Enforcing Correctness

IN A SPEECH TO A FEW DOZEN STUDENTS at Kean College in Union, New Jersey, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a senior official with the Nation of Islam, got thousands of people mad. He called Jews "hook-nosed, bagel-eatin', lox-eatin' " imposters. He attacked Catholics: "The old no-good Pope . . . somebody need to raise that dress up and see what's really under there." Gays: "God does not name holy books after homosexuals." And even other blacks, including Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates: "Who let this Negro out of the gate?"

And so it began. Muhammad, who is a top aide to Louis Farrakhan, delivered his incendiary talk on Nov. 29. Ever since, there's been a slow burn of controversy, finally exploding into the kind of racial brush fire that's become familiar in American political discourse. Here's how it works: 1) a semi-obscure black figure says something outrageous or anti-Semitic; 2) pundits pontificate, word processors whirr; 3) one by one, black leaders are forced to condemn the offending words and the offensive speaker. It happened to Professor Griff, formerly of the politically charged rap group Public Enemy. It also happened to Farrakhan, when he called Judaism a "gutter religion." Now Muhammad's words have put him -- and the Nation of Islam -- in the cross hairs.

Several weeks after the speech, columnists Richard Cohen of the Washington Post and A.M. Rosenthal of the New York Times called for black leaders to repudiate Muhammad publicly. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith took out a full-page ad in the New York Times with excerpts from the speech and the headline "Minister Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam claim they are moving toward moderation . . . you decide." Feeling the heat, black leaders began the ritual of condemnation and racial correctness. Jesse Jackson called Muhammad's words reprehensible, "antipapist and inane." But Farrakhan, defiant, gave a speech in Harlem during which he embraced his controversial aide onstage.

The furor comes at a bad time for Farrakhan, who has been trying to expand his power base. He publicly performed Mendelssohn (a Jewish composer) on his violin and talked of reaching out to Jews. A Farrakhan speech in New York City this December drew 30,000 people, a crowd that would be impressive for a rocker, much less a lecturer. In September U.S. Representative Kweisi Mfume of Maryland, head of the Congressional Black Caucus, announced that he had formed a "covenant" with Farrakhan and that the caucus would work with him. But after Muhammad's diatribe, Mfume asked Farrakhan to "clarify" his position on the speech. He has yet to receive an answer, and the mainstreaming of Farrakhan is on hold.

The Muhammad incident also comes at a bad time for black-Jewish relations in general, especially in New York City, which never sleeps because it's too busy fretting about race. The Justice Department recently announced plans to look - into Brooklyn's 1991 Crown Heights riots, sparked when a Jewish motorist struck and killed a black youngster. In January, New York police mistakenly raided a Nation of Islam mosque after a false robbery report.