From The Final Call Newspaper

Brown v. Board of Education, 70 years later

By Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer
- April 29, 2024





In 1940 the cost of a stamp was three cents, the first Social Security checks were paid, the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, and psychologists Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark conducted a “doll study” with disturbing results. Their study, with children ages three to seven, used four dolls, identical except for color, to test children’s racial perceptions.

The majority of children expressed a preference for the White doll and attributed positive traits to it. The Clarks, a husband and wife team, concluded that “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation” created a sense of inferiority among Black children, which negatively impacted their self-esteem.

Fast forward 14 years later and Dr. Kenneth Clark was called to testify in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court argued by Attorney Thurgood Marshall, who led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The Supreme Court cited Dr. Clark’s 1950 paper in its Brown decision,

“To separate [African-American children] from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”


While true, it was only part of the research. Dr. Clark was concerned the court failed to cite two other conclusions he had reached: that racism was an inherently American institution, and that school segregation inhibited the development of White children, too.

“The court’s resolve to put Black children in White schools is the major affront to the Brown v. Board of Education findings,” Dr. Kevin Washington, past national president of the Association of Black Psychologists, told The Final Call. “The resolution has never been addressed adequately.

FILE–Pictured left to right are: Gloria Ray, Terrance Roberts, Melba Pattillo, Jefferson Thomas, Carlotta Walls, Thelma Mothershed, Minnijean Brown, Elizabeth Eckford, and Ernest Green. These are the nine students who entered Little Rock Central High under the protection of federal troops with bayonets in 1957 when Gov. Orval E. Faubus tried to block enforcement of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation and directed the Arkansas National Guard to keep the students from enrolling at the all-white Central High. President Eisenhower responded by sending in members of the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students into the school on Sept. 25, 1957. (AP Photo/File)

That is what has created the inequitable treatment of Blacks. Recurrent attacks on curricula, and book banning is a throwback to what was actually occurring at that time. Where the message was of inferiority, of Blackness or anything that began to promote something differently was challenged,” he said.

George E.C. Hayes, from left, Thurgood Marshall and James M. Nabrit join hands as they pose outside the Supreme Court in Washington on May 17, 1954. The three lawyers led the fight for abolition of segregation in public schools before the Supreme Court, which ruled that segregation is unconstitutional. (AP Photo, File)

“After 70 years we find ourselves in the position of still having identity confusion. We’ve had some educators to come with strong educational models. However, it’s always been an attack on the system. The Brown verdict, simply putting Black children in White schools, was not the resolution.

The real victory comes when the curricula shifts and the content is affirming to Black children in all walks of life. They can see themselves as being powerful as agents of change, and that they are purveyors of their own destiny.”

Dr. Washington added, “That’s a major issue when we talk about the Brown v. Board of Education. The principle that it was founded upon was flawed, that the environment Black students were in was inherently inferior. Instead of seeing the conditions Black students were experiencing as detrimental, to the identity development and formation of Black and Brown children.”

Black-on-Black Education

Once upon a time Black children were taught exclusively by Black teachers. Then came the May 1954 Supreme Court Case Brown v. Board of Education which allowed Black children to go to White schools. Research by Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick in “The Ugly Backlash to Brown v. Board of Ed That No One Talks About,”shows that 100,000 highly qualified Black principals and teachers were summarily fired.

White superintendents, school boards, and parents did not want Black teachers in their children’s classrooms. Neither did they want Black principals leading schools and supervising White teachers.

Fast forward to 2024. Black children going to school with White children has failed to provide Black families with thriving, well-resourced educational environments, relevant curriculum, safety and freedom from White supremacy.

Nearly 80 percent of public school teachers are White while more than half of public schools are filled with non-White children. However, studies show that Black teachers produce better academic and behavioral outcomes for Black students compared to their White counterparts.

The significance of having a Black teacher goes back to Philadelphia’s Caroline LeCount in the 1800s who said, “colored children should be taught by their own.”

 

In this Thursday, Nov. 7, 2019, photo, Jade Gopie, second from left, principal at Crosby High School, left, watches students as they pass between classes in Waterbury, Conn. While students in the Waterbury public school district are predominantly black and Hispanic, the vast majority of its educators, as in school districts across the country, are white. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

University of North Carolina research found that having a Black teacher has positive effects—higher educational attainment and lower rates of discipline—for Black students, with the strongest effect often among Black males from low-income households.

Their research found the benefits of having a Black teacher are so important that students who had a single Black teacher were more likely to go to college, more likely to graduate high school, and less likely to drop out. Black boys in poverty, who had a single Black teacher, were up to 39 percent less likely to drop out and 29 percent more likely to enroll in college.

Black educators have mixed feelings about Brown v. Board of Education. “I definitely think it has helped students, having Black students having access to institutions that were predominantly White.

I also think on the same accord, that going to a predominantly White school doesn’t necessarily prepare you more than going to an all-Black school. I think it comes down to resources and having an adequate surplus of resources,” Middle School Math teacher Ashley Cobb told The Final Call.

“Some of us learn in ways in which we want to be active. My first year teaching was at a Freedom School. There’s no predominantly White institution that can replicate a Freedom School.

I also think in reverse or in opposition of Brown, that some White students will benefit from going to predominantly Black institutions, which I’m seeing more of now.”

Cashawn Merritt is a high school math teacher. She told The Final Call, “I think it (Brown) was helpful to a degree because it gave Black people access to resources that weren’t available to them.

Even though we were educating our own prior to that decision, we didn’t necessarily have upgraded materials. We didn’t have the best resources at our disposal. I think with busing and all the other legislations that passed, it allowed opportunity for children who might not have had it otherwise.”

A major concern for parents is the high rate of suspension and expulsions for Black children in America’s public schools. Research by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights on school suspension, and expulsions found that Black boys make up nearly eight percent of public school enrollment but were 25 percent of the boys with out-of-school suspensions and 26 percent of expulsions.

Black girls were eight percent of enrollment but 14 percent of the girls with out-of-school suspensions and 12 percent of expulsions. Black children in public schools also face increased school-based arrests.

“Black students who have Black teachers are less likely to be disciplined unfairly, and over-policed,” middle school special education teacher Simon Miller told The Final Call.

“They are less likely to be suspended, expelled, or even referred for disciplinary issues. Black teachers are also more likely to push Black students into more rigorous classes like AP and International Baccalaureate programs.

Brown v. Board of Education put Black children in the bull’s eye for non-Black teachers. A study by the Upjohn Institute found that non-Black teachers of Black students have significantly lower expectations than do Black teachers. These effects are larger for Black male students and math teachers.

White teachers were less likely than Black ones to predict that their Black students would go on to graduate from college. Research has also found that on average, Black students have lower test scores than White students, they attend schools with fewer resources, and they are less likely to graduate from high school and college.

Elementary school teacher Tiffany Harrell is concerned states are not following the mandates of Brown. She told The Final Call, “I feel like a lot of states are not following and abiding by the law.

What I mean by that is you still have a lot of city schools who are less fortunate, don’t have the proper textbooks, don’t have the proper technology, and they aren’t offered the same type of courses.”

“If you go to predominantly White suburbs you’ll get all the technology you need, you’ll get so much funding because of the parents. They offer more as far as like AP (advanced placement) classes, than for example the predominantly Black schools … lots of southern states are trying to get rid of a lot of AP classes for African Americans as well as, African American Studies.”

A better, more positive outlook

Dr. Washington explained that having Black teachers is even more valuable to the way a student holds themselves in class. Seeing Black teachers tells students they have value, they have worth, and brilliance that can be seen. Black teachers can see the potentiality of students throughout the entire process and they work hard to bring that out.

