Posted on 01/28/2006 6:35:09 PM PST by csvset
OAKLAND - A march and rally to protest the sale of alcohol at Muslim-owned stores and the proliferation of the corner stores in poor neighborhoods of Oakland drew Muslims from around the Bay Area to downtown Oakland Saturday.
``This is something we've thought about and talked about for a long time,'' said Zachary Twist, of Hayward and Oakland, one of the organizers of the coalition Muslims for a Healthy Community.
The attack on two West Oakland liquor stores last year by men objecting to the sale of alcohol brought the issue forward, Twist said. ``But that is something we totally disagree with. Vigilantism is totally prohibited.''
But when you look at the statistics, 90 percent of Oakland's 350 liquor stores are owned or operated by Muslims - it's amazing and upsetting, Twist said.
``Our religion is crystal clear about alcohol,'' said Kamal Siddiqui, of Berkeley. ''It is forbidden.''
``We're not talking about prohibition, about banning liquor,'' she said. ``We are talking first and foremost to our fellow Muslims who are selling alcohol. They need to stop, and start selling fresh produce instead,'' Siddiqui said.
The rally ended with Muslim prayers led by clerics, including Mohammed Rajabally, president of the Islamic Society of the East Bay in Fremont, and Zaki Zareef, of Jamma-Tussalaam Community of Peace in Oakland.
It was an unusual sight for Oakland: nearly 150 worshipers, facing East, prone in front of City Hall.
This is just the beginning, one participant said. ``We want to work with other groups, like the black ministers, and others,'' he said.
The day began with a march from DeFremmery Park at 17th and Adeline Street to Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall. The march and rally were planned by Muslims and mosque officers from all over the Bay Area.
But initially, it looked like a march by supporters and associates of Your Black Muslim Bakery, Inc. The march of 75 men, women and children, was preceded by three luxury cars, a Chevrolet Suburban, a Lexus and a BMW, each carrying distinctive red and white crescent flags.
A phalanx of men in black coats ran alongside the cars, ahead of the marchers. The group stopped at liquor stores along the route, and Your Black Muslim Bakery representatives stationed themselves like sentries at the door of each store.
But Muslims from other organizations , speaking mostly in Arabic, talked to store owners and clerks, asking them why they continued to sell alcohol. At the first store, Sunbeam Market at Adeline and 14th Street, Moenssor Ghanan just smiled.
But when they left, Ghanan, who came to Oakland 20 years ago from Yemen, said he is a Muslim. He does not drink, but he sells alcohol because his customers want it.
``Alcohol is legal and I'm licensed by the state of California to sell it,'' he said.
At the next store, Bottles Liquor at 1150 Market, a store clerk, whose family owns the business, argued vehemently with his questioner, Iman Zaid Shakur, in Arabic and English. ``I know I'm wrong, selling alcohol. I'll pay someday,'' the clerk, who asked that his name not be used, said.
``But,'' he insisted, ``why do you go after us. Why don't you go to Safeway? They sell a lot more than we do. Are you willing to go there?''
Shakur said yes in a low voice.
A customer, Dave Brown, said he had been coming into the store for years. ``This store is owned by a family just trying to make a living; they have a right do that,'' he said. ``What they're selling is legal.''
At the third store, S&A Market at 14th and Jefferson streets, Ali Abraham, a former store owner, argued heatedly with two Muslims. ``People in America have a right to protest,'' he said. ``But there is also a law. We didn't invent democracy, but we're not excluded either,'' he said.
``Why do you go after us, weak, poor Arabs with no support, no backing?'' Abraham asked.
One of the Muslims, Abdullah Abdur-Rahman, who said he was from the suburbs, said alcohol sale in poor neighborhoods is a deep-rooted problem. ``You see these stores on every street corner.''
For more information about the Bay Area Muslim coalition, call (510) 868-8318 or email: muslims4hc@emailus.org.
Contact William Brand at: bbrand@angnewspapers.com
Nam Vet
"We're sorry about the World Trade Center, but......."
Freakin hypocrites.
No city deserves this more than Oakland.
We can coexist with them. .... Untill they murder us. .... They cannot coexist with anyone else (themselves included). It IS against their "religion" to do so.
Sura 9:5 of the “Koran,” “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”
Aap aap ahh dap dap!!!!!
It's a religion of peace
It's a religion of peace
It aint Slim W, but this'll gitr done!
Kill A Commie For Mommie
Many cultures abound in the good old U.S. of A. and that's that. Think about other religions inside America that have distinct rules ( Amish, Mennonites, etc.). Do we pound on them for forbidding drink / drugs to their groups ?
You can thank the gutless, corrupt and ignorant politicians and the liberal left for the ruination of our country.
Neighborhood Muzzies, the new Brown Shirts.
SLIMES
SLIMES
SLIMES
SLIMES
SLIMES
SLIMES
Take your F'ng "law", shove it up your a$$, and take the next flight to Saudi.
In MY country, you will obey MY law, which says liquor sales are allowed.
L
Ain't that the truth. Which of those is always a life and death struggle where ever it raises its ugly head.
Well, now there is something I CAN live with. I spent more than enough time in those indecent, drafty hospital gowns when I had my kids and would have been glad to have something that modest. So why did it take the muslimes complaining about it to get something done? American citizens aren't good enough, I guess.
A lot of us were pretty upset over this. And I know what you mean about the poor fit and how we all hated those gowns.
Along come 1,200 Somali's to Lewiston, Maine, and the authorities are bowing down to them.
[...]
``... They need to stop, and start selling fresh produce instead,'' Siddiqui said.
This sounds like is needs to be written in poem form:
First came the health NAZIs, and they took away my salt, fat, and cigarettes. And I let them because I didn't smoke, use salt or like fat. Then come the health muslims, and they will take away my alchohol and pork...
Give me a holler when the Amish crash an aircraft into a skyscraper. Or any of the other religions for that matter.
From the city that brought us the Black Panthers. Same gig. Selling protection.
Wrong, these people are not cleaning up their own act! They are imposing their interpretaion of their quasi-religion on legally operating business owners.
If they were 'cleaning up their own act', we would see the Muzzies "VOLUNTARILY" change their businesses from alcohol stores to grocery stores.
BTW, these @ss clowns really need to realize that assimilation DOES NOT occur by imposing their b@ss-ackwards way of doing things in this 21st century country.
bump with no comment
Now, do your home work on these NOI clowns, you blowhard.
' and so it begins'
exactly. Americans better start paying attention.
Home run on the softball ! However, until USA takes wartime footing on dealing with Islamofacsism as a real threat, we're still governed by rule of law in the states. Until then, it's a matter for OPD and the OAJ.
You know what it at stake here....and if you don't, you are a complete fool.
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