Amazing, Granny. They caught the entire attack on video. In one article posted on the thread you linked, one spokesman from Oakland NOI mentioned that they were not associated with the attacker. Will look for more updates.
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=4163824&nav=5D7l
Posted: November 25, 2005 at 12:40 a.m.
Updated: November 25, 2005 at 12:27 p.m.
OAKLAND (KRON) -- The Nation of Islam says its members were not involved in a pair of vandalism attacks on Oakland liquor stores that were captured on surveillance video.
In a phone call to KRON 4 News, a spokesman for the group associated with Minister Louis Farrakhan, said the Nation of Islam had reviewed the security tape and cleared its members of any wrongdoing.
The owner of one of the two vandalized stores in West Oakland says he believes members of the Muslim group attacked his store because of their belief that followers of Islam shouldn't sell alcohol.
Khalid Saleh was working in his father's San Pablo Market and Liquor when a group of men dressed in suits and bow ties destroyed about $10,000 worth of liquor and refrigerated equipment, according to authorities.
The video shows a group of men sweeping dozens of liquor bottles off shelves, knocking over racks of food and smashing refrigerator doors with what appeared to be metal pipes.
"He told me, 'Don't move,' " Saleh told KRON 4's Will Tran. "He had a pistol in his hand. He said, 'we're Muslims,' and that we're selling liquor to the community and we're not supposed to be doing that."
The owners of the nearby New York Market didn't want to talk on camera about the damage to their store. Witnesses say it appears similarly dressed men also ransacked that market.
Saleh's father says he would consider hiring security but that a lone guard would be no match for a group of adult men.
Police have reportedly added extra patrols in the area to try to protect the stores, most of which are located in predominantly black neighborhoods, said Deputy Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan.
Investigators are also reportedly looking into the incidents as hate crimes because most of the businesses are owned by Arabs or Arab-Americans, and the suspects are telling them not to sell liquor to black people, Jordan said.
(Copyright 2005, KRON 4. All rights reserved.)
Police investigate store vandalism
No suspects have been identified from video; cops say Black Muslims may be responsible
, FROM STAFF REPORTS
OAKLAND — Working off the videotape from one of the targeted businesses, police Friday tried to identify the suspected Black Muslims who invaded and trashed two West Oakland liquor stores.
No other liquor stores have been hit since the Wednesday night incidents, which one owner compared to a terrorist attack.
About a dozen men wearing dark suits and bow ties did tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage to San Pablo Market and Liquor on San Pablo Avenue and New York Market on Market Street after demanding the stores stop selling liquor to African Americans.
The stores are owned by people of Middle Eastern descent.
The frightening actions were caught on videotape at the San Pablo Market, and it is that tape investigators are using in an attempt to identify suspects.
Police suspect Muslims associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery were involved, although no arrests have been made.
In a telephone interview Friday with the Tribune, a sister paper to The Argus, a man who identified himself as Yusef Bey IV, a bakery official, said the first time he learned about the incident was on television news and in the newspaper.
"I was surprised to hear about what happened," he said. "I have no idea who could have done this because there are a whole lot of Muslims around here."
Bey said Your Black Muslim Bakery is conducting its own investigation into the matter.
Police confirmed that in January 1993, Muslims affiliated with the bakery were involved in a similar incident in North Richmond.
The 1993 incident happened at a Third Street store and, at the time, the owner said it was because the Muslims wanted him to stop selling liquor.
But a Muslim leader said the dispute then involved their suspicions the store was an outlet for illegal drugs. Law enforcement
officials never confirmed those suspicions and tensions eventually eased.
Police said they have some theories about why Wednesday's incidents happened but could not discuss them publicly. It's known, however, that there have been leadership issues at the bakery since former leader Yusef Bey died of cancer in 2003.
Police and others said Muslims associated with the bakery are not part of the Nation of Islam, whose national leader is Louis Farrakhan.
There is a Nation of Islam-affiliated mosque, Muhammad Mosque 26B, in Oakland. Minister Keith Muhammad, a mosque leader and representative of Farrakhan, released a statement Friday about Wednesday's violence.
He said that "after careful review of recent news footage of individuals involved in actions against liquor stores and merchants in the city of Oakland, we have concluded that these individuals are not, nor have they ever been, members of the Nation of Islam, under the leadership of the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan or any affiliated mosques or study groups."
Minister Tony Muhammad, the Western regional representative of Farrakhan, will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. today at the mosque, 5277 Foothill Blvd.
Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $10,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrests of the suspects. Anyone with information may call police at (510) 238-3326 or Crime Stoppers at (510) 238-6946.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_3253987
I just posted a snippet saying that the same action had been preformed on liquor stores in Iraq.
If it isn't the NOI, then my next thought is a group of converts from prisons, or a cell that we don't know the name of in the al-Qaeda groups or linked groups.