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In an interview with SF Weekly, Leon Muhammad says considering the tone of meetings "hostile," as they're labeled in the Navy's memo, is a matter of perspective. "Was it hostile for Rosa Parks to sit down on the bus? As if the Navy wasn't hostile. ... You could be considered hostile for what you've done to this community for the last 70 years."
Preaching at Grace Tabernacle, Christopher Muhammad said the Navy shut down the RAB for doing its job: "These little commissions ... are always designed to be rubber-stamp, brother-slap entities to allow these people to do their dirt with the cover of community engagement, when in fact there was no community involvement at all."
Leon Muhammad says they plan to fight the decision by sending a letter to the Navy. Christopher Muhammad advised the RAB "to rise up, get off that plantation that you still on. ... Let's expose these bums for what they are!" he said to wide applause. "Nobody gets a pass today. We're aiming to make life hard."
Minister Christopher Muhammad does not want reporters to write about him. When SF Weekly recently requested an interview, his answer came in the form of a lengthy pre-emptive attack on the paper during one of his town hall sermons at Grace Tabernacle. He accused the Weekly writer of "snooping around like a pig."
"They're always looking for dirt," he said. "J. Edgar Hoover was good at that, and there are people like that today ... hoping that by destroying the good name or reputation, you can divert focus from the real crime which was the poisoning of this community."
Bishop Ernest Jackson of Grace Tabernacle ended another meeting with a prayer against press attention: "I'm not trying to play favorites, but the Nation of Islam has become a vanguard for the community. When you have strong voices among the community, grievous wolves will try to destroy them, but we shall not be moved. ...We shall not be moved, no matter what the Chronicle says about us, no matter what the SF Weekly writes, no matter who they sent in, because God is with us."
The Nation and its allies might soon be on the righteous trail again, since more Newsom town hall meetings are scheduled. The meetings will implement a new format in which people write queries for the candidate on cards which are read by Newsom's staff. Newsom's campaign manager, Eric Jaye, denies this is connected to the Nation's questioning.
Muhammad and his movement continue with their demands: Replace Lennar with a green developer. Stop the construction. He told the air district that with the settlement, it should test residents, launch an education campaign, and install a hospital-grade air filter in each home in the neighborhood. So far, none of his demands have been answered, and Lennar is plowing on, installing infrastructure on Parcel A to start construction on the first houses in early 2011.
On a recent Thursday, Christopher Muhammad went to talk to the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund site clean-up branch, accompanied by about 20 people, including Greenaction and the Sierra Club. In January, Leon Muhammad had asked the agency to look at the asbestos data to date from Parcel A to see whether it constituted "emergency" levels. EPA officials delivered their conclusion at the June meeting: No, it didn't. But they said they'd continue to monitor the site, even though the federal agency doesn't typically track asbestos levels.
Back at the Grace Tabernacle headquarters that night, Muhammad relayed a very different message to his followers. He said he'd asked the agency why it hadn't done more monitoring in the past: "They had no answers. Couldn't say anything in its defense. Because you sat back and watched this."
Leon yelled, "Nonnnnnne!" from a back pew, and Muhammad's followers were all ears.
