Prominent Jewish leaders are free to continue calling Louis Farrakhan – head of the black nationalist organization Nation of Islam – an anti-Semite, a New York court has ruled.
The Nation of Islam had sued the Anti-Defamation League and the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center for $4.8 billion, claiming the Jewish organizations had violated the Nation’s 1st Amendment rights. Islam by calling Farrakhan’s frequent unflattering comments about Jews “anti-Semitic.”
In recent years, Farrakhan has publicly compared Jews to termites, accused the “synagogue of Satan” of wrapping its tentacles around the U.S. government, and argued that “pedophilia and sexual perversion” in Hollywood can be traced to “the Jewish influence.
In dismissing the case, Judge Denise Cote of Manhattan Federal Court found that the allegations of anti-Semitism were based on direct quotes from Farrakhan and that there was no evidence that being characterized as anti-Semitism had harmed the Nation of Islam.
“We are grateful that the American justice system has recognized and validated our First Amendment right to confront and denounce anti-Semitism,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center said in a statement Monday. He called the trial a “not-so-veiled attempt to silence” Jewish voices.
In a video speech posted on the Nation of Islam website in the fall, Farrakhan claimed that everything he said about Jews “is absolutely the truth” and that the “vile” allegations of anti-Semitism had cost him and other members of his organization jobs in the country. media and other business opportunities.
“And thanks to their influence over the media,” Farrakhan added, “these false accusations have spread across the Earth.”
California Daily Newspapers
