Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) regrets having to report about yet another terrorist attack in the United States of America, which took place in Fresno, California, on April 18, 2017.  R.E.A.L. challenges all extremist ideologies and movements that reject our shared equality in universal human rights, and which too frequently are the ideological basis for inspiration of terrorist acts, intended to intimidate the public and government agencies.  R.E.A.L. has also been very active in challenging racist hate, including leadership in activism for decades in challenging white supremacy.  R.E.A.L. recognizes the most important avenue to defy both extremist hate and terrorism is to defend our shared human rights.  R.E.A.L. urges those promoting extremist and racist ideologies to turn away from causes of hate and violence and to support our shared universal human rights for all people.

In the case of the April 18, 2017 attack in Fresno, based on R.E.A.L.’s own investigation of the Fresno terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad’s social media postings before his Facebook site was taken down, it is clear that this latest attack was inspired by the views and teachings of an extremist organization, the Nation of Islam (NOI).  The influence of the NOI on Kori Ali Muhammad can also be seen on his currently active (at time of posting) Twitter account “BGODMAC.”  (R.E.A.L. provided information on this case to industry counterterrorist analysts on April 18.)

The extremist NOI group’s leader Louis Farrakhan has repeatedly called for violence in America, praised pro-terror Libya leader Muammar Gadhafi, and repeatedly condemned the U.S. for taking military action against the terrorist Taliban, after the 9/11 attacks. The extremist group’s leader dismissed Al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, as a “patsy” for an American “war on Islam.”  Louis Farrakhan has also previously defended the actions of Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Hasan, who murdered 13 in 2009, as merely the actions of someone “insulted by your superior officers or by your fellow soldiers.” R.E.A.L.’s research has also shown that this extremist group has also clearly been a part of the inspiration for two other attacks in the U.S., which have taken place less than a year ago:  a Dallas, Texas terrorist attack (5 killed, 11 injured) and a Baton Rouge, Louisiana terrorist attack (3 killed).  The extremist NOI group has a membership both in the United States, as well as supporters and global reach in the United Kingdom, Europe, foreign affiliations, and participation in international events.  Both the U.S. and U.K. branches of the NOI claim the 9/11 terrorist attack was an “inside job.”

On April 18, 2017, this latest terrorist attack took place in the streets of Fresno, California, with the targeted shooting of four white males, resulting in the death of three and the injury of one. Police arrested the confessed terrorist, 39 year old black American Kori Ali Muhammad, after Fresno police were alerted to the terrorist attack by acoustic gunshot detection technology sensors. He fired 17 rounds in less than two minutes, shooting his victims in the street. During the arrest, Kori Ali Muhammad, shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is greatest.”

The victims killed in the April 18 terrorist attack were: Zackary Randalls, Mark Gassett, and David Jackson. R.E.A.L. extends its sympathies to the families and loved ones of all the victims of this terrorist attack. Zackary Randalls, 34 year old, a husband and father of two young children, was killed while sitting in his truck. Mark Gassett, 37 year old, a husband and father of two young boys, was killed while walking home carrying a bag of groceries from Catholic Charities. David Jackson, 58 years old, was sitting at a bus stop with other men, when the terrorist attack started. One of the bystanders reported that Mr. Jackson tried to reason with terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad, and then tried to flee, when he tripped over a curb at the Catholic Charities parking lot, and the terrorist laughed and repeatedly shot him, according to a witness.  Terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad confessed to the murders. CBS News reported that a “police chief said Muhammad admitted the killings, didn’t show remorse and laughed as he recounted the rampage to investigators.”

Terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad was also arrested for shooting and killing an unarmed security guard Carl Williams III, who was also a white male. The Fresno Bee reported that victim Carl Williams was described by his sister as “the kindest soul,” and was “working two full-time jobs so he could buy a better home for his grandmother and trying to make his community better by volunteering and giving blood.”

