In 2013, Rev, Raphael Warnock, who is currently running for the U.S. Senate as a Democrat, called the Nation of Islam, which has been headed by anti-Semitic and racist Rev. Louis Farrakhan for decades, an “important” voice for blacks, adding, “we’ve needed the witness of the Nation of Islam.”
Warnock was prompted by a member of the audience of the 2013 event who said, “You referred to ‘the church,’ and I realize that there are many churches, but what would you say is the church’s relationship with the Nation of Islam and the Islamic movement that has a growing number of African-American members, and perhaps as a part of that, can you discuss whether the black church is having the same type of attendance problems that the so-called mainstream white churches and synagogues are having, and if so, why or why not?”
Warnock, the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta since 2005, replied, “Well, the Nation of Islam is significant, but its numbers don’t come anywhere near the membership of our churches. Its voice has been important, and its voice has been important even for the development of black theology. Because it was the Black Muslims who challenged black preachers and said you’re promulgating, you know, they called, ‘the white man’s religion. And that’s a slave religion; you’re telling people to focus on heaven meanwhile they’re catching hell.’”
“And so we’ve needed the witness of the Nation of Islam, in a real sense, to put a fire under us and keep us honest about the meaning of the proclamation coming from our pulpit,” Warnock stated.
Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, has infamously referred to Jews as termites. In 2018 he boasted that he wasn’t an anti-Semite, but “anti-termite,” calling the Jewish community and the white community “stupid.” He declared:
White folk don’t like Farrakhan. Some of them respect me, but those who have been our deceivers, they can’t stand me. I’m not mad with you. In fact, to the members of the Jewish community that don’t like me, thank you very much for putting my name all over the planet. Because of your fear of what we represent, I can go anywhere in the world and they’ve heard of Farrakhan. Thank you very much. I’m not mad at you, ‘cuz you’re so stupid.
Farrakhan claimed he didn’t hate anyone because of their religious preference, snapping, “So when they talk about Farrakhan, call me a hater, you know what they do, call me an anti-Semite, stop it. I’m anti-termite.”
Farrakhan has likened the Jewish Star of David to sexual immorality. He has claimed the Jews run government agencies, asserting, “They [Israel and Jews] have been working for years to control your representatives in Congress, in the Senate, in the House of Representatives. They don’t fear America because they control it from within.” He announced he was here to announce the “end of your time” for Jews, and suggested Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, saying, “It is now becoming apparent that there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks. Israelis had foreknowledge of the attacks … we know that many Jews received a text message not to come to work on September 11.” Farrakhan has called Judaism a “gutter religion.”
Farrakhan made nefarious statements prior to Warnock’s 2013 speech. As far back as 1997, Farrakhan stated on “Meet The Press,” “I believe that for the small numbers of Jewish people in the United States, they exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the affairs of government…Yes, they exercise extraordinary control, and Black people will never be free in this country until they are free of that kind of control…”
Prior to that, in his Saviour’s Day Speech in February 1996, Farrakhan ranted about Jews, “And you do with me as is written, but remember that I have warned you that Allah will punish you. You are wicked deceivers of the American people. You have sucked their blood. You are not real Jews, those of you that are not real Jews. You are the synagogue of Satan, and you have wrapped your tentacles around the U.S. government, and you are deceiving and sending this nation to hell. But I warn you in the name of Allah, you would be wise to leave me alone. But if you choose to crucify me, know that Allah will crucify you.”
Six years before that, in his 1990 Saviour’s Day Speech, Farrakhan raged, “The Jews, a small handful, control the movement of this great nation, like a radar controls the movement of a great ship in the waters. … The Jews got a stranglehold on the Congress.”