Militant Islam Monitor > Weblog > Chaka Fattah:Congressman's family getting millions for gang member enclave while Philly Mayor refuses funding for witness protection
Chaka Fattah:Congressman's family getting millions for gang member enclave while Philly Mayor refuses funding for witness protection
May 11, 2006
In Philadelphia millions are being allotted to house gang members in a project run by the relatives of Congressman Chaka Fattah, while Mayor John Street refuses to provide a half a million dollars to enable law enforcement to implement a witness protection program. Instead of aiming to put gang members behind bars, the city is funding the construction of 'The House of Umoja' a 'Boystown' which claims to counter gang violence through the Black Nationalist teachings of convicted felon Maulena Karenga, via a crypto theological 'con'cept called Nguzo Saba -The Five Pillars (of blackness).
On a radio program on 4/8/06 District Attorney Lynn Abrahams , said that Mayor John Street had refused to provide $500,000 in city funding for a witness protection program, and told her 'the state should pay for it'. http://www.timesleader.com/mld/timesleader/14209563.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
The House of Umoja was founded by the parents of Congressman Chaka Fattah, (now touted as a mayoral candidate), who is an ardent supporter of Mayor John Street.
In 2003 Fattah co wrote a letter to John Ashcroft the then FBI chief Muller, condemning them for trying to uncover the rampant corruption in the Mayor's office through the use of bugging devices, and accusing them of attempting to "compromise the election". (See: BlackBrothers Inc. by Sean Patrick Griffin- page 307 )
Fattah's family enterprise , the House of Umoja, has been busy attempting to buy up entire city blocks of houses and would,in effect, give gang members an enclave of their own. The Fattahs are aiming to amass $12.3 million for a project which would is intended to be a replica "of the ancient African city of Djenne.
(MIM: It is worth noting that the Fattah's concern with gang violence and murder only extends to the perpetrators. In the 1980's she attended a Black Power Summit with the future cop killer H.Rap Brownm aka Jamil Al Amin, and supported the efforts to free cop killer Jamal Al Mumia. Fattah's Congressman son Chaka also called for Al Mumia to be freed and issued press releases from his government office on Mumia's behalf.http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/1704
MIM: The House of Umoja website explains that they have been attempting to recreate the 13th century African city of Djenne' in downtown Philadelphia,and that they have been granted $1.5 million by the city of Philadelphia and the state of Pennslyvania,and "attempting to match the amount with another 1 million". The project page shows that the amount for the project is $12.3 million, and will include 1 million for the establishment of a 'Falaka and David Fattah Family Preservation Institute', while another .8 million is "needed to establish a search committe for a CEO". A news article on the HOU website reveals that the Fattah's have been purporting to fight gang violence for 37 years, and instituted an 'Imani' (Faith) pledge based on the fraudulent 'con'cept of Kwanzaa an 'Afrocentric' holiday fabricated by Maulana Karenga. Statistics show that their has been a sharp spike in gang violence,and the question has to be asked as to why the Fattah's should be receiving millions of dollars to create their gang have aka "Boystown" when the last 3 decades have shown that efforts to stem gang violence have been a dismal failure.
A study of the HOU website reveals that Fattah's have shown more sucess in making their HOU enterprise into a well funded personal empire, and creating a media hype, then alleviating the street terror and gang violence which continues to plague the city and claim lives on a daily basis. One example of the type of publicity the Fattah's receive is this puff piece about an "anti violence youth rally" in which the taking of the "Imani" oath was touted as the way to stop gang warfare.
"....On Jan. 1 about 125 people gathered at Wynne-field's Pinn Memorial Church for an antiviolence youth rally, under the banner: "2006 Stay Alive Imani." Imani, which means faith, is the last Kwanzaa principle.
More than 30 years ago the Fattahs, founders of the House of Umoja, the city's boys town for troubled teens, used a social pact built around the slogan "No Gang War in '74" to end the city's raging gang violence. More than 100 gangs signed their peace contract, called the Imani Pact, and the Fattahs plan to use the same model to quell violence in 2006.
