The Nation of Islam defiantly defended its government-funded work teaching religion to federal prisoners on Thursday, calling the program “a great benefit and blessing to the American Penal System.”
A black nationalist group led by Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam preaches that white people are “blue-eyed devils” and Jews are “the synagogue of Satan.” Its leaders have received at least $364,500 in contracts and awards from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019, the Washington Examiner first reported on Wednesday.
Demetric Muhammad, a long-time leader in the Nation of Islam Research Group, wrote a vehement defense of the group’s contract work with the Bureau of Prisons.
“The Nation of Islam, which is comprised of tax paying citizens, has a right to do business with the American government,” wrote Muhammad on ResearchMinister.com. “As effective as Minister Farrakhan’s message is and has been, it should be supported with the resources it needs to remain a strong presence within the prison system.”
“The work of the Nation of Islam, is a great benefit and blessing to the American Penal System,” he added. “The history, as we have shown, is overwhelming what we have been blessed to achieve.”
The Nation of Islam did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner before the article was published on Wednesday.
Federal spending records reviewed by the Washington Examiner show that the Bureau of Prisons funding dates back at least to fiscal 2008, with some contracts apparently approved in 2007.
The funding was designed to provide “Nation of Islam religious services,” “Nation of Islam spiritual guide services,” “Nation of Islam study services,” and other related programming led by the organization’s leaders, according to Bureau of Prisons records. The contracts went to the Nation of Islam’s corporate entities, mosques, and organization leaders.
The highest spending year appears to have occurred under former President Barack Obama in 2012, when the federal government gave over $47,000 in contracts to Nation of Islam programs. Funding has dropped under the Trump administration. In 2018, the programs received $17,000. The total obligation for 2019 is $8,250.
Muhammad slammed the Washington Examiner report as “lies, distortions and false characterizations” as well as “a full-frontal assault on one of Black America’s most cherished institutions-the Nation of Islam.” He wrote that the Nation of Islam’s work with inmates has been “recognized by prison officials for its positive impact on the prison environment,” citing two reports of prison officials praising the group in Muhammad Speaks, a Nation of Islam newspaper published between 1962 and 1978. Muhammad also said the program has supported “pioneering litigation” that “expanded and secured the Constitutional Rights for all incarcerated persons.”
According to Muhammad, the “primary teachings and curriculum” for the Nation of Islam Prison Reform Ministry is a guide written by Farrakhan entitled Self Improvement: The Basis for Community Development.
Depicted as a self-help course, excerpts from the study guide posted online include prompts such as, “Compare the relationship between Pontius Pilate and the Jews in the New Testament to the relationship between the Executive Branch (President and Staff) of the U.S. government and the Jews today.”
The guide also promotes the Nation of Islam’s philosophy that white people were created thousands of years ago by a black scientist named Yakub, who allegedly killed black babies as part of his experiment to produce the white race.
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment on the specifics of its contracts with the Nation of Islam because it said it does not keep records longer than six years. The contracts date back to at least 2008 and are set to continue into 2019.
While declining to comment on what reading materials the Nation of Islam provided to prisoners, the bureau cited a federal statute that said religious materials must “be previewed by [Bureau of Prison] staff, or any other staff-designated volunteers, prior to distribution” and “materials shall not denigrate or disparage any other religion or religious groups.” The Nation of Islam was founded in 1930 as a black nationalist offshoot of Islam. The group and its leader Farrakhan are known for their history of anti-Semitic and anti-white statements.
On Feb. 28, 1975, a 59-year-old Bureau of Prisons officer named Donald Reis was killed by inmates attending a Nation of Islam religious service in the prison chapel at El Reno Federal Correctional Institution, according to a memorial page on the Bureau of Prisons website. Three inmates, who reportedly attacked Reis with a galvanized pipe and makeshift knife, were convicted of murder in the case. According to the Bureau of Prisons, an investigation “found that the three inmates planned the officer’s murder because they felt the institution was repressing the practice of their religion.” Reis is named as one of 26 “fallen heroes” on the Bureau of Prisons website.
New York Republican Rep. Peter King, the chairman of the Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the U.S. government funding for the Nation of Islam was “beyond the pale.”
“What Farrakhan preaches is hatred and anti-Semitism and racism, and to use any federal money for any group that’s he’s involved with the do any type of teaching or proselytizing is just wrong,” King told the Washington Examiner this week.
Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right, called the funding “really outrageous and remarkable.”
Potok said many of the Nation of Islam’s beliefs are seen as heretical by mainstream Muslims — including the claim that its founder Wallace D. Fard is a deity and its view that white people are inherently evil.
“The Nation has, right from the beginning, extremely anti-Semitic, anti-gay beliefs,” said Potok.
The group has promoted theories that Israel was behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and the U.S. government has secretly poisoned black men with a chemical that would turn them gay. Farrakhan, who has led the organization since 1978, once called Adolf Hitler “a very great man” and routinely denounces Jews and white people as evil.
“White folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God’s grace, has pulled the cover off of that satanic Jew and I’m here to say your time is up, your world is through,” said Farrakhan in a speech last February.
