NEW YORK — Members of the New York City Council clashed Tuesday over a proposal to name a Harlem block in honor of Elijah Muhammad, the controversial late leader of the Nation of Islam.
The plan to honor Muhammad — a Chicago religious leader who championed Black empowerment and described white people as “devils” — is part of a proposal to co-name 129 public spaces in the city.
The proposal would name the intersection of West 127th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard as “The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad Way.”
Muhammad, who died in 1975, claimed thousands of followers as a Black Muslim leader, but saw disciple Malcolm X split off from his group in the 1960s over Muhammad’s disengagement with the civil rights movement, among other factors.
Critics view Muhammad as a purveyor of racism and antisemitism.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Councilman David Carr, a Staten Island Republican, described the plan to honor Muhammad with a street name as “particularly ill-timed” given local lawmakers’ recent work to combat antisemitism.
Rates of antisemitic hate crimes in the city have increased sharply recently, according to New York Police Department data.
“Elijah Muhammad was the leader of an organization that at its root has antisemitism,” Carr said. “This individual, in his lifetime, was a documented partner of white power groups and other antisemitic groups.”
“This is not a street renaming we should support at this time or, frankly, at any time,” Carr said.
He noted the analysis of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has determined that the Nation of Islam holds a “prominent position in the ranks of organized hate.”
The office of Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan, who proposed the renaming, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Jordan, a far-left Harlem Democrat, did not speak at the hearing.
But Councilman Charles Barron, a Brooklyn Democrat and longtime community activist, spoke in favor of naming the block for Muhammad.
“I don’t want to disappoint you without having some controversy,” Barron, a former member of the Harlem branch of the Black Panther Party, said toward the end of the Parks and Recreation Committee hearing.
“We definitely support the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and his street co-naming, and we denounce all of the accusations of antisemitism,” Barron said.
He lashed the Anti-Defamation League, which lists Muhammad in its glossary of extremism.
The Anti-Defamation League does not have “the moral authority to be criticizing the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X and Minister Louis Farrakhan,” Barron said, referring to three prominent figures in the history of the Nation of Islam.
The Black leaders “really have saved so many people in our community, revived our communities, particularly those of us who were incarcerated,” Barron said.
“Any constructive criticism of the state of Israel is always turned into antisemitism,” Barron said. “We support that street renaming.”
The bill that would name the block for Muhammad is due to be introduced Thursday.
The legislation would not make changes to the city map, but would provide for additional street markers, according to a City Council report.
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