SIDDIQUN

Monday, May 18, 2015

Baltimore: The New Gaza

What Role for Muslims (and Other People of Conscience)?

By Nadrat Siddique

On Saturday, April 25, a large protest against the police murder of Black Baltimore native Freddie Gray was called by the Baltimore Peoples Power Assembly and the Baltimore Bloc. By evening, the legal permitted protest dissolved into large scale street blockages, including, to the chagrin of the authorities, in the vicinity of the stadium where the baseball game was underway. Traffic came to a standstill, and a very large number of police descended on the area and surrounded the protestors. Corporate media immediately characterized the spontaneous actions following the permitted protest, as riots—and the participants as thugs, hoodlums, rioters, and other pejoratives. The media accorded similar treatment to the student action near Baltimore’s Mondawmin Mall two days later.

Given all that Baltimore youth have endured for decades, and given the dehumanization, degradation, marginalization, and indeed genocide, which much of Black Baltimore has experienced in a largely Black city, under an administration which can only be characterized as Jim Crow in Black face, the Baltimore Uprising was inevitable. The only thing surprising about it was that it took so many years to reach this point. This report examines the events of Saturday, April 25 and Monday, April 27, and the underlying political climate which led to them. It starts with an overview of conditions in Baltimore, including the city’s vast prison industry and the daily police terror faced by Baltimore natives, then focuses on the specific conditions under which Baltimore’s Black and Brown youth live. Finally, it attempts to illustrate the inevitability of the Baltimore Uprising. An interview with grassroots activist, Reverend Annie Chambers, whose Big Momma’s House for years offered support to indigent Baltimore children and youth, follows the report.

BACKGROUND

Although statistics don’t tell the whole story, they are a good starting point. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures for Baltimore, the unemployment rate for young black men between the ages of 20 to 24, was an astounding 37% in 2013. For white men of the same age, the unemployment rate was 10%.[1] Grassroots organizations, which work directly with local populations in Baltimore, report even more dismal statistics. The Baltimore Black Think Tank (BBTT), an advocacy group for Black and poor people in the city, says nearly 60 percent of Black males in Baltimore are unemployed.

According to government sources, nearly 24% of Baltimore's population is living below the poverty line ($20,090 per year for a family of three).[2] But, according to the BBTT, “Economic Conditions for 67% of the total Black population in Baltimore City have been determined to be critical.”[3]

In Baltimore, as elsewhere, economics clearly correlates with how long and how well one will live. A juxtaposition of the Black neighborhoods of Upton and Druid Heights, with the primarily White, Jewish neighborhood of Roland Park is telling: The life expectancy in Upton and Druid Heights is 63-years old. In Roland Park, it is 83-years old. In the Sandtown‐Winchester/ Harlem Park community where Freddie Gray lived, seven percent of the children have elevated lead levels in their blood, with severe implications for their development and well-being. In Roland Park, no children have elevated lead levels in their blood.[4] Freddie Gray and his two sisters had blood lead levels “above the threshold for the kind of poisoning which causes permanent brain damage,” according to tests ordered by the family, which successfully sued their then-landlord, but the damage was already done. Freddie was in special education classes for the duration of his academic career, and ultimately dropped out of high school.[5]

The income gap between Upton/Druid Heights and Roland Park is no less stark than that in life expectancy. In Upton/Druid Heights, the median income is $13,388 a year. In Roland Park, it is $90,492. These neighborhoods are less than five miles away from each other. But this disparity is not limited to Upton/Druid Heights, and Roland Park. Citywide, average White income is almost twice as much as that of Blacks.[6]

Prison Industry

As in other big cities, poverty, unemployment, disenfranchisement, and gentrification—

in short, the disinheriting of the poor—is invariably addressed by the System through imprisonment of the target population. To that end, there are nine prisons in Baltimore.[7] A tenth prison—for Baltimore youth—was just approved by the Maryland State Board of Public Works. All of the existing prisons were built by the Democrats. So, while many, including Blacks, view the Democratic Party as the friend of Black people, it is more accurate to say the party is deeply enmeshed in the prison industry in Baltimore, and as such, is the instrument of the White Supremacy.

If one is arrested in Baltimore, one is first taken to Baltimore Central Booking. It is among the 20 largest jails in the U.S. More than 73,000 people go through Baltimore Central Booking every year.[8] In comparison with the other 19 largest jails in the country, Baltimore has the dubious distinction of holding the highest percentage of its population in jail. As a result of years of gentrification, only 63.7% of Baltimore’s population is Black (29.6% are White).[9] Over 35,000 people are committed to the Baltimore City Detention Center each year. The majority of these are Black.[10] This is yet one more indicator that this population has been targeted for marginalization, demoralization, and ultimately genocide.

The Baltimore jail system is one of the oldest and largest pretrial facilities in the country. The Baltimore City Detention Center consists of five buildings and can hold around 4,000 people. Significantly—and very differently from other jails—the Baltimore Jail system is paid for by the State of Maryland, not by Baltimore. This means there is no incentive for Baltimore authorities to limit the number of people they arrest and incarcerate. So, not surprisingly, nearly 4,000 people are locked up in the Baltimore Jail system on any given day.[11]

Roughly nine out of 10 of those held in the Baltimore Jail system have not yet gone to trial, and hence are still legally innocent. The majority of those being held are Black men, mostly under the age of 35.[12]

Of the approximately 4,000 people detained at Central Booking on any given day, about 33% are accused of violent offenses. Twenty-eight percent (28%) are incarcerated for drug offenses. Another 19% are held on other nonviolent offenses (other than drugs). Twelve percent are locked up for a violation of probation. The jail itself classifies 27% of detainees as low security.[13] So, even at this pre-trial level, it is safe to say that a very large percentage of detainees are held for non-violent offenses, by a White Supremacist power structure which has a vested interest in their labeling, marginalization, and ultimately their elimination.

After one is convicted in Baltimore, one is usually removed to state prison. Statistics for who is in state prison, revealed in a February 2015 report by the Justice Police Institute (JPI) in collaboration with the Prison Policy Initiative, are eye-opening. One out of three Maryland residents in state prison is from Baltimore.[14] This is despite the fact that Maryland is a relatively populous state, and only one in ten Maryland residents is from Baltimore.

The JPI report examined 55 communities in Baltimore. Off the 55 communities, five contributed the largest number of people to state prison. The community sending the largest number of people to prison was—not surprisingly—that of Freddie Gray: Sandtown‐Winchester/Harlem Park. There, 3% of the total population is in prison. So, 458 people from Freddie Gray’s community are locked up in Maryland state prison. And the state spends $17 million on keeping them there.[15]

Freddie Gray’s community is 96.6 % Black. There, unemployment for people between the ages of 16 - 64 is 52%. Thirty‐four percent (34%) of the inhabitants do not have a high school diploma or GED. One out of three houses in the community was vacant or abandoned in 2012.[16]

Just below Freddy’s community in terms of highest incarceration were the communities of Southwest Baltimore, Greater Rosemont, Clifton‐Berea, and Southern Park Heights. A combined total of 1,416 people from these communities are held in Maryland state prison. So, one in four people who are in prison from Baltimore City come from these four communities, plus Freddy’s community of Sandtown‐Winchester/ Harlem Park. Most of these communities are Black. And Maryland taxpayers dole out $10 million per year to each of these communities to lock up their citizens.[17]

The community with the smallest number of people locked up was Greater Roland Park/Poplar Hill. Not surprisingly, the population of Roland Park is 77.5% White, with Asians forming 9.8% of the population, and Blacks 7.9%.[18]

The report enlarged its scope to name the 25 Baltimore communities with the highest incarceration rates. These were: Pimlico/Arlington/Hilltop; Southern Park Heights; Dorchester/Ashburton; Forest Park/Walbrook; Greater Mondawmin; Penn North/Reservoir Hill; Greater Charles Village/Barclay; Edmondson Village; Greater Rosemont; Sandtown‐Winchester/Harlem Park; Upton/Druid Heights; Allendale/Irvington/South Hilton; Southwest Baltimore; Greater Govans; Northwood; Midway/Coldstream; Belair/Edison; Cedonia/Frankford; Greenmount East; Clifton‐Berea; Oldtown/Middle East; Madison/East End; Patterson Park (North and East); Cherry Hill; and Brooklyn/Curtis Bay/Hawkins Point.[19]

Most of these 25 communities are majority Black. A few of the communities had working class/poor White populations. At least $5 million per year is spent by Maryland taxpayers to incarcerate people from each of these twenty-five communities. Seven out of 10 Baltimore residents in a state prison in 2010 were from one of these 25 communities. In total, Maryland taxpayers spend $288 million each year to lock up mostly Black and poor people from Baltimore City.[20]

Police Murders

After the establishment of Baltimore’s Central Booking, it became the job of the police to deliver people there. (Previously police had taken suspects to the respective precincts where they were arrested.) However, many people never make it to Central Booking because they are brutalized—sometimes to death—by police prior to being booked, charged, tried, or convicted. Police brutality is epidemic. Before Freddie Gray, there was 46-year old Anthony Anderson, slammed to the ground so hard by police that his spleen ruptured. There was Maurice Donald Johnson, shot multiple times by police in his mother’s living room. There was 22-year old Sean Gamble, retreating to his car parked outside a nightclub, shot multiple times by police. Twenty-nine year old Dale Graham, shot by police after a family disagreement. Fourteen-year old Kevin Cooper shot inside his mother’s home by police. Thirteen-year old Monae Turnage shot dead on her way home from watching a movie with school friends, with a rifle later found in a plainclothes police officer’s car. Forty-four year old Tyrone West, pulled by his dreadlocks from his sister’s Lexus which he was driving, to be beaten and stomped to death by 12 police officers. Twenty-nine-year old George Booker Wells, shot and killed by police, after they chased him two blocks from his girlfriend’s house. Twenty-five year old Donte Bennett, shot with his hands up after he’d been running from police. William Torbitt, a Black police officer, shot to death by other police officers near a nightclub. Nineteen-year old George King, tasered to death by police as he lay recuperating in a hospital bed. And heart wrenchingly, the list continues to grow.

