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Indybay Feature

Oakland CA: bow-tie jihad?

by C. R.
What's happening at Your Black Muslim Bakery in north Oakland, California? Chron report raises questions. Tell us what YOU know about Oakland.
SF Chronicle says:



"How neighbors see Muslim group:
Some perceive Bey's legacy of progressive action
overcome by factionalism and recent violence."

Jim Herron Zamora and Meredith May,
Chronicle Staff Writers
Sunday, December 4, 2005

Copyright ©2005 SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/12/04/MNGH0G2P961.DTL


"In the late '60s, Your Black Muslim Bakery was one of the few businesses that
took a chance on a blighted North Oakland neighborhood,
offering jobs to ex-cons, fixing run-down storefronts and feeding the hungry.

For that, neighbors have overlooked rumors that the Muslim group
operating from the bakery and originally led by the late Yusuf Bey
sometimes relied on back-alley justice to enforce
its business and religious dealings.

But since Bey's death in 2003, neighbors say the group is changing in frightening ways.
Two heirs to Bey's leadership have been killed,
and a third successor -- Bey's 19-year-old son -- was accused of
vandalizing one of two Oakland liquor stores
that police say were trashed on Nov. 2 by a group of men
wearing suits and bow ties.

Yusuf Bey IV and bakery associate Donald Cunningham, 73, turned themselves in to police and were charged last week
with hate crimes and false imprisonment in connection with the vandalism. [....]

While the crimes have sparked discussion about the overabundance
of liquor outlets in the African American community,
the dominant topic of conversation in the neighborhood is about the
crumbling Bey organization.....
[......] "
[ For more, please see Chron or sfgate. ]
......

[ Comments by Chron Reader:
(1) Bow-ties are traditional among men representing the "Black Muslims" (Nation of Islam) in the USA.
However, Oakland's main Black Muslim leaders distance themselves from YBMB .

(2) The Chron isn't the last word on this topic,
nor any topic.
Let's hear from persons who live near Your Black Muslim Bakery;
or who otherwise have personal knowledge of Oakland's African-American community.

You can comment on this posting, below.

Use a pseudonym, if you wish. ]

....
.........
by no heroes save ourselves
Thanks for the invitation to talk about the neighborhood. I've got more than a little bit to get off my chest here.

I lived in Oakland for several years, and am from the Bay Area. I haven't had a lot of interaction with YBMB, other than buying bread or muffins in their store every once in a while -- but at least being aware of their presence is pretty much a part of growing up in the Bay Area, especially if you're black and/or part of what used to be called "the counterculture."

What I do know is that there are liquor stores all over the place in West Oakland, and there's very little in the way of services -- unless you happen to live in a neighborhood that's slated for gentrification, and even then, the services don't typically move in until it's too late to do much about the onslaught of boomers, hipsters and developers, driving up the rents and acting pretty much as the shock troops for moneyed interests and the state.

Furthermore, there's a lot of violent crime. Why is this? I think it's because of the social conditions in the Oakland flats, which are molded by people who don't live at a street level in those flats. There's a lot of hope in Oakland -- and a lot of despair, just like in many poor communities. Poverty + despair leads to...you guessed it.

In terms of NOI, YBMB and what happened to the store (which was wrong, so don't put words into my mouth and try to say that I'm endorsing what happened,) I'd like to point out some information that is readily available if *ahem* some people would take the time to look:

1. What is very clear to me is that NOI is *NOT* the one who created these conditions -- for that, you need to look at the government, and at capitalism overall.

2. NOI is not "Islam," as in "I want to find a way to justify my ignorance about muslims, where should I go...Oh! NOI! Not only are they controversial, their followers are black! Yeah, that'll work."

Most muslims outside of NOI don't consider NOI to be part of Islam -- no harsh feelings or nuthin', just the way it is. As to how NOI views themselves in relation to this: well, that's what the "I" in NOI is for. That's a complex question, and the answers are out there and readily available, if you want to know what those answers are.

