A long-hidden photo of former U.S President, Barack Obama posing
with controversial Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, has been revealed,
13 years after it was taken, The Sun UK reports.
13
years after it was taken, a photo of then-Senator, Barack Obama posing at a
caucus meeting with Nation of Islam leader, has been revealed on
Thursday.
Journalist, Askia Muhammad who had snapped the pair at a
Congressional Black Caucus meeting in 2005, but "gave up" the picture
after pressure from the political organisation, has now admitted he “basically
swore secrecy”out of concerns it could ruin Obama’s chances of becoming
president.
Releasing the photo at the time could have whipped up a storm of
controversy because the Nation of Islam has been accused of being a hate group.
Muhammad said: “After the nomination was secured and all
the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was president,
it was kept under cover,” Muhammad said. “It absolutely would
have made a difference.”
Muhammad said a “staff member” for the CBC
contacted him “sort of in a panic” after he took the photo.
“I sort of understood what was going on,” Muhammad told the website, Talking
Points Memo, which published the photo yesterday.
“I promised and made arrangements to give the picture to Leonard
Farrakhan,” the minister’s
son-in-law and chief of staff.
He said he gave away “the disk” from his camera
but “copied the photograph from that day onto a (computer) file.”
“Realising that I had given it up, I mean, it was sort of like a
promise to keep the photograph secret,” Muhammad said.
He said he "felt a little bit more at
ease" after Farrakhan claimed in 2016 that Obama visited his home
in Chicago.
Muhammad contacted Farrakhan in autumn 2017 with the "final
manuscript" for a self-published book containing the photo.
Farrakhan has made Anti-Semitic remarks in the past. In March
2016, Farrakhan praised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as the only
candidate who hadn't taken money from the "Jewish community".
Throughout Obama's presidential campaign, conservatives pushed
multiple conspiracy theories about Obama's religion and supposed ties to Islam.
At a 2008 presidential debate in Cleveland, Obama said he had
'been very clear' in his 'denunciation' of Farrakhan's remarks in the past.
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