The States Attorney, a Zionist Jew named Gregg Bernstein, was in office when most of these cases came to light. Tasked with indicting in cases where a crime had occurred, he refused to prosecute the officers in nearly every case, saying the officers had not used excessive force, and had followed police procedures. To him, it seemed of no consequence that in some of the cases which came before him, such as that of Anthony Anderson, the State’s own medical examiner had ruled the death a homicide. Similarly video footage and eyewitness testimony of police beatings and use of excessive force seemed of no matter to him. Bernstein himself lived comfortably in Roland Park, a neighborhood of zero percent incarceration.

Non-Fatal (but Serious) Incidents of Police Brutality

In addition to the people killed outright by the Baltimore Police Department, a very large number of Baltimore Blacks are profiled, harassed, or brutalized by police. By 2014, the situation had gotten so far out of hand that even the pro-establishment Baltimore Sun released a major report revealing that large numbers of Baltimore natives had been brutalized and battered so badly that they successfully sued the city to the tune of $5.7 million. This included 102 separate court cases since 2011. (Since then, an additional $587,250 has been awarded in settlements to subsequent victims.) According to the Sun report, the cases show that “officers have battered dozens of residents who suffered broken bones — jaws, noses, arms, legs, ankles — head trauma, organ failure, and even death, coming during questionable arrests. Some residents were beaten while handcuffed; others were thrown to the pavement.”[21]

An eighty-seven-year-old grandmother, named Venus Green, was pushed, shoved, and brutalized by police to the extent that she suffered a broken shoulder. She was then hogtied and placed face down on her couch. A 26-year old pregnant woman, named Starr Brown, was slammed to the ground by police, despite her pleas that she was pregnant. Then there was Dondi Johnson Sr. who was left paralyzed in 2005 after being recklessly driven around by police.[22]

Baltimore has a very large and visible Black Muslim population. If one is evidently Muslim, one is greeted with “As-salaam alaikom” at every turn. In that sense, Baltimore is a very Muslim friendly city. But—Black Muslims are the targets of police, along with everyone else. A 36-year old Muslim named Abdul Salaam, was pulled from his car in his driveway after police followed him home for an alleged seat belt violation, slammed to the ground, then hogtied and beaten so badly in front of his young son, that it was a miracle he survived.[23] Another Muslim, Salahudeen Abdul-Aziz, whose beating by police resulted in a broken nose, facial fracture and other injuries, was not taken to a hospital for many hours.[24]

These cases are known primarily because the victims filed civil suits against the police, but for every case in which charges are filed, there are a multitude of others which never come to light because the victim fears police retribution; is unaware of his or her rights; or lacks the means, communication skills, or determination to bring charges.

Perversely, the injuries, beatings, and trauma are administered by police, who, in the United States, take an oath to “protect and serve” their constituents. Even more Orwellian, those who receive compensation for grievous injuries, including some which could have resulted in death, are not permitted to speak of their experience afterwards. If they talk, their award can be rescinded in whole or in part.

No Signs of Improvement

But even broad scale and successful litigation doesn’t appear to have made the police more responsive or conscientious in their dealings with those whom they are paid to serve. In May 2015, the Baltimore Sun published another report on the condition of detainees brought to Central Booking. They found that in the period from June 2012 through April 2015, a whopping 2,600 people were brought by police to Central Booking with injuries so severe the jail would not accept them (they had to be taken to the hospital instead). “Intake officers in Central Booking noted a wide variety of injuries, including fractured bones, facial trauma and hypertension. Of the detainees denied entry, 123 had visible head injuries, the third most common medical problem” the report said.[25] So while “rioting” youth were framed by the corporate media and government as the problem in Baltimore, many Baltimore residents pinpoint the police as the problem, indeed as the source of the terror under which they live.

Conditions for Baltimore Youth

After the street blockages on Saturday, April 25, and the youth uprising on Monday, April 27, the authorities, fearing an escalation and its implications for corporate interests, instated a city wide curfew from 10:00 PM to 5:00 AM.

What people outside Baltimore forgot is that youth in Baltimore were already under a curfew, enacted in June 2014, prior to any putative riots. That curfew required youth under 14 to be off the streets by 9:00 PM, and those age d14-16 had to be off the streets by 10:00 PM on school nights and 11:00 PM on weekends and over the summer. If they ventured out, they could be nabbed off the street by police. According to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, police would “bring youths found in violation of the new time limits to a year-round youth connection center.” In the process, a youth could be handed over to Child Protective Services. Even if a youth was not removed from his parent and placed with that agency, parents faced a fine of up to $500.[26]

The previous youth curfew, like the current city-wide one, was selectively enforced. The June 2014 curfew was almost never enforced in affluent, predominantly White areas. So White youth could consort, congregate to smoke weed, and engage in social interactions without interference—actions which would quickly land Black youth in the hands of the police.

Over and above police encounters arising from the curfew, Black children and youth undergo experiences with police early on which inculcate a well-founded distrust, animosity, and fear in them. Black children—who watch their parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, or teachers being degraded, abused, beaten, or even murdered by the police—experience the trauma as if it is happening to them. Given Baltimore’s skyrocketing rates of police brutality, many Black inner city children are traumatized by seeing—whether on television, social media, or on the street—people who look like them being frisked; pulled from their cars and made to sit on the pavement; stomped, beaten, or slammed to the ground; or being shot multiple times by the police. Imagine a Black child listening to news of little Monae Turnage murdered, her body covered with trash, the rifle casings traced to a weapon in a police car. Or hearing of young George King, tasered to death by police while he lay helpless in a hospital bed. Many children fear similar treatment will be dealt to them or someone close to them.

According to Reverend Annie Chambers, a former Black Panther, whose organization, Big Momma’s house, offered support services to indigent children in Baltimore for years, the children, including teenagers who are already shy and/or sensitive about their bodies, are stopped and physically harassed on a whim by police. They are often forced to strip to their underwear in public by police. Sometimes the police go so far as to demand a body cavity search, clearly meant to humiliate the child or youth. Groping of girls’ breasts by police during such a stop is common, adds Reverend Chambers.

Actual detention of children is not unheard of either. The city detention center has up to twenty minors in its custody on any given day. The child prisoners are sometimes kept in solitary confinement for a month or longer.[27] In March 2015, the U.S. Justice Department's Division of Civil Rights found that "Teenagers awaiting trial on adult charges in Baltimore are being kept in solitary confinement far too long — up to 143 days in one case.”[28]

Indeed the State seems determined to imprison—rather than to educate, nurture, or uplift—Baltimore’s Black youth. Up until 2013, the State’s efforts were geared at building a $70 million youth jail. After concerted lobbying and citywide protests by the Baltimore Algebra Project and other opponents, the plans were finally dropped. Then, on May 13, 2015—just two weeks after the Baltimore Youth Uprising, the Board of Public Works of the State of Maryland approved plans to build a $30 million youth jail. This time it was passed with little to no debate.[29]

To add insult to injury, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan reallocated $68 million—which legislators had set aside for schools—to the pension system. Of the $68 million, Baltimore schools were to have gotten $11.6 million. [30]

But then writing off Black youth is nothing new to the State of Maryland. Around 1996, the situation was so dire that parents of Baltimore City students sued the Maryland State Department of Education for underfunding Baltimore City Schools. One Judge Kaplin ruled that the Department of Education was underfunding the Baltimore City Public School System, in comparison to other districts in the state of Maryland, and ordered the State to pay Baltimore City schools their due. The state blatantly ignored his orders. As a result, students lead strikes, hosted rallies, and attempted to perform a citizen arrest of the Maryland State Department of Education Superintendent Nancy Grasmick.[31] In subsequent years, similar lawsuits were filed against the Maryland State Department of Education, but conditions did not improve significantly.

In 2007, the Baltimore Black Think Tank reported that Baltimore City Schools contained lead in the drinking fountain water. In 2009, student leaders from the Baltimore Algebra Project described the city's school buildings as crumbling, the school bathrooms devoid of soap and paper towels, the school lunches as inedible, and textbooks as being in short supply.[32]

By 2010, conditions in Baltimore City Public Schools had deteriorated so significantly that students from the Baltimore Algebra Project and other groups petitioned the Board of Education to enact the “National Student Bill of Rights.” Included in the draft were demands such as: the right to study curriculum which addressed the real, material, and cultural needs of the communities from which the students came; the right to safe housing; the right to safe public schools; the right to high quality food; the right to freedom from unwarranted search, seizure or arrest by police; the right to establish systems of restorative justice in schools and communities, and cessation of exclusion from educational opportunities except by a jury of peers; and the right not be charged for crimes as adults until the age of 18.”[33]

The National Student Bill of Rights was swept under rug by the Board of Education.