On April 21, 2017, Kori Ali Muhammad appeared in Fresno County Superior court on the charges for his crimes in Fresno.  CBS News reported that Kori Ali Muhammad shouted about natural disasters that would befall America and calling for reparations for black Americans.  (The mainstream media does not understand or care about  the relationship of the call for such “natural disasters” as a common theme among NOI extremist teachings.) In the April 21 court arraignment, Kori Ali Muhammad was charged with the murder of Carl Williams. He is scheduled for a follow-up arraignment on the other charges on May 12, 2017.  On April 22, 2017, Kori Ali Muhammad gave an interview to CBS47 news, where he stated that he wasn’t a terrorist, but confessed to the murders, and spoke of his hatred of “racist white men.”  Reporter Matt Mendes asked, “So, you don’t regret killing four people?” “No,” Muhammad replied.

Investigations reported on the Fresno terrorist attack have ignored the obvious link to and inspiration by the NOI extremist group’s ideology.  R.E.A.L. readily saw such links in its own research of the terrorist’s Facebook and other social media, hours after the Fresno terror attack.  The overwhelming majority of media has also ignored such links, with some selectively reporting on comments during the court appearance, ignoring comments by Kori Ali Muhammad that would tie to the NOI extremist group, such as the regular call for “natural disasters” on America.

Less than a day before the April 18, 2017 terrorist attack in Fresno, terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad was posting NOI extremist views on Facebook about  punishing “Yakub’s white devils,” threats of “natural disasters” to plague the United States (common in NOI teachings and speeches by Louis Farrakhan), and an image of NOI co-founder Wallace Fard Muhammad and himself together.

The NOI extremist group believes that an evil black scientist Yakub created the race of “white devils” from black human beings using a process called “grafting.”  Inspired by the NOI extremist ideology, terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad repeatedly posted about the need to punish “grafted” “white devils” on Facebook and Twitter, before the Fresno terrorist attack.

Extremist NOI group’s leader Louis Farrakhan and the NOI founder have taught black Americans for years how such “white devils” were created by Yakub.  As Farrakhan has stated in his speeches on such white “devils,” “you have to kill the devil.” NOI leader Louis Farrakhan has repeatedly also called for natural disasters to befall America.

The same messages of hate calling for natural disasters from the NOI were posted on terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad’s Facebook site, which echoes his inspiration from NOI and Louis Farrakhan.  In his postings, Kori Ali Muhammad frequently also used the African Yoruba term “Ase,” which is “a concept that there is power in our spirituality, words and feelings” allowing one to command it to be so.

Fresno terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad’s Facebook postings also included attacks on Christianity, including hate images against the Catholic Pope, urination on “false images” of Jesus Christ, and a posting less than a day before the Fresno terrorist attack stating to “stop disrespecting your ancestors by depending on Jesus! We are real.  He is made up.. only your ancestors died for you!”

A month before the Fresno terrorist attack, Kori Ali Muhammad used YouTube and Facebook videos to issue the terrorist threat to shoot whites with “a bullet” in the head in Fresno on March 13, 2017.  Neither Facebook nor YouTube considered such “rap” videos by Kori Ali Muhammad calling for terrorist threats of murder to be objectionable content.  Even after the April 18, 2017 Fresno terrorist attack, YouTube has no interest in removing the terrorist threat video by Kori Ali Muhammad.

Kori Ali Muhammad regularly promoted the NOI extremist ideology on social media and Facebook, including calls for Louis Farrakhan to be the U.S. president, and numerous images with him and NOI co-founder Wallace Fard Muhammad.  Kori Ali Muhammad also used an independent “urban” video program to be interviewed about the NOI and its impact on his life; this was linked under his “Mastermind” video series.

In addition, Fresno terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad also praised the July 7, 2016 terrorist attack by Micah Xavier Johnson in Dallas, Texas, which killed 5 and injured 11.  On the now hidden Facebook postings, Kori Ali Muhammad praised the Dallas terrorist as “our hero, we stand with him,” and that “he loved us enough to kill and die for us. We honor him.”  Fresno terrorist Kori Ali Muhammad further called for the murdered victims of the Dallas attack to “rest in pig” urine.

As R.E.A.L. reported in July 2016, Dallas terrorist Micah Xavier Johnson was also linked to the NOI extremist group.  In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and CBS News also found such a link to the NOI extremist group in Dallas terrorist Micah Xavier Johnson’s Facebook postings, and R.E.A.L. also identified a connection between Micah Johnson and a former member of the NOI, Richard Griffin.  Micah Xavier Johnson was killed in a shootout with police after the terrorist attack.

