A journalist has revealed a 13-year-old photo of Barack Obama posing with the Nation of Islam's leader that was kept under wraps in order to protect the former president's career.

Askia Muhammad snapped the photo of Obama smiling alongside Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan during a Congressional Black Caucus meeting in 2005.

Muhammad, who revealed the photo on Thursday, told the Trice Edney News Wire that he 'gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy' out of concern that it could have 'made a difference' and damaged Obama's political future.

The former president was an Illinois Senator at the time the photo was taken.

The picture was also taken before conspiracy theories developed that Obama was not born in the United States and is a Muslim.

Journalist Askia Muhammad has released a 13-year-old photo of former president Barack Obama posing alongside the Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (right)

Muhammad, who revealed the photo on Thursday, said he 'gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy' out of concern that it could have 'made a difference' and damaged Obama's political future. Farrakhan is pictured in October 2015

Muhammad told the news site that the photo was kept a secret until after Obama secured the Democratic nomination to run for president 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.'

Muhammad recalled on Thursday that 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 Talking Points Memo, which published the photo Thursday.

Muhammad said he '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.'

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

Muhammad told the site that he was afraid the photograph would be 'damaging politically' if it were released and feared the possibility of someone breaking into his apartment looking for it.

Muhammad said the photo was kept a secret until after Obama secured the Democratic nomination to run for president and 'all the way up until the inauguration'. Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, former VP Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden during 2009 Inauguration

Farrakhan (pictureed in November 2017) is a minister who leads the Nation of Islam and has made Anti-Semitic remarks in the past

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

Muhammad contacted Farrakhan in autumn 2017 with the 'final manuscript' for a self-published book containing the photo.

Farrakhan is a minister who leads the Nation of Islam and has made Anti-Semitic remarks in the past.

In March 2016, Farrakhan praised then-presidential candidate Donald Trump as the only candidate who hadn't taken money from the 'Jewish community'.

Throughout Obama's presidential campaign, conservatives pushed multiple conspiracy theories about Obama's religion and supposed ties to Islam.

At a 2008 presidential debate in Cleveland, Obama said he had 'been very clear' in his 'denunciation' of Farrakhan's remarks in the past.