'The Holocaust, History, and Hate' by Ashahed M. Muhammad | January 28, 2015 |

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Mikal Veale /Choice Imagery )

The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. I visited the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) during one of my trips to Washington D.C.

As I walked through the halls of this very impressive museum, I thought to myself: How could a group experience such terrible suffering, yet, in an ironically tragic role reversal, shockingly participate in inflicting the same type of suffering upon others? Look at the tremendous suffering of the Palestinian people. Witness the documented involvement of Jewish people in developing the architecture of White Supremacy and Jim Crow.

According to the USHMM’s directors, since its dedication in 1993, it has welcomed more than 37.3 million visitors, including 96 heads of state and more than ten million school-age children. In fact, when I was there during my visit, an all-Black middle school class from Maryland, numbering about 40, took the tour of the building and many exhibits.

I reflected as I stood quietly looking at the flame in the Hall of Remembrance. I looked closely at the dreadful black and white photos of the emaciated bodies of many who perished. I read the long lists of those whose names are known but faces aren’t. I stared at the portrait of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, the Black man who was gunned down protecting those inside the USHMM when crazed 88-year-old White-Supremacist James Wenneker von Brunn came into the USHMM  shooting a rifle on June 10, 2009.

A quiet moment of reflection in the Hall of Remembrance. (Photo: Mikal Veale/Choice Imagery) 

I found it ironic that in the foyer, there is an inscription with words from the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal;…They are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights...among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” There are some Jewish people who don’t consider anyone to be their equal and if you’ve read any of my previous writings, you know my position on that.

I found two exhibits particularly fascinating: “A Dangerous Lie: Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and “The Nuremberg Trials: What Is Justice?”  What is justice? What an excellent question!

No one finds it unreasonable that Jewish people desire to hunt down anyone, anywhere, who had a role in their suffering. In fact, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s “Operation Last Chance” was formed just for that purpose. Don’t believe me? Consider this from the project’s website:

“Operation Last Chance is a campaign to bring remaining Nazi war criminals to justice by offering financial rewards for information leading to their arrest and conviction. To date the initiative has been launched in Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Austria, Croatia, and Hungary.”

Here are some of the names from their “Most Wanted” list of Nazi war criminals: Gerhard Sommer, 93, (Last known location: Germany), Vladimir Katriuk, 93, (Last known location: Canada), Søren Kam, 93, (Last known location: Germany), Theodor Szehinskyj, 91, (Last known location: United States), Helmut Oberlander, 91, (Last known location: Canada). 

They have successfully hunted down and arrested men in their 90s who were later found for medical reasons to be unfit for trial. They will not rest until they obtain justice and the offenders are made to pay for their crimes.  No “turn the other cheek” or “forgive and forget” teachings exist in their realm.

Having read and heard so much about The Protocols in my life, I thought about the creation of this publication that has taken on a life of its own. The Protocols have been published, republished, circulated, translated and have reached almost every part of the planet. The document is significant by all accounts, even if its veracity is still questioned by many. It should be noted that because of its impact, it warranted its very own featured exhibit at the USHMM.

The Exhibit “A Dangerous Lie: Protocols of the Elders of Zion” examines the influence of this infamous document that has been translated and spread throughout the earth. (Photo: Mikal Veale/Choice Imagery) 

Prior to exiting, I talked with one of the women acting as chaperones for the junior high school students near the bookstore. My intense focus and concentration during the tour intrigued her. My questions caused her to think deeper about what kind of historical realities are being planted in the minds of our  youth. I’m not implying that there is anything wrong with them taking a tour of the USHMM, it’s just that regrettably, after the pre-teens walked through the USHMM, do they know more about Auschwitz and Storm Troopers, than they do about Gorée Island and Slave Traders?  

It was indoctrination at its finest, but what do you expect? The curators of the USHMM are telling their story and they are doing it with over 18,000 objects of art and artifacts, 76.6 million pages of archived data with 134 million digital images, 89,000 historical photographs, 1,050 hours of archival video footage and over 14,000 oral history testimonies from survivors, witnesses and perpetrators.

Perhaps the most important fact, is that they have a Base Operating Budget of $87.6 million in Fiscal Year 2014. ($52.4 million in federal revised appropriation; $35.2 million in unrestricted private donations and investment income.)

Any self-respecting people interested in transferring generational knowledge must tell their own stories. 

The Charles Wright Museum in Detroit, Michigan; the DuSable Museum in Chicago, Illinois; and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, Ohio are all wonderful repositories of information related to the Black Holocaust. Have you visited any of them? Have you taken a weekend to take your teenage children to visit them? Have you supported them financially by becoming a member, or donating?

If we are to have institutions that will tell our stories, we must build them, and once we build them, we must support them as responsible custodians and guardians of our sacred truths.