3. NOI is not Your Black Muslim Bakery -- they're two separate organizations. NOI has officially condemned the attacks on the store.

4. No, I'm not a member of NOI. No I don't work for YBMB. No, I don't walk around with a black suit and bow tie and sling papers at MacArthur BART. No hating on those who do, that's just not me. :-)

5. The OPD treats the Oakland flats as if it's theirs to do with as they wish. You want to complain about violent thuggery, that's the best place to start. Ever hear of the riders? This stuff with the liquor store is small potatoes compared to the damage that the OPD does on a daily basis.

6. Any time an organization with centralized leadership goes through a power shift, there is the possibility that things will turn sour. Again, that's just the way things are -- it doesn't make it right, but that's part of the problem with *all* forms of centralized leadership -- it always carries with it the potential for corruption.

7. Muslims, white NIMBYs and cops aren't the only people who have problems with the stores. Several of the previous posts on this site address this, so I'm not going to repeat it here.

8. A positive alternative to burning down things that mess up your community is to build up the positive. The problem though is money, as well as time -- who's got it and who doesn't?

9. If you don't make an effort to make things better for *EVERYBODY* in Oakland, you don't have a right to complain. This especially applies to white transplants who complain about "those black people in Oakland," and don't do squat to improve living conditions in Oakland for everybody (not just their friends, everybody.) Whose neighborhood is it, anyway?

10. While I'm not down with every person who calls themself a muslim, Islam is not the enemy! Don't buy into the lies you're fed about it. Not everybody who is a muslim subscribes to harsh interpretations of shari'a, and not everybody who follows shari'a is automatically an islamicist, a "wahabist," a terrorist, whatever. Believe it or not, there are even anarchist muslims out there (and no, I'm not talking about Hakim Bey either.) Do your homework before you judge. Respect. Word.
by disgusted
of these vicious thugs is tantamount to an endorsement. All the rest of the stuff that "no" says in that comment are distractions. The issue here is whether or not we will tolerate thugs of *any* religious persuasion trying to prevent anyone, especially poor people, from having the right to choose for themselves whether or not to drink.

Whether or not to drink (or eat pork, or smoke weed, or screw outside marraige, or have an abortion, or whatever) is a personal choice. To attempt to take choice away from free people is tyranny. Only three kinds of people support tyranny, tyrants, wannabe tyrants, and fools.
by Ali ibn Sharmootah
" Most muslims outside of NOI don't consider NOI to be part of Islam -- no harsh feelings or nuthin', just the way it is."


Sunnis don't consider Shia to be part of Islam, and Visa Versa....
Turns out that none of the cults within the cult considers the other legitimate...nuthin' new, it's been like that since the "prophet" wen to join his virgins in paradise.
by no heroes save ourselves
>Turns out that none of the cults within the cult considers the other legitimate...nuthin' new, it's been like that since the "prophet" wen to join his virgins in paradise.<

*sigh* Thanks for making my point. Back to lurking...
by um
"is tantamount to an endorsement"
This whole "your with us or against us" crap is getting old.

"The issue here is whether or not we will tolerate thugs of *any* religious persuasion trying to prevent anyone, especially poor people, from having the right to choose for themselves whether or not to drink."

Except thats not actually the issue is it. Many people who complain about liquor stores doent support prohibition they just want fewer of such stores in their community. Most of those who oppose the stores are doing so by pressuring the city the restrict liquor licenses. Others seem to be engaging in direct action and while one can find it oppressive when political groups attempt to change things directly but if most peple ina community really do want fewer stores and dont have the political power to prevent the licensing of new liquor stores...

"Whether or not to drink (or eat pork, or smoke weed, or screw outside marraige, or have an abortion, or whatever) is a personal choice."

Sure, but should a community have some say in where businesses can be located etc.. Prohibition is different from saying that one doesnt want a heavy concentration of liquor stores in poor neighborhoods.