In 2013, in a continuing trend, the city closed 20 recreation centers which could have benefitted Black and Brown youth. Not surprisingly, among these was the Lillian Jones center at Gilmor Elementary, in Freddie Gray’s neighborhood. Four more recreation centers in the poor and working class West Baltimore communities of Crispus Attucks, Central Rosemont, Hilton and Harlem Park were closed permanently.

While recreation centers were being closed left and right, police department budgets seemed immune to cuts: “In 1991, the city spent roughly $8.7 million to operate 76 recreation centers. The budget for police that year was $182 million. This year, the city will spend $10.6 million on its recreation centers and $324.9 million on comparable law enforcement programs,” reported the Baltimore Sun.[34]

One in three Baltimore City children live below the poverty line.[35] As Reverend Annie Chambers told this writer, many of the children who came to Big Momma’s House did not have underwear or socks to wear to school. Once in school, they didn’t have pencils or paper to complete their assignments.

Clearly Black youth in Baltimore face multiple challenges: They are targeted by the police, the education system, the prison system, the media, even by the local Arab or Indo-Pak corner store owner who imagines them all to be criminals and speaks to them only through a bullet proof glass partition. Some such youth live in households lacking basic necessities, such as food, clothing, shoes, and electricity. Some have parents who are on drugs, “running the streets,” or in the prison system.

Leading up to the Baltimore Uprising, government and corporate interests had clearly determined that Baltimore’s youth were expendable. As an expendable segment of the population, they were to be eliminated. To accomplish that goal, Baltimore was turned into an open air prison, holding little promise for its imprisoned population. That population is offered only curfew, prisons, barbed wire, and police beatings. Baltimore has, without exaggeration, become the new Gaza.

April 25

After Saturday’s [April 25] legal permitted march ended, the protestors took it upon themselves to engage in disciplined street blockages. They did not, at first, damage any property. Then, near McKeldin Square (Baltimore Inner Harbor) and Camden Yards (Baltimore Orioles baseball stadium), the protestors moved into the middle of the street like a wave, and linked arms. They refused to move despite police orders to do so, but remained largely peaceful. The baseball game ended, and affluent White Baltimore Orioles fans came pouring out of the stadium, but could not leave due to the street blockages. Angered at being inconvenienced by Black Baltimore, they hurled epithets of “n-gger” and other obscenities at the protestors. Many protestors were already enraged by the murder of yet another young black man, Freddie Gray, and the expectation that the police would once again be immune to prosecution. It was perhaps these factors, coupled with the extremely heavy police cordons, even during the peaceful protest, and the racial attacks by the White Orioles fans, which caused some to snap. They took to smashing police cars, knocking over barricades and trashcans, and breaking windows. Their energies were focused to a large extent on the Galleria (upscale shopping mall at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor), and nearby restaurants and bars, built by the Zionists heading the Greater Baltimore Committee, and viewed widely as part of the gentrification which forced Black people out of the area over the past decade. As a result of this action, the Baltimore light rail, which stops near the stadium, and is usually littered with drunk White Oriole fans after a game, suspended its operations. The protestors did not disperse until after 11:00 PM.

April 27

Freddie Gray’s funeral was held on the morning of April 27. Many well-known politicians and religious figures attended and spoke passionately about the injustice dealt to Freddie. Shortly afterwards, some of them, notably Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton, met with the mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who oversaw the killing of Gray and countless other Black men, not uttering a word against the police.

Later that afternoon, when schools let out, the dynamics of the situation took a 180 degree turn, as the youth took charge. Near Mondawmin Mall, where many students catch buses to return home after school, the buses were grounded by the authorities. Left with no mode of transportation to their homes, the students, with some teacher support, seized the occasion, taking to the streets and facing off with police. The standoff continued for hours, with students throwing rocks, bricks, and urine at the heavily armed phalanx of police. Hundreds of police cars, bearcats, armored personnel carriers, and helicopters were called into the area.

It is instructive to examine the targets of the students during Monday’s events. The students targeted police vans, like the one in which Freddie Gray was murdered. They targeted police cars and police officers (98 police were injured), instruments of the black community’s repression.

They hit a fire truck, which was observed with cracked windshield. They cut the hose on another fire truck, which was in the process of extinguishing a fire at a CVS store, also targeted in the action. Observers familiar with historical role of fire trucks note that non-violent civil rights activists, challenging White Supremacy during the 1960s and 1970s, were periodically doused with fire hoses, whose concentrated stream of water could cause serious harm, and even death to a protestor. In the eyes of many, fire trucks were no more neutral than police cars.

The youth also targeted the Save-A-Lot (discount food chain) and a CVS (drug) store. Community elders and others confirmed to this writer that many youth felt they had a rare opportunity to get “real food,” and they took it. They also expropriated toilet paper, medicine, and other essentials, often in short supply in neighborhoods targeted for financial ruin.

The “Sports Mart,” an athletic shoe store owned by one Harry Levy, in Mondawmin Mall was targeted. Interestingly, television cameras revealed that the shoes taken were, in many cases, singles (one shoe, as opposed to a pair).[36] So the shop owner was left with many single shoes, but few pairs. The Jewish shoe store owner lamented on corporate media that he had been in business for a good length of time, and would be unable to reopen for business.

An incipient senior center was targeted. Southern Baptist Church claimed to be behind the construction, but community leaders confirm that the center was, in actuality, a pet project of Johns Hopkins University, associated with experimentation on Black people and organ harvesting of Black corpses (without the consent of the dead). It is widely viewed as a racist institution by Blacks.

A liquor store was hit by the youth. The Korean owners were renowned for profiting from the sale of the toxin to Black folk, whom they treated with such disdain as to use gloves in case of accidental contact with the customers, whom they viewed as a lower life form.

Corporate media was targeted: a WNEW reporter was assaulted (other protestors stopped his assault). Corporate media were clearly not popular amongst the youth, and with good reason: these media insisted on using pejorative terminologies, usually originating with government officials, for the youth who were responding to savage police attacks. Yet Fox, WNEW, and others never used such language for the police perpetrators, and in a display of clearly slanted journalism, failed to give any meaningful coverage to the youth participating in the Uprising. They did not ask the youth what were their goals or motivations, or what inspired or angered them.

Instead, these media collaborated in insidious ways with the establishment: As Baltimore Black Think Tank President David Wiggins pointed out, WNEW, one of the main corporate media organs issuing on-the-ground reports during the uprising, promised to turn in its video to authorities. The authorities, in turn, would use it to aid in prosecuting and persecuting the youth. Many in the Baltimore Black community, youth and adults alike, were quickly realizing that the coverage given to the Uprising by corporate media would be on par with that accorded to Katrina survivors—one sided and exhibiting clear racial and class bias.

A few days after the Monday youth uprising, a Baltimore Orioles game was cancelled, with massive revenue losses to the corporate interests in the area. Those losses continued when the Orioles were forced to hold a subsequent game before an empty stadium. The Baltimore youth were doing exactly what global resistance movements against occupation and tyranny have done throughout time—hitting tourism, financial targets, and symbols of the occupation.

Has Peaceful Protesting Worked in Baltimore?

Baltimore has a long history of civic organizations, from the NAACP, SCLC, NAN, Baltimore Algebra Project, APC, and others protesting for Black causes. One family affected by police brutality, the West family, have protested nearly every Wednesday since the death of their loved one, Tyrone West, nearly two years ago. Despite the presence of numerous eye-witnesses to West’s beating death by 10 -15 police, and despite the family’s weekly protests, not one officer was fired from the police force, let alone indicted, convicted, or jailed in the case.

In the Anthony Anderson case, although the State’s own medical examiner ruled the death of that innocent Black man a homicide—the States’ Attorney refused to indict.

Similarly, after every beating, shooting, or death in police custody of a Black man or woman in Baltimore, people gather to protest, chant, and march. They hold town halls, appeal to City Hall, and lobby the legislature. And no indictments of police are handed down. The police remain on paid leave pending investigation. When the investigation is completed, it is found they were acting within the limits of their assigned duty.

One day, the youth decided that enough was enough.

Statements of Elected Officials and Others on the Uprising

While the youth, like the youth of Gaza, Palestine, put their lives and liberty on the line, paid politicians and “leaders” were in damage control mode. They were largely united in their pro-business stance:

President Obama said the “looters” should be treated as “criminals” and “thugs.” “There is no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday,” he continued. “They're not protesting. They're not making a statement. They're stealing. When they burn down a building they're committing arson.”[37]

Governor Larry Hogan opined, "These acts of violence and destruction of property cannot and will not be tolerated. I strongly condemn the actions of those who engaged in direct attacks against innocent civilians, businesses, and law enforcement officers."[38]

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said, “I condemn the senseless acts of violence by some individuals in Baltimore that have resulted in harm to law enforcement officers, destruction of property and a shattering of the peace in the city of Baltimore. Those who commit violent actions, ostensibly in protest of the death of Freddie Gray, do a disservice to his family, to his loved ones, and to legitimate peaceful protestors..”[39]

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake chimed in, “The rioting, looting, and violence will not be tolerated.. Too many people have spent generations building up this city for it to be destroyed by thugs, who in a very senseless way, are trying to tear down what so many have fought for, tearing down businesses, tearing down and destroying property..”[40]

Baltimore City Council member Brandon Scott said, the rioters were “cowards.” Congressman Elijah Cummings condemned the rioters for attempting to take advantage of a chaotic situation and for “distracting from finding solutions to the problem.”[41]

Pastor Jamal Bryant, the pastor of a megachurch in Baltimore said, “Rioting and looting will not get us justice; nor will it turn the tide.” And Reverend Al Sharpton of the National Action Network said, “We should be fighting the violence and not adding to it.”