Therefore, students feel that they are connected in the context of education. Further, it is doing its true purpose, which is to bring out the existing high potential rather than simply the transmission of information.

“When we talk about education, we know that it does three things for them. It gives them a sense of identity. That is, it tells them who they are and how they have value and worth in the world. It gives them the idea of potentiality, what they can become because they see an educator looking like them.

Then they can also be able to understand what they can become. The third issue is that typically the educator will be able to educate in a culturally relevant perspective.”

When the Nation of Islam started in the 1930s, the followers were instructed to take their children out of the public school system and educate them at home. In 1931, a truant officer knocked on the door of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his wife Clara.

The officer demanded that they send their children back to the Detroit Public Schools. They, as well as other Muslim families, refused.

In 1934, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and 18 instructors at the University of Islam were found not guilty of contributing to the delinquency of minors. However, Muslim families paid a high price back then to educate their own children.

In his book, “A Torchlight for America,” the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan explained that the true purpose of education should be the proper cultivation of the gifts and talents of the individual through the acquisition of knowledge.

“We need our own teachers because we need those with a like mind, a desire to give children what they need,” Shahid Muhammad, a math teacher at Chicago’s Muhammad University of Islam, told The Final Call. “Black teachers understand their learning styles. You have a better chance of that teacher having a love for the students, and a desire to see the students excel.

“The enemy’s school system is centered around White supremacy. Many European teachers don’t see Black students in the right light. They don’t see them as having the ability to excel because of White supremacy, racism and a racist mind. When Black children are in the classroom with Black teachers, they tend to have a better outlook, a more positive outlook of their own students.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

 Anti-Black history and hatred serve as backlash against Black progress

By Anisah Muhammad, Contributing Writer
- April 1, 2024





“There has been a great display of anti-Black hatred in the United States of America. There have been many nooses placed in different cities and in different institutions to let Black people know that there still is a great deal of hatred for us in this society.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan shared those words during a message delivered on October 28, 2007, on the topic “Justifiable Homicide,” about increased attacks and wholesale killings of primarily Black, Brown and Indigenous youth in the United States.

Seventeen years later, despite marching, protesting, and the so-called “racial reckoning” after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, there has been little to no change toward racial healing between Black and White people in America. In Rockford, Illinois, authorities are contemplating hate crime charges for a White male suspect who was arrested for the fatal stabbing of a young, Black Walmart employee.

According to the Rockford Register Star, Rockford Police Department officers arrested Timothy Carter on charges of first-degree murder. They say Mr. Carter stabbed 18-year-old Jason Jenkins on March 24 with one of two knives he had picked up while walking through the aisles of the store. “Surveillance footage appeared to show Carter, a White man, ‘wandering around the store and giving all the African American people dirty looks,’ a police officer wrote in a probable cause statement,” the news outlet reported. Mr. Carter also reportedly uttered a “racial slur” before stabbing the teenager.

 



Other incidents—some violent, some non-violent—that occurred during this year’s Black History Month and beyond have again manifested the levels of racial tension present in American society and the unpeeling of the mask of White civility.

Racism in schools

Several of the recent racialized incidents occurred within the school system. A White teacher in metro Atlanta came under fire for using the N-word in what was supposed to be a “funny” TikTok video on interracial friendships.

“I think that there’s been a resurgence of racial animus and the use of the word since the election in 2016. I think we’re in a very difficult racial climate right now, and people are trying to adjust. Some are trying to use humor. Others are just being outright racist,” attorney Gerald Griggs, president of the Georgia NAACP and the Atlanta branch, said to The Final Call. “We as melanated people need to be aware that these things are very much still alive, and that there’s a constant battle to make sure we don’t go back to either the 1860s or the 1960s.”

Atty. Griggs spoke on the importance of young Black children being vigilant and standing up for themselves.

“If you’re in elementary school, if you’re in middle school, high school, of course talk to the administration. If they don’t want to do anything, talk to the school board. They don’t want to do anything, then it’s time to go to court,” he said. “Because we cannot settle for a time when it’s being normalized, this attack on Blackness, so we have to stand up, and it’s incumbent upon the next generation to understand that now it’s their time to stand up like their ancestors did.”

In Massachusetts, six middle school students have been criminally charged for racial bullying. The students allegedly held mock slave auctions on Snapchat, allowing White students to bid on their two Black classmates. At another middle school in Kentucky, White students allegedly used racial slurs and participated in targeted bullying of non-White students.

Dr. LaGarrett King, an associate professor in social studies education at the University of Buffalo and director of the Center for K-12 Black History and Racial Literacy Education, shared with The Final Call the long history of anti-Black classroom activities. He cited an example of a 2010 incident where a Black elementary school student was “sold” in a mock auction as part of a history lesson. For Dr. King, these examples speak to the rise in what he called “anti-Black history legislation,” or attacks against critical race theory (CRT).

“Schools have no idea what Black history is. They know little about Black people. They know little about Black people’s history. Typically, the Black history that we learn is not necessarily Black history,” he said. “For Black history to be Black history, that history has to come from a Black person’s perspective. And many times, the ‘Black history’ that we learn is coming from a White person’s lens of looking at Black people through their history.”

He commented on how history teaches that “White people are the most historically important people in the world,” how Europeanism is embedded in every aspect of history, and how White people are looked at as the “cultivators of civilization,” establishing in White people a level of superiority.

DEI rollbacks

The present-day assaults against Black people include the false promises of “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) and the rollbacks of DEI positions within businesses and institutions due to a recent wave by state legislators.

According to a “DEI Legislation Tracker” by The Chronicle of Higher Education, updated on March 22, 81 bills in 28 states have been introduced that would prohibit colleges from having DEI offices or staff, ban mandatory diversity training, prohibit institutions from using diversity statements in hiring and promotion or prohibit colleges from using race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in admissions or employment.

Anti-DEI legislation has more than doubled since June 2023. Just two months shy of one year ago, the tracker recorded 37 bills in 21 states. Alabama recently joined the list of states that have passed legislation prohibiting public schools and universities from maintaining and funding DEI programs.

Terrance Sullivan, former executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, penned an opinion piece for The Courier-Journal on how Kentucky lawmakers are hiding their racism behind anti-DEI and CRT laws.

“To many, DEI is another acronym that means the Black people are getting too close to us, we have to remind them of their place. And as a result of this nonsense, jobs are being cut and some kids are at risk of losing scholarships—all because universities are running scared instead of being bold and fighting back,” he writes.

He concludes the article with the statement: “There are many people who want to remind us that they don’t want us here. That we are not welcome in these spaces, but the acronyms and misnomers are getting old.”

In a new social media trend, White people have redefined “DEI” to mean “didn’t earn it.”

Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid posted a response about the new label on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“MAGAs are labeling DEI as ‘Didn’t Earn It,’ which is wild because in reality, generating historic wealth through 2 billion acres of stolen land from Native Americans, enslaving Black people for 300 years, banning Asian immigration until 1965, and banning women from financial access til 1974—all without paying a single red cent in reparations or restitution—is the living breathing example not earning it,” he shared.

Others on the platform have been calling out White privilege and how White people continue to benefit from the legacy of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the vestiges of the Jim Crow era.

Dr. King explained the connection between DEI rollbacks and racialized incidents in the school system concerning Black history. “They have this anti-Black sentiment based on the history they have learned about Blackness,” he said.

He described that most DEI programs are just “multicultural celebrations” and are not accomplishing what people think they are.

“What people are thinking is happening in DEI is not happening. There’s not this big takeover or this notion of blaming White people for different things,” he said. “They’re not necessarily getting at systemic oppression within those institutions. They’re not getting at trying to understand racialized experiences of Black people and other people of color.”

