‘Squad’ Rep. Jamaal Bowman slammed for defending mural featuring antisemite Louis Farrakhan, who called Jews ‘termites’
NY Post
Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) recently argued that a mural of Minister Louis Farrakhan should remain in a New York City suburb, prompting outrage from Jewish activists.
The “Squad” member recently sparked controversy over comments he made regarding a Black Lives Matter mural that featured black figures, including Farrakhan, who has infamously made disparaging comments about Jews, including calling them the “the synagogue of Satan” and “termites.”
“Regarding the minister, you know, he said many things that I fully disagree with, you know, period,” Bowman said during an interview last year, according to a New York Daily News report about the mural in Westchester County. “But he is a part of black history, you know? That’s a fact. And if the Greenburgh community — particularly that section of Greenburgh, you know — supports the mural, then the mural should be there as is.”
Bowman’s position sparked strong pushback from Jewish advocates.
“Farrakhan has singlehandedly done more damage to the positive relations and cooperation among different minority groups that has existed since the civil rights movement,” Brooke Goldstein, human rights attorney and executive director of the Lawfare Project, told Fox News Digital.
“Including Farrakhan on any sort of mural is nothing less than an attempt to whitewash his blatant racism, and to gaslight Americans into viewing him as anything other than a bigot,” Goldstein said. “Jamal Bowman’s failure to acknowledge the trauma caused by Farrakhan, and unwillingness to act on this mural, shows indifference to the harm and an appalling lack of fitness to lead, especially when it comes to minority rights.”