The common thread among the politicians rushing to condemn the youth was that none of them had previously taken a firm stance or effective actions against police brutality or police murders of Black people in Baltimore or elsewhere. Nor had they instructed their constituents in effective means of stopping police brutality and murder.

Statements from the Baltimore grassroots

In stark contrast to these statements was the stance of prominent Baltimore grassroots leaders. Many of these had a track record of opposing police brutality in Baltimore.

Naim Ajamu, a well-known community leader on Baltimore’s West Side said, “Why are we called thugs? Are those on Wall Street called thugs? Are the Koch Brothers called thugs? Are the criminals in politics called thugs!? We have been marginalized over and over again! Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is a thug! Hogan is a thug! Batts is a thug![42]

Reverend Annie Chambers of Big Momma’s House said, “The children struck a match, lit the fire. Let’s hope the adults have the sense to put some wood onto the fire, continue to fight. I’m glad the children did what they did, because they stood up and said I’m human and I want to be treated like I’m human. I’m an instrument and a soldier in the Army of the Lord. They’re not thugs and thieves. They’re truly soldiers in the Army of the Lord.”

Steven Ceci, of the All Peoples Congress said, “I stand firmly with the youth of Baltimore that have every right to rebel.. The fact of the matter is that what is occurring in the streets of Baltimore is a rebellion, and yes, it is a rebellion, not a riot. When people rise up because of a political or social issue such as police terror and state repression, then it is a rebellion. When white college students flip cars over and burn them over a sporting event which has no political meaning that is a riot. There are various ways to protest, one of which is battling the police and destroying private property.”[43]

David L. Johnson, Sr. of the News Networks and Analysis Project/ Baltimore Black Think Tank, said, “Young people showed them that this new world order ain't gonna be easy to implement on their generation. Only the Uncle Toms seem happy to comply with it.. A mayor and police commissioner recklessly determined to protect business interest and property above black lives is just not right. The saddest point of the day is the fact that these negroes simply cannot do any better. Young people showed them a thing or two. White police with guns and ammo...Black people see that every day. Black babies angry as hell--white folk ain't never seen anything like it.”[44]

Darren Muhammad, “State of the City” talk show host and grassroots activist said, “The biggest looter in recent American history calling our young people looters.. If they looted, they learned from the best, you Obama. You robbed and looted Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt, and other countries..”

David Wiggins, Baltimore Black Think Tank President, said: “Baltimore families and children deserve to be protected from deprivations of civil rights under color of law and murder by police under color of law. We will resist murder under color of law with equal or greater force than you attempt to use to force us into submission. We are not intimidated, and we are cognizant of our natural right to resist law enforcement under color of law used to force us to submit to murder under color of law. Self-defense from murder under color of law is not violence. The youth of Baltimore are defending themselves from murder under color of law, because you [Governor Larry Hogan] have failed to protect them.[45]

Conclusion

In Ferguson, when an NAACP representative was speaking at a rally against police brutality shortly after the police murder of Michael Brown, the youth turned their backs to him. The established clergy and politicians have failed the youth, and the youth know these have no backbone. As in Ferguson, the youth in Baltimore are the real leaders. They have an innate sense of justice. Time and time again, even folk strongly opposed to the “riots” have told this writer that it was the actions of the youth, at least in part, which lead to the six police involved in Gray’s murder being indicted. Inshallah, history will judge the Baltimore Uprising to have been inevitable, righteous, and effective.

What should Muslims (and Other People of Conscience) do now?

The Qur’an says: “Free the captives.” It also says, “Incline not to those who do wrong, or the Fire will seize you.” Further, the Sublime Book says, “And why should ye not fight in the cause of Allah and of those who, being weak, are ill-treated (and oppressed)? Men, women, and children, whose cry is: "Our Lord! Rescue us from this town, whose people are oppressors; and raise for us from thee one who will protect; and raise for us from thee one who will help!"

What do these verses translate to in modern times? The police force evolved from the slave patrols. The job of the slave patrols was to capture runaway slaves and return them to sordid situations of oppression. Today’s slaves are the innocents—the children of Baltimore and other cities in urban America--upon whose necks the System has its boot. We must free them from the prison in which America holds them. Not all prisons have four walls. As we know from Gaza , Palestine, a prison can be open air. Baltimore is a less well known open air prison. Muslims should be a major force at protests against police brutality. Masajid ought to invite people who have been victims of police brutality to speak. Muslims should take civil disobedience training. General strikes, street blockages, economic boycotts, and disruptions of the councils of the oppressor are very effective non-violent tools. Muslims should be prepared to use them when the time comes (following the leadership of the native people of the area, off course).

Muslims should also study the power dynamics of the cities they inhabit. Usually the ruling elite, who oppress Black, Brown, Red, and the poor people domestically, operate similarly on the international front, whether actively, or through alliances with international oppressors. In Baltimore, the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), an alliance of corporate interests, promulgates the White Supremacist agenda, and spearheads gentrification and disenfranchisement of the native Black population. At the same time, many in the GBC appear to be Zionist (White Supremacist) Jews, who contribute to the oppression of Palestinians in Occupied Palestine. Every city has its equivalent of the Greater Baltimore Committee. Muslims should investigate the personalities in such business entities, as well as in their local chamber of commerce, and organize boycotts of businesses implicated in gentrification and disenfranchisement.

What Muslims Should Not Do

Keeping in mind the hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him): “Do not help the oppressor, even by handing him a pen,” Muslims should not engage in dialogue with police or government officials who are responsible for, or oversee police brutality. We should also be aware of which opposition groups are meeting, either privately or publicly, with representatives of the oppressive power structure. Finally, be aware of front groups, coalitions, and others which purport to be working to eliminate police brutality and other social ills, but accept money from the power structure (including 501(c) 3’s). Obviously, one’s independence and integrity is impugned by accepting money from an oppressor. Avoid working closely with these groups, as they nearly always engage in feel good activities which lead to a great deal of venting, but little real change. Instead, either formulate new organizations, or work with small, independent grassroots organizations, which rely on funding from their members.

Parts of this paper were first presented by the author before the National Majlis-e-Shura of Jamaat al-Muslimeen in Greensboro, NC, USA, on May 16, 2015.

Endnotes

[1] U.S. Census Bureau figures, quoted in “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,”CNN Money, April 29, 2015

[2] U.S. Census Bureau figures, quoted in “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,” CNN Money, April 29, 2015

[3] Website for Baltimore Black Think Tank President, http://davidanthonywiggins.com/

http:// justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.

[5] Southern Movement Assembly webpage:

http://www.southtosouth.org/#!Timeline-Baltimore-Black-communities-Police/cd0a/556322610cf2adc1ad583977

[6] “Baltimore’s Economy in Black and White,” CNN Money, April 29, 2015

[7] Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services web page: http://www.dpscs.state.md.us/locations/prisons.shtml

[8] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf

[9] U.S. Census Bureau, 2010

[10] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf

[11] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute

http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf

[12] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute

http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf

[13] “Baltimore Behind Bars,” by the Justice Police Institute

http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-06_rep_baltbehindbars_md-ps-ac-rd.pdf

http://justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment.

http:// justicepolicy.org/TheRightInvestment

[21] “Undue Force,” Baltimore Sun, September 28, 2014

[22] “Undue Force,” Baltimore Sun, September 28, 2014

[23] “Family of man who died in Baltimore police custody files lawsuit,” Baltimore Sun, June 23, 2014

[24] “Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police,” Baltimore Sun, May 9, 2015

[25] “Freddie Gray among many suspects who do not get medical care from Baltimore police,” Baltimore Sun, May 9, 2015

[26] Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2014

[27] Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2015

[28] Baltimore Sun, March 27, 2015

[29] “State approves $30 million youth jail,” The Baltimore Sun, May 13, 2015

[30] “Hogan funds pensions, but nothing more for schools,” The Baltimore Sun, May 15, 2015

[31] "The Case for the National Student Bill of Rights," by Bryant Muldrew

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/democracy_and_education/2012/04/the_case_for_the_national_student_bill_of_rights.html

[32] “Algebra Project students demand a better education,” Baltimore Sun, September 24, 2009

[33] National Student Bill of Rights

http://nationalstudentbillofrights.org/the-rights-we-should-have/

[34] “City closes about 20 rec centers; private groups fill gap,” Baltimore Sun, July 2, 2013

[35] CNN Money, April 29, 2015.

[36] “Surveillance Video Shows Looting Inside Mondawmin Mall” CBS Baltimore, April 28, 2015

[37] “Obama shames Baltimore looters and condemns 'riots in the streets”

http://dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3059336/Obama-shames-Baltimore-looters-condemns-riots-streets.html

[38] “Statement From Governor Larry Hogan On Violence In Baltimore City,” April 27, 2015

http://governor.maryland.gov/2015/04/27/statement-from-governor-larry-hogan-on-violence-in-baltimore-city/

[39] Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, Press Release, April 27, 2015

[40] Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, April 27, 2015

[41] CNN, April 27, 2015

[42] Naim Ajamu Facebook page, April 29, 2015

[43] Steve Ceci Facebook page, April 28, 2015

[44] David L. Johnson, Sr. Facebook page, April 27 - 28, 2015.

