Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan is calling on African Americans to boycott the Christmas season, saying it's been transformed into a crass commercial holiday that benefits "white business."
"We think they have taken advantage of us and our consumer dollars by materializing the respect and honor of Jesus, and making it a bonanza for white business," Farrakhan said Thursday in an interview with Roland Martin, host of News One Now on
TV One.
"So on Black Friday, we won't be there. When they feel the pain of our withdrawal or our economic power from them, then we can talk about real change in America …"
"Either [they are] going to treat us right or we're going to withdraw our economic support … We intend to boycott Christmas, but not Jesus."
Farrakhan said he wants African Americans to make a point of making purchases at black-owned businesses.
Farrakhan said the boycott will be launched on Oct. 16th, the 20th anniversary of his Million Man March in Washington, D.C.
During the interview, Farrakhan discredited claims he called for the killing of white people during an Aug. 13th sermon, insisting he is not.
Last month,
The Gateway Pundit reported, Farrakhan asked his followers for 10,000 volunteers to "kill white people if the government doesn't give the black community 'justice.'''
But Farrakhan told Martin: "We're going to be inside our community, standing between the guns of the gangs. We're asking for 10,000, but you got to accept to be trained by the Nation of Islam and the fruit of Islam, so that we can teach you how to be with your people."
"We're not killers of people. No Nation of Islam member carries a weapon. We don't believe in the carnal weapons of this world. However, we have to be trained to go into our community with the love that we have for our own people and stand in the gap."
Farrakhan's group — an Islamic religious movement founded in 1930 to improve the lives of African Americans — has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.