Tonight’s appearance by Muslim leader Louis Farrakhan got a boost of support from NIU’s president, although the two-page statement does not back Farrakhan’s views.

NIU President John La Tourette said Monday that Farrakhan’s appearance was funded through “regular procedures” by the Student Association and Campus Activites Board.

La Tourette also said Farrakhan’s visit is covered by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, allowing free speech.

“To limit the right of a person to speak because of disagreement with his or her views, no matter how controversial, is an opening wedge against freedom of speech,” La Tourette said.

Farrakhan will receive up to $12,000 for his 8 p.m. lecture in the Chick Evans Field House on “Minority Economic Empowerment in the 1990s.”

La Tourette said he does not agree with some of Farrakhan’s statements but “will defend his (Farrakhan’s) equal right to those principles” of free speech.

The president’s statement came after Saturday’s request from the Anti-Defamation League for NIU officials to denounce the speech. The ADL said “the university is offering a platform for Farrakhan which can be seen as lending his message a certain legitimacy.”

B.R.O.T.H.E.R.S. President Michael Bonds said he is happy that La Tourette is supporting Farrakhan’s right to speak.

Bonds also said he wished those opposed to Farrakhan would feel the same as La Tourette. “Not everyone will agree with what he says,” Bonds said. “But there should be an exposure to all views besides what the media gives.”

Often criticized for holding anti-Semitic and anti-white views, Farrakhan has said “a climate of fear and hatred—of distrust, anger, frustration—is building among black people, and fear of the future is building in white people….it is not me who is creating this climate.”

However, the Hillel Jewish Student Organization is holding a noon anti-racism rally in the King Memorial Commons to oppose all forms of racism.

The rally will move to the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium if the weather is bad.