Kezban Özer is a mother who lost five children to the devastating earthquake that shook Turkey in 1983. Mustafa Bozdemir won the World Press Photo of the Year, in 1984, for capturing her heartache. Earlier this month, Ilia Rashad Muhammad exploited Özer’s pain in a despicable way, by using Bozdemir’s photo for one of many lies (see the 1:40 mark in the video below) among the hodgepodge of anti-Jewish delusion put together by the Louis Farrakhan admirer in a 4 ½ minute video. Rashad Muhammad praises a statement, which he admits was falsely attributed to Adolph Hitler, whose Nazi party also abused Black people , as “facts that White and Jewish world powers are largely maintained by keeping Black people ignorant of our true identity of being the prophetic children of Israel.” In forwarding his anti-Jewish agenda, Muhammad condescendingly strips Black people of agency. He claims they have been “kept ignorant” by the Jews – as if incapable of maintaining their own historical record. He negates the beauty, accomplishments, culture and struggles of Black people urging them to hijack that of the Jews. Though he aims to wrest the Jewish homeland from the Jewish people by saying it belongs to his race, he doesn’t question the claim of the Palestinian Arabs who have also been trying to gain control and wrest it away from the Jews (despite the Jews extending generous land offers that the Palestinian Arab leadership never accepted). Israel is not in Africa, it’s in Asia where much of the Middle East, and their predominantly lighter complected citizens, live. With the exception of Beta Israel and the other Ethiopian Jews who are integral to Israeli society, most Black people in the Middle East (of which there are not many due to the brutal conditions Arabs subjected them to) are descendants of the millions of men and women violently captured by the Arabs (and Turks) and kept as slaves until they accepted Islam to gain freedom. The New African Magazine states, “ . . . But to the Africans shipped across the Red Sea, . . . they were still slaves of Islamic masters who had unfettered sexual access to them (if they were female) or castrated and turned into eunuchs (if they were men) . . . . So where are the descendants of the African slaves sent to Arabia/Orient? There are no large concentrations of them, anywhere in the Middle East or Asia.” It doesn't take much imagination to answer that. Rashad Muhammad would have you think that it was a Jewish plot that altered historical demographics and not the barbaric Islamic slave trade and abuse which solidified them. He, ironically, adheres to the faith that wreaked havoc on his ancestral people and continues to do so in much of Africa . Israel is the red speck in the middle of thousands of miles of land conquered by Islam ( represented in green on the map in the links). Muhammad refers to this land, smaller than the island of Sicily, as being the home of people seeking “White Jewish world domination.” This would be laughable if not for the effectiveness of ideologically indistinguishable evil doers, from David Duke to Louis Farrakhan , who In the November 23, 1975 issue of the New York Times, Rosa Parks, Count Basie and Hank Aaron were among 200 signatories to a declaration of respect and admiration for Israel, organized as the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC). benefit from convincing their followers that is the case. The Big Lie worked for Goebbels, didn't it? Farrakhan, with his steady stream of division and toxicity, is antithetical to genuinely heroic Black leaders who improved lives for all of us in the United States - by uniting citizens of different races. And, by no coincidence, these admired leaders, Martin Luther King Jr among them, also supported the tiny Jewish state. In the November 23, 1975 issue of the New York Times, Rosa Parks, Count Basie and Hank Aaron were among 200 signatories to a declaration of respect and admiration for Israel, organized as the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC). Continuing their legacy into today, the director of the Black Institute for Solidarity with Israel (IBSI), wrote an op-ed titled, “ The Palestinian Appropriation of Black Pain ” in which he says: "We as black Americans need to stop letting people with no real interest in our well-being tell us how to behave toward our Jewish cousins." Another of Muhammad’s lies has to do with the artificial shrinking of so-called "Palestinian" land. For the truth and accurate maps, check out Shany Mor’s, “ The Mendacious Maps of Palestinian ‘Loss, ’” in the Tower. And he boasts that one rabbi has tweeted that Jews are not indigenous to Israel, and acts as if that one outlier’s statement is irrefutable proof. The funny thing is, that same one and only Reform Rabbi Andy Kahn also said that Palestinians are not indigenous to Israel. But Muhammad didn’t put that into his video. Rashad Muhammad is so desperate to deprive Jews of their history and sovereignty, that he simultaneously claims that Israel belongs to Blacks and to Palestinian Arabs in the hopes that he can motivate enough hatred against Jews – his means to a more nefarious goal. He lies outright about what the Talmud says and what people say. He superimposed a totally different wording of a quote he attributes to the Israeli consul general in Atlanta, Georgia. What Judith Varnai Shorer actually said is , “The major problem with Israel is with the young generation of the Black community. Black Lives Matter starts there . . . I had last week a sit down dinner at my house for forty people which I considered the leadership of the Black community . . . Many very important people. They can be part of our doing and activities.” Muhammad distorts brainstorming for togetherness as something sinister. About halfway through, Muhammad reveals his main objective for the video, to defend the reputation of the dishonest and hateful leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, who goes beyond spreading lies against Jews, calling them termites, for example. In the article, “ The Troubling Connections between Scientology and the Nation of Islam ,” by Bethany Mandel, the Church of Scientology is described as being somewhat of a business and a cult. How does this apply to Farrakhan? Mandel quoted Aaron Smith-Levin, Vice President of The Aftermath Foundation which is “devoted to providing resources, support, and advocacy to those who leave [the Church of Scientology] so they can gain their independence and make their way in the world [after being subjected to abusive practices].” Smith-Levin explained that: “ Louis Farrakhan is entitled to personally receive a 10% commission on all money NOI members pay for Scientology auditing and a 15% commission on all money NOI members pay for Scientology courses. . . . with 40,000+ NOI members, the relationship between the NOI & the Church of Scientology, Farrakhan stands to personally earn an awful lot of cash .” Mandel concludes, “The leaders of the Nation of Islam are active members of Scientology, and they are pocketing commissions in exchange for urging NOI members to practice Scientology alongside Islam. In turn, the Nation of Islam has access to the power that Scientology wields, including its vast real-estate holdings and the infrastructure it uses to attack its defectors and opponents.” That might fall short of the global domination that Ilia Rashad Muhammad falsely accuses the Jews of undertaking, but Farrakhan, his hero, benefits monetarily by wielding more than just Antisemitism as a lucrative enterprise - at the financial , spiritual and moral expense of those who follow him. Faith Quintero is the author of Loaded Blessings , a family saga that alternates between Inquisition era Spain and modern-day Israel. It’s among the Federalist’s top books of 2019 list and a Montaigne Medal finalist for the Eric Hoffer awards. The Montaigne Medal is an additional distinction, awarded to "the most thought-provoking books."
