In the wake of Beyonce’s eye-catching performance at the Super Bowl halftime show and the subsequent outrage expressed by law enforcement spokespeople, the pop star has received some support from Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the religious group Nation of Islam, who has offered to provide protection if the police refuse to do so.

The 82 year old activist and leader was delivering a speech in Chicago on Sunday (February 21st), according to TMZ, when he addressed the furore. “She started talking all that black stuff and white folks say, 'Well, we don't know how to deal with that’,” he said.

BeyonceBeyonce has been offered the protection of the Nation of Islam by its leader Louis Farrakhan in the wake of her Super Bowl performance

Beyonce, who debuted her latest single ‘Formation’ during the performance and is embarking on a world tour of the same name later this year, has faced growing criticism from those who feel that asking for the police’s protection at her shows, while simultaneously criticising them, is hypocritical.

“Look at how you treatin' Beyoncé now. You gonna picket. You not gonna offer her police protection. But the FOI ('Fruit of Islam') will,” Farrakhan continued, ending his speech with a plea to other hip-hop artists to add their voice to Beyonce’s high-profile example. “Say what you feel. Put it out there!”

More: New York police ‘want Beyonce to apologise’ for Super Bowl performance

Farrakhan, a controversial figure throughout his life, also had some words to say about former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had slammed Beyonce’s performance, which seemed to pay homage to the Black Panthers, and her support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

“I thought it was really outrageous that she used it as a platform to attack police officers who are the people who protect her and protect us, and keep us alive,” Giuliani had said the morning after the Super Bowl earlier this month.

Soon after that, the leader of the Miami chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, an organisation unofficially representing officers, called for a boycott on Beyonce and cited a 1981 incident in which a member of the Black Panthers murdered an NYPD cop.

More: Rudy Giuliani slams Beyonce’s Super Bowl performance as an “attack” on law enforcement officers