Tag: usa

What is the Moorish Science Temple of America?

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Last week, members of the Moorish Science Temple of America were once again in the news as they joined protests in the United States, marching against systemic racism and the murder of George Floyd. 

The group, identifiable by their bright Tarboosh (fez hats) and the large Moroccan flags they carry, has a complex history.  

Founded by a “prophet”

Formed in 1913, followers of the Moorish Science Temple of America claim to be followers of Islam and pledge allegiance to Morocco and the Moroccan King based on a supposed Moorish heritage. 

Referred to by members of the temple as a prophet, the founder, Noble Drew Ali, was a well known and influential figure in Chicago society in the 1920s. In line with Temple’s teachings, which continue to allow polygamy, he had multiple wives. 

Despite his popularity at the time, rumors persist that he was murdered by the police. 

The Moorish Science Temple of America in 2020 

Today, there are approximately 60,000 members of the sect which counts a reported 90 temples across 15 states in the US.

Followers use a version of the Quran that includes Bible verses and additional sections written by Noble Drew Ali. Drew Ali claimed to receive “divine revelations” following a visit with a priest in Egypt. These revelations form part of the manuscript used for worship and religious ceremonies. 

Followers of the sect embrace their “Moorish identity” through the addition of “El” or “Bey” to their surname. Male members wear the bright red hats, known as a Tarboosh or Fez, and women wear a turban-style head covering. The group’s temples are structurally similar to Moroccan mosques. 

A Moorish heritage?

Central to claims of a Moorish heritage by members of the temple is the belief that African-Americans are denied access to their true heritage and are all descended from Moors. 

The term Moor is traditionally used to describe the Muslim inhabitants of North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, as well as Malta and Sicily, during the Middle Ages. 

The origins of claims to a Moorish history are difficult to trace. One theory is that they take inspiration from an episode in 1790 when eight slaves taken from Morocco presented a petition demanding their liberty to the Chamber of Representatives in South Carolina. 

The petition for freedom was based on a treaty signed by Moroccan Sultan Mohammed III in 1777 with the United States. The treaty guaranteed Moroccans citizens in America their liberty. Following the presentation of the petition by the slaves, who claimed to have been kidnapped by the Portuguese and transported to America illegally, South Carolina passed the Moors Sundry Act of 1790. This act enshrined in law the right of Moroccans to live as “free men.” 

Some have also suggested that in addition to the episode in 1790, the belief in a Moorish heritage grew from the desire of members to disassociate themselves with the label “black” in the segregationist US of the 1920s. 

To this day, the vast majority of the sect’s members are not Moroccan citizens, although some regularly travel to Morocco to connect with their “ancestral homeland.”

Violent ‘Boogaloo’ Movement Aims for Second Civil War in the US

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On June 4, three men made their way to protests in downtown Las Vegas: Twenty-three-year-old Army reservist Andrew Lynam, 35-year-old former Navy enlistee Stephen Parshall, and 40-year-old Air-force veteran William Loomis. The three white Las Vegas residents filled gas canisters at a local parking lot and used glass bottles to make Molotov cocktails as they made their way to the anti-racism protests in the city’s center.

Before they could make it to their destination, an FBI anti-terrorism unit busted the three men, arresting them on terrorism-related charges. A complaint filed at the Las Vegas district court claimed the men identified as members of the “Boogaloo” movement, which the government document described as “a term used by extremists to signify a coming civil war and/or fall of civilization.”

Eager to escalate

The arrests were the result of nearly two months of work. Earlier in April, the three men had attended a rally to advocate for the ending of COVID-19 measures. At this “Reopen Nevada” rally, they had struck up a conversation with a man that turned out to be an FBI informant.

On May 29, the informant accompanied the three men at a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest on the famous Las Vegas strip.

Lynam, Parshall, and Loomis had decided to bring their rifles to the event. Lynam joined the crowd of protesters and deliberately went up to the police, yelling at them to taunt them into a reaction. Parshall became agitated as the protests continued peacefully.

