The Democratic nominee for a Tennessee State House district in Memphis attended a speech this week by Ishmael Muhammad, the assistant to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Ishmael Muhammad defended the musician Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, after his antisemitic posts on social media in 2022, and described “those who claim to be Jews” as part of “the synagogue of Satan” in 2024.
Just days after Dr. Telisa Franklin won the Democratic Primary for District 96 in the Tennessee State House against incumbent State Representative Gabby Salinas (D-Memphis) in a surprise upset, the Democratic nominee shared in a post to social media that she attended Ishmael Muhammad’s speech in Memphis on Sunday.
“Today was truly a WOW moment,” wrote Franklin in her Monday post to social media. “What an honor to be in the presence of Minister Ishmael Muhammad, our keynote speaker and the son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Mother Tynnetta Muhammad.”
Franklin (pictured above) wrote, “A special thank you to Mosque 55 Student Minister Adhul and my entire Mosque 55 family. Thank you all for the genuine love, encouragement, and support you continue to show me. I am truly grateful for the way you have embraced me and continue to pour into me.”
Ishmael Muhammad has worked as Farrakhan’s assistant since 1991, and has been floated as a possible successor to the controversial religious figure.
According to The Final Call, the official news service for the Nation of Islam, Ishmael Muhammad said in 2024 that “those who claim to be Jews and are not” are actually part of the “synagogue of Satan,” invoking the biblical phrase that appears twice in the Book of Revelation, which Christian scholars say refers to local opponents to Christianity in the first-century Greek-speaking cities, Smyrna and Philadelphia.
Ishmael Muhammad has also referred to Jews as “imposters,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
In 2022, he defended Ye after the artist wrote on social media “when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE,” and claimed, “I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also.”
According to Ishmael Muhammad’s interpretation, the musical artist was referring to the Defense Readiness Condition (DEFCON) alert scale used by the U.S. military.
“When he said ‘DEFCON 3’ on Jewish people, but he said ‘death’ d-e-a-t-h con 3 not ‘D-E-F-C-O-N 3.’ What’s the point? That’s the alert levels of the United States military,” said Ishmael Muhammad, according to The Final Call. “So, brother knew that he was saying things and he was going to be attacked for the things that he was saying. He is putting himself in a state of readiness and being alert.”
Mosque 55, which Franklin thanked after attending Ishmael Muhammad’s speech in Memphis, is a Nation of Islam-affiliated organization. It advertised Ishmael Muhammad’s appearance in its own posts to social media.
The Nation of Islam began as a black nationalist movement founded around 1930 by Wallace Fard Muhammad. It later came to be led by Elijah Muhammad, whose son W. Deen Mohammed attempted to steer the movement toward mainstream Sunni Islam, which is most common in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Indonesia, after Elijah Muhammad’s death in 1975.
Disagreeing with the decision, Farrakhan reestablished his own Nation of Islam in 1977.
In the intervening decades, Farrakhan has faced accusations of antisemitism over numerous statements about Jewish people, and was named the most popular antisemite in the country in 2020.
He has declared “the powerful Jews are my enemy,” claimed that Jewish people have “broken their covenant relationship with God,” and urged his followers to “fight Satan the arch deceiver [and] the imposter Jews who are worthy of the chastisement of God.”
In speeches made throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he accused Jews of “sucking the blood of the black community,” and called Judaism a “gutter religion.” More than two decades later, in 2018, Farrakhan claimed he was not an antisemite, but an “anti-termite.”
Nearly five decades after Farrakhan reestablished the organization, the Nation of Islam continues to advocate for racial separation or segregation of blacks and whites, calling integration “hypocritical.” It also opposes interracial marriage.
Democrats have previously been haunted by historical associations with the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a former congressman and deputy chairman of the Democratic National Committee, condemned Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam in 2016 after his past support for the organization resurfaced. Ellison said he “should have listened more, and talked less.”
In 2018, a collection of Democrats in the U.S. House denounced Farrakhan amid pressure from Republicans, who called for their colleagues to account for past associations with the Nation of Islam after 2017 Women’s March organizer Tamika Mallory was revealed to have attended an event where Farrakhan delivered remarks about the “satanic Jew” and declared “white folks are going down.”
After a Farrakhan follower was fatally shot after mowing down a police officer outside the U.S. Capitol in 2021, a spokesman for the Nation of Islam said it was “saddened by the loss of a brother with such great potential.”
Franklin previously ran for the same Tennessee State House district in 2024, but Salinas narrowly won the Democratic Party’s nomination. The district voted overwhelmingly for former Vice President Kamala Harris that year, and is considered overwhelmingly Democratic.
Franklin has no Republican opponent for November.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Dr. Telisa Franklin” by Dr. Telisa Franklin.