"The key is prevention," says Falaka Fattah. "That's why a preemptive strike is to have students agree to a peaceful course of action or behavior."
The four-hour antiviolence youth conference was filled with African drumbeats, spoken word, dance, hip-hop, song and talk...." http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=11346
MIM: Combatting gang violence with drumbeats and hiphop would seem to be oxymoronic at best considering the fact that hip hop which has become one of the hallmarks of gang and street 'culture'.
MIM: Background information on the HOU:
"....Falaka Fattah started the House of Umoja out of her West Philadelphia row house in 1968. When the widow with six boys learned that one of her sons had joined a gang, she asked her husband David if 15 of the boy's fellow gang members could move into their crowded two-bedroom house. The aim was to reduce violence and abusive behavior. Since then more than 3,000 boys have passed through the home, where Fattah says sworn enemies became brothers.
"...The House of Umoja is an internationally known dedicated organization with a comprehensive program that provides a positive living environment for boys ages 15-18 who unfortunately lack a sufficient family structure and it operates on the principle of the extended family, guided by the African-American concept of Nguzo Saba, which provides a therapeutic methodology through which the lives of residents are successfully redirected. Since inception, over 3,000 youth have resided at the House of Umoja..." http://www.houseofumoja.org/bioqueenmother.htm
Thirty years ago violence could be easily traced to gangs, but today Fattah says the problem is more insidious. The gangs used to exemplify more of a herd mentality. Fattah recalls that when one gang leader decided to go to college, seven other members followed him. .."
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MIM: In an attempt to show that keeping gang members in a home enviornment was a sucessful strategy Falaka Fattah stated that several of the gang members 'decided go to college, and implies that they gave up their violent tendencies. The truth is that gang warfare and killings simply moved from the streets to the university campus.
A shootout at UCLA , involved members of the United Slaves group which were led by Maulana Karenga, whose Afrocentric "Five Pillars of Blackness" and "Kwanzaa" forms the basis of the House of Umoja's gang 'rehabilitation' program!
MIM The Fattah's choice of Karenga as a role model, and the use of his 'Kwanzaa' teachings as a way to 'rehabilitate' the youths at the House of Umoja, proves that their intent is to propagate Black Nationalism and that their public claims to want to be combatting gang violence are as fraudulent as the concept of Kwanzaa itself.
See:Happy Kwanzaa http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=5251
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MIM: It is worth noting that Falaka Chattah and Maulana Karenga were both pivotal figures in the Black United Front and the Black Power movement. They attended the third Black Power Summit in Philadelphia which also featured Black Panther leaders Stokely Carmichael and the cop killer H.Rap Brown . Brown converted to Islam and now goes by the name of Jamil Al Amin. In 2002 he was sentenced to life in prisonment for killing a sheriff's deputy in what amounted to an execution.
"...The surviving deputy, Aldranon English, testified that Al-Amin pulled an assault rifle and opened fire when he and Kinchen tried to serve him with a warrant on minor charges.
Al-Amin, according to testimony, then produced a 9 mm handgun and shot Kinchen three times as he lay bleeding in the street
The surviving deputy, Aldranon English, testified that Al-Amin pulled an assault rifle and opened fire when he and Kinchen tried to serve him with a warrant on minor charges.
Al-Amin, according to testimony, then produced a 9 mm handgun and shot Kinchen three times as he lay bleeding in the street..."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/03/13/national/main503687.shtml
"...Queen Mother Falaka Fattah co-founded the Black United Front with the late State Representative David P. Richardson to empower the Black community...."
Her greatest working endeavor is as the founder and CEO of the House of Umoja, Inc. In 1968 she founded UMOJA Magazine as a communication product of the 3rd Black Power Conference which was held at Church of the Advocate..".
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MIM:The 3rd Black Power 'conference' Fattah attended was hosted by the recently deceased Reverand Paul M.Washington. Fattah and others are leading a drive to have Diamond Street renamed in his 'honor";
"...Community activist Sister Falaka Fattah, cofounder of the House of Umoja, a West Philadelphia program that steers young men and women away from crime and violence, praised the effort.
