The controversial snap of Obama and Louis Farrakhan was kept under wraps for 13 years

This is the long-hidden photo of Barack Obama posing with controversial Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan which has now been revealed - 13 years after it was taken.

According to The Sun UK, Journalist Askia Muhammad snapped the pair in 2005.

But he has now admitted that he “gave up” the picture up at the time and “basically swore secrecy” out of concerns it could ruin Obama’s chances of becoming president.

Muhammad took the photo at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting.

But releasing the photo at the time could have whipped up a storm of controversy - because the Nation of Islam is considered to be a hate group.

Muhammad said: “After the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was president, it was kept under cover, Muhammad said. “It absolutely would have made a difference.”

Barack Obama

Muhammad said a “staff member” for the CBC contacted him “sort of in a panic” after he took the photo.

“I sort of understood what was going on,” Muhammad told the website Talking Points Memo, which published the photo yesterday.

“I promised and made arrangements to give the picture to Leonard Farrakhan,” the minister’s son-in-law and chief of staff.

He said he gave away “the disk” from his camera but “copied the photograph from that day onto a (computer) file.”

“Realising that I had given it up, I mean, it was sort of like a promise to keep the photograph secret,” Muhammad said.

He said he "felt a little bit more at ease" after Farrakhan claimed in 2016 that Obama visited his home in Chicago.

Louis Farrakhan

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