Dr. Martin Luther King and former President Nelson Mandela had a great deal in common. Both called for economic parity, freedom, justice, equality, and the acquisition of land as the basis of economic parity for their people. Both men abhorred America’s military invasions in other people’s lands and both denounced racism in all its forms.
Dr. King was an outspoken critic of America’s foreign policy initiatives. He vociferously denounced America’s foray into the Vietnam War. In 1968 Dr. King said: “And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. God didn’t call America to engage in a senseless, unjust war, as the war in Vietnam. And we are criminals in that war. We have committed more war crimes almost than any nation in the world, and I’m going to continue to say it….”
Former President Mandela, in 2003, slammed the US in a speech given at the International Women’s Forum in Johannesburg, denouncing then President George W. Bush’s illegal invasion of Iraq for easy access to Iraqi oil. Mr. Mandela said: “If there is a country that has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world, it is the United States of America.” In 2002 Mandela told Newsweek, “If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace.”
The landmark publication The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews, vol. 2, shows how members of the Jewish community labeled Dr. King and Mr. Mandela as virulent anti-Semites. Upon the occasion of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s state visit to South Africa in 1996, the powerful Jewish community became very disturbed when President Mandela rejected their bid to have him snub The Minister. The two brothers proceeded to have an amicable and successful meeting.