"I can't think of anyone as worthy as Father Washington," Fattah said. "He was our moral compass in the civil-rights movement, the black power movement, and the women's movement..."
In 1960 Washingon had gone illegally with Ramsey Clark to Iraq and actively promoted radical causes.
"In 1980s, Washington conferred with the Black Panthers and in 1968 he (Washington) opened his church to host a black power summit, which featured such activists as Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown and Maulana Ron Karenga...."
http://www.houseofumoja.org/bioqueenmother.htm
"....Dr. Karenga and Us have also played a key role in Black United Front efforts serving on the founding and the executive committee of the Black Power Conferences of the 60's, the Black United Front, the National African American Leadership Summit, the Black Leadership Retreat and the Million Man March/Day of Absence...."
MIM: In an interview with a Black Radical publcatin Akira Toure details the founding of the Black United Front and mentions Falaka Fattah, Reverend Paul Washington and the third Black Power Summit.
"...On to Philadelphia: 1974-1980: After a good, long struggle in NYC, I decided to move to Phila. I had re-linked up with my old comrades, Muhammad Ahmed (formerly Max Stanford), and had met new ones, Bro. Saladin Muhammad, Sis. Shafeah M'Balia, Bro. Changa Chikuyo of the African Peoples Party which was organizing in Philly & other cities, trying to build new formations in the '70s on the momentum of the dreams & visions of the '60s. I joined the APP, and proudly became the editor of its fighting newspaper, Black Star. We resisted Philadelphia's fascist mayor, Frank Rizzo, and his killer police dept. The young radio journalist, Mumia Abu-Jamal was trying to defend a black utopian group, Move, against the killer cops.
We wished to defend the entire Black Community by having it organize itself against attack. We went with Rep. Dave Richardson, and Sis. Falaka Fattah, along Father Paul Washington of the Church of the Advocate, to form a Phila. Black United Front.
Bro. Saladin, Sis. Shafeah & I were grassroots organizers for the BUF. We linked up with the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, and the Latino Community, and progressive whites to drive the Big Bambino, Frank Rizzo from office! We organized mass marches, from North Philly, and West Philly, over 30,000 people to confront the fascist mayor. He was a punk, man, his people rushed him out of City Hall when they heard that the Black masses were marching down there. In 1976, we organized a national "Anti-BiCentinnial March" which was larger than the U.S. govt's march in Philly! We brought Latinos, Native Americans, African-Americans, and young progressive & radical whites together in radical, anti-war, anti-imperialist coalitions. Most critics & political analyists don't record this, but the 1970s in many ways were much more radical, richer and progressive than the 1960s.
We were trying to build the organizations, formations, independent political parties to make the revolutionary visions of Malcolm, the Black Panthers, and the RNA, etc. into political realities. We had formed mass formations, the National Black United Front, the National Black Independent Political Party, the National Black Human Rights Coalition, the National Black Political Conventions in Gary, Ind. The Gary Conventions brought liberal and radical Black people together in the 1970s. This movement involved both Cultural and Revolutionary Black Nationalists, Black Marxists, and Black Democrats. The Black petit-bourgeoisie were tied to the Democratic party. They sold us out, and tried to pimp the convention, rather than uniting with us in the goal of building an Independent mass Black Political Party. Evidently, they feared Black Nationalism/ Radicalism more than U.S. Imperialism and White Supremacy.
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www.theblackmarket.com/.../ MKarenga.htm
Excerpt from "A less then complimentary view of Dr. Maulana Karenga"
10 March 1999
"...It seems the founder of Kwanzaa wasn't any more ethical than those who sung its praises. In fact, at the same time Al Sharpton was glorifying the new holiday, its creator was sitting in a California prison for torturing two black women who were members of the United Slaves, a black nationalist cult he had founded.
The cult leader Ron N. Everett went by the name Karenga and in the 60's took upon himself the title "maulana," which means "master teacher" in Swahili. He was born on a poultry farm in Maryland, the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in the late 50's to attend LA Community College. He later moved to UCLA, where he got a Master's degree in political science and African Studies and by the mid 1960's, he had established himself as a leader of the black movement- a self described "cultural nationalist". He had purposely used the term "nationalist" to distinguish his group from the Black Panthers who were Marxists. He wanted a separate black state while the Marxists worked for integration.
