Zach LarkinsINTERESTING
An interesting story showed up in the paper today. It's about a place called 'Your Black Muslim Bakery'. This joint is located on San Pablo Ave. in Oakland, California. What makes the story interesting is what's been happening here in the last little while.
Before we go too far, let's be aware that the bakery owes more than $200,000 in back taxes and filed for bankruptcy protection last October.
The founder of this establishment, Yusuf Bey, "was arrested in 2002 and charged with forcing an underage girl to have sex. Subsequent investigation suggested that he had a long history of rape and abuse of his followers and had by this means fathered numerous children out of wedlock. Bey died in September, 2003, before his case could come to trial." Since his demise, his son, Yusuf Bey IV has carried on the legacy of brutality his father inspired. He has been "arrested twice, first on suspicion of leading a gang that had trashed two Oakland liquor stores, and second (and perhaps less Islamically) for running over a San Francisco bouncer with his car. Nedir Bey, one of Yusuf Bey's "spiritually adopted" sons, is also alleged to have beaten a possible business rival with a flashlight, while another member of the gang tortured the victim with a heated knife."
Sounds like a place you'd want to take the kids to meet the owner, doesn't it? Now, these and several other crimes were investigated by The East Bay Express, a weekly community paper edited by Stephen Buel. The reporter assigned to this task, Chris Thompson, "was subjected to threats and to aggressive stalking. Buel has been quoted as saying that his office and staff were deluged with threats and haunted by unpleasant characters, and that the threats indicated that they originated with Your Black Muslim Bakery. At a certain point, Buel admits, it became more trouble than it was worth to write about YBMB."
I don't know about you, but I have to wonder, if "rape, intimidation, torture, murder, all these actions emanating from one address and some of them performed in the name of a fanatical ideology, then what does it take before the police decide to raid the premises? Should we wait until unveiled women are attacked on the street or until honour killings or female circumcision take hold? (There is no official connection between YBMB and Louis Farrakhan's racist and cultish Nation of Islam, though it seems that Yusuf Bey Sr. did convert to some form of Islam under that sinister organization's auspices.)"
Well, last Friday the police did finally raid the place along with two neighbouring homes. They arrested seven suspects, including Yusuf Bey IV. It was too late, however, for Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the black-owned Oakland Post, who had decided to take up where the East Bay Express had left off and to investigate the finances of YBMB. He was shot dead last Thursday in broad daylight on an Oakland street.
Now just imagine if "this racket had been named the White Christian Cookie Parlour? I think that Oakland's Mayor, Ron Dellums, would have joined a picket line around the store. The same would doubtless have been true of Representative Barbara Lee, in whose district the YBMB was situated. But instead, in its role as a "community business," the YBMB enjoyed warm support and endorsement from both the Mayor and the Congresswoman. And the guns for past and future slayings were inside the store."
One has to wonder why "residents have been complaining for a long time about the atmosphere of hatred and violence -- and about what some have called the YBMB's attempt to "cleanse" the neighbourhood, either of godless liquor stores on the model of jihadism or simply of business rivals and journalistic critics. What were the police doing all this time, and why did Chauncey Bailey have to be murdered before they could be moved to act?"
"This official apathy is undergirded by a culture that cringingly insists on "respect" for any organization, however depraved, that can masquerade as "faith-based." If you or I had stood outside that hideous bakery with a sign saying "Black Muslims Are Racists and Fanatics," I think the cops would have turned up in a flat second and taken us into custody. We might well have been charged with a hate crime."
I know some Muslims will cry that they are not all like that, and surely they are not. However, when someone decides to do evil in the name of their religion and the moderates do nothing to discourage or eliminate them, then the rest of the world has no choice but to see that religion as evil. The war on terror was never meant to be against Islam, only the fanatical fringe of it. Islam, in its pure form, is a peaceful religion. Words from the Qu'ran can be taken out of context the same as they can be from the Bible. But that does not excuse the silence of the Muslims who protest against Christianity and refuse to clean their own house.
We read daily about the Muslims being offended by this, that or the other, and I believe these are the shit disturbers. For the most part, we can all co-exist peacefully and in harmony but the Muslims must make some efforts in ridding their religion of the nut bars.
Sources: Christopher Hitchens See No (Muslim) Evil Slate.com
Before we go too far, let's be aware that the bakery owes more than $200,000 in back taxes and filed for bankruptcy protection last October.
