Standoff Between Secret Service and Nation of Islam Guards: Is Farrakhan Viewed as More Powerful Than the President?

Standoff Between Secret Service and Nation of Islam Guards: Is Farrakhan Viewed as More Powerful Than the President?

What press pool reporters terms as a “standoff” between members of the Secret Service and guards of the Nation of Islam, called the “Fruit of Islam,” developed outside Farrakhan’s home while President Obama was in town on vacation.

Dozens of reporters and photographers followed Obama through the Kenwood/Hyde Park neighborhood, just a few blocks from Obama’s home. Press people were standing in front of and on Farrakhan’s property. And it wasn’t taken well by members of Farrakhan’s Fruit of Islam. Reportedly, someone’s foot “touched the city-owned curbside grass,” which immediately prompted a “polite man in jeans and T-shirt” to come outside and “ask the press to stay off the grass, according to a press pool report.


Since being elected president, the press has followed Obama as he brings his family over to friend Marty Nesbitt’s home on Woodlawn Avenue, which is across the street from the yellow-gold home where Farrakhan lives. The episode initiated a slightly tense situation where dozens of Fruit of Islam guards closed ranks and stood in uncomfortable proximity to members of the Secret Service and the press.

Perhaps members of the Nation of Islam believe that Farrakhan is more powerful than president Obama. This isn’t the first time that Farrakhan has caused friction and consternation for a presidency. Heck, he’s been a veritable stone in the shoe of presidents since the Ronald Reagan years.


At the height of his popularity in the 1990s, many may have believed that Farrakhan was more powerful — and definitely more popular — than the president. His Million Man March in Washington showed up and rankled President Bill Clinton in 1995. A few months later, Farrakhan’s bold declaration that he would accept Libya Moammar Gadhafi’s offer of millions of dollars, against the wishes of the United States government, led Congress to demand Farrakhan appear before a committee hearing (which Congress later canceled to avoid turning Farrakhan into a cult hero).

alt Farrakhan’s incendiary comments toward the reporter who outed Rev. Jesse Jackson when he called New York “Hymietown” in 1984 overshadowed much of that year’s presidential campaign.

Heck, the Nation of Islam has a history of blasting presidents into submission. Malcolm X’s remarks that the assassination of President Kennedy was a case of “the chickens coming home to roost” riled America and let to his suspension and eventual separation from the NOI.

And according to former Black Panther leader Elaine Brown’s brilliantly written book, A Taste of Power, a young Farrakhan had a standoff with Panther leader Huey Newton in the early 1970s when Newton got wind of some disparaging comments Farrakhan had allegedly made against the the Panthers. –terry shropshire


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