Parshall was “very upset that the protests were not turning violent,” the court complaint said. The armed men told the FBI informant that they had gathered all the ingredients to make Molotov cocktails, prompting the Bureau’s anti-terrorism unit to intervene on their next outing.

Boogaloo movement

The Boogaloo movement that the three men identified with is an offspring of the American gun rights movement. An online network of gun owners, fearful of any regulation of their firearms, started an escalating joke over their perceived idea of an inevitable conflict with the government over their gun rights.

The term “Boogaloo” comes as a Reddit reference to a potential “sequel” to the American Civil War. The term is derived from the 1984 movie sequel “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” and has since sparked a variety of other movement-related terms.

Members of the movement call themselves a variety of related names, including the “Boogaloo boys,” the “Big Igloo Bois,” or the “Boojahideen,” in reference to Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet guerrilla force from the 1990s.

As their names suggest, the group consists of mostly male online-engaged gun rights supporters that consider themselves to be the victims of an ever-expanding state that will inevitably “come for their guns.” The men identify themselves by wearing Hawaiian-print shirts often matched with military-grade body armor and rifles or handguns.

Provocateurs

Because members of the Boogaloo movement consider another civil war to be inevitable, they appear to have little remorse in escalating the progress towards such a conflict. The current protests over state violence and structural racism have provided a platform on which they appear to want to trigger a full-blown civil war.

The movement’s preference for military fatigues and equipment gear has meant it is relatively easy for its members to pose as “Antifa” protesters, a left-wing anti-fascist group. US President Donald Trump is moving to classify Antifa as a terrorist organization, although experts doubt the official designation will be constitutionally possible.

Members of the Boogaloo movement have been caught impersonating the left-wing group on Twitter. Posting under the account “@antifaUS,” Boogaloo members called for violence, stating, “Tonight is the night comrades, tonight is the night we say f… the city and we move into the residential areas, the white hoods, and we take what is ours.”

Once the group was exposed as a Boogaloo operation, the Twitter account promptly re-styled itself as an “Antifa parody account,” deleting earlier calls for violence. It appears that members of the movement are trying to provoke the police and the country’s right-wing by posing as violent left-wingers in order to spark a violent reaction.

Because there is no official membership or vetting process, any person can claim a role in the non-organized and leaderless protests in the United States. The Boogaloo movement’s apparent aim is to use the protests to provoke both political sides into a violent conflict.

Now that the Boogaloo movement is getting significant attention from the media and law enforcement, it remains to be seen whether it can realize its dangerous goal.

OPEC Countries Face Difficult Choice as Volatile Oil Prices Rise

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With oil prices now close to $40 per barrel, member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have a difficult choice to make. Oil prices have benefited from voluntary and involuntary production cuts amid a global demand slump that is slowly easing.

However,with countries gradually reopening their economies and some airlines restarting national and international flights, oil prices are likely to rise as demand steadily increases.

The significant impact that production cuts have had on the volatile oil markets has not gone unnoticed and OPEC’s contribution to global cuts has been significant. The budgets of OPEC member states have also been impacted by the effects of production cuts as oil-dependent states have seen their revenue evaporate with mounting deficits and painful austerity in national social welfare spending.

Volatility

Global oil industry experts and commodity traders have been closely monitoring the developments around an upcoming meeting between Saudi Arabia and Russia, in order to discuss a potential one month extension to its production cuts. When news broke that the meeting could be delayed, global oil prices dipped again.

However, the Saudi-led OPEC bloc has not been able to universally cut production. Iraq, for instance, has little power over its production levels as most oil is extracted by international oil companies. The country has negotiated with these supermajors but has been unable to sufficiently cut back production, a situation similar to Nigeria’s. The fate of an upcoming OPEC meeting now hangs on whether these non-complying nations can meet their pledged cuts or not.

Dependence

For many countries that are dependent on oil for significant parts of their state income, the current prices are tempting. With prices at their highest since March 6, many countries would like to crank up production and increase revenues. But doing so might cause oil prices to fall again as global demand has not reached sufficient levels to justify a free-for-all in oil production.

