Anthony Fauci, and Bill and Melinda Gates, among others. and around the world: “Don’t take the vaccines…Don’t let them vaccinate you, with their history of treachery through vaccines, through medication.” He claimed that the vaccines were part of a depopulation plot sponsored by the U.S. On July 4, 2020, Farrakhan delivered a highly-publicized speech in which he instructed Black people in the U.S. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, NOI leaders and members again began to revisit the topic of vaccines, including promoting conspiratorial claims that the COVID-19 vaccine was part of an agenda to kill Black people. In the mid-2010s, the NOI revived its anti-vaccine advocacy under leader Louis Farrakhan with a focus on the disproven allegation that vaccines are linked to autism in children. In the 1960s, NOI leader Elijah Muhammad instructed his followers to reject the polio vaccine. Through all of this, the NOI has exploited legitimate concerns and distrust about the history of medical experimentation on marginalized communities in the United States in order to promote conspiratorial claims about a government-sponsored depopulation plot that targets Black people.Īdvocating against vaccines is a familiar strategy for the NOI. More recently, anti-vaccine advocacy has led NOI members to collaborate with and be promoted by various individuals and groups outside of the NOI, including conspiracy theorists and QAnon proponents.ĭespite sometimes holding significantly different views about other aspects of the pandemic or their ideologies more broadly, a shared commitment to protesting the vaccine, as well as a distrust of the government and mainstream media, has facilitated these joint efforts. Over a year later, the NOI and its leading members have continued their unrelenting promotion of anti-vaccine messages in social media posts, print materials, sermons and beyond.
Months before the first COVID-19 vaccine began to be distributed in the United States, the Nation of Islam (NOI) had already widely disseminated its directive that Black people refuse the vaccine. (People Organised & Working for Economic Rebirth).A graphic shared on social media by the Nation of Islam warning against the COVID-19 vaccine (source: Twitter)
#WWW NOI ORG WEBCAST SERIES#
This is just one of a whole series of initiatives, reignited in 2020, under the umbrella of P.O.W.E.R. Our aim is to raise funds for a network of community buildings for youths, as well as raising their self-esteem - by having places to repair, seek counselling, have recreation, spiritual and physical nourishment, education and express their creativity. Proud 2B Black© is taking action to raise funds to acquire community centres (established for the people, by the people) by providing a range of high-quality designer, wearable and practical consumer items. Now, more than ever, real action is needed to improve opportunities for our youths – as well as their futures and ultimately, our communities. “Coming together is a beginning keeping together is progress working together is success.” Henry Ford