Al Sharpton’s Group and Black Lives Matter Team Up for Pro-Farrakhan Protest

Several black activist groups are holding a protest on Monday in defense of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, a notorious anti-Semite and racist revealed to have close ties to prominent Democratic politicians and activists.

Black Lives Matter, the New Black Panther Party and the National Action Network are among the groups spearheading the protest, the organizers said in a press release.

The groups are protesting a House resolution, introduced by Republican Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita, that formally condemns Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. The activists instead want lawmakers to pass a resolution condemning President Donald Trump.

Rev. Al Sharpton has been NAN’s president since he founded the group in 1991. {snip}

More than 100 organizers “will go office-to-office to deal with the GOP representatives that are leading this campaign, in specific Congressman Todd Rokita,” according to the press release.

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“We cannot allow a politically hypocritical political situation to exist whereas an openly racist president, Donald Trump is given a free pass and to spew racist venom and racist policies by a confederate based GOP; and then they have the gall to issue an official legislative condemnation of a private citizen and Black leader who is dearly beloved by the masses,” said Black Lawyers for Justice president Malik Zulu Shabazz, one of the protest organizers.

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Farrakhan has re-emerged as a politically divisive figure among Democrats due to three recent developments.

First, a Nation of Islam photographer revealed a 13-year-old photo of then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama smiling with Farrakhan at a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) meeting in 2005.

The CBC asked him to suppress the photo’s publication in order to protect Obama’s presidential aspirations, the photographer said. Twenty-one current House Democrats were in the CBC when Farrakhan had his meeting with the caucus.

Second, Women’s March leader Tamika Mallory attended Farrakhan’s annual Saviour’s Day speech in February, where he railed against Jews and white people. Mallory has repeatedly defended Farrakhan and Women’s March has declined to denounce him, alienating some progressives both within the organization and outside of it.

Third, several House Democrats have been revealed to have closer relationships with Farrakhan than previously known.

That includes DNC deputy chair Keith Ellison, who claimed to have cut ties with Farrakhan before running for Congress in 2006, when actually he attended multiple meetings with the hate group leader during his time in Congress.

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South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the third-highest ranking Democrat in the House, shared a stage with Farrakhan in 2011 and has since declined to condemn him.

Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters, who attended a Nation of Islam convention where Farrakhan defended suicide bombers, has similarly remained silent on Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism, despite repeated media inquiries.