Black progress and excellence

Dr. King noted that the reason racist incidents continue to occur is because American society, which was founded on racism, slavery and lynching, is still suffering from racial trauma.

“The racial trauma continues because we continuously fight over the truth of history. Where we can’t tell the truth of history, we will never heal as a nation,” he said. “There’s always people that don’t want us to heal for their benefits, so they can still obtain power.”

Atty. Griggs wants Black people to realize that “we’re not the minority.”

“Once we recognize our collective power and stand up, the world will take notice. I think we’re in the middle of a third backlash to the advancement of African Americans, and we have to do what we did in the first two, that being, reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement,” he said. “We have to stand up and push back in real-time and make people recognize that we are so proud of being Black. It is a wonderful existence, and if you feel intimidated about that, that’s your problem, not mine.”

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has been a longtime proponent of Black excellence. In a speech delivered in 2014 on education, he questioned, “Do you know how to end White racism?” He answered, “Black excellence ends White racism.”

Minister Farrakhan has also shared wisdom on how Black progress equals White intimidation. During his “Justifiable Homicide” message, he explained the tremendous progress Black people made during the Reconstruction era and how “if the so-called Negro was set free and given the material to build an independent existence, he could become a serious challenge to White superiority.”

“… those that would challenge their former slave master by wanting to vote, purchase land, pursue education or striving to do anything but plantation labor—these kinds of Black brothers and sisters would be dealt with harshly by the former slave-masters, and there was no deliberative body that would judge our affairs with justice,” he said.

“Therefore, every killing of a Black man or woman; every lynching of a Black man or woman was excusable,” he added. “… anything that was done to us to maintain White supremacy was in fact an unwritten law. The killing of every Black human being during the 300 years of chattel slavery and even now, 150 years up from slavery, at the hands of White people is generally considered ‘excusable.’”

“Now, this atmosphere is beginning to spread again in America. I want to really make it clear to you today what we are going to face, what we are facing, as it will increase in the days ahead,” Minister Farrakhan warned.

Since then, he has further warned about how the “hatred of Black is manifesting” all over the planet and how the White race’s “mask of civility” is slowly being peeled back, like the layers of an onion, due to the rise of the darker people of the earth.

“Now you see an enemy that hates our shadow. And like Abraham Lincoln said, ‘you suffer from being here with us and we suffer from your presence among us,’” the Minister said in a Final Call newspaper year-end interview for 2016. “This is going to come to a head and the Will of God will be carried out, which is that the Black and the Brown and the Red, we must go free in a land of our own; not under White supremacy but ruled under our own wisdom, knowledge, understanding and the guidance of God.”

From The Final Call Newspaper

Is Free Speech in jeopardy?

By Nisa Islam Muhammad, Staff Writer
- March 25, 2024

Court of Law and Justice Trial Session: Imparcial Honorable Judge Pronouncing Sentence, striking Gavel. Focus on Mallet, Hammer. Cinematic Shot of Dramatic Not Guilty Verdict. Close-up Shot.


WASHINGTON, D.C.—Did the Biden administration violate free speech rights during the pandemic when they allegedly pressured social media companies to take down content the government considered misinformation? That’s the case before the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri.

According to court documents the case is about a group of social-media users (Facebook and others) and two states who allege that numerous federal officials coerced social-media platforms into censoring social-media content, in violation of the First Amendment.

Atty. Tricia Lindsay speaks at a free speech rally held outside the Supreme Court of the United States on March 18 in Washington, D.C.

They sued the government in Missouri v. Biden. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a modified injunction last October banning dozens of government employees from “coerc[ing] or significantly encourag[ing] a platform’s content-moderation decisions.” The government appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court justices recently heard a day of testimony and arguments with each side passionately representing their point. The decision is expected in June. Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch described the case as “a coordinated campaign by high-level federal officials to suppress the expression of disfavored views on important public issues.”

 

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The government’s attorney, Brian Fletcher, argued that “[t]he government may not use coercive threats to suppress speech, but it is entitled to speak for itself by informing, persuading, or criticizing private speakers.” The government contends they coerced no one and, on the contrary, all they did was use persuasion. Mr. Fletcher said the lower courts have “mistook persuasion for coercion.”

He added that “government speech crosses the line into coercion only if, viewed objectively, it conveys a threat of adverse government action. And because no threats happened here, the Court should reverse.” The government, in short, “stay[ed] on the persuasion side of the line.” The government contends they were merely offering “information” and “advice” to their “partners” in fighting “misinformation.”

That’s not how the group suing the government saw it. Louisiana Solicitor General J. Benjamin Aguiñaga represented the plaintiffs. He argued there was “unrelenting government pressure,” contended “the government has no right to persuade platforms to violate Americans’ constitutional rights, and pressuring platforms in back rooms shielded from public view is not using the bully pulpit at all.

Activists and concerned citizens attend a free speech rally in Washington, D.C. Photos: Charlene Muhammad

That’s just being a bully.” He argued further that the plaintiffs don’t need to prove coercion to win––only encouragement and pressure. “We don’t need coercion as a theory. That’s why we led with encouragement in our . . . brief,” he explained.

Mr. Aguiñaga presented evidence that government officials such as Deputy Assistant to the President Rob Flaherty “badger[ed] the platforms 24/7,” demanding that they broaden their content restrictions and enforce them more aggressively.

Mr. Aguiñaga submitted emails that alluded to President Biden being unhappy with what the social media platforms were doing and warned that White House officials were “considering our options on what to do” if the platforms protested. The social media platforms buckled under the pressure, and consequently changed their policies as well as practices regarding content.

In emails to the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivtek Murthy, Facebook executive Nick Clegg seemed eager to pacify President Biden. Mr. Clegg explained that Facebook “adjust[ed] policies on what we’re removing;” deleted pages, groups, and accounts that offended the White House; and would “shortly be expanding our COVID policies to further reduce the spread of potentially harmful content.”

Facebook bowed. Mr. Clegg wrote in another internal email that Mr. Aguiñaga quoted, “because we were under pressure by the administration.” Mr. Clegg expressed regret about caving to that pressure, saying, “We shouldn’t have done it.”

The government’s pressure went beyond emails to platform executives to the general public when President Biden accused the platforms of “killing people” by allowing users to say things he believed would discourage Americans from being vaccinated against COVID-19.

Surgeon General Murthy took that even further by urging a “whole-of-society” effort to combat the “urgent threat to public health” posed by “health misinformation,” which he said might include “legal and regulatory measures.”

Filmmaker Del Bigtree also spoke at the gathering.

Piling on were other federal officials who explained that holding social media platforms “accountable” could entail antitrust action, new regulations or expansion of their civil liability for user-posted content.

Mr. Fletcher explained that “when thousands of Americans were still dying every week” the government felt justified with communications that included “intensity” and “anger.” However, he did acknowledge that some of the government’s communications with the platforms “is unusual.”

“[T]he First Amendment isn’t a civility code,” Mr. Fletcher explained, adding that “context matters a ton.” He dismissed claims of government coercion of the social media platform. The platforms, he explained, are “powerful, sophisticated entities” used to back-and-forth government interactions and can independently decide when to remove speech and speakers. They aren’t easily cowed.

Rally in support of Free Speech

The impact of the government’s “persuasion” to remove content they found objectionable was felt far and wide. Many in the scientific world felt the government’s action interfered with people being able to make informed consent when they were only allowed to know what the government permitted to be known.

Dozens gathered at the Supreme Court to support free speech and speak out against First Amendment violations.

 

Dr. Pierre Kory, President of FLCCC Alliance, speaks at free speech rally in Washington, D.C., on March 18.