[45] David Wiggins Facebook page, April 28

Sunday, March 1, 2015

New York Activists Commemorate Lynne Stewart’s Release from Political Imprisonment

By Nadrat Siddique

On February 19, New Trend representatives sat in on an unusual event in New York City. Peoples’ lawyer Lynne Stewart, who has advanced breast cancer and was finally released in December 2013 from prison under a compassionate release program, following a hard fought battle for her release by supporters, celebrated her freedom and demanded the freedom of other political prisoners who continue to be held.

Lynne Stewart appeared with her husband and partner in struggle Ralph Poynter at St. Peters Church in Manhattan just a few blocks from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and New York’s famed Times Square. The event, jointly called by the couple, was billed as “A Valentine from Lynne Stewart to all Political Prisoners.” It was an evening filled with love and magic—but not of the Hallmark sort.

Former political prisoners of unflinching dedication to the upliftment of their communities, and to the Mother Earth, graced the meeting. Among the most noteworthy: Sekou Odinga, BPP and BLA member, released in November 2014 after being held 33 years; Cisco Torres, Puerto Rican independentista; and Kathy Boudin, Weather Underground member.

Turning to Lynne Stewart and Ralph Poynter who sat together on a sofa at the head of the room, Laura Whitehorn, former political prisoner, spoke powerfully. She started her presentation by recognizing Palestinian political prisoners, then read a poem she had written for Native American inmate Standing Deer while he was still alive. (Standing Deer is the Native American inmate pressured by the U.S. government to murder Leonard Peltier, a request the former refused). A highly poignant message from Jalil Muntaquin, Black Panther/ BLA member held political prisoner by the U.S. government for 43 years, was read. Then another from David Gilbert, Caucasian anti-imperialist activist held for 32 years by the U.S., was shared. “We’re talking about a Revolution” was sung by Lynne Stewart’s lovely granddaughter, engaging the entire audience. Numerous members of Lynne and Ralph’s family sat silently supporting the couple.

Significantly, in this post-Ferguson era, numerous speakers linked police brutality and political imprisonment. The Black Agenda Report’s Glenn Ford, who delivered the keynote address, opined that political imprisonment occurs wherever there is resistance to oppression. Hence a movement to support political prisoners is vital. Police exist as an occupying force in Black communities across the U.S., Ford continued. It is the right and responsibility of an occupied people to fight and expel their occupiers. Ford extolled both the sacrifices of Lynne Stewart, and the courage of youth in the U.S. town of Ferguson, MO, countering the brutal police tactics against peaceful protestors there.

Pam Africa, of the MOVE organization and IFFMAJ (International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu Jamal), spoke on the murder of her brother Phil Africa. Phil was a MOVE political prisoner in U.S. government custody. He was very healthy, doing jumping jacks and other exercise, when taken to the offsite hospital by prison officials she said. Soon afterwards, authorities pronounced him dead. The pattern of killing political prisoners, either directly or indirectly, during incarceration was evident.

Among the guiding principles of the MOVE organization are: Community control over food supply, eschewing of drugs and alcohol, attention to diet and exercise, and respect for the Earth—in a word all the things the U.S. government and associated corporate interests don’t want in the Black community. Many believe this is part of the reason MOVE was targeted for destruction by the U.S. government (The MOVE house, located in Philadelphia, was bombed by a U.S. government helicopter in 1985; the home, along with 65 neighboring ones, was destroyed.) At the event for Lynne Stewart, Pam Africa spoke passionately against the despoiling of the earth. She excoriated the hijacking of the Peoples’ food by multinational corporations, who replaced real food with GMOs, effectively synthetics passing as food. As she spoke, Pam radiated health and youth, a shining example of the healthy eating she promulgates.

Larry Hamm, of the Peoples Organization for Progress, shared news of a victory in Newark, NJ. Oversight of the police had been enacted full throttle by Ras Baraka, the new mayor, who is also the son of Amiri Baraka, Hamm said to cheers. He pointed out the irony of the situation: the son of the famed Black poet, who at one point was almost killed in a police brutality incident, upon getting into office determined to put a leash on the very power which had almost murdered his father. This was an example of what could be done when the people organized to contain or oppose the power of the police.

One very important point alluded to by several speakers, which ought to forge links between the movements to free Muslim and Arab political prisoners and parallel movements to free New Afrikan prisoners (usually BPP and BLA prisoners imprisoned under COINTELPRO held for decades): The most horrific torture techniques used on Muslim and Arab prisoners today—such as those mentioned in the recent CIA torture report, were first developed in the United States and were practiced on Black detainees here.

The overarching theme of the evening was summed up by jazz vocalist and activista extraordinaire Luci Murphy, who travelled all the way from Washington, DC, to perform her rendition of Solomon Berk’s famed “None of Us Are Free (If One of Us Is Chained)” in her powerful, melodic voice.

Thirty-seven copies of the January 18 New Trend edition, containing Dr. Siddique’s capstone article in defense of the Prophet (SAW) honor, as well as Karin Friedmann’s excellent piece paralleling the deaths of Arab political political Abu Anas al-Libi and MOVE political prisoner Phil Africa, were disseminated to hardcore activists attending the meeting, including to Pam Africa and Lynne Stewart.

Personal notes

As I was leaving for the long drive back to Baltimore, I thought: This woman, Lynne Stewart, whom I admire greatly, and who, in my opinion, ought to be a great inspiration for any matriculating law student who holds the maxim “equal justice for all” dear, has demonstrated the true meaning of love. She loves so deeply from the heart, whether it was her blind, ailing client Dr. Omar Abdel Sattar, whom the government tortured in cruel and unusual fashion, her beloved partner, Ralph Poynter, or her community. She is a true friend of Muslims, and a shining example of humanity and sisterhood. May Allah restore her to full shifa.

Ahmed Abdel Sattar

The only thing missing the incredibly uplifting evening calling for the release of all political prisoners, was an overt call to release Ahmed Abdus Sattar. Sattar, Lynne’s co-defendent, remains imprisoned on bogus charges. An outspoken activist against the Mubarak regime in his Native Egypt, Sattar had no prior criminal record before the bogus prosecution which shattered his and his family’s life. He was a postal carrier in New York, married to a Caucasian American with whom he had four children, very active in his local mosque, and a law-abiding U.S. citizen. Then one day he was accused of talking via telephone to members of the Egyptian opposition to the Mubarak regime. Some say he was targeted due to his affiliation with Dr. Omar Abdel Rahman (“the Blind Sheikh”), for whom he was paralegal. Dr. Abdel Rahman was also a leading critic of the Mubarak government.

Leading up to the Arab Spring, U.S. government officials themselves were in discussions with members of the Egyptian opposition. America—or at least some American officials—censured Mubarak. He was removed and tried for crimes against his people. Yet Sattar, whose primary offense seems to be his criticism of (and support for others like the Sheikh who likewise opposed) that U.S. client regime, continues to be held under the atrocious conditions reserved for Muslim and New Afrikan political prisoners, thousands of miles away from his family at the infamous Florence Supermax in Colorado.

Friday, October 17, 2014

Thoughts on a Beloved Departed Teacher

By Nadrat Siddique

Dr. Abdulalim Shabazz brought together many of the positive ideals for which we in the Jamaat al-Muslimeen strive in the slender, dignified frame of one man. He was deeply Islamic; spoke little of what should be done, but rather did what needed to be done; and was hard on himself, but did not judge or denigrate others for their weaknesses.

Although he inspired me on many levels, the aspect of his character which captivated me the most was his dedication to building the love of math in his students. He was determined to reach each and every student, and not just with rote learning, but with the aim of inculcating true understanding of this integral subject.

As a bioscience person, I know that math is the language in which chemistry, biology, biochemistry, and especially physics is written. If you cannot easily write algebraic expressions, you will have difficulty expressing biological phenomenon, such as the flow of blood through a blood vessel; the rate of growth of a bacterial population; the amount of heat released as a steak ingested by a human is metabolized and much else.

Looking at the dearth of black and brown people in bioscience, I felt strongly that math was the major stumbling block for these students, which precluded them from entry into the life sciences. So, a strong understanding of math was vital to a science or engineering major in college. And weakness in math precluded many black students from these fields.

By uplifting the marginalized, those whom society wished to write off—and perhaps relegate to janitorial work, flipping burgers, or prison—Dr. Shabazz challenged the world order. And he was so effective that he turned out the largest number of Black math Ph.ds in the country.

I once asked him about his teaching method. He said simply. “If my students aren’t grasping what I’m teaching, then I have failed. If students don’t understand something one way, it is up to the teacher to find other ways to explain it until they understand.”

Still he seemed to sense that math, which is not intuitive, or something which one can see, would be difficult to grasp for many of his students---unless they were given a reason to own it.

Again, he challenged the existing order, teaching his students something all high school--and certainly most college—curricula ignore. He impressed on his students about the origins of mathematical knowledge. Their ancestors, black people of Ancient KMT—not Newton or Euclid—were the first to elucidate geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and physics, and that they ought strive for the same high standard. He taught them to think, and not to memorize.

