Dear Byron Muhammad
Yesterday I received an email from a man named “Brother Byron Muhammad”. He is a member of the Anti-Semitic organization, The Nation of Islam.
How do I know that? His last name is Muhammad. All Black muslims with membership in the Nation of Islam have Muhammad or “X” as their last name.
He was upset with my Monday column which lambasted his leader “Minister” Louis Farrakhan for his unremitting Anti-Semitism on display at this past Sunday’s “Saviours Day” Convention held in Detroit, Michigan.
Now Ladies and Gentlemen, here is the infamous email addressed to yours truly.
“Peace Mr. Austin,
After reading your blog, it is very clear that you are one of many students that were recruited to speak for Israel. For a Blackman, in 2014, to prostitute himself for another people and not speak for his own is shameful. For you to write and not listen and decide for yourself is shameful. If you come to that conclusion after listening then so be it. You will be the loser in the end. Jesus or Min. Farrakhan did not call Judaism a gutter religion and for you to continue to speak that lie is
shameful. You probably were not even born when that controversy started. What Jesus did tell the Jews is that their father is the devil. Go and read it for yourself; John 8:31-47. Jesus told them that they were not even from God. Now, go write that about Jesus, that he is a hater. Do your homework brother or find yourself like other prostitutes in the end; used and abused and kicked to the curve when you are no longer pleasurable for your customers.”
“Bro. Byron Muhammad Your Brother in the Struggle for Freedom, Justice and Equality Strive to be a Servant”
Dear Byron,
In the midst of reading your bigoted and un-educated rant, I started laughing. It’s unfortunate that in 2014 there are people who dislike others not because of their character but due to their skin color, religion, sexual orientation, and political affiliation.
It’s ironic you began your email with “Peace”, considering what followed was the opposite.
So according to Byron, I was recruited by the Israelis to speak on their behalf?
No Byron. Contrary to your stereotypical and shallow mind,no one told me to speak on this matter. I did so myself because I was sick and tired of the vicious lies perpetrated by your “Honorable Minister” Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
Prostitute myself for another people? I’m not anybody’s whore Mr. Muhammad. I’m my own man and I decided to come to the aid of the Jewish people because it was the right thing to do. Martin Luther King Jr said “An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere”. I was simply performing a human duty.
That human duty was to protest hate, a decision I don’t regret.
Another reason I chose to speak out against your racist and extremist group is because I’m a Jew. When you attack the Jewish people, that is an attack on me.
I did speak for my own people. I criticized the African American community for hesitating to uniformly reject the Nation of Islam. If I didn’t care about my own people as you incorrectly assume, I would sit back and watch our community wreak havoc.
I care enough to speak out because I desperately want to see us prosper.
You falsely assume again. I did watch the “Saviours Day ” Convention and came to the obvious conclusion that Farrakhan does more harm than good.
It’s funny you tell me I don’t stick up for my own people. I do. But do you? If were going to be throwing words at each other we should be honest.
Elijah Muhammad is a revered figure in the Nation of Islam. But when you are on the street promoting the ideology of your organization, do you tell people that Elijah Muhammad slept with teenage females and impregnated them? Pretty disgusting you and Farrakhan honor a rapist.
Do you tell people on the street that many members in the Nation of Islam are impoverished? In Vibert L. White’s “Inside the Nation of Islam”, he writes that many men had to file for bankruptcy, ended up homeless, lived in rundown apartments, returned to a life of a crime, divorced their wives and died broke because these men donated every dollar to the Nation of Islam and got nothing in return.
Can we also discuss the financial corruption which plagues the Nation? It is no secret that your organization’s hierarchy has a history of embezzlement, fraud, and blackmail. In fact, its become apart of the group’s culture.
You send me an email accusing me of selling out my own people, when you’re the one who is selling out your people. Through carefully crafted lies and verbal acrobatics, you and Farrakhan have been victorious in stunting growth in the Black community.
For decades The Nation of Islam has demogauged Jews, Whites, Gays, and sadly other Blacks for not subscribing to their ideology.
You believe targeting me and others is to the benefit of our race?
We have the highest abortion rates, the highest incarceration rate, Black Women make up the biggest percentage of HIV/AIDS victims, high crime rate, and a terrifyingly high dropout rate amongst our teenagers, which continues to soar.
But you want to focus all of your attention on sending me a nasty email?
I wonder who in the NOI told you to send me that email?
In the end I won’t be the loser. That title belongs to you and your organization for manipulating an entire race of people to buy into racism, dressed up as religion.
Your actions are an insult to many Muslims who practice their religion and believe in the tolerance of all human beings. Your organization should be ashamed to call itself Islam. It’s not true Islam.
It’s a cult, under the leadership of an insecure, selfish, and egotistical man who calls himself a “Minister”.
If anyone is a disservice to their own people, it’s you and the NOI.
The teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan, taught you to hate the diversity of the world. And even more shocking, they taught you to hate your own people.
You are correct on two things. He didn’t say Judaism is a gutter religion. He called it dirty. No difference in the wording. They’re both hateful and unproductive.
And I wasn’t born during that controversy. But my year of birth is irrelevant to my recognition that your organization hates Jews.
You have taken a Biblical reference out of context and use it to falsely smear us in the Jewish community. By doing so you insult many people who identify themselves as Christians, by using Jesus Christ as an excuse to be Anti-Semitic.
You tell me I should “do my homework” and that I will be kicked to the curb once I am “no longer pleasurable for my customers”.
When I read those words I think of many men and women Farrakhan exploited for his personal benefit. And once he vacuumed them of their resources, they were non-existent to him.
Maybe if some of these people did their homework, they wouldn’t have been taken advantage of.
Byron, you believe he has your well-being in his conscience?
One day may come a time when you are no longer agile to continue doing his work. And just like a tired hooker who has gotten old, he will dispose of you.
Do your homework Byron.
Who’s the real prostitute here?
For a man who likes to talk about Slavery, Farrakhan behaves like a slave master. Manipulate and rob blacks of their self-worth and pit them against one another.
I feel sorry for you Byron. You truly believe you are doing the right thing. But Byron, you have been lied to. You have mentally, emotionally, and probably financially, invested yourself into a scam.
You don’t want to acknowledge you are being scammed, so you keep repeating this dangerous rhetoric to yourself and others, hoping they are infallible truths.
You want to believe your life isn’t being wasted on hate and division. But it is.
I suggest you see a mental health professional. Seriously.
You say you strive for “Freedom, Justice, and Equality”. Hypocrisy at it’s finest.
I pray you will one day come to realize that Louis Farrakhan is one of the greatest con-men of all time. Your email proves he is the master of brainwashing.
Sadly, there are many people who think like you. And you all are poisoning the Black Community and the world.
And to close, you are not my brother. You are my enemy.