Article

Nation of Islam Provides Platform For Anti-Semitic 9/11 Truthers

by: Oren Segal

March 31, 2016

The Nation of Islam (NOI) has published a series of interviews with anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theorists to support Farrakhan’s repeated claim that Jews are to blame for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

NOI Research Group promoting on Twitter the interview with anti-Semitic 9/11 truther Christopher Bollyn

NOI Research Group promoting on Twitter the interview with anti-Semitic 9/11 truther Christopher Bollyn

The NOI’s Research Group published the hateful interviews on its website in response to ADL’s article in the Huffington Post Reconciliation Cannot Mean Turning a Blind Eye to Farrakhan’s Anti-Semitism, an answer to Russell Simmons’ The Nation of Islam and the Anti-Defamation League—Now is the Time to Mend Fences.

In “9/11 Expert Responds To ADL Attack On Minister Farrakhan” (March 25), the “expert” the NOI interviewed to back up its hateful conspiracy theories is 9/11 truther and anti-Semite Kevin Barrett. Barrett, a former instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a columnist for the anti-Semitic website Veterans Today, where he has blamed Jews for the Charlie Hebdo attack, the creation of ISIS, the 2011 attacks in Norway that killed 77, the 2001 anthrax poisonings, among other things all supposedly perpetrated by Israel in order to “incite hatred of Muslims and solidarity with Israel.”

Statements made by Barrett in this NOI Research Group interview include:

  • “The 9/11 false flag operation was designed to defame Arabs, Palestinians, and Muslims in general, in service to Israel.”
  • “Israel’s Mossad…is the only intelligence agency with the means, motive, and opportunity to pull off 9/11 – a very complex cover-and-deception operation that had to have been overseen by an intelligence agency.”
  • “Jewish Zionists, ranging from hard-line neocons to ‘liberal Zionists’…have led the cover-up of 9/11.”
  • “But Americans would certainly find a way to peacefully put an end to the illegitimate entity [Israel] that not only attacked them on 9/11 but also has stolen trillions of dollars, dragged America into ruinous wars, destroyed our economy, and shredded our Constitution.”

    Farrakhan promoting the anti-Semitic interview with Kevin Barrett on Facebook

    Farrakhan promoting the anti-Semitic interview with Kevin Barrett on Facebook

In “Journalist Christopher Bollyn Backs Farrakhan On 9/11: Israel Did It!” (March 29) the NOI presents as an “expert” anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Christopher Bollyn. Bollyn was one of the earliest promoters of anti-Semitic 9/11 theories blaming Israel and Jews for the attacks and wrote in his 2012 book that “The ‘false flag’ ter­ror­ism of 9/11 is a mon­strous Jewish-Zionist crime of our time.  The true cul­prits of this heinous crime are clearly being pro­tected by a gang of like-minded Jew­ish Zion­ists in the high­est posi­tions of the U.S. government…” He has also written numerous other articles on his website that accuse Jews of controlling the media and government.

Bollyn stated the following to the NOI Research Group:

  • “The best evidence tying Israel to the 9/11 atrocity is the fact that the key people involved in every aspect of the crime and the cover-up are Israelis and Zionists, from A to Z.”
  • “The one-hundred percent consistency of Zionists and Israelis throughout the 9/11 saga provides compelling evidence that the crime is a Zionist/Israeli crime.”
  •  “…the most important thing is that we get the truth to a critical mass of the population...This is the only way we can remove the Zionist criminal cabal that controls our government and media.”

In “Scholar Backs Farrakhan on 9/11 (March 23), the “scholar” the NOI promotes is James Fet­zer, one of the co-founders of Schol­ars for 9/11 Truth, an orga­ni­za­tion that is com­posed of aca­d­e­mics and oth­ers who believe that the U.S. gov­ern­ment played a role in the 9/11 attacks. Fetzer is also a colum­nist for the anti-Semitic web­site Vet­er­ans Today and has writ­ten arti­cles in which he pro­motes anti-Semitic 9/11 con­spir­acy theories.

Fetzer made the following statements in his interview with the NOI:

  • “The plan appears to have originated in the fertile mind of Benjamin Netanyahu, who wanted to devise a plan to draw the United States into a war with the Arab nations that served as a counter-balance to Israel’s domination of the Middle East.”
  • “9/11 was brought to us compliments of the CIA, the Neo-Cons in the Department of Defense and the Mossad.”
  • “We present proof of Israeli and Zionist involvement from the security at the airports to the World Trade Center…and many others involved in setting the 9/11 stage and carrying it out."

The idea that Jews are to blame for 9/11 is noth­ing new for Far­rakhan, who told his 2016 Saviours’ Day audience that the “Syn­a­gogue of Satan” is to blame for the Iraq War and 9/11. During his 2015 Sav­iours’ Day remarks, Farrakhan stated, “It is now becom­ing appar­ent that there were many Israelis and Zion­ist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks.” The NOI’s Sav­iours’ Day pro­vides Far­rakhan with an annual plat­form to dis­play his hatred for Jews.

Despite Farrakhan’s decades-long his­tory of racism and anti-Semitism, Far­rakhan con­tin­ues to receive sup­port from celebri­ties and elected offi­cials. Far­rakhan was also pro­vided with a plat­form to pro­mote anti-Semitism in Iran in February as a spe­cial guest at mul­ti­ple high-level events, meet­ing with cur­rent and for­mer Iran­ian gov­ern­ment offi­cials.