Your Black Muslim Bakery

I stumbled across this story by accident. The name of the bakery stood out alongside the slew of stories behind it.  I dont think it has been covered here in the msm and i havent read about it on any blogs (but i havent checked)

A revolting sounding character called Yusuf Bey built Your Black Muslim Bakery to sell Koran friendly food in California, and turn it 'into an empire of wealth and influence'. It was eventually exposed as a crummy (sorry) establishment built on violence, murder, rape, child abuse and a huge amount of welfare fraud.

A good way to preface the story is by quoting from one paper which summarised the founder and owner of Your Black Muslim Bakery as on the face of it a local hero trying to be something of a black self empowerment icon in California. "Yusuf Bey (founder) believed fish sandwiches and bean pies would lift up marginalized black people in Oakland". For more than three decades, his bakery was "both pulpit and profit center, providing the money to start other nearby businesses, such as a hair salon and school, to bear witness to black self-empowerment".  The bakery started out producing Koran approved foods and at one point was supplying the reputable company Whole Foods.  The legacy of Yusuf Bey and his bakery is now divided: "He was either a model of black pride who made broken lives whole or an urban criminal leader whose associates terrorized those who couldn't fight back". He was a charismatic and powerful force, they say, who used a bakery to "pull together an economic gospel, relationships with influential politicians, employees culled from society's margins"

Bey died of cancer four years ago waiting trail for rape. More recently 200 heavily armed police officers raided the bakery compound and arrested Yusuf Bey IV, one of Bey's sons and the bakery's chief executive, on kidnapping and torture charges.  

There are allegations that date as far back as the 1970s (which were ignored it seems), that Bey was beating his wives - and had raped underage girls. In 2002, prosecutors said they had DNA evidence to prove that Bey fathered five children with four victims under the age of 14, two of whom gave birth when they were 13. Further allegations and investigations cast light on an incredible welfare scam that makes Omar Bakri's welfare rip off look lame.

It is alleged Bey directed up to 100 women whom he considered his wives to make fraudulent applications for government aid programs intended to assist poor families, then diverted the benefits to himself amounting to more than $1 million over the course of the scheme. Many of the wives were allegedly forced to lie about his paternity on birth certificates, according to the depositions. That allowed women to apply for various forms of public assistance. The 47 children formed another source of income. All of the local, state and federal money was then funneled back to Yusuf Bey and put into bakery accounts.

The wives of Yusuf Bey also often received Section 8 housing vouchers for properties they weren't renting. 'Daulet Bey' had eight children by Bey, and was living with them in the unit at the time, Doe 1 testified. She continued to receive Section 8 vouchers in 2005. Public records show the previous year she bought a $550,000, five-bedroom, 2.5 bath home in Antioch.

Some of Bey's wives however, who have provided evidence in the case, feared violent retribution if they didn't do what he said. 'Johnson' said she'd been beaten by Bey since she was 14 years old. The other two wives testified that Johnson was pummeled so badly with the hand piece of a rotary dial phone that the lumps on her face made her look like "the elephant man" and another wife was almost drowned in a bathtub. Asked why she never reported the welfare fraud while Bey was alive, Johnson testified, "So that I can breathe like I'm breathing today."

Comments

[Will]

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=azUVpK9y16Y

http://slate.com/id/2171745/