"To attempt to take choice away from free people is tyranny. Only three kinds of people support tyranny, tyrants, wannabe tyrants, and fools."

Except if you extend that libertarian argument you end up with an argument against anti-recruitment protests and even labor protests against abusive businesses (with libertarians just arguing that workers can quite and peopel show at other places and the market will somehow regulate itself). The argument against a liquor store near a school is quite similar to that of not wanting recruiters at schools.
by um
"What these wannabe mutaween did was to *destroy* alcohol that the working people of the neighborhood could otherwise have chosen for themselves whether or not to drink. It robbed those fellow workers of their choice. It was no different than destroying an abortion clinic to rob pregnant fellow workers of the choice whether or not to have an abortion."

Tell that to the people of Oakland. While almost nobody wants alcohol to be made illegal just about everyone living in those communities thinks that the liquor store concentration is a problem (including many peopel who hang out around the stores). Unlike pot or abortion alcohol is an addictive drug and just because people may want to drink less doesnt mean they always can and its easy to see why many people find the zoning of liquor stores out of white communities and into poor African American communities as itsefl racist. Even if one tries to extend your argument to pot and abortion dont you think a complain about clinics on every corder or pot clubs on every corenr is different from opposition to abortion of legalization of pot?

While some anarchist and white liberals jump from social justice ideals to Libertarian fascism when it comes to the rights of those in African AMerican communities it worth reading some of the following articles:

----
Liquor Store Attacks Go Deeper than Booze

New America Media, Commentary, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Dec 02, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mom-and-pop liquor stores have long been a target for blacks angry at the economic disempowerment of their communities. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a contributing editor at Pacific News Service and the author of "The Crisis in Black and Black."

LOS ANGELES--Police officials and storeowners in Oakland breathed a huge sigh of relief at the arrest of suspects in the trashing of local store. But the arrests didn't totally answer the question of why a splinter group of black Muslims were angered enough to wreak havoc on an Arab-owned mom-and-pop store in a poor black neighborhood.

According to reports, the men were outraged that the store's Muslim owner sold alcohol to poor blacks. That's the easy answer. Their wanton destruction tells much about the depth of black economic disempowerment and the mistrust and hostility many blacks feel toward those they deem "foreigners" coming in and controlling the economy of their community.

More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b4e9325402f2cb20b16c3b6e6e49b95f

Hip-Hop Predicted Liquor Store Trashings Long Ago

New America Media, Commentary, Adisa Banjoko, Dec 02, 2005

EDITOR'S NOTE: Hip hop musicians have long addressed -- and frequently profited from -- liquor sales in impoverished black neighborhoods. PNS contributor Adisa Banjoko is a lecturer and author of the upcoming book "Lyrical Swords Vol. 2: Westside Rebellion." For more information visit http://www.lyricalswords.com.

SAN JOSE, Calif.--When black men in bow ties tore apart two liquor stores in Oakland, Calif., the night before Thanksgiving, the security-camera footage was all over the news. Today, two members of an Oakland black Muslim group were charged with hate crimes and false imprisonment in the incidents. Police are investigating whether the alleged vandalism is connected to an arson fire earlier this week that destroyed another market, and the kidnapping of the store's owner.

To much of mainstream America this issue is new. But African Americans coast to coast have a longstanding issue with the infestation of corner liquor stores that they believe peddle poor-quality foods and dangerous alcohol. They believe that these stores devalue not only the surrounding property but also the lives of those who live near them.

More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=de07d8311523400686599b218482867d
by link
ASK MEMBERS of almost any urban neighborhood association to describe their biggest and most entrenched problem and, with few exceptions, fingers will point to liquor stores. What used to be convenient markets for staples such as bread and milk are now often gathering posts for undesirables, dispensaries for cigarettes and alcohol, and magnets for illegal behavior, trash and blight.

