Women’s March leaders support anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan

Leaders of the Women’s March in the US profess to support human rights but refuse to condemn hateful speech by anti-Semitic head of Nation of Islam.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Louis Farrakhan, leader of Nation of Islam (NOI), the oldest Black nationalist organization in the U.S., spoke last Sunday at the group’s annual 2018 Saviours’ Day event at Wintrust Arena in Chicago. As usual, Farrakhan employed anti-Semitic tropes and epithets, calling Jews “satanic” and saying Jews are “the mother and father of apartheid” as well as responsible for “degenerate behavior in Hollywood turning men into women and women into men.”

In attendance was Tamika Mallory, one of the four presidents of the popular Women’s March movement, which espouses support for social justice, tolerance, human rights in general and women’s rights in particular. However, this was not the first time she has appeared at, and lauded, NOI events, and she is not the only president of the March to have done so. Two of her fellow March co-founders have praised and appeared with Farrakhan as well: Carmen Perez and Linda Sarsour.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, these prominent figures have never condemned Farrakhan’s hateful speech, declining to do so this year as well, despite the Women’s March being “committed to … building inclusive structures guided by self-determination, dignity and respect.”

‘Ironic and hypocritical beyond words’

As reported in The Jerusalem Post, Amanda Berman, head of the New York City branch of the progressive Zioness Movement, reacted with horror to the leaders’ refusal to condemn Farrakhan. “It would be absolutely unacceptable to Mallory, Perez and Sarsour if any other leader made heinous, bigoted comments like this about their respective communities,” she said, “and therefore ironic and hypocritical beyond words that they continue to align themselves with someone with such deeply held, hateful worldviews.”

CNN commentator Jake Tapper tweeted a thoughtful comment following the speech. “The difference between Farrakhan and some members of the alt-reich, whose heinous bigotry has received a lot of attention this past year: Farrakhan has a much larger following and elected officials meet with him openly.”