BY DR. RIDGELY MU’MIN MUHAMMAD AND ABDUL ARIF MUHAMMAD, ESQ.
Satan’s wicked lies: The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan receives no Government Funding.
A slanderous article, titled “‘Game the system’? Nonprofits, including Farrakhan-tied group, enjoy windfall from farm subsidies,” was written by Emily Boyd Walker, and published on March 9, 2014 at Foxnews.com. The Scriptures teach us that the “Devil is a liar.” And he “Accuses the righteous continually.”
As the Nation of Islam’s farm manager and legal general counsel, we respond to these wicked and vicious lies against the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and herein uncover these well dressed lies.
The TRUTH IS.
- The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has not received ANY government funding, whether in the nature of farm subsidies, or otherwise, as has been erroneously and wickedly reported.
- The label “not in good standing” is applied to ANY registered corporation that has not updated a single form called “Annual Report.” This is a very typical occurrence. That oversight has since been corrected with the Illinois Secretary of State and all legal requirements have been met with the Illinois Secretary of State.
- The Nation of Islam owns a 1600 acre Farm in Georgia, which it operates as any of the other 800,000 small farms in the United States.
- The Farm made application for appropriate farm subsidies through a Georgia Branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. These are lawful subsidies for various farm related activities that any Georgia farm is entitled to obtain.
- In an article published in the Final Call newspaper December 19, 2013 we indicated that U.S. Farming subsidies received by farms in Terrell County, Ga., from 1995 to 2012, totaled $89,499,000. The Nation of Islam farm received a tiny fraction of that amount and was 146th on the list of those who received funds during this same time period.
- Those farm subsidies (grants) were given and issued directly to the Farm in Georgia. Not one disbursement was sent to Chicago, or to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.
- Moreover, the Farm in Georgia has not received any government subsidies since 2011. Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture had changed their rules and procedures, which imposed retroactive restrictions, for the years 2009-2011. These retroactive requirements were unacceptable to us, and consequently, that which was given, was returned back to the Government.
Make no mistake about it, this is a working farm with real produce for the people it serves. When it was purchased in 1991 it became the largest Black-owned and -operated farm in South Georgia. We transformed worn out, weed-infested, hard rock clay land into arable land and workable soil and brought back many of the birds and wildlife.
We have purchased over $250,000 worth of farm equipment and trucks. We have our own flour mill and commercial sifter, which can produce 800 lbs of flour in an 8-hour day. And that farm produces the best-tasting watermelons in the country.
On a yearly basis we produce 8,000 lbs of flour, 400,000 lbs of watermelons, 12,000 lbs of different vegetables, 100,000 lbs of wheat, 100,000 lbs of field corn and 200,000 lbs of peanuts. We deliver produce to 8 states, and whole wheat flour and other goods to 35 cities. And we have provided jobs in the area.
The REAL motive for attacking a small Black farm that has made barren earth productive again, is because The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has publicly and boldly stood up for the small American farmer as no one has.
The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan is not a man that can be bought off with any price. He said during our February 23, 2014 Saviours’ Day Message in Detroit, that there was not enough money in Fort Knox, or that the Federal Reserve can print, that could buy him, and make him sell out the Mission of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the aspirations of a people who yearn to be free, justified and equal. This point is most strongly made by the Minister, in Episode 49, of “The Time And What Must Be Done” (which aired on December 14, 2013)
He states:
“Dear Black people, a Warning to you: In the Nixon administration they came to the Honorable Elijah Muhammad, and they offered him “a dollar for every dollar of wealth” that The Nation of Islam had created under Elijah Muhammad’s dynamic leadership. Some say our wealth was $40 million dollars—some say $80 million. But the government offered to match us “dollar for dollar.” But guess what? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said when he read what they offered, he told me: “There were too many strings attached…” So he rejected it.
I am saying this to all of you who stand with me: They will not be able to turn me! But they will be working to turn those of you who come after me. And if they offer you anything, look carefully into it, lest The Nation will no longer be tied to the principles that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad desired for us: To make us an independent nation on some of this Earth that we can call our own.”
A similar offer for Government funding was made to the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in the 1970’s when he was the Minister of Mosque No. 7, in Harlem, New York. The Minister turned down the Governments offer. We should clearly know and understand that the Minister is a man that cannot be bought off.