Later on, despite his gargantuan achievements, he was, bizarrely, demoted from the position of Math Department Chair at Lincoln University, to an ordinary teaching position. Even more bizarrely, he was replaced by a white Jewish, woman who did not hold even a math degree. My sense of fairness made me incensed at the development, but he did not seem fazed, instead using the opportunity to accept the prestigious position of professor emeritus at Gramlin University where he had a lighter work load.

Of his many appointments at math instruction, one of the most interesting was in Saudi Arabia. Since his students included Saudi women, the class was sexually segregated. As occurs in most classrooms in that nation, the men were in the same room as him, while the women were in the adjoining room. Incredibly, despite having to teach the women via a video screen, he was able to reach them, and they succeeded in his class.

He lived a full and beautiful life, travelled frequently to Africa and other parts of the world; and spoke and lectured broadly on math and Islam. He seemed to have a particular love for Ethiopia, and adopted, raised, and mentored Ethiopian children. He was also honored by the Kikuyu (Kenyan) tribe, which conferred on him the status of honorary Kikuyu.

Dr. Shabazz’s life was also a commentary on the state of racial affairs in the U.S. He never referred to himself as an American, and rarely wore American clothing, usually sporting an African suit in the tradition of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Like many Black men, he served in the U.S. military—only to return to the U.S. to experience numerous traumatic racial incidents. He did not dwell on the past, but selectively shared some such incidents with us at the Jamaat al-Muslimeen shura which he attended quarterly for the last very many years of his life.

For instance, while a young Ph.D. candidate at Cornell University, he was walking around searching for housing. Repeatedly, he had the door slammed in his face, and was told that they did not rent rooms to “n---.”

The incident with Dr. Shabazz occurred in New York. My husband, when he was a small child of about seven, went to a park not far from his house. An old white man who happened to be there, and thought he had more of a right to be in the park than a small black boy from Baltimore, called him the n— word, and then took away a toy of considerable import to my husband. Just a few weeks ago, after my husband, spoke at a “Baltimore for Ferguson” rally, decrying the murder of Michael Brown in the American state of Missouri, as well as police murders of many other Black men in Baltimore city, tens of Whites responded with death threats and ephithets of n----- and “ape” to him.

Talking to Dr. Shabazz, my husband, and others opened my eyes to American racism, which I as an Asian and a member of a privileged group, was unlikely to ever encounter in my lifetime. For a Black man in America, it didn’t matter if one was young or old, in New York, Baltimore, or down South, but one could be called the n- word and treated accordingly on a whim by White Supremacist America. Through it all, Dr. Shabazz neither bowed nor bent to anyone but his Creator, leaving us with a bright shining example of humility, brilliance, and taqwa.

This piece originally appeared in the New Trend Magazine, October 12, 2014:

http://newtrendmag.org/ntma1571.htm

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

High Praise for Robin Williams: Much Ado About Nothing?

By Nadrat Siddique

The eulogies are pouring out of the Israeli press: the Times of Israel, Ha’aretz, the Jerusalem Post and others are raving about the life of one recently departed soul. Well it sure ain’t Ruby Dee, Amiri Baraka, Maya Angelou, or Rubin “Hurricane” Carter—all well known public figures who contributed significantly to downtrodden communities and died within the last one year. The Zionist media, both here and in Israel itself, are gushing over Robin Williams.

Now I hate to be a naysayer or uncouth, in having the audacity to speak critically of someone who has just passed. And—as anyone who knows me is aware, I have a seemingly endless reservoir of empathy for anyone suffering from mental or physical illness. Sufferers of clinical depression, manic depressive illness, Parkinson’s and other diseases deserve all the support in the world. However, as a Muslim, I subscribe to the Islamic maxim that “Allah alone is without fault,” and that conversely, every human is fallible and fault-ridden. Lionizing some, as the corporate media is prone to do, is not helpful, even in the case of an untimely death such as Williams.

In Williams case, we should, at the very least be aware of his pro-war and pro-Israel actions.

Pro-War

Williams was one of the first entertainers to travel to Afghanistan after the onset of the U.S. war there. In 2002, he entertained U.S. troops in Afghanistan while that country was being pounded by U.S. missiles. In December 2010, he performed for U.S. troops at Baghram Airforce Base in Afghanistan. Recall this is the same base at which political prisoner Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was detained and tortured. She was already in custody at the time Williams visited. However, the comedian did not bring up her name, even as a humanitarian gesture.

Williams’ trips were not limited to Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, he accompanied the United Service Organizations (USO) to Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the main objectives of the USO is to maintain troop morale. Williams spoke to and entertained groups of servicemen in both countries, thanking them for their service--in other words, big ups on maintaining an illegal occupation. (“Remembering Robin Williams’ strong support for the troops,” Dan Lamothe, August 11, 2014)

Support for Israel

Williams rise to celebrity in a heavily Zionist-dominated Hollywood did not occur by chance. He was a major apologist for the colonial-settler state, performing a major tribute to Israel at its 60th Anniversary Celebration in Times Square. The celebration occurred in 2008 while the economic blockade on Gaza was in full swing, and as Palestinians were being killed daily by the IDF. You can see his salute to Israel (along with that of several other celebrities) in Times Square here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edIZyz3OdKA

Raised as an Episcopalian—and not a Jew—he helped build sympathy for the Jewish Holocaust, playing roles such as that of an occupant of the Warsaw Ghetto in “Jakob the Liar.”

Interestingly, Williams described himself as an “honorary Jew.” The actor recently posted a picture on Twitter depicting himself in a white yarmulke (while on the set of a TV series he was recording). The photo was accompanied by a quip that it might be time for a career change (i.e., to rabbi).

You can see the picture here:

http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/19955/robin-williams-honorary-jew-friend-israel/#w3ygqboihklyAej7.97

And—in many of his skits, he plays a stereotypical elderly Jewish lady or a New York rabbi.

One wonders why he would go to such lengths to associate himself with Jews, Judaism, and by extension Zionism, particularly in this time when the world is increasingly questioning Israel (and those viewed as associated with it), on many levels: humanitarian, Islamic, racial, or international law.

In other words, Israel is no longer the prima donna who cannot be questioned, and the world community is finally finding its voice in questioning the last colonial settler state to exist. And even Jews are questioning Jews on their support for Israel. One result of the scrutinizing and increased reporting on Israel’s massive human rights violations is that among some politically unaware types, anti-Semitism is on the rise. So the question arises, why would someone like Williams refer to themselves as an “honorary Jew,” particularly in this day and time? One possible answer might be that Williams wished to maintain and further his career in a Zionist-dominated Hollywood. The censure received by actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem for their recent vocal support for the Palestinians, never mind that they are extremely accomplished film personalities, demonstrates that Hollywood remains a Zionist enclave.

Meantime, to all the Muslims gushing with praises for Robin Williams, I say save your energy. It would be better spent in fighting to liberate Muslim political prisoners like Dr. Aafia, to whom Williams turned a blind eye—or rebuilding one of the many countries destroyed by the imperialist armies whose spirits he sought to maintain.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Tyrone West Anniversary Protest

By Nadrat Siddique
Special to the New Trend

July 18, 2014

Baltimore, MD -- Tyrone West was a tall, dreadlock-sporting Baltimore native who grew up on the city's east side. He loved his family, sporty cars, and his artwork, and had a joie de vivre about him. On July 18, 2013, Tyrone's life was snuffed out, when he made one "wrong" maneuver in the vicinity of Kitmore and Kelway Road, not far from Morgan State University. Police noticed him driving under the speed limit as he went over a speed hump on a quiet side street (Kelway), and stopped him. They pulled him out of his vehicle, it is said, by the locks and started beating him. According to the States Attorney's report, they hit him with batons on the knees to get him down. However, eyewitnesses report far greater use of force, saying Tyrone was surrounded by a "sea of blue" and that police continued to punch and to kick him even after he was already down. When it was over, Tyrone lay dead. He had not been charged with a crime, arraigned, tried, or convicted. He was a victim of a police force of control and unaccountable to the People.

Ten to fifteen police officers, including a Morgan State University police officer, were identified as participating in the murder. None of them was suspended or fired. The States Attorney Gregg Bernstein, known for his racially predicated prosecutions--and withholding of prosecutions--did a perfunctory investigation and found the officers had acted according to police protocol. Despite a plethora of eyewitness testimony supporting the view that excess force had been used against Tyrone, not a single indictment of a police officer was handed down in the case, leading many to surmise that the police were above the law in Baltimore (as in many other major cities). When Bernstein was unseated in the subsequent election by a relatively underfunded and lesser known challeger, many said the West case had been a determining factor--one one-sided prosecution too many. In the meantime, Tyrone's murder still went unprosecuted and the medical examiner's office continued to withhold the complete autopsy report.

----

On the one-year anniversary of Tyrone's murder, activists and supporters of the West family rallied at the site of the murder. The event was called by the family and facilitated by a local grassroots collective called the Baltimore Bloc. The activists included young and old; Muslim, Christian, Jew, and atheist; Black American, Asian, African, Caucasian, and Native American; students, blue-collar workers, health care workers, attorneys, candidates for office, and even a delegate.

The candidates included David Anthony Wiggins (Baltimore City Sheriff candidate, running on a platform against police brutality and judicial corruption, and for the empowerment of the People); Russell Neverdon, Sr., (candidate for States Attorney); and Duane G. Davis (candidate for Lieutenant Governor). Wiggins, Neverdon, and Del. Jill P. Carter (Maryland House of Delegates) spoke, expressing solidarity with the family.