Holocaust ‘Denial’ and Zionism’s critics

Contrary to what has been presented via the decades long smear campaign of the ADL, neither the Nation of Islam nor Minister Louis Farrakhan has ever engaged in what is called “Holocaust Denial.” Far from denying it, we submit that the Black Holocaust is in fact the worst crime against humanity to ever occur. Yes, I know what they mean when they refer to the Holocaust. They believe what took place at the hands of Adolph Hitler and his henchman is unrivaled in the annals of history.

In fact, I shook hands with an Auschwitz Holocaust survivor, Hajo Meyer, when the 2011 “Never Again For Anyone” tour came to Chicago. He wrote a book titled “The End of Judaism” which he autographed for me. The book accuses Israel of using the Holocaust to justify their oppression and crimes against the Palestinian people. He passed in the summer of 2014. I had never heard a more staunch and vocal critic of Zionism.

Another critic of Zionism who has suffered personally and professionally because of his honesty is Dr. Norman Finkelstein. One of his many books is titled “The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering.” He is also the son of Holocaust survivors. A courageous man.

 With Dr. Norman Finkelstein after one of many his lectures in Chicago.
(Photo: TEI Enlightener News Service) 

And of course, I’ve had the opportunity on numerous occasions to talk to Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Neturei Karta International, an anti-Zionist grouping of Haredi Jews who are outspokenly critical of Zionism. One of my most memorable moments involving them is in 2009, when I was in the halls of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland and well-known Zionist lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Rabbi Weiss almost had a physical altercation! Mr. Dershowitz was the aggressor. I saw it with my own eyes.

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of Naturei Karta International  in 2009 at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
(Photo: TEI Enlightener News Servuce)

And on another occasion, I was in Tampa International Airport last year on my way back to Chicago, and I saw the “high priest” of the Holocaust religion, Elie Wiesel, live and in person. We didn’t exchange greetings or anything. I saw him, he didn’t see me, plus, he doesn’t know me. I raise his name in this particular context to remind you that he was the one who famously said:

“Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate—healthy, virile hate—for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.”

His words are instructive.  

Again, no “turn the other cheek” or “forgive and forget” teachings exist in their realm.

As a testament to their awesome control of public knowledge, the enemies of truth focus only on that which they feel it is “safe” for you to know. Whether in the area of politics, history, economics, or science, many books—especially those designed for academic use—are presumed to have been thoroughly evaluated by impartial scholars and fact checkers. Such is not the case. As we have learned, misrepresentation is the rule, not the exception—especially when it comes to dealing with Black history. 

In all cases, a review of previously accepted historical realities is necessary. As time goes on, new information becomes available challenging previously accepted views. Don’t be afraid to investigate unpopular or controversial views for yourself. The truth is out there.

(Ashahed M. Muhammad is the executive director of the Truth Establishment Institute and Assistant Editor of the influential weekly The Final Call. His interviews and writings are widely read by those looking for balanced information and alternative viewpoints. He hosts a weekly radio show 'Take Another Look' Wednesdays at 9PM Central on Know1Radio.com. On Twitter @AshahedM )

#NAACPBombing shows Angry White males in U.S. are still a far greater threat than foreigners abroad

America's Domestic Terrorists?

(FinalCall.com) - There is a very real threat to law enforcement officers in America, however, the primary threat is not coming from ISIS, Al-Qaeda or any radicalized Muslims in the United States as the controlled media would have you believe.

A direct threat has emerged from within the sovereign citizens movement, an ideologically committed group of people with documented views against the U.S. government, who advocate violent overthrow of existing government structures, laws and call for citizen arrests of high-ranking political officials. It is also referred to in some circles as the “Patriot” movement.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sovereign citizens are anti-government extremists who subscribe to a wide range of beliefs. A central theme, however, is that although they physically reside in this country, they are separate or “sovereign” from the United States. They don’t believe they have to answer to any government authority, including courts, taxing entities, motor vehicle departments, or law enforcement.

In 2009, the United States Department of Homeland Security under the direction of then Secretary Janet Napolitano released a report titled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”

The report warned White supremacist, right wing militias and sovereign citizen groups were gaining strength, becoming more dissatisfied, and that could quite possibly lead to violent incidents. The election of the nation’s first Black president, the country’s significant economic downturn and fears of more stringent gun laws were largely cited as reasons for concern. The report specifically mentioned  terrorism, “White supremacists and violent anti-government groups,” and the response from Republican Party leaders was swift and vocal. They immediately objected to the use of the word “terrorism.”

Rep. John Boehner criticized Secy. Napolitano saying the word “terrorist” should not be used “to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.” 

