Federal court dismisses Nation of Islam’s massive defamation suit against two American Jewish groups.
By World Israel News Staff
A multi-billion dollar lawsuit filed by the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan, against two American Jewish groups has been dismissed by a federal judge.
On Friday, Judge Denise Cote, a Clinton-appointee for the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York, rejected the suit filed against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) on behalf of Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
The plaintiffs had sought $4.8 billion in damages, accusing the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the ADL of defamation, after the two groups repeatedly called the Nation of Islam and its leader antisemitic.
“The challenged statements referring to Farrakhan as antisemitic are non-actionable statements of opinion,” wrote Cote. “The communications in which they were published contain ‘a recitation of facts on which (they are) based’—namely direct quotes from Farrakhan.”
Farrakhan has repeatedly referenced the “satanic Jew” or “satanic Jews” in his sermons, and in a 2018 speech called Jews “termites.”
In 1984, Farrakhan called Judaism a “gutter religion,” while raising Adolf Hitler as a “very great man.”
He has frequently invoked tropes of Jewish world domination and conspiracy theories of Jewish control over the FBI, IRS, and other federal institutions, claiming global Jewry have conspired to wield “inordinate control over black politicians, black intellectuals, black organizations.”
“We are grateful that the United States judicial system recognized and validated our First Amendment right to confront and speak out against antisemitism by dismissing Louis Farrakhan’s lawsuit and not-so-veiled attempt to silence the SWC and impede our mission,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC’s Associate Dean & Global Social Action Director, said following Friday’s decision.
“Unfortunately, the judicial system cannot defeat the anti-Semitic hate that Farrakhan has spawned and spread throughout America over the last four decades. SWC will steadfastly uphold its commitment to pursue and to combat the racism and anti-Semitism that continues to target America’s Blacks and Jews.”