Earlier in the same day (July 7, 2016) as the Dallas terrorist attack that night by Micah Johnson, NOI leader Louis Farrakhan re-posted a video of a July 2015 interview, where Mr. Farrakhan recorded calls for bloodshed.

The Dallas terrorist attack also inspired another terrorist, Gavin Eugene Long, linked to the NOI extremist group, to commit another terror attack on July 17, 2016 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, which resulted in the death of three police officers, including a black American police officer.   Baton Rouge terrorist Gavin Long praised the terror attack in Dallas, during a video in which he claimed to be in Dallas.  In a YouTube video, Gavin Long stated that he was a member of the Nation of Islam.  Then, he pointed out that he wanted to clarify that “anything [that] happens with me,” only should reflect on him as an “alpha male,” not his affiliation with the NOI extremist group.  After the terrorist attack, Gavin Long was killed in a shootout with police.  When terrorist Gavin Long told the public to ignore his link to the NOI extremists, the media complied and completely ignored the link between Long and the NOI extremist group.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has also reported on the history of the NOI extremist group and its history of calls for hate and violence.   ADL writes that the NOI “has maintained a consistent record of anti-Semitism and racism since its founding in the 1930s,” and that under the leadership and guidance of Louis Farrakhan, the NOI has “used its programs, institutions, and media to disseminate its message of hate.”  In addition, it states that the NOI has blamed the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a “false flag” attack by Israel, and NOI leaders also blamed the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in France on Jews.  But the NOI extremist calls have gone beyond just hate and have openly called for violence.

This has included NOI leader Louis Farrakhan’s repeated calls in 2015 and 2016 for bloodshed.  In a July 9, 2015 interview, which Louis Farrakhan re-posted in 2016 (the same day as the Dallas terrorist attack in 2016),  the NOI leader promoted a video,  “The Price of Freedom,” where Mr. Farrakhan recorded calls for bloodshed.   In the video, the NOI leader Louis Farrakhan told his followers to embrace hate and violence, stating “God hates…I don’t why man thinks he is better than God,” “Don’t let this White man tell you that violence is wrong,” and that “there is no freedom without the shedding of blood.”

NOI leader Louis Farrakhan’s call for bloodshed and hate has been heard by too many, who have been inspired by the extremist ideology to commit acts of violence in rejection of our shared human rights and human liberties.  The NOI extremist group’s ideology has been an inspiration for at least four terrorist attacks on the United States in recent years: Dallas, Baton Rouge, most recently Fresno, and prior to that, in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area as well.

One of the more notorious terrorists linked to the NOI extremist group was John Allen Muhammad, “the Beltway Sniper,” who was a member of the NOI.  The Baton Rouge-born John Allen William joined the NOI in 1987, and reports still maintain that he helped provide security  (this is disputed) for the 1995 NOI’s “Million Man March” in Washington, D.C.  John Allen Muhammad and his co-conspirator killed 10 people in the Washington D.C. area in October 2002.  Further investigation raised the death toll to 17, after it was discovered that he had also committed murders and robberies in the states of Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, and Washington.  After his arrest, NOI leader Louis Farrakhan sought to distance the NOI from John Allen Muhammad’s terrorist acts, and denied that John Allen Muhammad was a part of security for the NOI event.

Across the United States from coast to coast, in California, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., acts of terror and violence resulting in deaths have been committed by individuals who pursued a path of hate and violence, which the NOI continues to seek to encourage.  This is the PRICE we pay for silence to extremist ideologies.  When we fail to challenge those who promote hate and violence, the cost is ultimately in human lives.

You will notice the victims of killings by those linked to the extremist NOI ideology are not all white, there are black victims as well, men, women, fathers, mothers, people of all different faiths and backgrounds.  The advocates of bloodshed find killing just too easy, and human life too cheap.  The victims share one common bond: they are our FELLOW human beings, and they and their loved ones deserve more courage from our society in defending their human rights than this.  They deserve more than conscious silence, deliberate misdirection, tactical legalities, and human rights community that is unwilling to aggressively defend human equality, because it is more afraid of offending someone than it is of defending the lives and human rights of our fellow human beings.  We cannot simply be a human rights community of simply the pleasant issues, of politically expedient issues, and issues without controversy.  Our defense of human rights will always be controversial because attacks on human rights are based on human conflict.  In the case of the NOI extremist ideology, we must defend human equality.