Wiggins promised that when elected Sheriff, he would prosecute police engaging in abuses such as that against Tyrone West, as this was a power endowed to the Sheriff (Editor's note: Sadly, the standing Sheriff, Anderson, in office for decades, has never employed it in defense of his constituents, who, like West, are brutalized by police or otherwise abused by corrupt government officials).

Several Christian preachers, including Baltimore's social conscience Rev. Heber Brown III (Pleasant Hope Baptist Church), Rev. Kinji Scott, and Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, were present. Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen, in Baltimore's Govens neighborhood, sent its imam, Dr. Kaukab Siddique, mosque administrator Ashira Na'im, and a contingent of half a dozen others to "stand with the family of Tyrone West and all victims of police brutality." Red Emmas', a well known Peoples' bookstore, was also well represented at the event.

Baltimore native Abdul Salaam, a Muslim, was beat by police in a manner very similar to Tyrone West just 17 days prior to the latter's murder. Salaam, a soft-spoken, slightly built man, addressed the crowd briefly. He described how he had passed police conducting a stop near his home. The cops followed him home, pulled him out of his car, and attacked and beat him in his own driveway, in front of his 3-year old child. They claimed he was not wearing a seat belt (he has steadfastly maintained that he was wearing one). Salaam was body slammed to the ground twice at the start of the attack, hogtied (with his hands and feet behind his back), and beat further. He was never charged with a crime.

He eventually ran across the West family at one of their weekly protests, dubbed “West Wednesday,” and was shocked to find the similarities between their story and his. Most alarming was the fact that the two police officers who beat him--Chapman and Ruiz--were among those who had participated in the murder of Tyrone West. Both families were befuddled as to why the officers had been allowed to continue on the police force after attacking Abdul Salaam. If normal judicial procedure had been followed, they would have been removed after the attack on Abdul Salaam, and hence been unable to participate in the attack on Tyrone West. Abdul Salaam and the West family have since joined forces and filed a civil suit against the police.

Initially torn by whether or not to hold the event at the very spot where the murder occurred, with all its horrific associations, the West family eventually decided to proceed with it. Despite the emotional toll involved, the family felt they owed it to Tyrone to come together at the very spot where a completely gratuitous act of savagery took his innocent life. They released black balloons, shared Tyrone's beautiful art, received messages of solidarity, said prayers, and marched. They left just before sunset with the awareness that their beloved Tyrone had not been forgotten.

© 2014 Nadrat Siddique

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Time for Muslim Outrage Against Khalid Latif (and Other Propagators of Lies on Boko Haram)

By Nadrat Siddique

Special to the New Trend

I noticed large numbers of repostings of a Huffington Post piece on the putative kidnapping of schoolgirls by Boko Haram. Muslims and non-Muslims alike seem to view the Huffington Post as an authority on Africa, Islam, and on Boko Haram, a Muslim organization with deep-seated roots in Nigeria. Here is the link, along with some initial musings on it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/imam-khalid-latif/muslim-outrage-boko-haram_b_5279101.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false#sb=4291220b=facebook

Being the daughter of a journalism professor, the first question I ask upon reading a piece on a controversial topic is: Who is the author, what are his political affiliations, and to whom is he financially ingratiated? Imam Khalid Latif, the writer of the Huffington Post piece has quite a resume. New York Mayor Bloomberg selected him—of all New York City residents—to fill the position of NYPD Muslim chaplain. Previously he was Muslim chaplain at one of the most racist and war-policy formulating institutions in the country—Princeton University. And—according to his self-description—he offers his services to the State Department. The State Department is the entity bombing Muslims all over Africa. So, from the gecko, I'd take anything he said about Africa with a grain of salt.

The piece begins with a misplaced parallel. Latif, in his infinite empathy for Muslim women, lists the various tragic situations of Muslimahs he’s encountered in the course of his work as a chaplain: Rape and molestation victims, abused wife, resistor of an arranged marriage who was beaten, and so on. These likely occur in the U.S., where his work as chaplain is centered. The pertinence of such experiences, however heartrending (and I say that as a Muslim woman who has personally endured several of the situations listed), is irrelevant to a very specific and complicated situation in Nigeria, and seems at best a mudslinging campaign (sling enough mud, and some of it, however irrelevant, will stick).

A few paragraphs into the piece, he engages in an outright (but cleverly worded) fabrication on the philosophy of Boko Haram:

“Education is a basic right in Islam, regardless of what the Boko Haram believe. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, has said that ‘Seeking knowledge is compulsory on every Muslim’.. Boko Haram's ideology is attacking this God-given right.”

But Boko Haram’s statements make it very clear they are not against all education, only Western-style education, which they view as indoctrination in jahiliyyah. In other words, their efforts are geared at preventing the mental colonization of their people. This is not unusual, and most movements against imperialism and colonialism/ neo-colonialism—from the Algerian anti-colonial movements, to the Lakota Sioux to the Taliban—have historically resisted the educational institutions of the invading/ colonizing power. The attribution of blanket anti-education sentiment to the group is dishonest and furtherance of propaganda against a group targeted for genocide by the puppet government and its masters (the military powers seeking to recolonize Nigeria).

Saying “no” to Western-style education is a bulwark against cultural imperialism and the amplification of Western corporate presence in Nigeria—and by extension all of West Africa, since many of the largest and most influential African universities are located in Nigeria. From the imperialist standpoint, this threatens Western corporate interests. From the Muslim standpoint, this provides a measure of protection for Nigeria from junk goods typically dumped into Third World nations, whose valuable resources--oil, diamonds, petroleum, and the like—are then extricated. Islamically-educated girls and women are not ideal customers for useless garbage such as hose, high heels, and mini-skirts.

Saying “no” to Western style education also creates a mind-set which challenges Western nihilism. Gay marriage, pornography, pedophilia, premarital sex, and identification with the oppressor become a hard sell, as desensitization is avoided.

Another question no one, including Latif, has bothered to ask is: Why, in a region which is the wellspring of the most renowned, powerful, and influential centers of learning—those established by the Muslim Kingdoms of Timbuktu, Mali, Ghana, and others--an alien education with no relevance to African or Muslim peoples is needed. The spectacle of Michelle Obama and the #Saveourgirls campaign endeavoring to reinstate the “right” to a superior education—in their view one that is not Afrocentric nor Islamic—to poor, ignorant Africans is classic cultural imperialism.

What are the characteristics of a Muslim group opposing Western style education? Are they are fundamentalists? If they are, would they permit the kidnapping or rape of young girls? Fundamentalists are known for their exceedingly strict moral codes; eschewing of pre-marital sex; “shotgun weddings” in cases where a man has associated closely with a woman, let alone had sexual relations with her; and for embrace of children born out of any union. They do not stand for the abandoning of raped mothers with children in the countryside, as the Western media bizarrely claims. So, either the group is fundamentalist—or it isn’t. The practiced and professional liars of corporate media seem to be having a problem deciding on one fabrication and sticking with it. The continual vacillation in the story is exposing their lack of basic journalistic integrity. And the story they tell is beginning to resound of the incubator babies story—preposterous and far-fetched, yet swallowed by the American masses—concocted by the U.S. to justify the first invasion of Iraq. At some point, the American public must wake up and realize that Western militaries and AFRICOM will lie through their teeth to eliminate or discredit any group which gets in the way of their military designs.

On a journalistic level, Latif, like most Western journalists covering the Boko Haram story, does not ask the key question which bears asking: When has Whitey ever cared about Africans? Why is a White Supremacist government suddenly concerned about Nigerian girls to the extent of investing U.S. military assets there? How is it that all the nations standing with the U.S. in that effort are members of AFRICOM? Is it possible that this is an imperialist pretext to cement U.S. military bases in and around Nigeria (and West Africa in general)?

Finally, are the kidnappings fact or fiction? If they are fact and not fabrication, why have the numbers of girls ostensibly kidnapped, released, and remaining in custody in the storyline put out by the puppet government, its masters, and their propaganda arms—fluxuating like a pendulum daily? How is it that a tiny group of at most 40 Boko Haram members could walk into a town like Chibok, seize the girls who were on their home turf (surrounded by their families, teachers, village elders, etc), and depart with the girls in tow, without any resistance from the families, teachers, etc.? If the stage on which this story is being told, was instead a court of law, the storytellers would be thrown out of court for lack of credibility.

© 2014 Nadrat Siddique

Monday, May 5, 2014

A Muslim’s Guide to Dealing with the Media

By Nadrat Siddique

How to manipulate media when you’re doing an event

1) Cultivate current email/ twitter/ text message lists and phone numbers of journalists.

2) Time is off the essence. Conduct actions such as protests, street theatre, press conferences, etc. when an action is in the limelight, and the time is ripe.