Low prices do have a long-term strategic advantage as they would exacerbate the widespread bankruptcies and consolidation in the US shale gas industry and potentially reduce investment in high-cost oil production like off-shore and tar-sand extraction. While traditional low-cost producers in the Middle East and North Africa would stand to benefit from increased market-share in the long-term, current budget difficulties and plummeting state revenue could prompt countries to favor a more short-term solution.

Short-term pain

The other option is to continue with cuts, suffer another month of pain with an eye on a recovery in oil prices once demand picks up. This means that 2020 national budgets could suffer less and austerity can be minimized.

In the long-term this would mean that traditional low-cost oil producers in the Middle East would have to continue to compete with more expensive producers that have taken a large chunk of market-share in the last decades.

The short-term pain of continuing production cuts could help raise the price of oil to levels where national budgets produce lower deficits, and unrest associated with austerity can be avoided. Choosing to increase national production could create a few weeks of income at current levels before prices go down once again, with the potential of increased market-share in the long-run.

With no easy options, the coming OPEC meetings and another possible Saudi-Russian agreement will likely have widespread effects on global oil markets for years to come.

Is the US Under a De Facto State of Martial Law?

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The United States is in a state of social unrest not seen since protests against the Vietnam War and for civil rights peaked in the 1960s. But unlike during the 1960s, the country is facing an unprecedentedly unresponsive government.

Political silence

Even while politicians espouse the validity of the protesters’ grievances, not a single politician has offered them anything tangible in response. The only response that the self-professed beacon of democracy is offering is for frustrated citizens to “shut up” and go home.

There have been no five-point plans, no official strategies, no bills proposed, and no committees formed to investigate. The US is not even offering these usual empty gestures. The best protesters have received is an indication that Democrats are “considering reforms.”

With few allies in government and no power of redress, protests have spiraled out of control, often provoked by police officers geared-up as if facing a foreign enemy force. With thousands of people on the streets, simple probability tells us that criminal acts would occur.

Government oppression

Instead of framing acts of vandalism and looting as a logical result of years of pent up frustration and despair, or even a statistical likelihood, politicians and celebrities are calling on protesters to stop. Go home and “wait for justice to be served” is the near-universal response.

It is exactly the absence of justice and the clear disregard from their Democratic representatives that is spurring people on to keep up the pressure. Instead of diffusing the tension, the Trump administration is callously adding fuel to the fire in what appears to be a sad and desperate electoral ploy.

The result of pitting protesters against police in riot gear is nothing less than a de facto declaration of martial law. When the state arbitrarily silences, arrests, and attacks citizens, when law enforcement officials shoot, pepper spray, or arrest journalists showing their press credentials, when the government ignores the professed will of the people, only a declaration of martial law is left to formalize the state of the country.

Mock political process

It appears that the protesters in US streets are seeing their government in a new light. Through the lens of black suffering, Americans of all backgrounds are seeing the disingenuous political divide for what it is: A smokescreen to hide that US politicians have become nothing more than the administrators of a country bought and paid for by big business and the extremely rich.

For years the Republicans and Democrats have performed a play reminiscent of the fixed basketball games of the Harlem Globetrotters, with the Democrats taking the role of the Washington Generals, doomed to lose but eager to make a show of it. Rich donors purposely support weak, ineffective Democrats that have no shot or desire to actually change the system, which has resulted in over 1,000 electoral losses since Obama became president.

While many refer to the Trump era as an era of anti-Trump Democratic resistance, in reality 70% of all bills that are signed into law have received bipartisan support, with the common denominator being that both parties’ donors agreed on these bills.

No options

In a state where the government does not respond to the will of voters and social movements, many feel the only response left is civil disobedience and attempts to block the functioning of the economy. The Trump administration appears to recognize this fact in its response to the protests. Calls to “dominate” protesters and heavy-handed police action are the last remaining responses available to a government unwilling to give an inch towards greater social and economic equality.

The only political option left for those hoping for change is to vote for Joe Biden, a man who only promises to “not be Trump,” who said any additional wishes for progress or justice must mean that “you ain’t black.” Trump’s opponent in November has his own archive of problematic statements about the black community and he does not even appear to want to pretend he will bring any change.

