Your tax dollars at work!
Our federal government has been paying Louis Farrakhan and his organization, the Nation of Islam (NOI), to teach religious study programs in federal prisons. The Washington Examiner reports that the controversial figure has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the U.S. government since 2008. At least $364,500 in contracts and awards from the U.S. Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice went to NOI between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019.
The funding was designed to provide “Nation of Islam religious services,” “Nation of Islam spiritual guide services,” “Nation of Islam study services,” and other related programming led by the organization’s leaders, according to Bureau of Prison records.
Knowing the kind of person Farrakhan is and the hate-filled words he has spoken, it’s frightening to think what his people might be teaching federal prisoners.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Perhaps their religious instruction has included the making of Molotov cocktails. After a grand jury correctly cleared the police officer in the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. Farrakhan called for parents to teach their children how to throw Molotov cocktails and demonstrated himself how to do so.
Or maybe Farrakhan’s minions are focusing on U.S. history — possibly on a national security memo Farrakhan claims to have seen that urged the CIA to use Ebola cultures to kill off inhabitants of third world countries as a means of population control.
Maybe they are preaching Farrakhan’s own gospel, which holds:
These false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood that is seeding the American people and the people of the world and bringing you down in moral strength. … It’s the wicked Jews, the false Jews, that are promoting lesbianism, homosexuality. It’s the wicked Jews, false Jews, that make it a crime for you to preach the word of God, then they call you homophobic!
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) was not happy when he learned about the funding, telling Examiner that the funding was “beyond the pale.”
Categorically, no group or entity or individual associated any way with Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam should receive any federal funding. What Farrakhan preaches is hatred and anti-Semitism and racism, and to use any federal money for any group that’s he’s involved with that do any type of teaching or proselytizing is just wrong.
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Since there have been too many instances of radicalization occurring in prisons, that, to me, is a public concern as to what is being taught. To me, once you’re associated with Farrakhan, that, to me, would end the vetting right away.
A 2003 court ruling said that banning Nation Of Islam reading materials from their prisons would violate the First Amendment. The Judge didn’t rule, however, that American taxpayers had to finance the cost of the materials and/or pay Farrakhan’s hate group to teach in the prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons on Wednesday declined to provide any details about the contracts, including what year they began and what Nation of Islam reading materials were used for the program. “Contracts are retained six years after final payment, so we are not able to provide details regarding the original contract on which the Nation of Islam began contracting with the Bureau of Prisons,” said a spokesperson.
The spokesperson cited a regulation that federal correctional institutions “may contract with representatives of faith groups in the community to provide specific religious services which the chaplain cannot personally deliver due to, ordinarily, religious prescriptions or ecclesiastical constraints to which the chaplain adheres.”
While declining to comment on what the Nation of Islam provided to prisoners, the bureau cited a federal statute that said religious materials must “be previewed by [Bureau of Prison] staff, or any other staff-designated volunteers, prior to distribution” and “materials shall not denigrate or disparage any other religion or religious groups.”
Raise your hand if you believe the materials were adequately vetted.
Interestingly, Farrakhan has beseeched his followers not to accept money from the U.S. government. In a 2013 statement, he said:
If they offer you anything, look carefully into it, lest the Nation will no longer be tied to the principles that the Hon. Elijah Muhammad desired for us: to make us an independent nation on some of this Earth that we can call our own.
As with almost everything else, Farrakhan is a hypocrite as well as a hater. Giving the Nation of Islam money is fine with the Democrats, but not a wall to protect our southern border. Makes you wonder.
Cross posted at The Lid