Dr. Christina X Parks has a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Michigan Medical School. She was the first speaker at the rally in support of free speech which was held March 18. She told The Final Call, “One of the lawyers just said this was the most important case on free speech in the history of all us.

The actions of the Biden administration, the Surgeon General, and the CDC, explained in Missouri v. Biden, were so egregious that they constitute the biggest threat to free speech this nation has ever experienced. They were so egregious at coercing the social media platforms to basically become arbiters of the government’s truth. If we fail at litigating this correctly and enforcing our free speech rights, we are no longer going to have a constitutional republic.”

Dozens gathered at the Supreme Court to support free speech and speak out against First Amendment violence.

“Average people were the losers because they didn’t have the information that they needed to make informed consent to know the truth about the vaccine, the truth about COVID and to know there were actually effective treatments. So, their health suffered and their family suffered.

They lost jobs, even though now we know, which I was saying from the beginning, that the vaccine didn’t prevent transmission. But at a deeper level, this is enabling tyranny because that’s what that was. If they can censor us when we’re trying to tell you the truth about these things, then they can censor anybody about anything.”

Tricia Lindsay is a civil rights attorney. She told the rally crowd, “When this whole situation started, this atrocity that I call it, it was clear, at least to me, … what was coming, the lockdowns, the mandates, go home, stay away from family members, stay away from friends.

It was a clear assault on our Constitution, a clear assault on our freedoms to assemble, to work, to move about, to travel. We had to ask permission or be limited to whose homes we could go to, when we could go outside, things of that nature. It just didn’t make sense.”

“Today we stand on the precipice of change. We stand at the crossroads between tyranny and democracy, freedom and literal slavery, dictatorship and republic, as the justices of this great U.S. Supreme Court hold in their hands. They have the ultimate power to determine the trajectory of our country, our lives, really the trajectory of our lives that can change our country.”

Del Matthew Bigtree is a television and film producer who is the CEO of the anti-vaccination group Informed Consent Action Network. He also produced the film, “Vaxxed: From Cover Up to Catastrophe.”

He told The Final Call, “We see all the studies, Cleveland Clinic, famous studies now showing us that if you get the vaccine within about 14 or 15 weeks, you’re more likely to be infected. Meaning this vaccine is helping the virus, which was something that we warned about in the High Wire very, very early on.”

“We cannot any longer depend on that television set. We know it lies to us. We can’t depend on those newspapers. We know they lied to us. I keep saying that there’s a real spiritual component to this, which is we all have to sit and get quiet and get with God and really ask ourselves, does it make sense what they’re saying to me?

We have to start trusting that God-given intuition more and trust ourselves and speak our truth. Remember that the Constitution is not designed to control us. It’s designed to control our government.”

Atty. Abdul Arif Muhammad

The Nation of Islam spoke early on COVID and the vaccine which the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan encouraged his followers to avoid at all costs. Abdul Arif Muhammad is the student general counsel for the Nation of Islam and successfully argued a case against an insurance company that tried to force Dr. Safiyya Shabazz to stop administering Ivermectin to her patients with COVID-19. They also tried to pressure her to administer the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The impact of this case, if decided in favor of the government, would be to give more power to the federal government to prescribe what exact rights people would have under the First Amendment, particularly concerning matters that the government does not agree with. It would not be limited.

It started here with the concept of the government regulating what people could say about the COVID-19 vaccine, and that they are not permitted to express disagreement with the COVID-19 vaccine or to offer their views of alternative treatments against the COVID-19 virus,” Attorney Muhammad told The Final Call.

“The government did not want anyone to express a view different from their selling point that the Covid 19 vaccine was safe and effective which has been proven to not be true. The government was allowed to condemn people who offered a different view on social media concerning the COVID-19 vaccine and said that the COVID-19 vaccine was harmful as well as offered alternative remedies,” he continued.

Atty. Muhammad explained that as early as July 2020, Minister Farrakhan told people not to take the vaccine even before the vaccine actually went on the market. Recently, in a major speech in February during the Nation’s annual Saviours’ Day convention in Detroit, Minister Farrakhan spoke again on the dangers of the COVID-19 vaccine. He told the sold-out audience, “The government put a great hit on us in a vaccine. My voice was the voice that told you, don’t take it. Don’t take it. They’re trying to kill us softly with a vaccine.”

Atty. Muhammad is very concerned about this case. “All of these things that are in the First Amendment are now in danger. The First Amendment was included in the constitution to grant to its citizens, the right to express their dissent against government actions.

If the court allows the government to use its power to impose itself on social media companies and others to say that you as a citizen don’t have the right to express a point of view different from that of the government, you could be accused by the government of engaging in misinformation,” he said.

“Further this could lead to the government ultimately saying that you are violating some statute that could be criminal in nature, that you could then be arrested for or being charged with crimes. If the court grants this power to the government, it started with COVID-19, what will be the next issue that the government will use this power to suppress free speech?”

From The Final Call Newspaper

 Global protests intensify and demands to ‘Free Palestine’ grow

By The Final Call
- March 5, 2024

Demonstrators gather outside the Israeli Embassy to demand a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip in Washington, D.C., on March 2. Protesters also commemorated the U.S. service member Aaron Bushnell who self-immolated outside the embassy. Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images


by Nisa Islam Muhammad and Charlene Muhammad

The Final Call @TheFinalCall

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Thousands gathered at the Israeli Embassy in the nation’s capital and in cities across the U.S. and abroad as part of another global day of protest to demand no invasion of Rafah, a ceasefire to end the Israeli killing spree on Palestinians and the lifting of the siege of Gaza. Rafah is in the south of the Gaza Strip which shares a border with Egypt.

An estimated 1.5 million internally displaced Palestinians taking refuge there are facing famine, and Israel has threatened a last-ditch effort to destroy Hamas with a ground invasion of Rafah.
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“Our request was for a ceasefire, but we’re 140 days in,” Hazami Baramada, told the media. She is an activist, global strategy consultant, and international public speaker.

“You have a majority of Gaza destroyed, demolished schools, infrastructure, hospitals, all civilian infrastructure is completely demolished. You have 14,000 children who’ve been killed, over 40,000 according to Euro Med (Human Rights Monitor). People have been killed, including civilian populations. There are 20-plus thousand orphans.

The numbers are so staggering and so disgusting and so inhumane that a ceasefire is no longer enough. We demand a change in the U.S. relationship with Israel. We demand accountability,” she continued. Gaza’s health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in the war has surpassed 30,000.

“We demand answers on why the United States is constantly allowing war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against international law, violations of just basic human dignity to continue to happen. And the hypocrisy! You call out what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine and you’re not willing to hold the same standards to Israel and Palestine. It is atrocious. The American taxpayer dollars are not only paying for this, but our military has normalized it.”

Ms. Baramada argued that misinformation and lies are being peddled and that one of the objectives of the March 2 mass mobilization was for citizens to hold the U.S. and Israeli governments accountable for their actions.

“We can’t hold Israel accountable as individual citizens, but what we can do is expose what they’re doing. We can educate the average American and put pressure on our administration to cut the relationship, to stop unconditional aid, and to start holding Israel accountable for its war crimes.

Protesters rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall during a “Global Day of Protest” in support of Palestinians in Los Angeles, California, on March 2, 2024. (Photo by Katie McTiernan / AFP) (Photo by KATIE MCTIERNAN/AFP via Getty Images)

We have for far too long, regardless of the administration, used our political, social, and economic power to sanction what is happening, but then also to support it. We are actively part of a genocide. We are not just enabling it. We are part of the genocide and this needs to stop.”