The friction between his group and the Panthers mirrored the centuries of tribal warring in Africa. Both groups were heavily recruiting at UCLA in the 60's and vying for control of the newly developed African Studies Department. Karenga and his group backed one candidate for dept. head and the Panthers another. Both began carrying guns on campus and on Jan. 17. 1969, about 150 students gathered at the lunchroom to discuss the problem. Two Panther members had been admitted to the college as part of a federal program that helped black high-school dropouts enter the university. The meeting turned violent and ended with two of Karenga's group, George P. Stiner and Larry Joseph Stiner killing two. The Stiner brothers shot two Panthers John Huggins, 23 and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter, 26 – dead...."
UCLA chancellor Charles E. Young, scared that the violence would hurt admissions said "The students here have handled themselves in an absolutely impeccable manner. They have been concerned. They haven't argued who the director should be; they have been saying what kind of person he should be." The remarks were made after the shooting and the university went ahead with its Afro-American Studies Program. Meanwhile, Karenga's group grew and performed assaults and robberies always following the law laid down in The Quotable Karenga, a book that laid out the "True Path of Blackness." "The sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black,"
On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture session that led to his imprisonment. The torture session was described in the L.A. Times on May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at Karenga's home when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing crystals in his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they denied it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot soldering iron was put in Miss Davis' mouth and against her face. Police were told that one of Miss Jones' toes was placed in a small vise, which then was tightened by the men and one woman. The following day Karenga told the women that ‘Vietnamese torture is nothing compared to what I know." Miss Tamao put detergent in their mouths; Smith turned a water hose full force on their faces, and Karenga, holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims Deborah Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."
Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971 to serve one to ten years in prison. After being released from prison in 1975, he remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga, went into academics, and by 1979 was running the Black Studies Department at California State University in Long Beach and converted to Marxism. Kwanzaa's seven principles include "collective work" and "cooperative economics." He is still there and everyone has almost forgotten the cruel and vicious attacks committed on his fellow blacks. Kwanzaa has been successfully marketed and is now heralded as a great African tradition.
The silver lining is that rather than "de-whitinizing" Christmas as Al Sharpton purported – it has polarized the holiday season -Hanukkah for Jews, Kwanzaa for Blacks, and Christmas for whites.
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http://www.houseofumoja.org/djenne.htm
| African city of Djenné |
|
Since 1979, we have been working diligently to renovate and restore our facilities to replicate the ancient (jenn-nay), a great and flourishing 13th Century In October 1996, the House of Umoja embarked upon the final phase of its capital building project, the Umoja Boystown. Since 1979, many of the facilities have been renovated and restored to replicate the ancient West African City of Djenné, a once flourishing city renowned for the imaginative architectural design of its buildings. Since the inception of the project, we have successfully completed 50% of our construction and we are striving for 100% completion by September 2004 when the House of Umoja celebrates its 36th Anniversary. We have been granted $1.5 million Building Project Grant by the State of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia. We are attempting to match this amount with $1 million. Umoja staff believe that the tools for building self-esteem, increasing motivation, and restructuring families can be found in the extraordinary heritage of African Americans. This unprecedented building project will crystallize an important aspect of African American culture and provide Umoja youth with a sense of cultural wholeness, pride and respect. |
City renowned for the imaginative architectural design of its buildings.The House of Umoja is preparing to embark upon the final phase of its capital building project. To make this dream a reality, House of Umoja is undergoing a capital campaign to raise $12.3 million.
Below is the 2006 - 2011 Strategic Plan for capital improvement.
House of Umoja's Goal = Raise $12.3 million
http://www.houseofumoja.org/capitalcampaign2008.htm
| Phase 1 | $ 1.5 million |
|
| Phase 2 | $ 1.5 million |
|
| Phase 3 | $ 1.5 million |
|
| Phase 4 | $ 6 million |
|
| Phase 5 | $1 million |
|
| Phase 6 | $0.8 million |
|
| TOTAL $12.3 million | ||
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