The Anti-Defamation League resigned from a hate-crimes panel to protest the inclusion of a Nation of Islam representative.
The ADL said last Thursday it would not sit on the Illinois Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate Crimes if Claudette Johnson, also known as Sister Claudette Marie Muhammad, serves on it. Johnson is minister of protocol in the Nation of Islam, whose leader, Rev. Louis Farrakhan, repeatedly has made anti-Jewish statements.
The ADL said in a letter that it “cannot serve on a commission that remains silent in the face of bigotry and makes a mockery of the fight against hatred.”
Johnson recently invited commission members to a Nation of Islam event where Farrakhan said that “false Jews promote the filth of Hollywood” and homosexuality. He also predicted that Israel was “going to be cleansed with blood” because of a gay pride parade held in Jerusalem.
Last Wednesday, Governor Rod Blagojevich called Farrakhan’s words “divisive,” but said he did not believe in Johnson’s guilt by association. Blagojevich added that he had been unaware of Johnson’s affiliation at the time of her appointment – a claim contradicted by his spokeswoman.
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