Madge Henderson is a White American middle-class woman. After the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, she said she supported Israel’s right to defend itself. However, after hearing about the tens of thousands of murdered Palestinian women and children she later changed her mind. Ms. Henderson traveled with her family from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to D.C. to participate in the demonstration.

“I’m here to protest the genocide going on in Gaza. Babies (limbs) are being amputated without any anesthesia, people are starving and dying. I can’t believe my government of the United States is using my taxpayer dollars to pay for this atrocity,” she told The Final Call. “I’ve never protested anything in my life. I love all people. I grew up traveling the world with my parents. I love Palestinians and I also love Jewish people. I love Muslims. But today love is not enough. Something has to be done to stop the massacres.”

D.C. was one of more than 120 cities across the United States and dozens of others around the globe engaged in mass actions, on March 2, to protest the continued genocide in Palestine. Israel has threatened to invade Rafah on March 10 coinciding with the beginning of the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan. More than 300 organizations supported the protests.

 

A Palestinian woman reacts after an Israeli strike on Shaheen family house in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)

“The Palestinian people of Gaza have been faced with months of nonstop bombardment, mass killing, and forced starvation. Even as the occupation army targets various quarters of Rafah, even as it continues its relentless campaigns of annihilation in Shuja’iyya, Nuseirat, Khan Younis, and Jabalia, the colonial regime is additionally threatening to carry a full-scale ground invasion of Rafah. The world must rise up to stop this brutality,” said Jamil Madbak, of the Palestinian Youth Movement, one of the event’s organizers.

More than 50,000 marched in New York City, 15,000 in San Francisco, and many thousands more in mass actions in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago and many others cities. Hundreds gathered in downtown Syracuse for the “Hands Off Rafah” protest.

Event organizers included members of the Syracuse chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Veterans for Peace. International sites included Havana, Cuba, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Nanaimo, British Columbia (Canada), São Paulo, Brazil and Seoul, South Korea.

Despite moderate to heavy rains, thousands of activists and residents gathered for the #HandsOffRafah demonstration in downtown Los Angeles on March 2. Approximately eight hours before the ANSWER Coalition’s Global Day of Action, themed “Shut It Down For Palestine” began, at least 11 were killed and 50 wounded after an Israeli air attack on a tent housing displaced people next to the entrance of a hospital in Rafah City, according to Al Jazeera.

Palestinians pray over the bodies of their relatives killed in the Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue to pray over them at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah on Friday, Feb. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Representatives from the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire chapters participated in and coordinated the gathering. The transnational, independent, grassroots movement of young Palestinians in Palestine and those in exile worldwide exist as a result of the ongoing occupation of their homeland, organizers stated.

The only recourse to justice for their people is the dismantling of Zionism, its genocidal war machine, and its political institutions, said a LA-based Palestinian American youth activist. “Here in the U.S., we not only have a role, but an obligation, a duty to dismantle Zionism.

Our mobilizations have ruined the Occupation’s image and have left Zionism in ruins! We will continue to organize, and we won’t stop until this racist, genocidal project is defeated once and for all!” she added.

She then summarized the atrocities of the genocidal war and nearly 20-year-long siege, pointing out the bombing by Israeli forces of civilians seeking shelter along aid routes in the Gaza Strip. “Shame!” she declared.

“Shame,” roared the demonstrators, many still joining the protest in droves. They filled corners and crosswalks, sloshing through the rain and mud puddles saturating City Park, just across from City Hall. Demonstrators filled the building’s steps, up to the iron barricades protecting entry to the doorway. They nearly spanned the entire block within an hour after the protest began.

‘Genocide is happening’

Global activism against Israeli genocide on the Palestinian people has continued since the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters emerging from Gaza. That act killed almost 1,200 people and led to Israel’s massive military response, backed by the U.S. government. News reports state the Israeli bombardment has displaced 1.8 million of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza and turned much of the besieged territory bordering Israel, the Mediterranean Sea and Egypt into rubble and dust.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan addressed the conflict during his highly anticipated Saviours’ Day 2024 message, entitled, “What does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have to Say About the War in the Middle East?”

The Muslim leader explained that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a second Nakba (catastrophe) in mind for the Palestinian people. The first Nakba on the Palestinians was in 1948 when Israel became a state. More than 700,000 Palestinians were exiled at that time and made “like vagabonds in the earth,” he said.

Mr. Netanyahu wanted to use the pain of the loss of Jewish lives to destroy the whole Palestinian community, not only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in East Jerusalem, Minister Farrakhan charged. “It was a genocidal attack that he knew would preserve his place as a great Jewish leader,” he explained.

“Who could do to another human being what is being done to our Palestinian family and not think of a humanitarian crisis?” stated Minister Farrakhan, continuing, “Who will pay for the killing of Palestinians—men, women and children? Who will pay for the destruction of Palestinian life and culture?”

The bold leader also expressed sympathy for families who lost loved ones in the Hamas attack. He expressed support for Tal Mitnick, an 18-year-old conscript to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who refused to serve and was sentenced to a 30-day prison term. The Minister asked Allah (God) to sear the young man’s image into his mind.

U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell was so conflicted by the war that he went to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C. and set himself on fire. The 25-year-old dressed in his U.S. Air Force uniform and said he would “no longer be complicit in genocide.” He shouted “Free Palestine” as he burned, until he collapsed to the ground dying hours later in the hospital. Officer Bushnell live-streamed his ultimate sacrifice, ensuring that his actions — which he described as an “extreme act of protest” — were seen worldwide.

“The decision by U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell to set himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy while condemning the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide being carried out against the people of Gaza was a desperate act designed to arouse public outrage. He made the ultimate personal sacrifice to end a genocide that the entire world has been witnessing for the past months,” explained Brian Becker, national director of ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). “This was an act of martyrdom by a U.S. service member who was outraged by the actions of a government that speaks in his name.”

“People all over the United States, in the millions, have been involved in mass actions to protest the U.S. support for Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in recent months. People have also engaged in civil disobedience actions of many types. Many have been arrested and are facing trial, including many whose constitutional rights were violated by violent police repression.”

“The United States government and Israel are killing babies,” said Nazaro Aguero of Peru, pointing to his children who were at the Los Angeles demonstration. “We don’t want any more kids to die! Every kid deserves to live. If you touch a kid, you are not a good person. Palestine deserves to be free.”

His truck included a flatbed covered with flags of Latin America—Argentina, Chile, etc. “We want peace in the world. That’s why from everywhere we are here. Latin America stands with Palestine, always,” Mr. Aguero said.

Sarah and Affan Tareen said their liberation, safety, and dignity of life is interconnected, and they believe that the Palestinians are their brothers and sisters just as much as those of Jewish descent. They came to the L.A. gathering with their young children, ages 6 and 4. “Genocide is happening, and we cannot rest until that is stopped. We will not rest,” stated Mrs. Tareen. She said she’s outraged that U.S. dollars are being used to penetrate this war.

“I am outraged that President (Joe) Biden bypassed Congressional approval in the first place to send aid to Israel. I am angry. I feel that democracy is talked about being attacked by the Republican Party and I see it not being upheld and prioritized by the Democratic Party and I am angry at this country for not living up to its values and the principles it says that we are built on. We have a lot reckoning to do with our own past and moving forward we must change our ways,” she added.

Maaz Bajwa of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community drove from San Diego to L.A. with his children, son Isa and daughter Anisah.

“We see this as a prayer, as congregational salat. We see this as everybody praying, ‘Free, free Palestine!’ as a prayer that we’re all praying together, not just Muslims but all people of faith, who just believe in any bit of morality,” he told The Final Call.

“We have a chance, an opportunity to stop a real-live genocide from occurring, something rare in history. And our so-called elected officials and the people that are supposed to represent us continue to stand idle while this keeps going on,” said Javier Guerrero, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition.

