Farrakhan and the Lunatic Fringe


By Norm R. Allen Jr.

The Nation of Islam (NOI) has had its fair share of alliances with shady characters, White supremacists, violent theocrats, dictators, and others. It therefore might not come as a surprise to those that have closely examined the group to learn that the bizarre religious sect has now come under the sway of the Church of Scientology (COS).

Many have long regarded the COS as a dangerous religious cult. The group’s founder, the late L. Ron Hubbard, was deemed by many to be extremely racist against Black people. Many of its former members have complained of harassment and blackmail from COS leaders.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Nation’s leader, had been rumored to have been attracted to the COS for at least the past six years. On February 27, 2011, Farrakhan addressed a crowd of thousands at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois during the Nation’s Saviour’s Day celebration. The title of the speech was “God Will Send Saviours.”

The COS has a belief in “suppressive personalities” in which individuals can become sociopaths. Farrakhan told the audience, “I am looking at the Caucasian personality as that of a ‘sociopath.’” He said of White people, “You have manifested a personality that is against the laws of a genuine society.” (The speech went on for four hours. Much of it can be found at http://www.suppressivepersons.org/sp/archives/1752).

According to the May 31, 2011 issue of The Final Call, the Nation’s newspaper, about 700 NOI ministers are being trained as COS “auditors” or Dianetics teachers. According to Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary, Dianetics is “a nonscientific theory of personality explaining behavior in terms of an individual’s experiences prior to birth.” (Can anyone say crackpot?)

This is not the first time the COS has tried to market itself to Black people in a major way. The COS established an impressive church in Harlem, New York not many years ago. The late “Sibanye,” founder of the Center for Inquiry Harlem Discussion Group, made it a major topic of discussion. Surprisingly, many of the discussion group members had no problem with the establishment of the COS in Harlem, and still have no problem with it. Many from the Harlem Discussion Group asserted that perhaps the COS could aid the Black community in economic development and in other ways.

However, is the COS a harmless organization? In the May 16, 1991 issue of Time, Richard Behar made one of the most scathing and devastating critiques of the COS to ever make its way into print. According to Behar:

“Hubbard wrote one of Scientology’s sacred texts, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, in 1950. In it he introduced a crude psychotherapeutic technique called “auditing.” He also created a simplified lie detector (called an “E-meter”) that was designed to measure electrical changes in the skin while subjects discussed intimate details of their past.” (p. 50)

Behar went on to write that Hubbard claimed that the E-meter could cure blindness. Adding to bogus medical claims, Hubbard asserted that people are composed of spirits called thetans who were driven from the Earth 75,000,000 years ago by a vicious extraterrestrial despot called Xenu.

Behar wrote: “A federal court ruled in 1971 that Hubbard’s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could no longer be called a scientific treatment.” (ibid) (To see the entire article online, go to http://www.cs.cmu/~dst/Fishman/time-behar.html)

Many of Scientology’s outlandish beliefs seem to be no less strange than those of Screwy Louie Farrakhan and the NOI. After all, in the aforementioned Saviour’s Day speech, the sinister minister reverted to the old-school NOI teaching about the Black scientist Yacub (a.k.a. Yakub), the evil creator of the White race 6,600 years ago. Farrakhan also reiterated his claim that in 1985 he boarded “a wheel that you call a UFO,” on which he had a vision and heard the late Elijah Muhammad, the NOI’s former leader, speak.

All of this insanity raises the question: Could religious fanatics ever lead Black people to freedom, justice, and equality? The answer is a resounding “no.” Religious individuals, leaders, and organizations—especially progressive ones—could do so. However, religious fanaticism is by its nature reactionary, authoritarian and theocratic. Religious fanatics could bring forth some positive changes, such as pride, sobriety, improved eating habits, lower crime rates, etc. However, after all is said and done, religious fanatics simply want to replace one form of oppression for one rooted in their own theocratic politics. This is something Black people must always keep in mind when confronted with proposed solutions from leaders such as Farrakhan.

