Trump said there’s fine people on both sides (and by “fine people”, I am giving him the benefit of the doubt that he’s talking about people simply upset they are taking down monuments - not the Nazis).
That’s a far cry from attending white supremacists rallies in a very public way.
These aren’t just random democrats. The’s are prominent democrats. Sitting there and listening to some guy call jews Satanic and that whites are “going down!” That’s just sickening and unquestionably racist and there’s no ambiguity there. They should be condemned. AT LEAST to the same level of condemnation that Trump got for the “fine people” remark, and MUCH MORE in my opinion.
Farrakhan deserves all this criticism, certainly. Any Democrats who have not condemned him for these statements deserve serious criticism.
Trump has also said many bigoted things over many years and does not deserve your benefit of the doubt. And any Republicans who have not condemned him for these statements deserve serious criticism.
Trump’s statements have not been nearly as bigoted as those of Farrakhan’s. OTOH, Trump is a much bigger presence than Farrakhan (as others have noted).
In the case of Farrakhan, it’s not really an issue unless you’ve actually interacted with him or praised him. If you’ve had no real connection with him one way or the other I don’t see it as an issue at all.
I don’t think I agree about the first part (if there’s a difference, it’s much closer than “not nearly as bigoted”, IMO). I doubt we’ll agree on that, though.
Is there a site we can go to where we can just check a box for the Demon of the Week and be done with it? It gets *so *tiring ritually denouncing everyone the Other Guys demand we denounce. Maybe we shouldn’t let them tell us what we have to do to earn their respect?
F-P makes a good point that since he’s a minor figure these days (unlike Trump), those having nothing to do with Farrakhan don’t need to denounce him. But those mentioned in this thread who praised him screwed up and deserve criticism.
High profile dems are afraid to criticism other high profile dems supporting Farrakhan, because that’s at least indirectly criticizing Islam, which the surgeon general warns is a risk to your health.
I don’t know, but probably a combination of his own personal beliefs and his own preferred interpretation of Muslim scripture. That’s no more relevant to all of Islam than David Duke (or the KKK’s) interpretation of Christian scripture is to all of Christianity.
I don’t see what bashing Islam as a whole, which contains within it varieties and views as diverse as Christianity or any other religion, has to do with this thread.
Worth noting that the NOI is somewhat tenuously connected to Islam. Somewhat analogous to Mormonism and Christianity. (I believe after the death of Elijah Muhammed, his son and successor attempted to bring the movement closer to mainstream Islam, but Farrakhan led a strand of the movement which rejected this.)
Okay, so regardless of the fact that I believe a majority of Muslims have anti-semitic views, lets distill this down to the Nation of Islam. Do you actually, really believe the Nation of Islam has diverse views on Judaism? To me that’s as laughable as saying Neo-nazis have a diverse view on Judaism. Supporting Farrakhan is as bad as supporting Richard Spencer. Worse, even, because Farrakhan’s views have been known for decades. The Nation of Islam is an SPLC-designated hate group! What in the hell are politically influential democrats doing within 1000 yards of this guy??