He noted predictions that if the impending massacre is not stopped, up to 90,000 innocent Palestinians could die, and called it “nothing short of a blood bath,” poised to be one of the worst human atrocities in world history.

Final Call Staff Writer Nisa Islam Muhammad reported from Washington, D.C. and National Correspondent Charlene Muhammad reported from Los Angeles.

From The Final Call Newspaper

The reason for the season Master W. Fard Muhammad and the fulfillment of Divine Prophecy
By Demetric Muhammad, Guest Columnist
- February 20, 2024





We have been blessed by Allah (God) to have lived another year that we might celebrate and express our deep and profound gratitude for the most significant event in at least 66 trillion years!

The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad has taught us that for trillions of years, people worshipped their own ideas of God, but the true reality of God remained a carefully guarded secret. But it is unto the Black people of America that the great blessing of Allah’s (God’s) own self-revelation has been bestowed. For we believe that on July 4, 1930, Allah (God) appeared to us in the person of Master W. Fard Muhammad! All Praise Belongs To Allah!

So as many of us students of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan journey to the city of Detroit for our annual Saviours’ Day convention, let us pause to reflect and consider what might be dubbed our “reason for the season.”

For we are journeying on something of an annual pilgrimage to celebrate the February 26 birth of the founder of the Nation of Islam in America, the man whom the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught us fits the Biblical description of “the Saviour”—Master W. Fard Muhammad. Minister Farrakhan has made us also see that what used to be referred to as “Saviour’s Day” should now be known as “Saviours’ Day,” because the work of Master W. Fard Muhammad fulfills another scriptural prophecy, the one described in Nehemiah 9:27 wherein God promised to send “saviours”—plural—to deliver his people from their wicked tormentors.

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The suffering of a people justifies a visitation from God

As a student in the ministry class of Minister Farrakhan, the theology of the Nation of Islam is quite possibly my favorite area to study, for it is the area where the divine message of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad makes the boldest, most significant, and inspiring claims! And there is no more bolder, and at the same time life-affirming and ameliorating claim made by the Messenger Muhammad than his claim that Allah (God) has visited the Black man and woman of America, to rescue us and to begin the process of our restoration, salvation, redemption and resurrection.

In a conversation with my brother and friend Jason R. Muhammad of Rochester, New York, he revealed to me an important passage contained within the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” A shortened version of this quote is below. Douglass states:

“If any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to my poor old grandmother. She had served my old master faithfully from youth to old age.

She had been the source of all his wealth; she had peopled his plantation with slaves; she had become a great-grandmother in his service. She had rocked him in infancy, attended him in childhood, served him through life, and at his death wiped from his icy brow the cold death-sweat, and closed his eyes forever. She was nevertheless left a slave—a slave for life—a slave in the hands of strangers;

And in their hands she saw her children, her grandchildren, and her great-grandchildren, divided, like so many sheep, without being gratified with the small privilege of a single word, as to their or her own destiny. And, to cap the climax of their base ingratitude and fiendish barbarity, my grandmother, who was now very old, having outlived my old master and all his children.

Having seen the beginning and end of all of them, and her present owners finding she was of but little value, her frame already racked with the pains of old age, and complete helplessness fast stealing over her once active limbs, they took her to the woods, built her a little hut, put up a little mud-chimney, and then made her welcome to the privilege of supporting herself there in perfect loneliness; thus virtually turning her out to die!

Will not a righteous God visit for these things?”

This very powerful and emotionally moving passage draws from the treasury of the Black struggle for freedom, justice, and equality a frame and context that is ultimately supportive and vindicates in its own way the bold theological claim of Allah’s (God’s) Divine Servant, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Frederick Douglass’ lamentations over the fate of his beloved grandmother and her victimization in the moribund peculiar institution of American chattel slavery help to make the profound reality easy to see, and that is said succinctly, “the suffering of a people produces the intervention of God.” Consider some scriptural support:

“They wait for naught but that Allah should come to them in the shadows of the clouds with angels, and the matter has (already) been decided. And to Allah are (all) matters returned.”

—Holy Qur’an, 2:210

The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… And now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me, and I have seen how severely the Egyptians are oppressing them … .” Bible—Exodus 3:7-9

In the very excellent book written by Dr. Wesley Muhammad entitled “Take Another Look,” he cites scholars whose study of the Bible places an exclamation point on the idea that the Bible communicates and creates the expectation in the mind of the reader that God would one day visit his people!

“The decisive element in the theophany descriptions of the Old Testament … is the concept of the coming of God; the descriptions of the accompanying phenomena in the natural order are to be viewed as parabolic … but the supremely important matter is that God comes into the world … in the future.”—G.R. Beasley-Murray, “Jesus, and The Kingdom of God”

“The faith of the Old Testament rests on two certainties, equally profound and indissolubly bound together. The first is that God has come in the past, and that he has intervened in favor of his people. The other … is the hope that God will come anew in the future.”

—Quoting Georges Pidoux from, “Jesus, and The Kingdom of God”

The Honorable Muhammad teaches God is a man

The theology that Saviours’ Day celebrates is bold in that it strikes the prevailing concept of God maintained by many of the world’s religious adherents that God is a shapeless, formless, and immaterial spirit. And yet, despite the later theological developments advanced by rulers and religious authorities to make the belief in a “spook”

Or spirit God the dominant belief in the world today, a close look at what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan teach about the reality of God, harmonizes perfectly with the actual text of the scriptures. Consider how the most integral and important figures within the scriptures had interactions with God in human form. Such encounters have been dubbed by religious scholars by the word “theophany.”

Adam (the first man)—“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.”—Genesis 3:8

Abraham (father of righteous)—“The LORD appeared again to Abraham near the oak grove belonging to Mamre. One day Abraham was sitting at the entrance to his tent during the hottest part of the day. He looked up and noticed three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he ran to meet them and welcomed them, bowing low to the ground. My lord,” he said, “if it pleases you, stop here for a while. Rest in the shade of this tree while water is brought to wash your feet. And since you’ve honored your servant with this visit, let me prepare some food to refresh you before you continue on your journey.”—Genesis 18:1-3

Moses (liberator of the slaves)—“When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses … .”

Jesus (Messiah)— “It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.”

—John 8:17-18

Prophet Muhammad (last of the prophets)—“And there endures for ever the person of thy Lord, the Lord of glory and honour.”—Holy Qur’an Surah 55:27

Vern Pythress in his “Theophany: A Biblical Theology Of God’s Appearing” has stated:

“The appearances in human form have part of their basis in the fact that God created man ‘in the image of God’ (Gen. 1:27). On the level of the Creator, God acts in a way analogous to human action, and his nature is fittingly represented in human form, rather than the form of an animal or a plant.

He speaks, he thinks, he knows, he hears, and he acts in power. Human beings through their bodily actions imitate his actions. Their imitation is fitting, because God’s action is the archetype or original pattern for human action. In addition, human appearances of God have a special weight. Even though in the Old Testament such appearances are temporary, they anticipate the permanent coming of God in permanent human form … .”

Compare the words of Mr. Pythress with what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad wrote in his illuminating book, “Message To The Blackman in America”:

“The Christians do not believe in God as being a human being, yet they believe in Him as being the Father of all human beings. They also refer to God as He, Him, Man, King, and The Ruler. They teach that God sees, hears, talks, walks, stands, sits, rides, and flies; that He grieves or sorrows; and that He is interested in the affairs of human beings. They also teach that once upon a time He made the first man like Himself in the image and likeness of Himself, but yet they believe that He, Himself, is not a man or human.”

