Entertainment

Farrakhan on Lifetime movie’s ‘mis-education’

Minister Louis Farrakhan has declared anew that "I did not kill Malcolm X."

That declaration is part of Farrakhan's response to the release of "Betty and Coretta" – a movie airing this month on the Lifetime channel.

The film's executive producer is nine-time Grammy Award winner Mary J. Blige, who stars as Dr. Betty Shabazz, the widow of El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (widely known as Malcolm X). Academy Award nominee Angela Bassett stars as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow, Coretta Scott King.

According to Lifetime, the film endeavors to tell "the dual real-life stories of Coretta Scott King (Bassett) and Dr. Betty Shabazz (Blige) as they create an unbreakable life-long bond after their husbands' tragic assassinations."

In an interview in the FinalCall.com News, the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan responds to assertions about him in the movie, the motives of those involved, and his thoughts about Blige's motives.

Question: "So how do you finally feel being exposed that you killed Malcolm X?"

HMLF: I did not kill Malcolm X. Before too long, you will really find who is "exposed" – and it is those who want to put on me what no court, no judge, no jury, could put on me. And if my enemies had a chance to bring me before the courts, and put me in prison for such a crime, they would have done it a long time ago! No, I am not "exposed". But the wickedness of those behind my slander will be thoroughly exposed!

Question: "Lifetime is already telling us what we already know about you. You confessed to this on "60 Minutes," so this show is only a repeat. You're guilty, right?"

HMLF: I am not guilty of killing Malcolm X. What I said on "60 Minutes" was extracted from a 4-hour interview with Mike Wallace and Attallah Shabazz.

Asked about Blige, Farrakhan gave this reply: "Mary J. Blige is my friend! And nothing that's in this movie has diminished my love and respect for her."

In a commentary, Richard B. Muhammad, editor in chief of the Nation of Islam's Final Call newspaper, says, "Movies are fiction, not fact and fiction comes from the minds of people with motives, aims and agendas. It would be a critical mistake to miss take the Lifetime movie "Betty and Coretta" as fact and a critical error to accept it and its wicked mischaracterizations of Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan as anything other than lies and misrepresentations."

Muhammad says the women involved in the movie, including Blige, are not the enemy. He says they are actresses who are likely doing their best to portray two black women important to the struggle of Black America.

"But the enemy remains those forces against Black liberation and in particular members of the Jewish community who have fought Min. Farrakhan since his 1984 defense of Rev. Jesse Jackson for remarks made about Zionists, Israel and Palestinians while running for president," writes Muhammad.

"From that opening salvo the Jewish onslaught has been relentless and largely unproductive in moving the Black masses away from Farrakhan. And at one time it was easy for these Satanic demons to use the 'Farrakhan Litmus' test to scare away Black leaders, politicians and activists but it is a little harder today – though sadly some still kowtow to Jewish masters."

(Read the FinalCallNews.com interview with Minister at http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Minister_Louis_Farrakhan_9/article_9616.shtml)