The founder of this establishment, Yusuf Bey, "was arrested in 2002 and charged with forcing an underage girl to have sex. Subsequent investigation suggested that he had a long history of rape and abuse of his followers and had by this means fathered numerous children out of wedlock. Bey died in September, 2003, before his case could come to trial." Since his demise, his son, Yusuf Bey IV has carried on the legacy of brutality his father inspired. He has been "arrested twice, first on suspicion of leading a gang that had trashed two Oakland liquor stores, and second (and perhaps less Islamically) for running over a San Francisco bouncer with his car. Nedir Bey, one of Yusuf Bey's "spiritually adopted" sons, is also alleged to have beaten a possible business rival with a flashlight, while another member of the gang tortured the victim with a heated knife."
I don't know about you, but I have to wonder, if "rape, intimidation, torture, murder, all these actions emanating from one address and some of them performed in the name of a fanatical ideology, then what does it take before the police decide to raid the premises? Should we wait until unveiled women are attacked on the street or until honour killings or female circumcision take hold? (There is no official connection between YBMB and Louis Farrakhan's racist and cultish Nation of Islam, though it seems that Yusuf Bey Sr. did convert to some form of Islam under that sinister organization's auspices.)"
Well, last Friday the police did finally raid the place along with two neighbouring homes. They arrested seven suspects, including Yusuf Bey IV. It was too late, however, for Chauncey Bailey, the editor of the black-owned Oakland Post, who had decided to take up where the East Bay Express had left off and to investigate the finances of YBMB. He was shot dead last Thursday in broad daylight on an Oakland street.
Now just imagine if "this racket had been named the White Christian Cookie Parlour? I think that Oakland's Mayor, Ron Dellums, would have joined a picket line around the store. The same would doubtless have been true of Representative Barbara Lee, in whose district the YBMB was situated. But instead, in its role as a "community business," the YBMB enjoyed warm support and endorsement from both the Mayor and the Congresswoman. And the guns for past and future slayings were inside the store."
One has to wonder why "residents have been complaining for a long time about the atmosphere of hatred and violence -- and about what some have called the YBMB's attempt to "cleanse" the neighbourhood, either of godless liquor stores on the model of jihadism or simply of business rivals and journalistic critics. What were the police doing all this time, and why did Chauncey Bailey have to be murdered before they could be moved to act?"
"This official apathy is undergirded by a culture that cringingly insists on "respect" for any organization, however depraved, that can masquerade as "faith-based." If you or I had stood outside that hideous bakery with a sign saying "Black Muslims Are Racists and Fanatics," I think the cops would have turned up in a flat second and taken us into custody. We might well have been charged with a hate crime."
I know some Muslims will cry that they are not all like that, and surely they are not. However, when someone decides to do evil in the name of their religion and the moderates do nothing to discourage or eliminate them, then the rest of the world has no choice but to see that religion as evil. The war on terror was never meant to be against Islam, only the fanatical fringe of it. Islam, in its pure form, is a peaceful religion. Words from the Qu'ran can be taken out of context the same as they can be from the Bible. But that does not excuse the silence of the Muslims who protest against Christianity and refuse to clean their own house.
We read daily about the Muslims being offended by this, that or the other, and I believe these are the shit disturbers. For the most part, we can all co-exist peacefully and in harmony but the Muslims must make some efforts in ridding their religion of the nut bars.
Sources: Christopher Hitchens See No (Muslim) Evil Slate.com
youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
here in California. Muslims are treated like royalty sometimes...and that's ok...so long as they don't try and shove their beliefs down my Buddhist throat!
I read the same article in my local newspaper and was just as sickened by it as you are...
For God's sake, I still can't understand why a sect of people who claim to be so holy would desecrate their own religion by abdicating violence, rape and murder???
Stupid, stupid, stupid...and you're right, police won't act for fear of community uproar and prejudice...it's pathetic actually...
Fantastic post buddy, well done!
Take care,
Nick
youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
yep, I'm with ya on that one too buddy...What about the average man or woman? The ones whose families came to our countries from all over the world to escape persecution, learned to speak English, got jobs and became productive, peaceful members of society...
They practice own their religion in their own way in their own churches, synagogs, temples, mosques and whatever....And they don't go around acting as if their shit doesn't stink just because they're Muslims...
You don't hear any of them complaining and stirring up shit either now do you...Hell, I've been a died in the wool Buddhist for nine years now...You don't see me forcing my belief systems down anyone else's throat...
Makes you wonder why they are treated any differently...?
Take care,
Nick
youranter
Opinions
opinionatedranter
Tales From The Green Lantern
Be good, Nick, thanks for dropping by.