One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 1

by Minister of Information JR

yusuf-bey-iv-1205, One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 1, Local News & Views Aug. 2 will mark the one year anniversary since the murder of Oakland Post Newspaper editor Chauncey Bailey. Since that time, members of Your Black Muslim Bakery, including the leader, Yusuf Bey IV, 22-year-old son of the Bakery’s founding patriarch, have been locked up. After the death of Bailey, journalists in the Bay Area created an investigative collaborative called the Chauncey Bailey Project – known in the Black community as the Anti-Muslim Bakery Police Project – which seems to be a vehicle for digging up real and imaginary dirt on Your Black Muslim Bakery and the Bey family.

I did this interview with Yusuf Bey IV because I think that it is important for the Black community to hear his voice through the barrage of malicious articles that the mainstream media has been putting out about him and the his co-defendants.

I’m not a judge or a jury but, as a journalist, I’m definitely not going to let the racist media bury someone that I have access to, without allowing him to say what he has to say. The mainstream media is not used to our community saying that we are going to make our minds up on what we believe independent of their white power media infrastructures. Here’s Yusuf Bey IV in this exclusive interview.

MOI JR: Do you feel any different about the issue with liquor stores in the Black community since the city has brought criminal charges against you?

yusuf-bey-works-in-bakery-050301-by-ray-chavez-oakland-trib-300x216, One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 1, Local News & Views Yusuf Bey IV: My standpoint on the issue has always been and will always be that I believe it’s entirely too many liquor stores in the Black community. We as a people collectively have enough vices in our community with drugs, violence and prostitution. I don’t believe that we should allow people from other countries to take advantage of our people’s problems by flooding our communities with out of control distribution of alcohol.

I also know for a fact that liquor stores sell drugs out of most of their shops. They would not go into the suburban community with that type of disrespect, because they have men in the suburbs that simply would not allow it. I will always be an opposer to the Yemeni Association, until they change their act. Until then, we won’t accept it.

And even though me and my co-defendants aren’t receiving the community support like we should, it will not discourage us nor deter us from wanting to protect our people from destruction. I fully understand that my dedication to wanting to help the community exposes me to being a target of the government. However, I believe in God more than I ever have, and I know I’m protected.

MOI JR: Do you have plans to re-open the Bakery?

police-raid-your-black-muslim-bakery-080307-by-noah-berger-ap-229x300, One on one with Yusuf Bey IV: Part 1, Local News & Views Yusuf Bey IV: Yes, we do plan to re-open Your Black Muslim Bakery, because we know the importance of having healthy, healthy food in the community, so it’s very important that we re-open. However, before that happens I would like to deal with a priority of issues first, which is youth violence and self-education.

It’s a shame and a disgrace what is happening in the Black community with life, no matter what the problem is. We must remember every problem has a solution. It just takes people who sincerely care about the problem. We lost more lives in Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco than they’ve lost in the Iraq War, yet we don’t seem to be a priority of this government. And I don’t ever see us being a priority to this government, unless it is murdering or imprisoning us.

So we have to make our own self our priority. And we could do so by showing unity and pulling our resources. It should not matter what faith a person is, because if a person truly believes in their faith, then their actions and faith would go hand and hand, which would lead a person to show through their actions good morals and good principles.

My father always taught that a good Muslim is a good Christian. And if followed correctly, we should be able to work together. Nothing but death should be the only thing to divide and separate us.

MOI JR: Why do you think the media is so obsessed with the Bakery and the Bey name?

Yusuf Bey IV: I don’t know exactly why. However, I have my opinion as to why I believe the media is doing what they’re doing. I’m only 22 years old. I know that there are a lot more older people out there that knows a lot about the history and track record of the media. And who’s behind it.

So I know that I’m not alone when I say that they’re known for targeting people or groups who take uncompromising stands against them or their beliefs. I personally haven’t been in control of the organization long enough to take my uncompromising stance against them, until I personally became a target of the media.

