The controversial leader of the African American religious group Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, said in his sermon on Sunday that white people did not know how to deal with Beyoncé talking about “black stuff.”
Beyoncé’s recent performance at the Super Bowl stirred angry reactions from members of the police, and Miami police decided to boycott the singer’s upcoming concerts. In a video, Beyoncé presented images of black unity in the face of the police.
Farrakhan attacked white people for expecting sympathy for the Holocaust, but not giving blacks their independence. “Well, you taught us everywhere we went about the Holocaust. But we have sympathy for you. But when one of us shows independence - look at how you treating Beyoncé now.”
Farrakhan offered Beyoncé protection with the security branch of his organization, ‘Fruit of Islam.’ “You’re not gonna offer her police protection, but the FOI will.
"We say to the hip-hop community - to our cultural giants - say what you feel. Put it out there! With strength!
"How you love your black self and you want to see black people free. We’ll back you up.”
Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam is considered an extremist hate group by civil rights organizations. The “anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric” from its leaders and its “bizarre theology of innate black superiority over whites” earned the group “a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate,” the Southern Poverty Law Center writes in a profile.
Since its founding in 1930, the Nation of Islam has grown into one of the wealthiest and best-known organizations in black America, offering numerous programs and events designed to uplift African Americans. It promotes a theology of innate black superiority over whites - a belief system vehemently and consistently rejected by mainstream Muslims, according to the SPLC, and the deeply racist, anti-Semitic and anti-gay rhetoric of its leaders, including top minister Louis Farrakhan, have earned the group a prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.
In 2010, Farrakhan called Jews "our worst enemies."
In February 2006, he said: "These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. … It's the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It's the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!"
