Note: The following letter was sent to Fox News General Counsel Katherine Moran Meeks in response to false statements made by a guest that aired on a January 2 segment of FOX News and Friends regarding the Nation of Islam and the suspect in the New Year’s Day tragedy in New Orleans.

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, THE BENEFICIENT, THE MERCIFUL. I BEAR WITNESS
THAT THERE IS NO GOD BUT ALLAH AND MUHAMMAD IS HIS MESSENGER

 

January 6, 2025

Via U.S. Mail & Email: [email protected]

Katherine Moran Meeks
General Counsel
FOX News
1211 Avenue of Americas
New York, NY 10036

                  Re: Notice to Cease and Desist Publishing and Distributing False/Injurious Information

Dear General Counsel Meeks,

I am Abdul Arif Muhammad, and I serve as general counsel for the Nation of Islam (NOI). On January 2, 2025, Fox News broadcasted a segment of FOX News and Friends filled with false, unverified, and disparaging allegations regarding the Nation of Islam. For such, the NOI hereby demands a cease and desist, and a retraction.

During the FOX News and Friends segment hosted by Ashley Strohmier and Todd Piro, with guest former F.B.I. agent Jonathan Gilliam, Mr. Gilliam said he could not confirm what he was about to say through a second person and then proceeded to make the following utterly false statement regarding the suspect in the New Orleans tragedy: “…He is a Black American, and that this is a Nation of Islam group. That this individual practiced Islam, but under the Nation of Islam.” To our knowledge, the suspect has never been a registered member of the Nation of Islam. The government of the United States has the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in their possession. Anyone is welcome to study them or to tune into our National Broadcasts. In none of them will you find us inviting people to do violence or act in a terroristic manner in the nation of our birth. In its 94-year history, the Nation of Islam has no track record of committing or advocating acts of violence against anyone.

FOX News’ complicit facilitation of this uncorroborated defamatory information, we view as willful, malicious and injurious to the Nation of Islam, in general, and to every single member, in particular. Viewers of this program, and/or family members of the victims, who believe the uncorroborated defamatory statements of your guest, that you continue to have posted on various platforms, could seek to do harm to a member of the Nation of Islam in the name of seeking retribution for their deceased or injured loved ones.

FOX News has a responsibility to ensure that what is presented on its platforms is fact-checked and sourced for accuracy. This FOX News failed to do, and it has caused immediate harm. Thus, we are demanding that FOX News cease and desist the airing and distribution of the above-referenced program segment, and we are demanding the immediate removal of that segment of that broadcast with Mr. Gilliam’s false accusations from all FOX News platforms and outlets, as well as that of any FOX News affiliates.

We further demand that a public retraction and disavowal of that statement be made immediately before the continued promotion of that slanderous statement causes additional injury to the peaceful reputation of the Nation of Islam and/or to its members.

This letter is not intended to set forth our entire position regarding the false claims. Nothing herein constitutes a waiver, or a limit of our potential rights, remedies, defenses or claims, all of which are expressly reserved.

We look forward to your immediate action removal, retraction, and disavowal of the false statements.

Sincerely,