page_title: Louis Farrakhan
section_title: Criticism and controversy
hierarchical_section_title: Louis Farrakhan / Criticism and controversy
caption_attribution_description: (Taken with my Minolta SRT101 35mm using ilford HP5 400asa)
context_page_description: Louis Farrakhan Sr., formerly known as Louis X, is an American black supremacist, black nationalist, religious leader and political activist. He is the leader of the Nation of Islam, an organization which the Southern Poverty Law Center describes as black nationalist and a hate group. Previously, he served as the minister of mosques in Boston and Harlem and had been appointed National Representative of the Nation of Islam by former NOI leader Elijah Muhammad.
  Farrakhan has been described as antisemitic by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Anti-Defamation League, and other monitoring organizations. Also according to the SPLC, the NOI promotes a "fundamentally anti-white theology" amounting to an "innate black superiority over whites". Some of his remarks have been considered homophobic. Farrakhan has disputed such characterizations on many occasions.
  After Warith Deen Mohammed reorganized the original NOI into the orthodox Sunni Islamic group American Society of Muslims, Farrakhan began to rebuild the NOI as "Final Call". In 1981, he officially adopted the name "Nation of Islam", reviving the group and establishing its headquarters at Mosque Maryam.
context_section_description: Farrakhan has been the center of much controversy with critics saying that his political views and comments are antisemitic or racist. Farrakhan has categorically denied these charges and stated that much of America's perception of him has been shaped by the media.
caption: Farrakhan's police escort in Memphis, Tennessee, 2015
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