The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Issues a Statement on the Lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Simon Wiesenthal Center
By The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan- October 31, 2023
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
[Editor’s note: The following is the statement delivered by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan on Saturday, October 28, 2023, concerning the lawsuit “Minister Louis Farrakhan & The Nation of Islam v. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Johnathan Greenblatt (ADL CEO/National Director), The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), Rabbi Abraham Cooper (SWC Assoc. Dean/Director of Global Social Action), which was filed on October 16, 2023, in the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York for 1st Amendment violations and for defamation. To read the press release and case documents, please visit NOI.org/NOIvADL.
In The Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful. I Bear Witness That There Is No God But Allah. And I Bear Witness That Muhammad Is His Messenger.
As-Salaam Alaikum. This is Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and that great preacher of Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Black man and woman of America, to the Black man and woman in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, in Africa, in the Isles of the Pacific, and to our Brown and Red and Yellow brothers and sisters. Wherever you are, this message is for you.
On the 28th Anniversary of the Million Man March, October 16th, we filed a lawsuit against the ADL and The Simon Wiesenthal Center, against their leadership, because our desire, now, is to state our case before the courts and before the world. We are not what they have said we are—and we intend to prove such.
This is probably the most sensitive time in our struggle for equal justice, freedom, and equality. For nearly 40 years we have withstood the awful charges that have come against me and those who are in the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and myself.
As-Salaam Alaikum. This is Minister Louis Farrakhan, the National Representative of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, the Eternal Leader of the Nation of Islam, and that great preacher of Freedom, Justice and Equality to the Black man and woman of America, to the Black man and woman in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, in Africa, in the Isles of the Pacific, and to our Brown and Red and Yellow brothers and sisters. Wherever you are, this message is for you.
On the 28th Anniversary of the Million Man March, October 16th, we filed a lawsuit against the ADL and The Simon Wiesenthal Center, against their leadership, because our desire, now, is to state our case before the courts and before the world. We are not what they have said we are—and we intend to prove such.
This is probably the most sensitive time in our struggle for equal justice, freedom, and equality. For nearly 40 years we have withstood the awful charges that have come against me and those who are in the Nation of Islam under the leadership of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and myself.
We have borne a lot in these last 40 years in the absence of our great leader and teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. And he, Elijah Muhammad, prepared me to receive the insults, the sneers, being evil spoken of, and my and our reputation being scarred and bruised by the false charges of “anti-Semitism” by the Anti-Defamation League. And with their influence over the media, these false charges have been spread throughout the Earth.
All over the world, I and we have been hated; and I and we are hated the same today. I have been denied entrance into several countries and have been labeled as “persona non grata.” I am presently being called “the Godfather of hate,” and I am being called “one of the leading anti-Semites in America.”
The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad
Myself and my family, and those who follow the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad under my leadership, have suffered and been scapegoated, and have lost positions in media, lost positions in business, because of the vileness of the charge even though we are saying that which is absolutely the truth.
In the Holy Qur’an it reads, “And mix not up truth with falsehood nor hide the truth while you know.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us and taught us that hiding the truth leads to all kinds of mischief-making and vile behavior, hatred, and even death. So we thought it is now time for us to legally respond to these false charges.
Two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire, the Jews of that day caused the Roman authorities to join with them to bring false charges against Jesus, as he was the last prophet to the Jews. Two thousand years later, some members of the Jewish community, the ADL and others, have met with White House officials and some members of the United States government to formulate a strategy that would enable them to make laws and policies that would allow them to arrest me or others who are falsely accused of being “anti-Semitic.”
Myself and my family, and those who follow the Teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad under my leadership, have suffered and been scapegoated, and have lost positions in media, lost positions in business, because of the vileness of the charge even though we are saying that which is absolutely the truth.
In the Holy Qur’an it reads, “And mix not up truth with falsehood nor hide the truth while you know.” The Honorable Elijah Muhammad told us and taught us that hiding the truth leads to all kinds of mischief-making and vile behavior, hatred, and even death. So we thought it is now time for us to legally respond to these false charges.
Two thousand years ago in the Roman Empire, the Jews of that day caused the Roman authorities to join with them to bring false charges against Jesus, as he was the last prophet to the Jews. Two thousand years later, some members of the Jewish community, the ADL and others, have met with White House officials and some members of the United States government to formulate a strategy that would enable them to make laws and policies that would allow them to arrest me or others who are falsely accused of being “anti-Semitic.”
My teacher told me, “Take plenty, brother.” And he told me that his Teacher, Master Fard Muhammad, told him, “You must take plenty.” But why? You must take plenty if you are being made to be a saviour, a redeemer, a reconciler, a resurrector. You must have the patience through your suffering to bring about the salvation and the transformation of the lives of those to whom you are missioned.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad taught me of the three most hated persons in the world. The first, being a rich person who wishes to share his riches with those less fortunate; second, those who are considered rich in knowledge and wisdom, who want to share that knowledge and that wisdom with the ignorant. And lastly, the most hated of all persons is the man to whom the Holy Qur’an is revealed.
