn’t really strike your mind. And when you do recall his age, you’re like, ‘wow!’”

On May 11, 1933, in the Bronx, New York, Mother Sumayyah Farrakhan, then Sarah Mae Manning, gave birth to a son who would change the world. Minister Farrakhan joined the Nation of Islam at age 22, under his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and dedicated his entire being to the upliftment of Black and oppressed people. Since standing up to rebuild the Nation and the work of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad in 1977, he has influenced young people throughout every decade.  He has delivered soul-stirring messages to young people all over the world.

“When you go back to the 70s, he was attracting the youth then. You go back to the 80s, …  they were listening to the tapes of the Minister and he was attracting the youth then. In the 90s, he was attracting the youth. You have (hip hop group) Public Enemy, and you have all of these groups who were attracted to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. In the 2000s, in the 2010s and even now, he still attracts the youth,” Bro. Aidan said.

He was a sophomore in high school when he first heard the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Now, at 23 years old, he is a student assistant minister at Mosque No. 75 and a husband with two children.

“I was suicidal before the Teachings. I even planned to commit suicide. And I remember I was in tears,” he said. “I was raised in an atheist household. I was in tears, and I said, ‘God, if You’re real, please reveal Yourself to me, and please help me.’ And not so long after, I came across the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and I came across the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.”

The light from Minister Farrakhan’s words is the reason Bro. Aidan says he is alive today. “I felt like I was in such a dark place that nothing could get me out of this dark place, but I came across a word that was like light from the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan,” he said. “Those words literally saved my life. And when he was teaching about our origin and teaching us the knowledge, he was teaching the knowledge of self, and I was learning about myself and a knowledge of God, it just gave me so much hope and it gave me so much life and it gave me energy to the point where I was getting up and now I had purpose in my life. The way I used to walk with my head down and have such a dark spirit around me, now I was starting to get more upright and starting to clean myself up.”

He described Minister Farrakhan’s lectures as ageless. Today, he posts short clips of the Minister to social media, sometimes garnering more than one million views. “He’s an online and a viral sensation, and it’s just because of his light and his knowledge and his wisdom and his love,” he said. “What attracts me and attracts the youth is his love. You can feel his love, his sincere love; his life itself is attractive to the youth because he lives a life that’s so genuine and he’s such a beautiful example to us all that no matter what your age is, you have to bear witness that, ‘Oh, he’s different,’ and it’s really because he’s anointed with the Spirit of God.”

Sis. AnNura Muhammad, 26, from Mosque No. 2 in Chicago, is a member of the Nation of Islam today because of Minister Farrakhan’s work in the 90s. Her father was one of nearly two million men who answered Minister Farrakhan’s call to gather on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 16, 1995, in the spirit of atonement, reconciliation and responsibility. Her father joined the Nation in 1999, one month before Sis. AnNura was born.

“He (Minister Farrakhan) is a literal walking, talking representative of God, and he just shows me that if he can do it, I can do it, too,” Sis. AnNura said to The Final Call. “He is an example of what it looks like to be obedient, what it looks like to be a soldier, what it looks like to be resilient.”

When she hears the voice of Minister Farrakhan, she feels a moment of peace and contentment. “I know I’m listening to someone who is telling the truth. I am listening to someone who has conviction. And there’s just something about truth that I resonate with heavily, and there’s something about the spirit of God in people that I’m able to hold on to and attach to,” she said. “The God essence in him is what draws me in. … He’s literally a light.”

As an avid social media user, she has noticed more people flocking to Minister Farrakhan. “I’m seeing it all the time on social media. I’m seeing it all the time in my personal life. That just goes to show that when you are with truth, when you are with God, it doesn’t matter how old you are, people are going to listen to you,” she said. “He is with God, and God is ageless.”

Bro. Jibril Yusef from Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia was not born into the Nation of Islam, but his father attended mosque meetings regularly while he was growing up. Now 24, he joined the Nation in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and later founded a nonprofit that promotes unity among Black men.

Whenever he’s going through something, he looks to Minister Farrakhan’s older lectures and messages for guidance. “Anything about my lower nature, there are certain lectures that are my personal favorites that I like to listen to and just study and study over and over again,” he said. “It just feels like a medicine cabinet for whatever I’m going through.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has always seen the potential in young people and has encouraged them to realize their God-given gifts and talents. For Bro. Jibril, young people are attracted to Minister Farrakhan because he reminds them that they have the ability to do of good what society tells them they cannot.

“He makes it intimate by always reminding people that the change you’re looking for is right in yourself. It always starts with yourself. Make yourself a better person if you want to see the world change,” he said. “You don’t have to have a Ph.D. to care for your people and go out and try to make a change. That’s why I think young people like him so much, because he keeps it real with them, and he lets them know their potential.”

“That’s what I love about him,” he added. “He always lets you know that the sky isn’t even a limit.”

This article’s writer, Sis. Anisah Muhammad asked young people on social media about Minister Farrakhan’s impact. 