Perhaps nowhere is the problem more pronounced than in Oakland, where liquor stores abound. With 350 of them, the city is "oversaturated,'' according to the state department of Alcohol Beverage Control. In some parts of the city -- particularly the flatlands -- there are two per block.

Many of the stores are beyond mere nuisances. Some are known to sell cigarettes and/or alcohol to minors. Others have become hangouts associated with drug dealing, assaults, speeding cars, gambling, loud obscenities and noise.

"For two years, it didn't matter what community meeting we went to, there was always complaints of neighborhood liquor stores,'' said Alex Nguyen, of the Neighborhood Law Corps, a unit within the city attorney's office. The corps was formed in 2002 to hear residents' concerns and then do something about them.

"We found that most of the store owners are good folks,'' said Nguyen, "but a couple of dozen (of them) don't care." After repeatedly citing the same stores for loitering, litter and other city-code violations, Nguyen said, "you realize they're not going to be a good business.''

Cities cannot revoke state-issued liquor licenses, but they can impose restrictions on land use, a tack Oakland is now taking with liquor stores.

Based on past violations, police reports and community complaints, liquor stores are ranked on a "report card" by the corps as "good,'' "bad'' or ''ugly. '' Hearings are held for ugly stores and, if charges against them are sustained, new land-use conditions -- i.e. better lighting, more security, shorter hours of operation -- are imposed on owners. If the stores don't become cleaner and safer, the owners could lose their business permits. One store has already.

Owners say the process is unfair because rankings are based on past conditions that may have improved. Besides, they say, they shouldn't be liable for the actions of others.

"The city says we ought to be good neighbors -- like we're doing something wrong,'' said Helal Al-Gahim, who has owned Greers Liquors on the corner of 31st Street and Martin Luther King Way for 21 years.

With no windows to view the street, Greers is fairly dark and unappealing, less a market than a bunker heavily stocked with tobacco and booze. It's been ranked "ugly" and, as such, is now under orders to keep the outside clear of loiterers, graffiti and debris, and to close by 10 p.m.

"There used to be a lot of people (lingering outside), I can't deny that, '' said Al-Gahim. "But we're not responsible for bad people. It's too much pressure. All owners are feeling it.''

But residents' sympathy for store owners is outweighed by concerns about open drug dealing, streets littered with beer cans and liquor bottles, reckless driving, shootings and other safety threats.

"They have a right to operate a store in our communities, but that comes with a responsibility. When they become a destructive element, something must be done," said Andy Friend of West Street Watch, a neighborhood group that spurred the city to close a problem store.

Oakland is right to hold owners accountable for abating conditions that foster bad behavior. Keeping stores safe may not be easy, but it's a provision they agreed to when they obtained their city permits.

Liquor outlets are not the cause of all that's wrong in a city. But research shows that the stores attract an unsavory clientele and, if poorly operated, invariably contribute to neighborhood decay.

It's too soon to know how effective the corps will be. But its "report card" is already stirring store owners citywide to try to become better neighbors. We commend Oakland for listening to its residents and aggressively confronting a long intractable problem. It's an innovative approach that other Bay Area cities would be wise to pursue.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/11/21/EDG229H3KQ1.DTL
by cp
it's pretty clear that the majority of the victims of the Bey black muslim group were and are internal. Nobody here proposed contacting and offering aid to any underage girls back when Yusuf Bey I was still alive, and perhaps that makes sense because there are after all, thousands of women in slavery in California in various mail-order-bride relationships and massage parlors etc.