The Republican Party, seemingly always eager to maintain a cozy relationship with racism and bigotry, has continued acerbic and racially charged rhetoric, contributing to the toxic racial climate that exists in the country today.

“I don’t see things getting better in the short term, in fact I think they will be getting worse,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI). Mr. Walid also served in the U.S. Navy. The controlled media’s tendency to ignore militia members and members of the sovereign movement is part of a broader narrative of how White privilege dominates every part of American society, he noted. 

“America still cannot have a frank discussion about racism and White supremacy in every part of our lives,” said Mr. Walid. “White privilege shields White male Christians from being called terrorists, and we cannot deal with the mislabeling of Muslims as terrorists until we have the discussion.”

Another more recent report suggests Mr. Walid is correct and that this domestic threat has continued to grow.

The National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) ranked the “perceived threat” posed by 17 groups they categorized as “extremist.” Fifty-two percent of law enforcement officials in the study “agreed” and 34 percent “strongly agreed” that sovereign citizens “were a serious terrorist threat” topping the list. Sovereign citizens were ranked as the eighth highest group of concern when this study was conducted in 2006-2007.

“Although Islamic extremists remain a major concern for law enforcement, they are no longer their top concern,” said researchers. “Such changing perceptions about what is a serious terrorist threat is an important finding because identifying and prioritizing a threat is akin to hitting a moving target and evolves as new intelligence, data, and events develop. Law enforcement must be steadfast in identifying major concerns, substantiating the concerns, providing products and resources to better understand the nature of the threat, and supporting efforts to respond to such concerns,” the report concluded.

*A Definition of Terrorism*

Domestic terrorism is described by the Federal Bureau of Investigation includes activities that:

-Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law;

-Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination. or kidnapping; and

-Occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.

Despite sensationalist news stories about foiled terrorist plots and seemingly non-stop fear mongering from right wing political officials, the real threat to the country’s economic interests and lives of the American people comes in the form of homegrown terrorism. That homegrown terrorism is a threat in and of itself is not surprising. What may be surprising is that the most threatening of these “homegrown terrorists” are not the “radicalized Muslims” often described by Islamophobic Republican Congressman Peter King. Rep. King, a member of the Homeland Security Committee and chairman of the Sub-Committee on Counterterrorism and Intelligence held hearings in 2011 and 2012 while chair of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Many saw the hearings as thinly veiled bigotry targeting Muslims while using politics and patriotism as a shield.

“It is more likely for a suburban White child to join a street gang than it is for an American Muslim child to go and join ISIS,” said Mr. Walid. “Those hearings and even in some of the discourse right now, American Muslims, despite there being no real issues are pressured that we have to wave the American flag and preempt and, or stop a problem that really isn’t an issue in our community.”

Although his views on Islam are questionable, even author and CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen in a 2014 article wrote, “In fact, since 9/11 extremists affiliated with a variety of far-right wing ideologies, including white supremacists, anti-abortion extremists and anti-government militants, have killed more people in the United States than have extremists motivated by al Qaeda’s ideology.”

*Focusing on Muslims not Sovereign Citizens*

On Oct. 30, Eric B. Frein, a 31-year-old American White man born in New Jersey and living in an unincorporated community in Pennsylvania was captured after being on the run from law enforcement for weeks after allegedly killing a police officer and wounding another a month prior. According to court records, the anti-government survivalist told law enforcement after the manhunt: “He wanted to make a change (in government) and that voting was insufficient to do so, because there was no one worth voting for. He also acknowledged that he shot Troopers because he wanted to make a change (in government) and that the murder of the Trooper was an assassination. The DEFENDANT further acknowledged taking action (shooting the Troopers) to wake people up, because it was all he could do.”

In a letter that appeared to be written to his mother and father, recovered from one of Mr. Frein’s disk drives, he wrote: “Our nation is far from what it was and what it should be. I have seen so many depressing changes made in my time that I cannot imagine what it must be like for you. There is so much wrong and on so many levels only passing through the crucible of another revolution can get us back to the liberties we once had.”

This is only one of the latest incidents of violence by one espousing White supremacists and, or anti-government beliefs. Here are a few others:

-February  2010, Joseph Andrew Stack, who reportedly attended meetings of  radical anti-tax groups in California, flew a single-engine plane into an Austin, Texas, building housing IRS offices. He and an IRS employee died and 13 others were injured.

-April 2010 Darren Huff, a Georgia member of the  Oath Keepers, a group that advocates its members, many of whom are current and former members U.S. military and law enforcement, disobey any orders they receive if they believe them to be in contradiction to the  Constitution of the United States was arrested and charged with plotting the armed takeover of a Madisonville, Tenn., courthouse with plans to arrest the local, state and federal officials.

-November  2011, members of a Georgia militia planned to bomb a federal building and to release ricin in Atlanta.