Sis. Kenetta Muhammad, from Mosque No. 15 in Atlanta, said Minister Farrakhan’s words about the value of women changed her life. She said she is attracted to the Minister’s “unwavering faith that everything happens only by the permission of Allah.”

Bro. Nazeeh Muhammad, 22, from Mosque 15, was born in the Nation. He expressed that he would never have been born if the Minister had not brought the Nation back, as his parents met in the mosque. What attracts him to the Minister? “His ability to be firm while also showing grace and patience,” he said.

When Minister Farrakhan was banned from Facebook and Instagram in 2019, the hashtag #WeAreFarrakhan circulated across social media. Now, it is less a hashtag and more a mindset that young people are embracing. “‘We are Farrakhan.’ I really love that quote,” Bro. Jibril said.

“The Minister is a human like myself. He still had to do everything I had to do.”

Minister Farrakhan joined the Nation in 1955 and rose through the ranks of the F.O.I. “He still had to go to F.O.I. (Fruit of Islam) Class.

“He had to study. He had to make his word bond. And just knowing that each and every one of us has the ability to get on to this level of overcoming the lower nature within yourself to become a force of power,” he said. “The more I see his growth and his age and his health and his aura that he has, and just knowing that we all have the ability to get that if we just force ourselves to obey God and submit to His will. That’s one of the main things that pushes me, and the more I do that, the more I feel like I’ve grown to have a more intimate relationship with Allah (God).”

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Under such schooling system we believe we will make a better nation of people. The United States government should provide, free, all necessary text books and equipment, schools and college buildings. The Muslim teachers shall be left free to teach and train their people in the way of righteousness, decency and self-respect.”

The above are the words of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam. The words are from Point No. 9 of “What The Muslims Want” in The Muslim Program, published on the inside back page of The Final Call.

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his wife, Mother Clara Muhammad, were early pioneers of independent education. He established Muhammad University of Islam (M.U.I.) in Detroit in the early 1930s and instructed his followers to take their children out of the public school system.

His National Representative, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, has continued to warn Black people about how the public school system harms Black children.

“Elijah Muhammad taught us if a man won’t treat you right, what would make you think that man would teach you right?” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said in his Holy Day of Atonement 2018 address.

Not only are Black children being taught incorrectly, but too often, through school discipline policies, they are disproportionately pushed out of the classroom itself and into the jailhouse, in what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

Recent studies and reports from 2025 and early 2026 reinforce decades of earlier research on the evidence of bias in school discipline, early childhood disparities and the link between school discipline and incarceration. And like years prior, Black children are disproportionately impacted.

In early 2025, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released data for the 2021-2022 school year. Black students accounted for 15% of total K-12 student enrollment but represented 36% of students confined in justice facilities.

19% of students secluded, 26% of students physically restrained, 40% of students mechanically restrained, 28% of students who were referred to law enforcement and 33% of students subjected to school-related arrests.

A February 2026 study published in the journal Science Advances found that as more Black people move to suburban and majority-White neighborhoods, racial gaps in school discipline often widen, suggesting that, along with school policies, racial dynamics also play a role in Black students receiving more discipline and harsher discipline in schools.

“The data and statistics are getting worse, and you don’t even have to go by data and statistics. Just go to a school, talk to the teachers, talk to the administrators, and you can see that it’s not that the school systems are falling. They have already fallen,” M.U.I. Student Interim Director Talib ul Hikmah Karriem said to The Final Call. 

He traced parallel’s of school discipline disparities that impact Black boys back to Pharaoh’s plan in the book of Exodus in the Bible: “Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it come to pass, when there befalleth any war, that they join also unto our enemies and fight against us … .

And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives … ‘if it be a son then ye shall kill him; but if it be a daughter then she shall live.’ …

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.’” Today, Black boys are frequently overly punished in schools in terms of suspensions and expulsions.

Janel George, associate professor of law at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., explained how school discipline disparities impact Black children.

She specializes in education law and has conducted extensive research on school resource equity, segregation and discriminatory school discipline policies. Such policies impact the entire life trajectory of a student, she said to The Final Call.

“They may have decreased likelihood of graduating from high school,” she said. “Even if a suspension is an in-school suspension, the child is still being removed from the general classroom, so that still has an impact on them.

They’re still losing out on that instructional time. Their stigmatization when they return to the classroom. It’s harder to reengage, so they often deal with lower grades.”

She shared one example of a student who missed days of her advanced placement course and test preparation. Others have been more prone to early contact with the criminal legal system.

She noted that in more recent cases, the records of minors are being shared with immigration authorities or other agencies. In addition, students who are perceived to be threats are often under surveillance.

She defined “exclusionary discipline” as anything that takes a child out of the general classroom, whether it’s an in-school suspension, long-term suspension, expulsion or involuntary transfer to another school.

