Michigans incoming Democratic governor Jocelyn Benson has selected a prominent Nation of Islam figure with a long record of antisemitic rhetoric and racial separatism to help shape her new administration.
According to The Washington Free Beacon, Benson, who defeated Republican John James in Tuesdays election, has appointed Benton Harbor mayor Marcus Muhammad to her 15-member transition council, placing him alongside Sen. Elissa Slotkin, Detroit mayor Mary Sheffield, and other leading Michigan Democrats. The move comes despite years of concern from Jewish organizations over Muhammads role as a Nation of Islam student minister and his public embrace of the groups extremist ideology, which has been widely classified as both anti-Jewish and anti-white.
Those concerns have already had concrete consequences for Muhammads public standing. The Combat Antisemitism Movement removed him from its mayoral advisory panel this summer after a Washington Free Beacon expos on his remarks, declaring that it "will collaborate with no one who legitimizes" the Nation of Islam.
Muhammad is an open disciple of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, whose long record of antisemitic invective includes comparing Jews to "termites" and praising Adolf Hitler as "a great man." Rather than distance himself from such rhetoric, Muhammad has repeatedly defended Farrakhan and amplified his message to his own followers and constituents.
After Farrakhan referred to Jews as "the Satan" during a notorious July 2020 sermon, Muhammad publicly celebrated the Nation of Islam chief. Posting a photograph of Farrakhan, he captioned it, "Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him."
In a podcast interview earlier this year with fellow Nation of Islam members, Muhammad repeatedly invoked "the enemy"a term commonly used within the sect to denote Jews or white peoplewhile discussing The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, a controversial volume that accuses Jews of malignly steering American foreign policy. "They have the muscle, they have the money, they have power, they have influence," said Muhammad, who just last week campaigned alongside Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D.).
Muhammad has also trafficked in inflammatory historical analogies that recast Jews as oppressors rather than victims. He invoked the Nazi-era Kristallnacht pogrom, describing what he called "the ongoing Jewish and Gentile Kristallnacht against Black Muslim businesses," and attended a 2023 Farrakhan address in which the Nation of Islam leader approvingly remarked that "Hitler went against usury and Hitler attacked pornography that the Jews had put on the Germans."
His rhetoric is not confined to attacks on Israel or its policies but extends to sweeping conspiracy theories about Jews and race. Muhammad promoted another Farrakhan seminar centered on The Secret Relationship Between Black and Jews, Vol. 2, an infamous Nation of Islam text asserting that Jews orchestrated the transatlantic slave trade, and he has touted the groups "Muslim Program," which forbids interracial relationships, as the "ultimate solution" to America's "race problem."
Despite this record, Bensoncurrently serving as Michigans secretary of statehas maintained a close and cordial relationship with Muhammad. She publicly praised him during her primary victory speech this month, while Muhammad said in an August interview that he and Benson are longtime "friends" who have "developed a relationship outside of politics."
In that same interview, Muhammad credited Farrakhan with launching and sustaining his political career. He recounted that Farrakhan promised to be his "cornerman" in his bid for Benton Harbor mayor and vowed to "put the whole Nation behind [him]" in his political pursuits.
Farrakhans influence has also shaped Muhammads stance toward Israel and foreign affairs. In 2019, Muhammad said Farrakhan urged him to reject an invitation to join a "peace mission" to Israel because of "the great dangers and hatred that exist," and Muhammad wrote that he declined the trip due to Israel's "vitriolic disposition toward Muslims."
Bensons office did not respond to a request for comment, leaving unanswered why a statewide Democratic leader would elevate a figure so closely aligned with antisemitic and racially separatist ideology to a key advisory role. For many Michigan voters who value religious tolerance, racial equality, and a clear rejection of hate, the decision raises serious questions about the priorities and judgment of the states next governor.
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