Defending Farrakhan: The Mis-Use of Photoshop & Media Manipulation

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful…

I would like to lay the base for this defense with the following scriptures:

“And the enchanters came to Pharaoh, saying: We must surely have a reward if we prevail. He said: yes, and you shall certainly be of those who are near (to me). They said: O Moses, wilt thou cast, or shall we (be the first to) cast? He said: Cast, So when they cast, they deceived the people’s eyes and overawed them, and they produced a mighty enchantment. And We revealed to Moses: Cast thy rod. Then lo! It swallowed up their lies. So the truth was established, and that which they did became null. (Holy Quran 7:113-118)

“Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” (Exodus 7:11-12)

In a recent Tweet by @RealKinza, a FALSE and graphically manipulated photo of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan holding a rifle was posted with the words, “Minister Farrakhan is not playing”. For those who are followers, supporters and familiar with Minister Farrakhan, we immediately knew this was unauthentic and an outright heinous attack. We in the Nation Of Islam DO NOT and NEVER have carried weapons of ANY kind. Therefore, the members of the Farrakhan Twitter Army would like to intelligently defend the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan with experts to show how something like this can be done.

For the record, members of the Nation of Islam including those in Atlanta do not know or recognize who this person is @RealKinza.

As far as those with the expertise in graphics design, I first spoke with Brother Hannibal S. Muhammad who is a member of the Nation of Islam’s National Marketing Team.

Ebony S. Muhammad(EM): As-Salaam Alaikum Brother Hannibal. Can you briefly give your experience with graphics design?

Hannibal S. Muhammad(HM): Wa-Alaikum Salaam. Yes ma’am.

I have an Associates Degree in animation. I’ve been in the field of graphics design for over 10 years as well as photography over 7 years. I have worked extensively with Adobe CS 3 through CS 6 Suite, Illustrator, Premier, After Effects as well as multiple movie editing softwares such as Magic, Final Cut Pro, Apple iMovie and Windows movie maker.

I have been capturing photos of and for the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan since 2008.

As a young aspiring photographer, one of the first things I was taught was image protection of the Minister. For photos that are used to publicize him they must be the best images of the selection. Careful attention to detail is paid in this process. For example, on average I take 2,000 photos of the Minister at a single event. For the final product selection I initially begin with one folder. I set up an additional folder where I move the better ones into. Then, I set up an additional folder to that folder as I carefully examine and look for the best. From there I do another folder to indicate the top 10. That is where I determine which will be the image of choice. Again, on average I’ve had to go through 300-2000 photos for any given event with the Minister.

EM: Since 2008 how many events have you attended and conducted photography for Minister Farrakhan and had to do the above process?

HM: Approximately 20 different events.

EM: 2,000×20 =40,000 photos that you’ve had to perform the above process on the Minister’s photos, correct?

HM: Yes ma’am, that is correct.

I’ve worked on about 100 promotional fliers for the Minister’s speaking engagements and events.

EM: Thank you very much. I would like us to go into the recent photo that was posted on Twitter by @RealKinza. Can you please give your analysis and explanation of how this was done?

HM: Yes ma’am I can.

There are a few ways this could have been done. It appears they stretched his face from another photo, cropped it out and placed it on someone else’s head. His hairline…it appears as though it is wavy at first then fades to straight indicating it is someone else’s hair. His face has been distorted to fit the parameters of the manipulated image.

Two, when I look at that image, what comes to mind is the way his hands are positioned. With that being said, the Minister’s hands are not shaped like that. These hands look stubby. It looks like this manipulated photo may have come from a photo that was taken of him holding his violin, which is what he is known for taking countless photos with. He is recognized around the world for being an exceptional musician, even before joining the Nation of Islam.

EM: Yes sir, thank you

HM: Another thing, if you look at the hand hanging over log in the manipulated photo and examine the jacket to his elbow, that sleeve is very wide and dark. If you take the elbow to the shoulders, the sleeves are very narrow and bright. You see a distinct discoloration between the two, indicating a cut and paste.

Another sign that this is a manipulated image is the so-called signature of the Minister on what appears to be a NRA membership card. That’s not his signature and anyone who has copies of the Study Guides that are sold to the public would be able to clearly see the forge.

Another giveaway is the lighting and, again, cut and paste lines. If you look at how bright his face is his background would be even brighter.

This is clearly not the original photo of Minister Farrakhan. Someone else was originally in this shot.

EM: Thank you very much for your analysis.

HM: Yes ma’am, All Praise Is Due to Allah!

After speaking with Brother Hannibal S. Muhammad, I reached out to Brother Timothy 6X who is also advanced in graphics and photography work. He stated that the image was manipulated in Photoshop and the tell-tale signs of cut and paste are prominent. He also stated that there are tutorials on the internet of how to alter photos, where you take an overweight person with blemishes and make them appear to look flawless like a super model. There are programs that allow you to take someone on a street and make it appears as those they are on the Moon. With the right kind of software, you can also add or remove someone entirely from a place they actually were.

Brother Timothy sent over some images to offer as examples.

Below is a photo of an actual storm cloud in Magee, MS in 2005 before landfall of Hurricane Katrina in Waveland, MS; and an image that has been combined with the original photo to produce the effect of a storm approaching New York.

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