It is important for the community to democratically make decisions about landuse.
The way someone up there is speaking about this is as if the liquor store attacks rank as the top phenomenon posing risks to the public's ability to do as they like.
This would not be the case. Due to the large number of jailings and property seizure laws, the government has black helicopters with squads that swoop around searching for pot growers who have set up farms in state forests and national parks in the Santa Cruz mountains and Sierras and so forth, and are pretty environmentally destructive. A sector of the public supports this and many other laws restricting your personal behavior. Therefore, clearly, there are quite a few other fronts that are worthy of focus.
by no heroes save ourselves
>Nobody here proposed contacting and offering aid to any underage girls back when Yusuf Bey I was still alive<

Um, excuse me? If that's the best counter-argument you can come up with...it's kind of like saying "well, you didn't provide support to the victims of terrorist group X, so therefore you must be for that group." Take something that you're bound to get widespread support on, then accuse the person whose points you don't agree with of falling short.

A much better question is whether or not posters here have done anything for women's rights, children's rights, feminism -- and even then, framing the question this way pretty much ensures that you'll probably catch a few people offguard. For one thing, we don't have a set agreement as to what any of those rights are.

It's not dialogue building, it's attempting to trash your opponent. Build the world you want to create, or rest assured, you'll keep living in the world that the powers-that-be have made for you.
Your trying to equate people who dont want as many liquor stores in their community with Nazis? Right now the state rather than the city has control over who gets liquor licenses. Shouldn't a community have the right to control its own zoning? If people in my neighorhood objected to traffic problems that could be caused by a new Mc Donalds on the corner is the objection to that business also bad. What gives liquor stores more of a right than other types of stores to proliferate in cities without local control. At least for non Libertarians, regulation of businesses isnt seen the same as criminal regulational of individuals.

When it comes to community self-regulation its not a logical fallacy to ask what most people want. You always have to protect minority views but I really doubt you could find a single person who want a liquor store on every corner in communities that have that many stores (each store owner wants their own store to be able to sell liquor but most would probably aknowlegde that its not good for the community to have that many stores in such a small area).
by cp
Why is the right of Oakland people to drink so much the concern. You should focus more on the lack of liquor stores available to young people in Berkeley, where statistics show that the white rich demographic consumes much more alcohol. There is only one beer store on telegraph north of dwight, so students get in their cars to drive to the Oakland part of telegraph. This past year, an athlete drove over a working class student at a bus stop when he was drunk. Why don't they have liquor stores.. the Berkeley city council closely restricts this stuff, and also makes almost all businesses close at 10pm because of their various incidents in the past. They also set a $230 misdemeanor (not an infraction) for bicycling on the sidewalk. The students hate the early closure rule and the council doesn't care because they don't want young people to be attracted to Berkeley in the evenings. Isn't this more of an assault on freedom... except it doesn't feel that way because this is about nonexisting liquor stores, vs. ones that do exist in oakland.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/05/1606558.php
by um
"Why is the right of Oakland people to drink so much the concern. "

I think that most concern over liquor store density in places like Oakland has more to do with concern over peopel who want to drink being drawn to the neighborhood than people in the neighborhood drinking. Just because there is a corrolation between liquor store density and violence doesnt mean that the cause of the violence is locally increased consumption, some of the violence is associated with people coming into the community looking for liquor.

Berkeley has fairly strict regulations of business hours but one factor in why students may go to small liquor stores in Oakland is an almost racist assumption that laws are less likely to apply in a violence prone community. More liquor stores in Berkeley wouldnt reduce the number of student looking for alcohol in Oakland if the main cause is one of hoping to find stores that wont card.
by more
Countless research studies have now been conducted on the effects of alcohol outlet density on community health. For example, Scribner, MacKinnon and Dwyer studied the relationship between alcohol-outlet densities in 74 cities in Los Angeles County and published their findings in the American Journal of Public Health in 1995. They concluded that "higher levels of alcohol-outlet density are geographically associated with higher rates of assaultive violence." In fact, they found that for every outlet added, there were 3.4 additional incidents of assaultive violence.

