Nation of Islam Fee Waiver May Be Reviewed

Two Los Angeles officials Tuesday sought to reconsider a $30,000 fee waiver granted to the Nation of Islam for use of the Convention Center, following a challenge by the Anti-Defamation League.

City Councilmen Jack Weiss and Eric Garcetti introduced a motion asking for the city attorney to determine whether the event, scheduled for Feb. 14-16, meets the requirements for a waiver.

“The allegations raised in the ADL letter are serious,” Weiss said. “Because of the legal nature of the questions, they warrant a legal analysis.”

Weiss also asked for a broader look at the policy of waiving fees at the Convention Center.

Under city policy, a waiver can be granted if the event is beneficial to the community, said Belu Onyedika, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“The Anti-Defamation League fails to see how subsidizing Nation of Islam’s unwavering record of racism and bigotry serves any public or educational purpose,” wrote ADL Interim Regional Director Aaron Levinson and league counsel Tamar Galatzan in the letter to the council.

The event, called Saviors Day 2002, has an anti-gang focus, with workshops on community organizing, gang intervention and family relationships, said Tony Muhammad, western regional representative of the Nation of Islam.

“Gang violence is up in Los Angeles, and the Honorable Louis Farrakhan believes he can play a role in curtailing gang violence,” Muhammad said.

Muhammad said the ADL’s criticism of Farrakhan is misplaced. “He is not a man who has been divisive,” he said.

The ADL letter alleges that Farrakhan “has long expressed anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-Catholic and homophobic rhetoric.”

The ADL challenged the waiver on the grounds that it violates city policy prohibiting waivers for religious events that are not generally open to the public, and a policy that limits waivers to $2,500 per day.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, who sponsored the waiver approved by the council last month, said the city has approved waivers for other religious groups that hold educational conferences. City records show waivers for the National Ecumenical Congress, St. Sophia Cathedral, the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Salvation Army and the Greek Orthodox Western Diocese.

“It is consistent with what we have done in the past,” Chief Legislative Analyst Ron Deaton said.

Perry said she cleared the waiver with the city attorney’s office ahead of time. She said the event is an educational conference open to the public, not a religious event. Both Weiss and Garcetti voted for the waiver when the council approved it Dec. 14.

Weiss said he did not challenge the waiver Tuesday because of Farrakhan’s statements, but asked for proof that the conference serves a public purpose and otherwise meets city policy.

The anti-gang event will fill local hotels and bring $2.8 million to the local economy, Perry said.

“It will bring 15,000 Nation of Islam delegates to the Convention Center to be trained in community organizing,” Perry said. “After the intense training, delegates will be sent to various communities in Los Angeles as peace ambassadors to work on gang intervention.”

Perry noted that Farrakhan will close the event with a speech in Inglewood. She said if the event meets city guidelines, any attempt to block the waiver because of past comments by Farrakhan would be improper.

“When you talk about freedom of expression, as a government we are not in the business of censoring others’ comments whether we agree with them or not,” Perry said.