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“We want justice. Equal justice under law. We want justice applied equally to all, regardless of creed or class or color.”
The Muslim Program, What The Muslims Want
“We cannot live without justice. Justice is a prerequisite to life. It is one of the internal principles that The Creator of the heavens and the earth has decreed that every creature should have the freedom to be what God created it to be.” -The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan
The cry for justice has been a constant one that has come up from America’s slaves and the children of her once slaves in a country that prides herself as the most just and most free society in the world.
But America’s record of racial abuses and her record of exploitation belie her grand declarations. Just take the story of the Scott Sisters in Mississippi, Jaime and Gladys, who have been jailed for 16 years for a robbery that involved $11 and a crime neither was implicated in when it first occurred.
Supporters and family members say Black youth that were involved were coerced, or pressured, into saying the Scott Sisters were involved. Now Jamie Scott languishes in prison, suffering from kidney disease and her sister wishes to help her but cannot. There are also questions about the level of medical treatment Jaime has received and shock that murderers could be walking the streets and two women could face life in prison on a robbery where no one was hurt, no weapon was used–and the women sentenced were not involved.
The story of the Scott Sisters is the age-old story of the victimization and murder of Blacks in this nation, whether at the hands of slave masters, lynch mobs or the police. Blame a Black man has been used by White husbands who wanted to murder their wives and White women who wanted to murder their own children. It has even been used by a White Philadelphia police sergeant who wanted a change in assignment or attention, who shot himself. Once the image of the dangerous Black male is invoked reason flies out the window and the racial manhunt is on.
Is that just?
In Chicago activists say Blacks on the South Side were subjected to a 20-year reign of terror by former police commander John Burge and Blacks were tortured into making false confessions. These confessions put men in prison and death row for years. Many still remain incarcerated, activists add. Yet when a special prosecutor was assigned to probe the alleged crimes, he came up empty. When the torture claims were investigated later, it was determined rights violations may have happened but the statute of limitations had expired–it was too late to hold anyone accountable.
Never mind the broken lives and spirits and the horror suffered by men who did not commit crimes for which they were jailed. What does it to do the mind to think that one is imprisoned and not guilty and imprisoned because one was forced to confess to stop pain and terror inflicted by those who are supposed to be the keepers of the peace and the agents of justice?
Is that just?
What is it like to have your land usurped, homes bulldozed, olives trees uprooted and to be locked down to a small confined area? What is like to be deprived of medicine, food, wheel chairs, crutches, homes, jobs, freedom of movement and even hope? This is the plight of the Palestinian people who have suffered on the Gaza Strip under a blockade imposed by the Israeli military since 2007. Then when activists challenge the blockade, which is illegal and immoral, the state of Israel raids a peace flotilla and nine people end up dead. An American citizen was among the dead, but his loss is hardly mentioned while the Zionist propaganda machine spews its contorted message.
Instead of admitting to piracy and attacking ships in international waters, the Israelis staunchly declare they were under siege.
Their security was violated. They then refused to allow activists arrested and detained to speak to the media, until days later. By that time, the viewpoint in the United States had been formed and those who were the aggressors are seen as victims who were aggressed.
Is that just?
Helen Thomas, an octogenarian White House columnist, is asked a question about the explosive situation in Israel and asked what should be done about it. She honestly declares her belief that the Israelis should leave the area and there will not be peace because the Israelis are occupying Palestinian land. Asked where they should go, she answers Germany, Poland, the United States or other places. Soon after she apologizes, and a little later she resigns as a reporter for Hearst Newspapers.
While Ms. Thomas, 89, was condemned and mocked for her words. Her underlying point was ignored: Palestinians were not the ones who murdered Jews during WWII. These atrocities were committed by their own countrymen and other Europeans and the Americans allowed it to happen. Should not those who allowed murderous acts play a role in atonement for such action instead of inflicting pain, persecution and death on the Palestinian people who were not involved in the Holocaust at all? As one Jewish writer on the Huffington Post noted recently Israel acts as a state, not as a religious entity and there was nothing religious about commandoes seizing aid ships in international waters. The state itself was set up by the United Nations. Many religious Jews refuse to recognize the state because of its political origins and the partitioning of a country done by the United Nations, the writer observed.
People deprived of freedom, justice and equality–is this justice?
A link to a video released to journalists by the Israeli government after the flotilla and the deaths mocked the incident, with “activists” and “Arabs” waving weapons and singing “We Con the World,” to the tune of the 1985 song “We are the World.” The official response was the parody was made by someone else for review and should not have been distributed. The Guardian newspaper said June 6 that the lyrics included, “There’s no people dying, so the best that we can do is create the biggest bluff of all.”
“Press office director Danny Seaman said the video did not reflect official state opinion, but in his personal capacity he thought it was ‘fantastic.’ Government spokesman Mark Regev said the video reflected how Israelis felt about the incident. ‘I called my kids in to watch it because I thought it was funny,’ he said. ‘It is what Israelis feel. But the government has nothing to do with it.’ The clip features a group led by the Jerusalem Post’s deputy managing editor Caroline Glick, wearing keffiyehs and calling themselves the Flotilla Choir. The footage is interspersed with clips from the recent Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound aid ship, the Mavi Marmara,” the Guardian reported.
“A similar press office email was sent to foreign journalists two weeks ago, recommending a gourmet restaurant and Olympic-sized swimming pool in Gaza to highlight Israel’s claim there is no humanitarian crisis there. Journalists who complained the email was in poor taste were told they had ‘no sense of humour,’ ” the Guardian added.
Making mockery of death and suffering–is this just? And what is the result if justice is not given?
Consider these words from Min. Farrakhan spoken in “Justice: A Prerequiasite to Life,” delivered in October 1987: “The Honorable Elijah Muhammad said to us that justice is represented by the balance. Justice is the balance held by a woman who is blindfolded. Justice should never look at your color. Justice should never look at your position or posture, or who your father or mother is. Justice should have on one side of the scale the weight of facts; and on the other side, our action in accord with those facts. It is thereby we render true justice. … If you love your city, preserve it. If you love this country, preserve it. And the only way you can preserve it is with righteousness and justice. It is not your money that makes you great, for righteousness exalted the nation–but wickedness will carry you swiftly into the bottomless pit of hell.”