Origin of the pipeline

School discipline disparities have existed for decades. A March 2025 study published in the Sociology of Education journal explicitly names “anti-Blackness in school discipline.”

Ms. George marked these disparities as emerging during the height of school integration, often exercised in response to student protests against mistreatment.

“The research shows that there is an inherent bias, in particular to young Black boys, as it relates to what is considered behavior issues or problems in school. There’s been a concerted effort to … label them as behavioral disorders.

There’s been an effort to medicate young Black boys,” Mr. Karriem said. “At the root of all of this is the idea and plan found in the scriptures as it relates to the destruction of boys by Pharaoh.”

He added that, in the modern sense, that plan looks like the 13th Amendment that still allows for slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for conviction of a crime. 

“Every law that was produced after the Emancipation Proclamation, they tried to find ways through the legal system to get, in particular, Black men and Black boys back into prison. So now here we are using the education system,” he said.

“They’re seeking ways to destroy the capacity of young people to be enlightened and to grow and develop as a reflection of God and as a productive human being.”

Sharif El-Mekki, founder and CEO of the Center for Black Educator Development, highlighted the need for safe learning spaces for Black children.

“When we talk about safety, we’re talking about cultural, intellectual, spiritual, emotional safety,” he said to The Final Call. “We can’t think for one second that being Black in America and being Black in American schools are vastly different. … It parallels the overall system.”

Role of the Black educator

Research shows that disciplinary measures against Black children decrease when they are educated by their own people. Black educators find this to be true.

“There’s something to shared experiences. Having a teacher that has a shared ancestral background, shared context of life experiences. … Understanding why we behave the way we behave,” Mr. Karriem said. “And it doesn’t mean that we just accept behavior that is destructive to the class.

No, but there are ways that you can handle it, speak to it, and again, that understanding allows for a teacher to work with a student much longer than one who is imposing their own personal values that a student or child in a particular community may have never been exposed to.”

Mr. El-Mekki agreed that Black children thrive more under Black educators and are less likely to be suspended, expelled or referred for discipline.

“They’re not even being referred for discipline because there’s a better understanding of who the children are, seeing ourselves in them, realizing a Black framework for teaching,” he said. 

He operates with the mindset of, “I’m training my replacement.”

“That means you can be that warm demander, or that understanding of culture, that supportive system that’s saying, ‘I see myself in you,’” he said.

“If I’m developing a student who I believe is my replacement in society, and I want them to be even better, stronger, faster, smarter than I have been on my journey, then that investment looks very different than if I’m just here to teach content to a bunch of kids that I also have low expectations for.”

Black teachers and educators have higher expectations for Black children and higher morale in their work, which speaks to a stronger sense of purpose, Mr. El-Mekki added.

“As a Black teacher, I knew some of the traps and tricks that I faced, and I was able to share that. I was able to share lived experiences of being Black in America, being Black in American schools, being able to share content that was Black authors, Black history, all these things that are constantly under duress when people don’t want to teach truth,” he said.

Transforming school discipline

Mr. El-Mekki was raised in a Black school that enacted a shared value system of collective work, responsibility and accountability over traditional school discipline.

“I should have the freedom from disruptions. I should have the freedom from poor teaching. I should have the freedom from being distracted in a classroom.

And so, they raised us to view the classroom as a sacred space and having high expectations about how we performed, how we interacted, how we engaged,” he said.

“It was about building a community and being responsible to the community and the community being responsible to us. I think that is the balance that we need to strike as we lead classrooms, schools and districts.”

Mr. Karriem underscored the importance of including Allah (God) as the Headmaster of the school. “You can’t hope for a better situation, righteousness, a level of decency, a level of respect between student and teacher and teacher and student;

You’re not getting that without God. When we remove God from the scene, then what do you think will come in the place of that vacuum?

Just the opposite, and that is exactly what we see playing out,” he said. “We have to set up our own independent schools under new righteous teachers and conduct that will respect the will and way of Allah (God).”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan explained that true and proper education starts with the knowledge of Allah (God). In his 1993, book, “A Torchlight for America,” in chapter 4, “Fixing the Public School System,”

Minister Farrakhan writes in part, “Recognition of God is the proper beginning point for understanding every discipline. If we cannot honor God, the Supreme Teacher, then how can the children honor their teachers?

We have this thing all backwards. You don’t pledge your allegiance to a flag, which is merely the symbol of a nation. You pledge allegiance to God, and you work for your flag and country,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“A while ago I coined the phrase, ‘he who gives the diameter of your knowledge prescribes the circumference of your activity.’ If you gain a limited knowledge, then you restrict the possibilities of what you can and will achieve.

The capacity of man’s brain is infinite. Therefore, the greater one’s knowledge grows, the greater becomes one’s sphere of activity until it encompasses and reflects mastery of self and mastery of the universe,” he continued.

“The knowledge of God is infinite. I would argue that leaving God out of our schools limits our education and confines the scope of what we are equipped to do and achieve,” Minister Farrakhan added.

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