While Louis Farrakhan and NOI leaders may deny a role of its extremist ideology  after individual terrorist attacks, the reality remains that the NOI extremist ideology begins with a rejection of basic human rights and human equality.  The NOI ideology views the white race as inferior, “potential humans,” based on its concept that the white race was created from “grafting” by wizard “Yaku,” for the purpose of subjugating blacks.  NOI extremist leader even told the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 19, 2000 that “White people are potential humans – they haven’t evolved yet.”  The Inquirer sought to couch this in terms of racial discrimination.  But it is more fundamental than this; with the NOI extremist movement, like too many other extremist movements,  there is a basic rejection of human equality.

The SPLC writes that “NOI predicts an epic struggle in which the Nation of Islam will play a key role in preparing and educating the Original People, who ruled the earth in peace and prosperity until Yacub’s ‘blue-eyed devils’ came along to gum things up.”  The NOI extremist ideology presents a longer term challenge that rejects the basic concept of human equality, and has clearly inspired those who will commit acts of terrorism based on that ideology to intimidate the public and the government.  That is terrorism.

Tactical counterterrorism measures, police procedures, calls for “law and order,” etc. do not begin to work to challenge extremist views that reject that people who are different as not even human beings who deserve basic human rights.  We must first start with a struggle of “ideas.”

This is where counter-extremist by human rights activists have such a vital role in challenging extremist ideologies that lead to terrorist acts.   More than police and political tactics, military maneuvers, and security procedures, counter-extremism by human right activists must challenge and change extremist thinking.  Our law enforcement and counterterror tacticians have views of “counterterrorism” which are based on legal evidentiary processes, based on the “last war” with Al Qaeda; too few clearly understand the problems associated with extremist ideologies that lead to “terrorist movements.”

Blind counterterror tacticians would reject any inspiration by the Nation of Islam’s ideology in these terrorist attacks, unless we have a signed document by Louis Farrakhan himself calling for a specific terrorist attack to an individual with clear criminal culpability, committing a terror attack at a specific time and place.  They continue to view terrorism based on the “9/11 terrorist” model, used by Al Qaeda’s “cells,” of 15+ years ago.  But we are increasingly seeing extremist ideologies and promoters of violent hate influencing those who commit acts of terrorism.  Investigators in this Fresno attack not only cannot recognize it as “terrorism,” but also have no comment or question to the NOI extremist group.  This conscious blindness prevents our society from moving forward to make progress to challenge extremism.

The mainstream media largely shares this same bias in being able to recognize that extremist ideologies inspire acts of terrorism.  Too many mature human rights organizations also want to turn the other way at such difficult issues of extremist ideologies inspiring acts of terrorism.  Such organizations do not want to challenge such issues either because they want to claim challenging extremist inspiration of terror is something that is not part of a “human rights agenda,” (when security, equality, and dignity are very much universal human rights).

To all those who respect human rights,  we cannot make progress with extremist organizations who begin with a basic concept that people who are different from them simply are not even human beings and do not deserve equality.  

Responsible for Equality And Liberty and its leadership has stood for 50 years in defense of black American’s civil and human rights.  We understand, have challenged, and made change in defense of black Americans and other human beings. We urge our fellow human beings, who are black Americans or any other race, nationality, or identity group, to reject any ideology which begins with questioning the equality of your fellow human beings.  

We know better than this.  We ARE better than this.

We call upon NOI’s Louis Farrakhan to drop the burden of hate from his heart, end an advocacy of hate and violence, and we call upon those involved with the NOI extremist group to reject its anti-equality and anti-human rights message.  The power of hate will always lose in the end, no matter what temporary victory its advocates believe they will achieve.

We are responsible, every single one of us in every nation, every day, for the defense of basic standards of dignity, equality, mercy, and security of our loved ones and our fellow human beings.

Together – we are Responsible for Equality and Liberty.