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Jay Z and wife Beyoncé were courtside last week at the Barclays Center to watch the Brooklyn Nets take on the Houston Rockets. The New York Post‘s Page Six was particularly enamored with Hov’s “Universal Flag” pendant, a symbol of the Nation of Gods and Earths or the Five Percent Nation.

The Post, exceptional journalists that they are, delved in a bit deeper behind Jay Z’s mysterious flag pendant. Of course, the Post takes the low road and zeroed in on what will get clicks and move papers aside from actually reporting the facts. Going for the sensational, the paper manages to give its readers a haphazard crash course in all things Five Percent Nation.

From the Post:

Black people are the fathers and mothers of civilization, white men are the devil, the Christian god is nothing more than a ghost and only a small percentage of people understand the world.

These are just some of the ­beliefs behind the bling — the gaudy Five Percent Nation ­medallions worn by Jay Z and Carmelo Anthony.

The Post also quotes Michael Muhammad Knight, author of two books on the group and seen as nothing more as an Islamic double agent. Muhammad Knight, a White convert to Islam, has largely been written off as a fraud in the Muslim community although he maintains his “one foot in one foot out” status to this day.

Skipping aside from the Post‘s agenda to paint the Nation of Gods and Earths as some radical hate group that wants to kill all White people, they did something right by actually reaching out to an actual member of the group. They spoke with Saladin Allah, a representative of an upstate faction of the Nation, about those Five Percenters who question Jay Z’s connection.

“Jay Z is not an active member — no one has vouched for him,” he said.” It was always understood that you don’t wear the regalia if you don’t totally subscribe to the life.”

Jay Z has kept mum about his status in the group, but showed flashes of the lingo on the “We Made It” freestyle with Jay Electronica.

UPDATE: Saladin Allah wrote a respectful response pointing out Muhammad’s Knight’s inaccuracies and offers further clarification. The letter can be read here.

Photo: AP