The Combat Antisemitism Movement, a coalition of 700 groups that aims to "eradicate antisemitism," has ousted a Michigan mayor with close ties to Abdul El-Sayed and Jocelyn Benson following a Washington Free Beacon report over his position with the Nation of Islam and his support for its antisemitic leader Louis Farrakhan.
Marcus Muhammad, the mayor of Benton Harbor, was appointed last October to the Combat Antisemitism Movement's (CAM) inaugural advisory committee to "provide strategic guidance" for the group's efforts to fight antisemitism. But as the Washington Free Beacon recently reported, Muhammad is also a "student minister" in the Nation of Islam, a group that CAM has accused of spreading blood libel conspiracy theories against Jews.
CAM, in response to questions about Muhammad's role with the Nation of Islam, told the Free Beacon that the mayor is no longer on the advisory board, citing the Nation of Islam's "notorious record of antisemitism."
"CAM was recently made aware of positions and affiliations held by Mayor Muhammad that are inconsistent with CAM's mission. As a result, CAM decided he will no longer serve on the board, and he was notified accordingly," a spokesperson said.
Muhammad's ouster and affiliation with the Nation of Islam create an awkward situation for El-Sayed—who has been battling a series of reports on his ties to antisemites and Islamic extremists, as well as about his own Islamic fundamentalist beliefs—and Benson in Michigan, a moderate state that voted for Donald Trump in 2024.
Muhammad, who was elected mayor in 2015, has posted a number of photos with El-Sayed since his gubernatorial campaign in 2018. Muhammad met with El-Sayed backstage at the Senate candidate's election night party on August 4 and has visited his Detroit campaign headquarters.
Muhammad said in an interview this month that he is longtime "friends" with Benson and said they have "developed a relationship outside of politics." Benson shouted out Muhammad during her primary victory speech this month and touts Muhammad's endorsement on her campaign website. She also spoke at a "Juneteenth prayer breakfast" that Muhammad hosted in Benton Harbor last year, according to her campaign website.
In its statement, CAM blasted candidates who cozy up to the Nation of Islam, saying that CAM "will collaborate with no one who legitimizes them." CAM took special aim at El-Sayed, who has courted a slew of antisemites and pro-Hamas activists during his Senate bid. El-Sayed has met with Troy Muhammad, the head of Detroit's Nation of Islam chapter, who has threatened "the Jews" and suggested that Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League "represent Satan."
"Those like the Jews who, like Goliath, they think that they're big, but Farrakhan will bring them down," Troy Muhammad said in a video message in 2018.
"The conspiratorial rhetoric espoused by Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed has placed a target on the backs of Jews across Michigan and beyond," the CAM spokesperson said.
Marcus Muhammad, who did not respond to a request for comment, has attributed his political rise to Farrakhan, saying in an interview this month that Farrakhan urged him to run for mayor and vowed "to put the whole Nation behind [him]."
Muhammad said that Farrakhan told him, "I'm your cornerman."
Muhammad has also sought Farrakhan's advice on Israel. In 2019, he said Farrakhan advised him to reject an invitation to visit Israel as part of a "peace mission" due to "the great dangers and hatred that exist." He also wrote that he declined the visit because of Israel's "vitriolic disposition toward Muslims."
Muhammad has promoted several of the 93-year-old's antisemitic diatribes. On July 6, Muhammad posted Farrakhan's seminar in which Farrakhan asserted the "Jewish community wanted [black people] to stay in the South under the slave codes and the black codes, and they wanted us to farm the land as sharecroppers." Muhammad promoted a 2023 Farrakhan speech in which Farrakhan rationalized Adolf Hitler's actions in Nazi Germany. "Hitler went against usury and Hitler attacked pornography that the Jews had put on the Germans," Farrakhan said.
Muhammad is a proponent of the Nation of Islam's "Muslim Program," an influential treatise that calls for racial segregation and states that "intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited." Muhammad has called the "Muslim Program" the "ultimate solution" to America's "race problem."
And Muhammad has invoked antisemitic canards of his own. In July 2020, after Jewish groups, including CAM, called for the removal of a video in which Farrakhan referred to Jews collectively as "the Satan," Muhammad wrote: "Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him."
In an interview with Nation of Islam members in May, Muhammad referred repeatedly to "the enemy"—a term the Nation of Islam often uses to refer to Jews—while discussing The Israel Lobby, a book that alleges Jews malignantly shape American foreign policy. "They have the muscle, they have the money, they have power, they have influence," said Muhammad.
El-Sayed's and Benson's campaigns did not respond to requests for comment.
