Estimated reading time: 17 minute(s)
BY RICHARD B. MUHAMMAD
(via FinalCall.com) The ugly and deadly side of American life surfaced once again with the killing of a woman and an assault on a Jewish house of worship in California. Once again, a young White man, a self-proclaimed race warrior allegedly grabbed a military style weapon and decided to extinguish an enemy.
This is another sign of the fraying of society and deep, deep seated, old animosities and White resentment. Those sick of accommodation and bellyful with the feeling that this country is no longer theirs. Their psyches, their spirits, their identities and their futures are threatened, and they are not going down without a fight. They see U.S. society and the American government as the enemy.
That’s your problem: White nationalism, White hatred and White rage—and White denial.
The problem is not Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, his movement nor his followers.
As the Associated Press reported, a gunman “killed a woman inside a Southern California synagogue,” on the last day of Passover, barging into the Chabad of Poway.
A child and her uncle were also injured, authorities said. The rabbi who “was preparing for a service on the last day of Passover, a holiday celebrating freedom, and heard a loud sound. He turned around, and saw a young man wearing sunglasses standing in front of him with a rifle,” said AP. The rabbi lost a finger in the shooting.
“The attack Saturday (April 27) came exactly six months after a mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue. John T. Earnest, 19, surrendered to police after bursting into the synagogue and opening fire as about 100 people were worshipping inside. Earnest, who had no previous contact with law enforcement, may face a hate crime charge in addition to homicide charges when he’s arraigned,” said AP.
“He was being held without bail, and it was unclear if he had an attorney. Police searched Earnest’s house and said he was also being investigated in connection with an arson attack on a mosque in nearby Escondido, California, on March 24. Shortly after fleeing, Earnest called 911 to report the shooting, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said. When an officer reached him on a roadway, ‘the suspect pulled over, jumped out of his car with his hands up and was immediately taken into custody,’ he said.”
Posting online the accused killer “described himself as a nursing school student and praised the suspects accused of carrying out deadly attacks on mosques in New Zealand last month that killed 50 and at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, in which 11 people were killed. California State University, San Marcos, confirmed that Earnest was a student who was on the dean’s list and said the school was ‘dismayed and disheartened’ that he was suspected in ‘this despicable act.’ ”
Shades of 19-year-old Dylann Roof and his cold blooded murder of nine Black parishioners in a South Carolina church in 2015. Shades of the murder of two Black people at a Kroger store in the parking lot in a Louisville, Ky., suburb last year by a White male.
Shades of White supremacist Russell Courtier, who rammed his Jeep into the body of 19-year-old Lance Bruce in an ISIS-style attack on a young Black man in Oregon in 2016. The convicted murderer was sentenced to at least 28 years in prison in April.
Shades of yesterday’s race murders: Texas recently executed John William King, 44, who murdered James Byrd Jr., two decades ago in Jasper, Texas, chaining him to a truck and dragging him along a bumpy Lone Star State road. The Black man was decapitated.
Yet at the federal level, inside the White House and at the state level, political leaders and lawmakers refuse to confront this evil.
Part of the problem is a certain level of Angry White Manhood, a certain level of gun-toting White sensibility is ok, a measure of Caucasian carnage is understandable.
So along the scale of White anger are acceptable levels of White nationalism under the guise of loving America, traditional values and culture wars. These things make for potent messages and lures for voters and are deeply ingrained in America’s soul.
Despite these realities and the children of America’s once slaves always open for destruction, some Jewish leaders and organizations want to lay America’s murderous baby on the steps of Min. Farrakhan. This ugliness is your baby, America, and comes out of the seeds of racism, slaughter and blood from which your republic sprang.
His followers and sympathizers have harmed no one in 40 years of rebuilding the Nation of Islam. He has never encouraged the targeting of anyone. Can your president, who called to express support for the survivors of the synagogue attack, say the same? No. Can all of your leaders in Congress and state legislatures say they have renounced White nationalism in all its forms? No. Your president has openly boasted of not losing a vote if he shot someone. He called for assaulting people and promised to pay legal fees. Another longtime congressman, drawing fire, made the mistake of questioning openly what was wrong with acknowledging White nationalism and White culture in this country.
The refusal to deal with the militia movement of the past, the gun rights movement, and target those who are committed to killing and maiming Americans shows where this country’s heart is.
Let alone Blacks and Muslims are most likely to be assaulted and attacked in hate crimes. The same weekend of the attack on the synagogue, a U.S. military vet rammed his vehicle into pedestrian crossing at street Sunnyvale, California. He thought they were Muslims thanked Jesus for the ability to run them down, according to authorities. We, members of the Nation of Islam, are commanded to respect all houses where God’s name is remembered and to never attack anyone, unless we are acting in self-defense.
Murder and mayhem are the way of America, not the way of Farrakhan. And, despite the tragedy and loss of life in California and that killing which we reject, we will not sacrifice Min. Farrakhan on an altar that absolves America of her sins or tries to destroy this innocent man.
Exorcise your own demon America, it is not Louis Farrakhan.
(Richard B. Muhammad is editor in chief of The Final Call newspaper. Follow him on Facebook and @RMfinal on Twitter. He is the author is “DopeBusters: Farrakhan Fanatics Or Saviours? The True Story of the D.C. Crack Cocaine Crisis and Successful Muslim Anti-Drug Patrols.” Visit www.richardmuhmmad.com to order a copy or email: straightwords4@gmail.com.)