Another study, entitled "The Spatial Dynamics of Violence and Alcohol Outlets", and published in 2002 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol, by Robert R. Lipton and Paul J. Gruenewald similarly reported a direct correlation between density of bars and volume of assaults in a given area. Whether alcohol is sold in a store, or in a bar, the greater the volume of alcohol sold in an area, the greater the problems.

by .
can you define when using sticks is and isn't appropriate?
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/06/1748245_comment.php
http://www.ktvu.com/bayinsider/news/2083931/detail.html

stopping the present immigrant worker slavery, and future institutionalized foreign labor class is more of a priority in the realm of worker solidarity
http://www.thesentinel.com/375105278429178.php
by no heroes save ourselves
>no heroes, you are embarrasing yourself by engaging him seriously.

quite possibly, but he's not the only one who reads indybay. i'm trying to keep it to a dull roar, but somebody has to argue against what he's saying. not doing so makes it look like everybody who is commenting here is either a right wing troll, a fervent zionist, or nessie. could you imagine having them over for dinner? ;-)

on the other hand, i do agree that there's not much of a point in trying to reason with him, so on that point you have me. i've just dealt with cranks like him in the past, and if you don't engage with them at all, they'll destroy whatever they can before they eventually burn themselves out or become so bitter than nobody listens to them anymore. i'm open to suggestions as to how to better deal with folks like nessie et. al, though.
by willful or ignorant?
sorry, but you alone do not get to determine what is "the issue here"

especially, as you seem to have a special knack for missing the forest for the trees

you WANT everyone to pile on with you against the Black Muslims, but by and large, except for a few of your right-wing pals, people aren't biting

what if it were black anarchists instead of muslims who did this? would you take notice of the larger issues here, or continue to focus on a few crimes and ignore the people's concerns

the larger issue, the one you constantly miss/refuse to acknowledge in any substantial way, is poverty in neighborhoods like West Oakland and the largely ignored neighborhood consensus that there are too many liquor stores and not enough healthier alternatives.

stay willful or ignorant if you choose, but many people here are indeed interested in the long-dormant larger issues these attacks on two liquor stores have brought to the forefront. stop getting in the way of that discussion
by no heroes save ourselves
>But if you can't unequivocaly denounce the petty fascist Black Muslims I'm not going any farther with it. <

I've made my feelings perfectly clear. If that's not good enough for you, I'm sorry.
by anon
"I've made my feelings perfectly clear. If that's not good enough for you, I'm sorry"

I'm sorry too. Your "feelings" are that liquor stores and general social conditions caused the Black Muslims to go on a rampage. I disagree. They're a violent cult. Trashing liquor stores is par for the course for this cult. I think I'm right and you're wrong.
by no heroes save ourselves
Well, I may be wasting my time here, but here goes.

(to everybody else: don't worry, I'm ignoring you-know-who from now on -- presuming they're not the same person, in which case -- oh I don't know, whatever. anonymous publishing can be a major pain sometimes.)

>Your "feelings" are that liquor stores and general social conditions caused the Black Muslims to go on a rampage.

First off, *the* black muslims? That's fucked up. Call it for what it is -- a power struggle amongst Bey and his followers. Get it right.

>Trashing liquor stores is par for the course for this cult.

Well, at least for some people in the Bey faction, you seem to be right. I have no problem with condemning the behavior of people who, well, rape children and beat prostitutes. I think it's sad.

That being said, I am *NOT* going to condemn everybody who has anything to do with NOI or factions thereof. To ask me to do so is racist and backward, in my view. We're going to have to disagree on that one.

If Malcolm was able to disagree enough with the NOI to split from them while acknowledgeing the contributions that they had made to his life and the lives of countless others, well -- that's good enough for me. Why isn't it for you?

>I think I'm right and you're wrong.

All due respect, that's because when it comes to this topic, you're too ignorant to see when I'm agreeing with you.
by aaron
<<If Malcolm was able to disagree enough with the NOI to split from them while acknowledgeing the contributions that they had made to his life...>>

ah, but he never got a chance to acknowledge the "contribution" NOI made to his death, now did he?

stop the pandering and baby talk, no heroes.
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