Master W. Fard Muhammad’s demonstration of love for the Black man and woman

Master W. Fard Muhammad stayed among us for a little over three years, but the Nation of Islam has continued for the past 93 years operating from the foundation He laid in those three years and the continued guidance that He provides the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan.

In fact, in my opinion, it is what He produced for us in the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Minister Farrakhan that is Master W. Fard Muhammad’s greatest demonstration of His love and power.

For the Bible states that the people of God, those who suffered and were tormented, have a glorious destiny to hope for; a destiny that involves divine transformation. And among us, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have been the first to undergo such transformation into the divine.

The Bible in 1 John 3:1-3 describes it like this:

“Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself … .”

As the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has articulated:

“God came ‘wearing three hats,’ one for Himself, the power in which He would not reveal, and hats for two men from the people whom Whites had destroyed.”

Those who wish to falsify the history and purpose of Master W. Fard Muhammad frequently occupy mainstream spaces and enjoy a wide audience. And despite this unfortunate reality, it should be known that the true authority on the Coming of Allah (God) in the Person of Master W. Fard Muhammad is the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the man whom he trained for three years and four months personally; and his servant that he trained for 20 years and has guided for the past 47 years, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

I close this writing with some important quotes and passages from the treasury of truths about Master W. Fard Muhammad expressed by the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad:

“HE GREATLY rejoiced over us and was real happy that He had found us. He said that He would make a new people out of us who submit to Him by causing us to grow into a new growth, not an entirely new body but a reversal of the old decayed body into a new growth, which He said would make us all as we were at the age of 16.”—June 9, 1956, Pittsburgh Courier

“No civilized Nation wants the uncivilized Negroes, but Allah, our Loving and Most Merciful God, Who came in the person of Master Fard Muhammad in 1930. It was not until 1933 did He begin revealing His true self; I knew Him at first sight in 1931, for I was expecting Him.”—February 8, 1958, Pittsburgh Courier

“You are alright today if you just will accept your own religion. And no getting on knees to ask for forgiveness for your past. All of that is forgiven. God told me to tell you that He will forgive us all the past; just accept your own, now. Go from here and not think over what happened in the past. You did not know who you were nor the enemy.

So that is right and just that you should be forgiven for that which you had no knowledge of. So this is what He told me to tell you. And since we don’t have to go on our knees for yesterday, be sure that we go on our knees for today. A people that have did everything that the devil did and tried to beat him at some of it, get forgiven for all of that evil. You certainly should be happy… .”—August 27, 1972, Theology of Time Lecture Series

“This is what He wants to make out of you and me, not just Believers but gods. Every one of you, according to what He has taught me, will be gods.”—October 8, 1972, Theology of Time lecture series

“So God and I love you so well that He sent me to tell you these things to make gods out of you. That’s what it’s for––make gods out of you. You say, ‘I know I will never be a god.’ Yes, you already is a god. So I thank you, thank you, thank you.”—July 2, 1972, Theology of Time lecture series

And a special excerpt from a letter written by Master W. Fard Muhammad to the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad on September 7, 1933:

“I have treasured all my life love for the lost-found nation of Islam …”

HAPPY SAVIOURS’ DAY!

Brother Demetric Muhammad is a Memphis-based author and student minister in the Nation of Islam and a member of the Nation of Islam Research Group. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @BrotherDemetric. Read more at www.researchminister.com.

From The Final Call Newspaper

Court decision on Israel-Gaza war a first step, but much more must be done, observers argue
By Brian E. Muhammad, Staff Writer
- January 30, 2024




The International Court of Justice (ICJ) decided on an important provisional measure in the much-watched case of the Republic of South Africa versus the Zionist State of Israel. The world paid close attention on January 26 as 17 judges ordered six provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza. These measures were agreed to by an overwhelming majority of the judges.

An Israeli judge voted in favor of two of the six, and a Ugandan judge voted against all the measures. The ruling is part of a case South Africa brought to the ICJ on Dec. 29, charging Israel with genocide, concerning the Palestinian people.

The president of the court, Judge Joan E. Donoghue, said that South Africa has the right to bring the lawsuit and that Israel’s request for its dismissal cannot be accepted. “We have the authority to rule on emergency measures in the case of genocide against Israel,” she added.

A provisional measure is a temporary order issued by a court to protect the rights of the parties pending a final decision in a dispute. In this case, it is to ensure no irreparable harm is inflicted upon the Palestinians pending the conclusion of the full trial. Justice advocates lauded the outcome as a historical milestone, although some noted the court did not clearly call for an immediate ceasefire.

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“First and foremost, it is historic,” said Eugene Puryear, investigative journalist and commentator. “It’s the first time there’s even really been a potentially enforceable legal action against Israel for any of its crimes over the 75 years of occupation,” he added.

South Africa vs. Israel initially opened on January 11 and can ultimately take years to conclude. In a 15-2 vote the ICJ ordered Israel to do everything possible to prevent genocide of the Palestinian people in its war raging since October 2023 and ensure its military commits no acts constituting genocide.

Also, to take all measures to “prevent and punish” the direct and public incitement of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. And, allow urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza. Finally, to submit a report on its compliance 30 days after January 26, the date of the order.

Mr. Puryear said the nature of the provisional measures makes it “highly unlikely” any real compliance could take place without a ceasefire and believes Israel will continue its genocidal path. That will not only build on the case against Israel but “more importantly” open a new phase of struggle around Palestine for any country or third-party entities to take action against the Zionist state.

“Now, without a doubt, there is a strong legal basis—you might even call it legal cover—for some individuals to take direct action sanctioning Israel,” said Mr. Puryear. “Now, any country will be able to cite the ICJ provisional measures,” he added.

The case also opens the way for other actions against Israel, such as a supercharging of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) efforts, “because there’s a new legal framework that I think will speak very directly to the urgency of the moment,” reasoned Mr. Puryear.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa spoke about the urgency of the moment and why his government had to step up against Israel’s atrocities. “This marks an important first in our quest to secure justice for the people of Gaza,” President Ramaphosa said hours after the hearing.

Pro-Palestinian supporters picket outside the High Court in Cape Town, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. South Africa’s genocide case against Israel opened last week at the International Court of Justice at The Hague. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht, File)

“Some have told us that we should mind our own business and not get involved in the affairs of other countries. Others have said it was not our place, and yet it is very much our place as a people who know too well the pain of dispossession, discrimination, [and] state-sponsored violence,” he said. “We are also a people who were the victims of the crime of apartheid. We know what apartheid looks like. We experienced and lived through it,” said Mr. Ramaphosa.

“We, as South Africans will not be passive bystanders and watch the crimes that were visited upon us being perpetrated upon other people elsewhere. We stand on the side of freedom for all. We stand on the side of justice,” said Mr. Ramaphosa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lambasted the ruling as a “vile attempt to deny Israel” a right to defend itself and a “blatant discrimination” against the Jewish state. “The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it,” he said.

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al Maliki said, “The ICJ judges assessed the facts and the law, they ruled in favor of humanity and international law.”

“The ICJ order is an important reminder that no state is above the law. It should serve as a wake-up call for Israel and actors who enabled its entrenched impunity,” he said.

The United States said it continues to believe that allegations of genocide are “unfounded,” a State Department spokesperson said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: “Today, the authorities of the fake Israeli regime … must be brought to justice immediately for committing genocide and unprecedented war crimes against the Palestinians.”

Other leaders around the world also reacted to the court’s ruling. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed the interim ruling by the ICJ on the genocide case against Israel, describing the provisional measures as “valuable.”

