Farrakhan sees a new opening for black separatist message
After a presidential campaign that emboldened white identity politics, the Nation of Islam, a black separatist religious movement, is positioning itself as newly relevant.
The Nation has an extensive prison ministry, along with health and social service programs, and the movement's militia, the Fruit of Islam, provides security at public housing and elsewhere.
Zain Abdullah, a Temple University professor who specializes in Islamic studies, noted the Nation first gained national prominence in 1957 following their stunningly disciplined Harlem protest after police beat Nation member Johnson Hinton.
Mikal Nash, a professor at Essex County College in Newark and author of "Muslims in Newark, New Jersey: A Social History," said he has noticed increasing interest in "the voice of people like Minister Farrakhan much the same way there's been an interest in the voice of Donald Trump."
During the campaign, Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists, advocated policies that put Muslims under general suspicion and drew an endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan.
During the campaign, Farrakhan sent mixed signals about Trump, indicating the minister saw some reflection of his worldview in the candidate's rhetoric, including the Republican's talk of a "global power structure" that has rigged the economy.
In an extensive interview last January with Alex Jones of InfoWars, a conservative website that traffics in conspiracy theories, Farrakhan described Trump as a "businessman par excellence" and agreed with Trump's proposal to more strongly vet refugees from Muslim countries, pointing to the resentment generated by American policies in the Muslim world.
During a February address on Saviours' Day, an annual event commemorating the movement's founder, Farrakhan praised Trump for confronting Republican establishment candidates like Jeb Bush.
Mainstream Islam teaches the unity of all believers no matter their ethnicity.
Because of the failure of integration, I think we're finding that people are attracted to, out of their frustration, Farrakhan's message.