What to do if approached by a non-Muslim media representative at or after a public event, or in relation to world events

1) Differentiate between types of media if they approach you.

a) National media. If a journalist is with a national media outlet, for example, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fox News, etc, be very careful. They may be trying to trap you into saying something which can be used against you. This can have serious consequences, from causing you to lose your job, to placing you in physical danger (for example, by displaying your picture with words attributed to you, which may have been taken out of context); to prosecution and even incarceration. Therefore, if the journalist is national, be wary, and consider not returning the call. Do not let your ego and the desire to be seen or heard on national television allow you to be trapped.

b) Local media. If he or she is with a local newspaper, radio station, etc, consider talking to them.

c) In either case (a) or (b) above, it may be helpful to do a brief Google search on the person contacting you, to see what else they have written, and whether or not they are overt enemies of Islam. This should help you decide whether you wish to speak to them, and what tact to take if you do.

d) If you do talk, be very disciplined and clear in what you communicate. Don’t show off, use rhetoric, or issue threats. Be particularly careful not to get trapped into admiring violent action, whether or not you feel it is appropriate under the circumstances. Instead simply state the facts of the situation about which you are being interviewed. If you must speak to them, insist on recording the complete meeting for yourself.

4) Follow up. If the journalist fairly reports what you say, write him or her a note of thanks. If the journalists reports on your action or words erroneously, send a written correction and insist it be published/aired for the sake of fairness and accuracy.

Always personally thank the journalists who do show up for your actions. Keep in touch with them to make sure you have updated contact information for them.

How to answer media when they attack Islam, overtly or subtly

1) Note the source, news segment, etc carefully so you can go back to it later when you’re ready to write.

2) Do your research. Use facts—not rhetoric, and not emotion.

3) Start with a general premise, but be sure to provide details to back up that premise.

4) Be succinct, follow editorial roles, and respond in a timely fashion.

5) Use spell check! If it can be done in a timely fashion, have a friend edit your writing for spelling and grammar. The letter or email doesn’t have to be perfect, but glaring errors can make you appear inept, uninformed, or dishonest when your letter is published or read on air, and should be minimized.

6) If you don’t get published or otherwise recognized, don’t get discouraged. You’re adding to the litany of voices which tell the self-proclaimed media moguls that they are not fooling everyone. Eventually they will be forced to report at least a modicum of the truth.

7) If you don’t get published in one news source, try another, but don’t give up.

This report was originally presented before the Jamaat al-Muslimeen National Majlis-e-Shura on May 3, 2014.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Welcome Home, Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Welcome back to Mob Town aka Baltimore, Br. Marshall "Eddie" Conway. You were locked up in 1971, the very year Nixon announced the start of the "Drug War." That year, fewer than 200,000 people were held in state and federal prisons. Today, there are more than 2.4 million, an increase of more than 700 percent.

Br. Eddie, by the mid-1990s, over half of the young Black men in Baltimore were under the "supervision" of the criminal-justice system--that is, in a jail or prison, on probation or parole, or under pretrial release (compared with one in three nationally). (Crime and Punishment in America, by Elliott Currie). Today the figures are even more disproportionately skewed against Black men.

In 1971, there were two prisons in Baltimore, the Baltimore City Jail (now known as the Baltimore City Detention Center) and the Maryland Penitentiary (now known as the Metropolitan Transition Center). Today there are nine. All of these, including the two extant when you were a Panther in Baltimore, were built under the watchful eye of the Black Democratic politicians (Uncle Toms) in power. The same politicians were pushing for a tenth and eleventh prison--specifically to warehouse Black youth and women respectively. The Youth Prison initiative was defeated in January 2013, at least for the time being, as a result hard organizing by the People.

My dear brother, today in your hometown, Black men are profiled, gunned down, or beaten to a pulp by a half a dozen/dozen cops. The situation reminds me of Gaza, a situation with which I am far more familiar. An environment of (police-inspired) terror and despondency exists for Baltimore’s Native Black population, while the Settlers (usually wealthy White transplants to Baltimore, the result of gentrification) live comfortably in million dollar homes in the “clean” parts of the city. Black youth are locked up for years on very minor, non-violent offenses (average sentences, based on mandatory sentencing laws, are seven years in such cases). All of this occurs with the tacit approval of the Democratic Governor (a Black democrat), the City Council (mostly Black Democrats), and the States Attorney (a White Jewish Democrat).

They call you the "Leader" of Baltimore. What do you propose to do now, and what advice/ admonitions do you have for the People?

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A Day of Amr Bil Mauroof and Nahi Unal Munkari

Muslim Activists and Others Rally at MLK Day Parade, Challenge Mayor, Governor, States Attorney, and Police

By Nadrat Siddique

It was an unusual and thought-provoking day at Baltimore’s MLK Day Parade. As much of the crowd jumped and pranced as if at a football game, an adhoc group of activists, calling themselves the "No More Jim Crow Justice" Contingent, brought attention to critical issues in Baltimore. It was one of the first times that parade-participants and attendees alike were challenged to consider the cynicism of holding a parade in the name of a man who fought for race and class equality--in a city where neither exists. The activists carried signs bearing messages such as "NO—to Baltimore’s System of Jim Crow Justice” and “King Had a Dream?? Tell That to Baltimore Killer Cops.”

The parade start was announced, and the procession slowly began, led by the Governor, the Mayor, and the States Attorney. Suddenly, one of the protestors, David Anthony Wiggins, shouted through a megaphone at the smug trio “You have blood on your hands!” He demanded justice for Maurice Johnson, Anthony Anderson, Tyrone West, and other Black men murdered in cold blood by racist police in Baltimore. Wiggins, who is a senior fellow at the Baltimore Black Think Tank and considering a run for Baltimore City Sheriff, told the trio “You have the power to stop police brutality.” His previous run for Sheriff propounded a platform emphasizing accountability for public servants, including police.

Float after feel-good float passed, only to be challenged by the band of committed activists, who were strategically located near the Master of Ceremonies booth.

Planned Parenthood—known for its racist roots—was challenged for its complicity in population control. More recently, the organization pushed for Norplant, Depo-Provera, and similar birth control devices amongst Baltimore’s Black population on a scale unparalleled in other populations here. White Supremacist organizations, often-times in cahoots with the government have a history of similar practices on Native American reservations, where vast numbers of indigenous women have been sterilized against their will.

The primarily Black drivers of a fleet of corvettes were tossed questions on the infrequently discussed topic of D.W.B. (Driving While Black). The Jerusalem Temple No. 24 Prince Hall masons (Freemasons) were challenged for their grab of world markets. A Black Motorcycle riders club was asked to "Ride Against Police Brutality."

In a sign that officials are aware that Baltimore—rife with corruption, social inequality, and massive disenfranchisement of the majority Black population—is a pressure cooker, and that failure to allow some dissent might result in a broad scale unrest, a limited number of progressive groups were permitted official participation in the parade. The Workers and Peoples Assembly and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union--both protesting abuses against drivers by Veola; Healthcare Now; Veterans for Peace; Community Mediation; and others proudly marched in the parade. The Women in Black, an anti-war group active against the Iraq War since its inception, with its eye-catching props of women in hijab, drew a great deal of attention from the crowd. One of its members carried a sign de-crying the use of drones.

Nearing the end of the parade, a phalanx of police marched down the parade route. Before they could reach the MC’s booth, Wiggins, followed by the growing group of activists, walked up on them. “No more killer cops! Justice for Maurice Johnson! Justice for Anthony Anderson! Justice for Tyrone West,” he shouted via megaphone at the Boys in Blue. Some of the police twittered. Wiggins waxed didactical. “I know you’re not all bad cops,” he said. “If you’re not a bad cop, turn in the bad cops.”

It seemed the phalanx was surprised. With the cushion of a (Zionist) attorney general, Greg Bernstein, ready to exculpate any officer accused of wrongdoing on the wrong side of the railroad tracks, they seemed unaccustomed to any organized challenge.

Activists, whose near and dear ones had been murdered by police, loudly shamed the police contingent, which was now at a standstill. A female activist, whose boyfriend was murdered by police, took the megaphone to chastise them for crimes against the population they ostensibly served. Some of the police appeared embarrassed or chagrined, while others were in denial. A lone Black woman supporter of the police, carrying a placard bearing an American flag, approached the scene, commending the police on their work in the community. Interestingly, as the police phalanx bore down the parade route, the primarily Black crowd thinned, until the few who were left ran off. It was clear they did not view the police as their friend. And—in yet another indication of the deeply compromised state of the local corporate media—Fifth Branch of the Government, some would opine—a major challenge to government officials and police earned scarcely a passing reference, not even for the purpose of selling papers with news of the highly unprecedented action.

In another groundbreaking development, members of Masjid Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a small grassroots mosque in the Govans area of Baltimore’s West Side, attended the parade in force. Clearly identifying themselves as Muslim, and operating on the principles of amr bil mauroof (enjoining the good) and nahi unal munkari (forbidding the evil), mosque members offered strong support to the protestors calling for an end to police brutality. Masjid members held signs saying “Muslims Honor Dr. King” and “Islam Advocated Racial Equality 1400 Years Ago.”

SIDDIQUN

Monday, May 18, 2015

Baltimore: The New Gaza

Sunday, March 1, 2015

New York Activists Commemorate Lynne Stewart’s Release from Political Imprisonment

Friday, October 17, 2014

Thoughts on a Beloved Departed Teacher

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

High Praise for Robin Williams: Much Ado About Nothing?

Friday, July 25, 2014

Tyrone West Anniversary Protest

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Time for Muslim Outrage Against Khalid Latif (and Other Propagators of Lies on Boko Haram)

Monday, May 5, 2014

A Muslim’s Guide to Dealing with the Media

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Welcome Home, Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Sunday, January 26, 2014

A Day of Amr Bil Mauroof and Nahi Unal Munkari

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