Why? Because the revelation of the last great book of prophecy, and teaching the Honorable Elijah Muhammad the meaning of all of the prophecies that are found in the Bible and the Holy Qur’an, gives that man the power to 1.) bring the whole of religion together in oneness, and 2.) bring about the end of a world like this, and the civilization of those who are the archdeceivers who rule this world. So Paul said, “We war not against flesh and blood, but we war against the principalities and the powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world.”
I am a follower of such a man, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who was taught the meaning of all of the prophecies found in the Bible and Holy Qur’an. So while he was among us, he said if any scholar or scientist could prove him wrong, he would pay out of his brother’s vest pocket $10,000 for every word that you could prove that was wrong, and he would pay with his life for lying.
As his student, whom he sat in his seat in July of 1972, and anointed me and commissioned me to make his great commission known, I issue the same challenge. If you can prove me to be a liar in my recitation of his Teachings, and my understanding of what he said to me when he brought me to The Great Wheel in 1985—if you can prove me to be a liar, you don’t have to try to kill me; I will be willing to pay with my life for such!
When we saw that the ADL and others have joined with the U.S. government to produce a legal justification for punishment of anyone who is so charged as being a “hater of the Jewish people” and an “anti-Semite,” we decided to bring a lawsuit, which we filed on Monday, October 16th, the 28th Anniversary of the Million Man March.
We summoned the lawyers in the Nation of Islam who have also suffered by just being attached to me and The Nation. But suffering is what we all have done! Yet, you cannot prove that anyone who is a follower of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad under my leadership has ever done anything of hatred toward the community of Jewish people, White people, any people!
You cannot find one word in the tens of millions of words that God has guided me to speak in 68 years of my service where I ever called for the death of those who call themselves “Jews.”
Even though my phones may be tapped, and my house may be tapped, and you have heard my private conversations, my conversations at the dinner table, and you have even heard me praying! But you cannot find me even praying like David did, for the death of his enemies; David, who is the sign of the Promised Messiah.
Boy, I have thought about such prayers, but I have never uttered them; because I, like the God I serve, do not take pleasure in God’s killing of the people who are sinful; or us, for our sins. My teacher, Elijah Muhammad, taught me that “He came to save us from our sins,” and he added “the sins of White people” that we have been nurtured under; an iniquitous people who have made us into themselves.
And this is our reason for going before the courts: To attempt, with the help of Allah (God), to prove our innocence of such false charges, and that the guilty who charge us with their crimes are the ones who should suffer the punishment of judgment because they lie! They lie on a good man, who has never been arrested, never condemned as being a liar, never done anyone evil—and you wish death for me, and for those who follow me.
So we think the time is right! We have taken aplenty, and you cannot find us calling for the death of any Jewish person, harming one hair on their head, putting a swastika on any synagogue, or walking in protest at their stores and businesses asking people not to trade with them. But this, they have done to us, so we say: Enough is enough. So we have chosen to bring this action before the courts, and also before the people of America and the world.
Boy, I have thought about such prayers, but I have never uttered them; because I, like the God I serve, do not take pleasure in God’s killing of the people who are sinful; or us, for our sins. My teacher, Elijah Muhammad, taught me that “He came to save us from our sins,” and he added “the sins of White people” that we have been nurtured under; an iniquitous people who have made us into themselves.
And this is our reason for going before the courts: To attempt, with the help of Allah (God), to prove our innocence of such false charges, and that the guilty who charge us with their crimes are the ones who should suffer the punishment of judgment because they lie! They lie on a good man, who has never been arrested, never condemned as being a liar, never done anyone evil—and you wish death for me, and for those who follow me.
So we think the time is right! We have taken aplenty, and you cannot find us calling for the death of any Jewish person, harming one hair on their head, putting a swastika on any synagogue, or walking in protest at their stores and businesses asking people not to trade with them. But this, they have done to us, so we say: Enough is enough. So we have chosen to bring this action before the courts, and also before the people of America and the world.
Jesus, in his “Sermon on The Mount” found in Matthew 5:11-12: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” And it was my brother, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said: “Underserved suffering is redemptive.”
And so, we have paid the price to be looked upon as saviours and redeemers of our people, and correctors of the awful condition that we have been placed in by our enemies. So if you would like to read the complaint and the exhibits that we have submitted to the court, please use the QR code that appears on the screen [visit NOI.org/NOIvADL].
And get the full transcript of the complaint, and the many pages of documents that support the charge that we have made, and then share it with your family and your friends. And don’t ever worry about what the outcome is going to be, because truth crushed to the earth will rise again.
Thank you for listening and may Allah bless each of you with the light of understanding, as I greet you in peace: As-Salaam Alaikum (Peace be unto you).