-March 2011, Kevin Harpham, a White Supremacist with a military ordnance background planned to set a bomb off during a Martin Luther King Day parade in Seattle, Washington.

-In August of 2012, Wade Michael Page killed six and wounded four others at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Mr. Page was a documented White Supremacist and U.S. Army Veteran.

-In April 2014 there was the Bundy Ranch standoff, when Cliven Bundy and many of his armed followers refused to vacate federally-owned land. They actually successfully forced the Bureau of Land Management to back down in a dispute that has lasted over two decades. According to a New York Times article, Mr. Bundy was honored at a celebratory party in which many of his supporters wore “domestic terrorist” name tags.

-In June 2014, Jerad and Amanda Miller, went on a shooting spree in Las Vegas killing two officers. After killing them, they reportedly covered the bodies with the Gadsen flag, which is now popularly recognized as the Tea Party movement’s symbol. Not only had the couple previously espoused anti-government views, but Jerad Miller was present during the Bundy Ranch standoff.

-In April 2014, Frazier Glenn Miller, Jr (a.k.a Frazier Glenn Cross) a 73-year-old Missouri man, U.S. Army Veteran and former leader of the Carolina Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (later known as the White Patriot Party militia) shot and killed three people near a Jewish community center in Kansas.

Many White supremacists, militias and sovereign citizen groups are located in conservative so-called “Red States,” and their existence is well known, however, it would appear that the government is spending more time and resources infiltrating mosques and attempting to enlist high-level informants within the Muslim community in America.

A wide net is cast in the Islamic community and Muslims continue to be under heavy surveillance by the FBI. Around the country mosque officials are asked to meet with FBI agents and then pressed to become informants. It has been documented that informants are being placed in mosques and entrapment has occurred in several sting operations conducted by government agents.

“American Muslim leaders and institutions should maintain positive relations with local and federal law enforcement authorities, but those relations must be built on respect for constitutionally-protected civil rights,” said CAIR Litigation Director Jenifer Wicks. She said all Americans are invested in protecting the nation; but the FBI’s overbroad and coercive use of informants in mosques, reports of outreach meetings for intelligence gathering and other acts of abuse show community leaders should engage legal professionals to ensure the protection of their rights and those of their congregations.

FBI visits to Muslims goes all the way back to the 1930s and 1940s when members of the Nation of Islam received visits.

“You are under no legal obligation to talk to the FBI,” said Abdul Arif Muhammad, general counsel for the Nation of Islam.  “Never talk to the FBI because you don’t know if you are a witness against someone or are self-incriminating yourself.  Be civil and cordial, ask for their card and tell them someone will get back to them. Let the lawyer engage with the FBI and not you.”

“The FBI are federal police. The minute you start talking to them you waive your Fifth Amendment rights. You don’t know why they are there,” he said.

FBI questioning is just the beginning of the discrimination and bigotry targeting many Muslims today. A report titled “Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution,” by Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims) found that “the war on terror has been largely a charade designed to make the American public believe that a terrorist army is loose in the U.S., when the truth is that most of the people convicted of terrorism-related crimes posed no danger to the U.S. and were entrapped by a preventive strategy known as preemptive prosecution.”

The 175-page study defines preemptive prosecution as “a law enforcement strategy … to target and prosecute individuals or organizations whose beliefs, ideology, or religious affiliations raise security concerns for the government.” 

Inventing Terrorists draws on the metaphor of “lawfare”––the use of the law as a weapon of war––to detail the government’s deliberate use of preemptive prosecution and associated legal tactics.

The study argues the government “has used preemptive prosecution to exaggerate the threat of Muslim extremism to the security of the country,” and compares a list of 399 “official” terrorism cases published by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2010 to a unique database of terrorism cases from 2001 to the present compiled by Project SALAM.

An analysis of the 399 cases found that 94 percent were either preemptive prosecution cases or cases that contained significant elements of preemptive prosecution. The study makes a firm distinction between individuals who represented real security threats to the nation and those who were preemptively prosecuted and never represented any threat.

Examples of preemptively prosecuted cases and individuals include the Newburgh 4 (2009) in Newburgh, New York; José Padilla (2002) in Chicago and Florida; the Aref-Hossain case (2004–2006) in Albany; Tarek Mehanna (2012) in Boston; Professor Sami Al-Arian (2003–present) in Florida; and the Holy Land Five (2007–2012), officials of a large Muslim charity in Texas.

“It is almost impossible for a Muslim to get a fair trial in America. The juror is thinking about 9/11, Boko Haram, ISIS, and the Boston Marathon shooter when they hear the case. We’re human beings. Every day we’re reading something negative about Muslims,” said Imam Siraj Wahhaj, during a recent benefit program for the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms.