“The most disrespected person in America is the Black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America is the Black woman.”—Malcolm X

Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965. However, the ideals he stood for continue to inspire African-Americans Muslims. On Feb. 27th, 2021, Black Dawah Network organized a nationwide Islamic outreach event titled In Honor of Breonna Taylor: In Protection of Our Black Women throughout Omaha, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, and other hoods throughout inner-city Black America. In fulfillment of their obligation to invite people to good, enjoin what is right, and forbid what is wrong, the Muslims soldiered in the Black community asking Black men to take a pledge to defend, honor, and respect Black women. The Muslims reminded the Black community to love their Black selves and spoke out against the white supremacist media that sought to justify police murders of Black people.

The Muslims opened their houses of worship to the broader Black community, Muslim and Non-Muslim, to honor Breonna Taylor and reaffirm our commitm ent as a Black community to protecting the Black woman. The Muslims also provided free copies of the Qu’ran and Autobiography of Malcolm X to the broader Black community.

The Black Dawah Network is an urban grassroots organization that inspires African-Americans Muslims to continue the Islamic agenda of Malcolm X within inner-city Black America. It is firmly dedicated to empowering African-American converts to Islam across America to continue the struggle for justice and to be active in combatting structural racism.

Breonna Taylor’s Murder as a Manifestation of Systemic Racism

Breonna Taylor was a young African-American woman brutally killed by the police. While home at night, police barged in according to a no-knock raid. This type of warrant allows police to not only enter one’s home by force without knocking but also enables them never to announce themselves as police officers. Consequently, Breonna Taylor’s partner Kenneth Walker reasonably believed his home was being invaded by robbers and opened fire against them. The police returned fire and police bullets killed Breonna Taylor.

It was later revealed that the police committed perjury to obtain the no-knock warrant from the judge. The police claimed that a postal inspector confirmed that an ex-partner of Breonna Taylor, Jamarcus Glover, received suspicious packages at Taylor’s home. The postal inspector confirmed that the officers never consulted him and that there was nothing suspicious about the packages. The Louisville police department’s Public Integrity Unit concluded that the police provided misleading information to obtain the warrant. Breonna Taylor’s house was invaded on the basis of a lie and she was killed on the basis of a lie. There were no drugs found in her home.

One of the tactics of the system of White Supremacy is the demand that Black people must be “perfect angels” before their deaths can be sympathized or mourned. After the killing of Trayvon Martin, the prosecutor and white media used his past alleged use of marijuana to portray him as a ‘hoodlum.’ After Tamir Rice was killed for playing with a toy gun at 12 years old, the media began reporting on his mother’s alleged drug use. This is a dehumanization method used to justify the murder of Black people.

In Breonna Taylor’s case, the white supremacist media and its supporters disrespected and dishonored her by reducing her life to that of just a “girlfriend of a drug dealer.” We the Muslims do not stand for the disrespect of our sister. Breonna Taylor was described by her teachers as someone who was helpful and academically gifted.She helped her community as an emergency medical technician for Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services.

In any case, Black people and everyone who happens to associate or be a family member of a Black person should not have to be sinless angels to not be subjected to excessive force by the police. This is an unattainable standard and one White America cannot meet. In Breonna Taylor’s case, it was her ex-boyfriend accused of selling drugs.

We the Muslims of the Black Dawah Network know that white police officers have a long history of planting drugs on young Black men and that Black men lead the The National Registry of Exonerations’s list for wrongful convictions of drug-related offenses.

Therefore, these allegations that Breonna Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Jamarcus Glover was involved in drug dealing must be viewed with extreme skepticism. These allegations could very well be the product of police framing by racist police officers seeking to make another Black man a victim of their prisoner industrial complex. Furthermore, even assuming the allegations were true, the warrant was premised on the lie that the postal inspector had intel that Breonna Taylor was receiving packages at her home for Jamarcus Glover. The postal inspector confirmed that they had no evidence of this.

Lastly, assuming the allegations that Jamarcus Glover was involved in drug dealing were true. We, the Muslims of the Black Dawah Network, know that it is us, the Muslims, that have the power to reform drug dealers through the promotion of Islamic virtues. Still, white America’s police or criminal legal system has no real moral authority or moral high-ground to condemn Black brothers involved in drug distribution when they create and facilitate the depressive economic conditions in the ghetto that often make it a viable path for young Black men in the hood. It is the responsibility of the Muslims to clean their communities up of drugs and moral vices.

We, the, Muslims know and are against the white supremacist tactics used to justify Breonna Taylor’s killing and all other Black victims of police brutality. We, the Muslims, will step up to protect, defend, and uplift our Black women.