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Farrakhan and the Lunatic Fringe
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8 thoughts on “Farrakhan and the Lunatic Fringe

  1. 2

    Mr. Allen , i must say that I find you quite shady . I have never heard of you or your work or contribution to the freedom ,justice and equality of Black people that you speak of.What are your recommendations for the direction that we should take to this endeavor? Have you read , " The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews" Book 2 or are you another "Negro" frog in the mouth of a Zionist Dragon whose fire is quickly going out?

  2. 3

    Sultan, I am sorry that you are unfamiliar with my work. Perhaps you ought to read more and stop depending so much on the literature of reactionary leaders. If you decide to start reading more, you could check out the African American Humanist Declaration I authored years ago, to examine some of my recommendations. In any case, why in the world are you referring to Jews and Zionists? They have nothing whatsoever to do with what I have written, so you might do better to take your bigoted musings elsewhere. BTW, I have read THE SECRET RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BLACKS AND JEWS, Book 1. It was pretty whack, not suprisingly. I won't waste my time reading the second book.

  3. 4

    I have read the Secrete Relationship Between Blacks and Jews, part 1, and it conform the frustration I have with the black leaders who, as Mr. Norm Allan, a great humanitarian points out, are hyper religious, "reactionary, authoritarian and theocratic." These people have, and continue, to blame the white man for all that is going wrong with the black population with out coming up with any idea that is truly workable to fix our problems. All they propose are partisan religious organization. Come joined some Masonic religious organization and wait for some supernatural savior/s to help us. We cannot help ourselves by relying on these schemes, nor, can we, by putting all of our time in blaming the white man, which is something that always appeals to a lot in the Afro-centric movement, while sitting around waiting for some mythological Yaacob, Enqi, Shango etc or some dead relatives (aka ancestors) to come and help us. Indeed, we need to read, read and do not become comfortable in our own ideological extreme that we disregard of our own wellbeing. Great article Mr. Norm Allan!

  4. 5

    To the respondents to my comment ,
    Your words are very academic , but fruitless. The words of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan have produced The Million Man March (1995), The Million Family March (2000), The Millions More Movement(2005), several world tours borne out of these efforts at the request of Presidents and world leaders in more than seventy countries who saw the values of these messages as beneficial for their people. He has constantly , asked for the help of academicians as yourself who could help from a professional perspective, to incorporate what just these millions have hoped for which comes from the bridging or connection of the academic head to working body.Each meeting was a record attendance for the Washington Mall. This should tell you something about the desire of the masses of our people . Has your work attracted more than pontificates . I mentioned the Zionist Jews , because your language with respect to The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan wreaks of their verbiage , as they see him bringing in the New Paradigm which marks the end of their rule and an old world which functions from the mindset which you have concerning The Minister. Let's see if you can improve your position with the masses of our people over the next few months. Just keep watching the weather and the collision course , economically, that America is on as she leads the rest of the western world into ruin. Time will tell , shortly , which of us is impotent in producing fruit and who has the truth. Be careful how you handle someone who is loved because of their work rather than their jargon> How has the response of your writing brought results to the masses of our people who will be the ones to determine the future. More knowledge of the rise and fall of other civilizations would help understand the course of the events of today's world.Within the next six months we will see who is closer to the truth and I will certainly join you if I see the tide turning in your direction . Thank you for responding and We are open to anyone who can disprove the truth of anything the Minister has said , based on actual fact . I must say that I did not hear any of you deny the truth of what he has said. Thank you , again.

  5. 7

    Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous :
    Do you really think that Black people are still so immature that you can just make a silly statement like you did with no substance to back it up ? You won't even back up who you are , yet take people for granted that your elevated word is enough to discount a point or establish one without fact. How arrogant. This reminds me of the Babylonian Talmud which states that a Jew only has to make a statement to the goyim (useless eaters,etc.), he does not have to prove.Are you familiar with that? It is a tactic that is still used everyday , as in world slavery ,to begin rumors , without qualifications. Now , only the most skilled of our most deceptive friends and their trained imps use this method.

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