The ongoing push for accountability

However, in the moments in which the ICJ was issuing the order, destruction rained down in Gaza taking death tolls past 26,000 Palestinians. Famine and desperation are not strong enough to describe what people faced on the ground on the very day of the decision. One Palestinian among the thousands displaced told Al Jazeera that he came out to meet death just for a parcel of food.

Reactions from around the globe were mixed and consistent in calling on nations to hold the Zionist state accountable.

Sally Abi-Khalil, Oxfam International Regional Director for the Middle East, said all States—particularly those supporting Israel with military weapons despite the clear risk of them being used to commit war crimes—must respect the court’s ruling and refrain from any actions that undermine it.

“Palestinians should not have to endure another day of this suffering. We urge all countries to do all in their power to ensure an immediate ceasefire,” said Ms. Abi-Khalil. “Ensuring those responsible for violations on both sides are held accountable, and to end Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territory,” she said.

An injured Palestinian boy cries as rescuers try to pull him from the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Bureij refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Dahman, File)

Al Mayadeen English quoted reactions from resistance organizations in the region. Hamas welcomed the decision, considering it as substantiating the accusations of genocide being committed in Gaza.

The group emphasized the decision “opens the door for holding the enemy’s leaders accountable for these crimes before the International Criminal Court, affirming the rights of our Palestinian people to determine their destiny, establish their independent state, and return to their land and homes from which they were forcibly displaced, under international resolutions on this matter.”

Hamas also declared its appreciation for the “genuine stance” of South Africa.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad viewed the ICJ measures “as falling short” for not demanding a ceasefire. It is “evidence that global evil powers dominate the international legal system and organizations to serve their interests at the expense of the oppressed,” the group’s statement read.

Progressive organizations and coalition groups also applauded the ruling but implored that pressure must remain on Israel and its chief political backer the United States.

“We welcome the ruling,” said Ajamu Baraka, national organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), speaking on behalf of the group.

It is quite clear that the court, even under significant pressure on the judges from the countries they represent like the US, saw the evidence and argument South Africa advanced as so overwhelming that it had no other options than to at least concede in its provisional opinion that Israel is involved in genocidal activity, observers note.

“What this provisional decision reveals, is the true nature of the Israeli settler colonial project,” said Mr. Baraka. “People need to be reminded that not only are we dealing with the assault right now in Gaza, but that the Israelis have used their military technology … weapons … training, to back repressive right-wing governments around the world,” he said.

“That Israeli training of police forces in the US is directly responsible for the enhanced ability of those police forces to repress and to murder Black people in the US,” he continued, stating the importance of Israeli accountability. “So, this provisional ruling, should help people to understand that objectively, the Israeli government along with its enabler the US government, stands as an enemy to all colonized and oppressed people around the world,” said Mr. Baraka.

BAP is a founding member of The International Coalition to Stop Genocide in Palestine (ICSGP), which sees the court’s order as a crucial first step toward forcing Israel and its strongest political ally—the United States—to end the months-long brutal assault on Gaza, and the decades-long denial to Palestinians of their rights to self-determination and return.

“The ICSGP calls upon social movements to demand that world governments uphold international law and protect the integrity of the United Nations by ensuring that the ICJ’s provisional measures are immediately enforced, and to hold Israeli war criminals and their powerful U.S. accomplices accountable for genocide,” they said in a Jan. 26 statement.

A significant ruling

Dr. Luqa AbuFarah, North America coordinator for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC), an ICSGP member organization, stated:

“It’s clear we have a moral obligation to take action and end our government’s complicity with Israel’s Gaza genocide. We must have the courage to speak out and take action to advance the struggle for justice. We must end US military funding to Israel, which at $3.8 billion a year could instead provide more than 450,000 households with public housing for a year or pay for 41,490 elementary school teachers.

I also hope that every person outraged with the blatant disregard for Palestinian life will join and escalate our BDS campaigns and make sure companies know that complicity with Israeli apartheid and genocide is unacceptable. We must take action now more than ever!”

The provisional hearing happened one day before the International Holocaust Remembrance Day recognized every January 27. Some noted the ironic significance of Israel being on the court docket for genocide. “That is huge,” said Mouin Rabbani, analyst and co-editor of Jadaliyya, an electronic publication of the Arab Studies Institute.

“That’s what this issue is really about. Because for 75 years since 1948, Israel has instrumentalized, two words: ‘never again’ to justify everything that it’s doing,” said Mr. Rabbani. “It has managed to transform the definition of ‘never again,’ as applying exclusively to Israel,” he pointed out.

“That is no longer the case. Today ‘never again,’ the meaning of that has been transformed; never again shall any people be the victims of genocide, even if those seeking their destruction is Israel—many of whose people were victims of genocide themselves.

The Palestinian intellectual Edward Said often referred to Palestinians as the “victims of the victims,” and has talked about the uniquely difficult situation this puts the Palestinians in because the Jews are the victims with a capital “V,” so how can Israel possibly be guilty of crimes against the Palestinian people? Mr. Rabbani asked rhetorically. “That all changed today. Israel can no longer shield itself from accusations of crimes against the Palestinian people, by pointing a finger at the Nazis,” he reasoned.

Protesters carry flags and banners outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. The United Nations’ top court opened hearings Thursday into South Africa’s allegation that Israel’s war with Hamas amounts to genocide against Palestinians, a claim that Israel strongly denies. (AP Photo/Patrick Post)

“The historical irony of the Jews who’ve been subjected to European anti-semitism and experience what they experienced in Germany in World War II are now one of the first major governments ever to be exposed as a government engaged in genocide,” added Mr. Baraka. “This is significant.”

Around the world the pain anguish and cries of oppressed populations at the hands of unjust rulers is being seen, heard and felt.

According to the New York Times, more than 1,000 Black pastors representing hundreds of thousands of congregants nationwide have called on for a ceasefire.

“In sit-down meetings with White House officials, and through open letters and advertisements, ministers have made a moral case for President Biden and his administration to press Israel to stop its offensive operations in Gaza, which have killed thousands of civilians,” the New York Times reported in a Jan. 28 article.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad of the Nation of Islam, has described this world demand as an intensifying “universal cry for justice,” and he warned that all tyrants will be removed today by God Himself. The Minister spent decades calling the nations to a posture of balance and warning about the consequences of unbridled oppression.

Echoing his teacher, Minister Farrakhan stated that justice will ultimately come from the God of justice and cautioned tyrannical nations will be requited for their deeds and every nation will be called to its record.

On that day everyone will be requited for what they did, Minister Farrakhan pointed out in Part 15 of a yearlong lecture series called, “The Time And What Must Be Done,” in 2013. “So as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said that ‘the principle of justice’ will be ‘the weapon’ that God will use in ‘the Day of Requital,’ or, ‘the Day of Judgment,’ then this is ‘a bad day,’ then, for the wicked—a very bad day,” said Minister Farrakhan.

“What is the recompense for those who administer ‘suffering’ and ‘loss’? Jesus mentioned this ‘Law of Requital’ in these words found in the Book of Galatians, Chapter 6, verse 7: ‘Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,’” said Minister Farrakhan.

From the Bible Book of Hosea, Chapter 8, verse 7, Jesus said if you “sow the wind” you will “reap the whirlwind”—because nature never gives you “exactly” what you gave,” the Minister continued. “Nature always gives you more; so, if you’ve done ‘good,’ God will give you more than the good that you have done,” explained the Minister. “But for the ‘evildoer’: God will bring recompense on your head. And for the wicked who persist in evil: Oh, this ‘whirlwind’ is now blowing at your door!” he warned.

On February 25, Minister Farrakhan will address the subject, “What does Allah The Great Mahdi and The Great Messiah Have to Say About the War In the Middle East?” in Detroit, Michigan, at the Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day Convention. For more information, visit noi.org.