Louis Farrakhan, the 90-year-old leader of the Nation of Islam, has filed a $4.8 billion lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in Manhattan Federal Court. He alleges that the ADL has falsely labeled him an antisemite, infringing upon his First Amendment rights. Farrakhan’s lawsuit emphasizes that the use of terms like “anti-Semite” and “anti-Semitic” by the ADL has been a means to tarnish his reputation and hinder his constitutional rights. In his court filings, Farrakhan insists he has “never harmed a hair on the head of any Jewish person” and maintains he holds a deep respect for numerous individuals within the Jewish community. He cited his admiration for Jascha Heifetz, a renowned Jewish violinist, and recalled his Jewish violin teachers as “proof” that he’s not an antisemite. Terming his long-standing animosity toward the ADL a “battle of Biblical proportions,” Farrakhan attached 787 pages of documents to support his claims. Over the years, Farrakhan has made numerous blatantly antisemitic statements, such as referring to Jews as “termites,” condemning Judaism as a “gutter religion,” and attributing certain Hollywood behaviors to Jewish influence. Farrakhan pinpointed the origin of his dispute with the ADL back to 1984 when he defended then-presidential candidate Jesse Jackson over accusations of using a derogatory term for Jews. Farrakhan believes that his support for Jackson led the ADL to label him as an “anti-Semite.” “It is because of Minister Farrakhan’s unwavering defense of himself and Reverend Jackson that the ADL began plastering him with the false and injurious label of ‘anti- Semite,’” Farrakhan claims in his lawsuit. In the lawsuit, Farrakhan further criticizes the ADL as “an unAmerican organization” that has allegedly intruded into U.S. governance to further its interests at the expense of American citizens’ constitutional rights. The ADL, traditionally reserved on litigation matters, broke its silence on the issue. Its Director, Jonathan Greenblatt, told The Post, “Louis Farrakhan is an antisemite. One need look no further than his own words and statements to come away with the same conclusion,” dismissing the lawsuit as meritless. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)