Last resort

The only redress left to protesters is to desperately confront the police they meet on the streets. With no legitimately authoritative representative of the state offering them any solutions, the crowds can only channel their anger and frustration towards heavily armed police, most of whom themselves are part of the increasingly shrinking American middle class.

It appears now that the Trump administration is fearing that the men and women in law enforcement might reach a breaking point and turn on the government itself. In Washington, DC, unmarked military forces have started to make an appearance, with no identifying badges or tags. First reported on Twitter, these soldiers have stated they are part of the “justice department,” but the failure to properly identify themselves is a breach of the Geneva Convention.

With both protesters and the government becoming increasingly desperate, the US is in a precarious state that resembles a “state of emergency” in an authoritarian context. Much remains unclear as those on the streets of the United States write a new history.

Trump: States Should ‘Dominate’ Anti-Racism Protesters

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Protests against institutional racism in the United States, triggered by the death of George Floyd, are meeting state violence and media sensationalism. While US presidents commonly try to bring people together during such moments of national unrest, President Donald Trump used his May 2 speech to decry “an angry mob,” saying that the “biggest victims are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities.”

Trump promised to “fight to protect you, I am your president of law and order and an ally of all peaceful protesters,” before describing the anti-racism protesters as “professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters,” and “Antifa.” The US president blamed the death of two protesters on “dangerous thugs,” a racially charged term for black men.

Distorted narratives

US media networks have been busy building the narrative that racism and police brutality are bad, but that violence during protests is even worse. Governors, mayors, and public figures have urged people to stop protesting and “allow justice to be done.” But it appears to be exactly the absence of justice in so many cases of police brutality that are spurring protesters to continue.

Anyone that watches American television is left with the impression that the country is on fire. Images of burning buildings, violence, and the few instances of looting are played over and over while the mainly peaceful protests go under-reported. US media and politicians appear to have settled on a playbook of decrying George Floyd’s death with numerous superlatives, followed by highlighting cases of violence as justification to halt peaceful demonstrations.

Prominent US figures continue to caution of white supremacists infiltrating protests to instigate violence and escalate tensions.

Fanning the flames

As per usual, Donald Trump’s reactions are less subtle than most. He called for increased state violence and for governors to “dominate” those exercising their constitutional right to freedom of speech and addressing their grievances to the government. Trump announced he is “taking immediate action to stop the violence and restore security and safety in America.”

While Trump applauded the mainly-white protests against COVID-19 measures in April, the current protests will face the full mobilization of “all available federal resources, civilian and military.” Trump is now pressuring governors to deploy the National Guard, a branch of the military, against protesters in order to “dominate the streets.”

Police provoke confrontations

An increase in security forces is unlikely to deescalate protests, as police have often been the source of violence. US police forces are overwhelmingly treating protesters as “the enemy” due to years of a militarization of US law enforcement. Heavily armed police officers in riot gear have been wrongly trained to escalate situations and use violence, according to an analysis provided by The Conversation.

“There was a time when the playbook was much more straightforward. The police would meet with the organizers of the protest, and they would lay out ground rules together that would provide for an opportunity for protesters to do exactly what they have a right to do,” Ronal Serpas, a former police chief and professor of criminology told The Marshall Project.

Electoral ploy?

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman called Trump’s strategy “weaponized racism” in a New York Times opinion piece on Monday as it appears Trump is pitching America’s white and Black populations against each other. The Boston Globe highlighted how Trump ignores racism and police brutality as he fuels unrest between different segments of US society.

Donald Trump appears to see the protests as an electoral winner. The unrest distracts from the 105,192 dead Americans due to COVID-19 and energizes racist elements in his base of support.

By filling his supporters’ minds with fear of racial unrest and burning businesses, he appears to want to trigger the anxiety and fear that too often drive some conservative voters.

With the current de-facto state of martial law featuring soldiers on the streets and political opponents labeled “terrorists,” Trump slowly appears more like the dictators he praises on a regular basis.

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