What is behind the Nation of Islam's anti-semitic rhetoric?

• Author: Shore, Paul

IT IS TIME to move beyond the hyped-up media portrayals of the leaders of the Nation of Islam and their periodic denials that their message often contains unmistakable elements of anti-Semitism. It also is time to stop pretending, ostrich-like, that these articulations of anti-Semitism somehow don't matter, and to get past the initial hand-wringing stage of anxiety and confusion. Anti-Semitism is being marketed by skilled demagogues to an audience that clearly is receptive--that much is beyond doubt. Now, it is necessary to analyze this phenomenon as objectively as possible, as well as its origins, impact, and significance for all Americans.

The characteristics of the message put forward by Louis Farrakhan and some of his followers are familiar to students of the historical roots of anti-Semitism. In Nation of Islam propaganda, Jews are described as secretly weaving webs of control over the media and financial community, a charge that echoes attacks made on Central European Jews for at least the last half a millennium. Farrakhan's widely cited description of Jews as "sucking [blacks'] blood" is powerfully reminiscent of Blood Libel charges against Jews that go back as far as the Middle Ages. Images of Jews as slumlords, corrupters of youth, distributors of dangerous substances to society, and debasers of public morals also are not new. Metaphors for Jewish inferiority and unworthiness seemingly drawn from Mein Kampf or Stalinist propaganda reinforce the sense that the agenda of the Nation of Islam closely parallels or at least complements Old World anti-Semitism. The report of an audience at Howard University chanting "The Jews, the Jews" in response to the rhetorical questions of Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a former Farrakhan aide, completes the strong connection to pogroms and Hitler rallies.

Such an analysis is fine as far as it goes, but it ignores some of the distinctly American features of this phenomenon that place the rhetoric of hate which is articulated in a very different light. First, the anti-Semitic diatribes of Farrakhan and others must be seen in the context of a broader trend toward anti-white rhetoric, including attacks on the Pope, South African whites (all of them, not just those who supported apartheid), Bill Clinton, and others. Seldom in the history of anti-Semitism have Jews found themselves lumped together for criticism along with people of European ancestry. Attacks on Israel constitute one instance where Jews and the Western powers have been denounced together by the PLO and other Arabs. In that case, however, the dividing line has...