Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan once again is showing his strange concept of peacemaking. Despite pleas from Jesse Jackson and other civil rights figures, the black separatist refused to repudiate an incendiary speech by a top aide. The aide, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, labeled the pope a "cracker," called Jews "the bloodsuckers of the black nation" and urged black South Africans to "kill everything white." Responding to criticism of the speech, Farrakhan called himself the victim of a Jewish conspiracy. As it turns out, Farrakhan has a way of making matters worse whenever he tries to explain away his offenses:
In 1984, after Jackson referred to New York as "Hymietown," Farrakhan said the black reporter who revealed Jackson's gaffe should be punished "with death." He also said, "To our Jewish friends who may be listening, you know that the word `Hymie' is not a racial slur."
After reports in 1984 that he had hailed Hitler as a "great man," Farrakhan said he meant that he was "wickedly great." When Jews complained, he added: "Don't push your 6 million down our throats when we lost 100 million [in slavery]."
In 1988, Farrakhan backed an assistant who had said, "The AIDS epidemic is a result of doctors, especially Jewish ones, who inject AIDS into blacks." Farrakhan's comment: "The truth hurts."
