US Muslim sect suspected of 'executing' newspaper editor
Pastor Dale Morgan
US Muslim sect suspected of 'executing' newspaper editor*
Paul Harris in New York
Sunday August 5, 2007
The Observer
For Chauncey Bailey, one of the most respected black journalists in
America, last Thursday morning's trip to work should have been like any
other. The editor of the Oakland Post was strolling down the pavement in
Oakland, a mostly black city next to San Francisco. It was 7.30am and
Bailey, 57, lived just a few blocks away.
Suddenly, a man dressed in black and wearing a mask appeared. Shots rang
out and Bailey collapsed from three bullet wounds. He was dead before an
ambulance arrived; the apparent victim of an assassination.
Bailey's murder has shocked the San Francisco Bay Area. It has also
rippled out into the rest of America as the country comes to grips with
the daylight murder of a senior newspaper editor. There is little doubt
that Bailey was executed. It was the kind of ruthless murder more likely
to be found on the streets of Moscow than northern California. 'This was
no random act,' said Sergeant Derwin Longmire, an Oakland police spokesman.
Bailey's routine was well-known and it is likely that his killer had
been monitoring his movements for some time before he struck. After the
shooting, the killer was picked up by a van.
The reason that Bailey was killed appears to lie with the secretive and
shadowy black Muslim sect in Oakland that Bailey was investigating. A
day after he died, a series of dramatic police raids unfolded across the
city, aimed at a group of Islamists centred on a business called Your
Black Muslim Bakery.
The bakery was the centrepiece of a business empire founded by Yusef
Bey, a black Muslim leader in Oakland whose followers preached a strict
message of Islam and black political power. Bey's followers have long
been the subject of intense police and media scrutiny for their alleged
use of strong-arm tactics in promoting their business interests and also
shutting down stores that sold alcohol. Bey was also stridently
anti-homosexual and awaited trial on 27 counts of sex crimes when he
died of cancer in 2003.
Bailey had written articles about Your Muslim Black Bakery and was
believed to be working on further investigations when he was killed. He
had recently been making enquiries in the black business community about
the bakery's finances. His colleagues also told police he had recently
received death threats because of his journalistic work, but had not
been specific about their source.
The raids ended with seven arrests and the discovery of a cache of
weapons and ammunition. Police said initial findings had linked some of
the weapons to Bailey's case. 'The search warrant yielded several
weapons and other evidence of value linking the murder of Chauncey
Bailey to members of Your Muslim Black Bakery,' said assistant police
chief Howard Jordan.
Jordan said the raids had been part of a year-long probe that was
investigating charges of murder, kidnapping and other crimes. Earlier
deaths have been associated with Your Black Muslim Bakery. In 1994,
members of the group threatened to kill white police officers
investigating an alleged beating meted out to an Oakland resident. When
Bey died, his handpicked successor disappeared. His decomposed body was
found six months later. One of Bey's sons was shot and killed last month.
A simple shrine of flowers and notes now marks the spot where Bailey
died. There is a large stuffed bear and poster boards for people to
leave messages. His death has stunned colleagues and ordinary Americans
who are unused to the murder of journalists. The last reporter killed in
America 'in the line of duty' was a photo editor in Florida who died as
a result of the anthrax postal murders in 2001.
Bailey's colleagues are still struggling to come to terms with his
death. 'I'm still thinking I'll run into him downtown, wearing a suit on
his way to cover this event or that meeting, reporting the news of the
black community,' said columnist Brenda Payton.