The black student protesters–particularly activist Jonathan Butler–got a ringing endorsement from Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who recorded a video message to them last week in which he cautioned the University’s new black President not to be an “Uncle Tom” and referred to the successful UM student protests as “the epicenter of the movement of students.”
The video was in a post titled Minister Farrakhan’s Message to Mizzou Students published on the Nation of Islam’s website The Final Call.
“Thank you for demonstrating to our people the power of unity,” Farrakhan said “You were brilliant.”
Farrakhan hailed the students for continuing their struggle after they forced out both the President and Chancellor, saying “The cry for justice doesn’t end with somebody retiring or somebody exiting the scene because when they exit the scene, injustice is still there.”
One irony of the praise from Farrakhan is that part of the controversy at the University of Missouri was over a “poop swastika” that black students claim was meant to send them a message, but notorious anti-Semite Farrakhan himself has praised Hitler as a “very great man” in the past:
The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn’t a great man for me as a black person, but he was a great German. Now, I’m not proud of Hitler’s evils against Jewish people, but that’s a matter of record. He raised Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there’s a similarity in that we are raising our people up from nothing.
In his recent video, Farrakhan also speaks about University of Missouri’s interim President Mike Middleton, saying “I hope the the new black President will not be an Uncle Tom that the enemy has placed there, thinking that a Tom will quell our desire for justice.”
Minister Farrakhan did not specify who “the enemy” was to whom he was referring in his video.
Farrakhan continued speaking directly to Middleton, who he referred to as “my dear brother,” urging him to “fight those things that disturb the peace of the students and you will be a great President.”
The Nation of Islam leader also understood that the success of the protests where school leaders caved quickly to the demands of students after the black members of the football team went on strike would have a ripple effect. Already, black student protests have sprung up around the country, as a “Mizzou Effect” hit campuses from Occidental to Dartmouth. Farrakhan praised the protesters for this impact:
As Ferguson was the epicenter of a movement, the University of Missouri at Columbia is also the epicenter of the movement of students now, rising and using the power of our ability that is making all these colleges rich.
But the moment the black football players said ‘No, no—we will not practice, we will not play a game until what we seek is carried out,’—didn’t take long because they saw $35,00,000 at a loss.
So it seems like bringing the kind of pain where dollars are taken from the pool of white sumpremacy, then all of sudden our dollars matter and then they can consider our lives…
Farrakhan’s reference to “bringing the kind of pain where dollars are taken from the pool of white sumpremacy” is a reference to a curreny campaign by the Nation of Islam to convice black Americas to boycott all holiday spending this year. The NOI created #JusiceOrElse campaign and released a video urging a boycott of Christmas, Black Friday, Cyber Mondey, and other spending with the slogan “Redistribute The Pain.”
However, Minister Farrakhan saved his most effusive and heartfelt praise for student protest leader Jonathan Butler, the son of multi-millionaire parents who was radicalized at the University of Missouri.
To brother Jonathan Butler, you demonstrated that selflessness and that love for your people that you would suffer hunger, even to the point of death to bring about a change.
My dear brother, that spirit is what encouraged the football players and until we are ready to make the ultimate sacarifce to bring about a change to our generation and generations yet unborn, this is the spirit that all of us should beg God to give us: the spirit of our brother, Jonathan Butler.
I will carry you in my heart for what you did.
Farrakhan closed the video by saying “May Allah bless you with the light of understanding as I greet you in peace. Salam alaikum.”
Follow Breitbart’s lead investigative reporter and Citizen Journalism Boot Camp founder Lee Stranahan on Twitter at @Stranahan.
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