News Photo of Obama with Hate Group Leader Surfaces After Being Kept Secret for Years to Protect Him

by Erin Coates

A new photo has been recently released of former President Barack Obama with the leader of a black nationalist hate group.

The picture shows former Illinois Sen. Obama posing with the leader of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan.

Farrakhan is known for his radical anti-Semitic and anti-white views, outlined by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The photo was taken by Askia Muhammad at the 2005 Democratic National Convention, according to NorthStar News Today, but he kept the picture hidden so Obama could run for president.
 

“I gave the picture up at the time and basically swore to secrecy,” Muhammad said to the Trice Edney News Wire. “But 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.”
 

Now that Obama is done with his political career, Muhammad published the photo in a book called “The Autobiography of Charles 67X,” which will be released at the end of this month, The Daily Caller reported.

Muhammad insisted that it would have made a difference in the 2008 election, and others agreed with him.

“I do believe that it would have had a very, very negative affect in that given moment as far as the candidacy of candidate Obama at that time,” Dr. Shayla Nunnally, president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, said.  A. Peter Bailey, columnist and political observer, disagreed that it could have cost Obama the election.
 

“It could have done some damage,” he said, according to NorthStar News Today. “But nothing could have stopped the election because Black support would have countered it.”

Obama’s support of Farrakhan came up during during the 2008 campaign when Hillary Clinton criticized him during a debate.