Anyone who has an open mind and who knows about Your Black Muslim Bakery would know that this whole media propaganda is not even about me and my brothers or these outrageous false charges against us. It’s clearly about the grudge they’ve had against my father, Dr. Yusuf Bey; that’s the bottom line.

They were determined to take him down and lock him up. But they couldn’t because God had other plans for him. So now they figure they will try to take down his sons. And you tell me these people aren’t evil. How could you wanna take a person’s life away, who’s innocent, based on the grudge you have against their father. And you wonder why we call them the devil.

The media makes people believe we’re referring to white people, when we’re only referring to a mentality that any race of people could qualify for. Just because the people behind the media’s guilty conscience eats away at them doesn’t mean they should put it out to the world that we’re referring to all white people.

Your Black Muslim Bakery has helped so many people, and saved so many lives. I’ve witnessed this personally, growing up, the love Dr. Yusuf Bey had for trying to uplift people who were down and out, given no chance by anyone else. No, my father wasn’t perfect, but show me someone other than God who is. This man did so many good things for people that he didn’t even know. He allowed these same people into his family like they were his own.

MOI JR: How do you feel about your younger brother testifying against you?

Yusuf Bey IV: I wasn’t surprised, although I was deeply hurt, because I have a big family, and there is only a few whom I’m able to bond with, and Joshua was one of them. However, when you read history of the Bible, it shows that family is more than capable of turning against family. Read the story of Joseph in the Bible, or Cain and Abel.

History always repeats itself, so it’s not unusual for things like this to happen. However, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have an emotional effect on me, and believe me it takes a lot to hurt me emotionally, especially after the death of my brother and father. I still believe I’ll be able to find it in my heart to forgive him because he’s a good person who was set up in this whole mess, just as I was.

The District Attorney took advantage of my brother’s lack of knowledge of the system and how it works. And they cleverly used his mother and lawyer to do it. My little brother had no knowledge of what was taking place. He was misled by someone who deceived me and used business resources and our reputation to commit the crime.

Just because it was against drug dealers doesn’t justify it. The detective handling the case scared my little brother, by telling him I was the one they were targeting, and all he had to do was implicate me. And by my brother never being arrested, and with no criminal record, he actually believed the police were more than capable of sending him to prison for life for a crime he didn’t commit. I just wish he would have thought about his brothers’ innocent lives before allowing the police and D.A. to use scare tactics.

Another suspicious development that the media conveniently left out is that Joshua’s mother just so happens to be the person who accused my father of abuse and attempted to sue the Bakery after he passed. Another suspicious development, I’m finding out, is that my little brother Joshua’s attorney was in fact the same attorney that represented his mother against my father.

From what I hear from credible sources is that both his lawyer and his mother have had a grudge against anyone who continued my father’s legacy, which makes me not only a target of the police – and media – but also a target of a member of our defense counsel, who is a big influence over my little brother.

Now I may be wrong about my suspicions, but when I’m in the actual courtroom listening to all the inconsistencies and contradictions in my brother’s testimony, I can’t help but to think it was all staged by the D.A. with the help of his mother and lawyer. And just to help him make his story sound believable, they allowed him in the courtroom to hear the victims’ testimonies before he testified.

I believe that my little brother still loves us; he just loves his mother more. That’s what makes me understand why he’s doing what he did. I just thank God that my brother and I have the facts and evidence on our side, so unless the police pull an O.J., I believe we’ll be free. Even if we don’t receive the support from the community.

The detective knows that my brothers and I didn’t commit this crime. They’re just jumping on the bandwagon of the Chauncey Bailey tragedy and its publicity to make their case against us, which is why they didn’t make an arrest until two and a half months later (in the kidnapping case). And it just so happens that it was the day after Chauncey Bailey was killed. And even then, we weren’t arrested; we were detained.

So please stay tuned to the conspiracy to take down the sons of Dr. Yusuf Bey.

Email POCC Minister of Information JR at blockreportradio@gmail.com and visit www.blockreportradio.com.