RSS
NY Court Rules Jewish Groups Can Continue to Call Louis Farrakhan ‘Antisemitic’
Louis Farrakhan gives the keynote speech at the Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day convention in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 19, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook.
A Manhattan federal court ruled that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) can continue to label comments made by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan as “antisemitic” and dismissed a $4.8 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Farrakhan against the two Jewish organizations.
“We are grateful that the United States judicial system recognized and validated our First Amendment right to confront and speak out against antisemitism by dismissing Louis Farrakhan’s lawsuit and not-so-veiled attempt to silence the SWC and impede our mission,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, SWC’s associate dean and global social action director, said on Monday.
“Unfortunately, the judicial system cannot defeat the antisemitic hate that Farrakhan has spawned and spread throughout America over the last four decades,” Rabbi Cooper added. “SWC will steadfastly uphold its commitment to pursue and to combat the racism and antisemitism that continues to target America’s Blacks and Jews.”
Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, an Islamic and Black nationalist movement, filed a lawsuit in October 2023 against the SWC, Rabbi Cooper, the ADL and its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. Farrakhan and NOI claimed that the defendants were defaming them by called their comments antisemitic.
In the past, Farrakhan has compared Jews to termites; described Judaism as a “dirty religion” and a “gutter religion”; called the Jewish people “Satan”; publicly questioned the Holocaust; shared anti-Israel conspiracy theories; and blamed Jews for pedophilia and sex trafficking. In a three-hour speech that he gave in 2020 on Fourth of July, he referred to Jews as “Satan” who should have their brains bashed by the “stone of truth.” Farrakhan is one of three Nation of Islam figures — the other two being Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad – and has denied being an antisemite.
SWC argued that it has a constitutional right to comment on what it considers antisemitic hate speech. The organization stated in its brief that the plaintiffs “seek here to rewrite decades of legal precedent and overturn the First Amendment’s protection of free speech.”
Judge Denise Cote in the US Southern District of New York sided with the Jewish groups. He ruled that “the challenged statements referring to Farrakhan as antisemitic are non-actionable statements of opinion. The communications in which they were published contain ‘a recitation of facts on which (they are) based’ – namely direct quotes from Farrakhan.”
SWC’s attorney Julie Gerchik said after winning the dismissal: “We are pleased the Court affirmed the Constitution’s First Amendment right to free speech and recognized the plaintiffs’ transparent effort to weaponize the legal system to intimidate those calling out antisemitism and hate.”
The post NY Court Rules Jewish Groups Can Continue to Call Louis Farrakhan ‘Antisemitic’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
RSS
UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
RSS
‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.