FBI raid in Nawlins on Arab stores
The FBI has raided some Arab owned stores in New Orleans. Although it will be spinned as part of a terror plot, my first instinct is that it probably has something to do with fraud, selling stolen merchandise or some other illegal activity.
It was well known (during the time of paper foodstamps) that the Arab stores was where one could sell a $65 book of stamps for $50 in cash. Now in the time of the EBT cards, they will ring up a phony transaction for (let’s say) $75 and give the customer $60 in cash. This is not to mention other outrageous activity
The FBI will watch them for months, giving them plenty of rope to hang themselves, and gather plenty of evidence against them before the raid.
All of this, on top of selling poor quality food, is the reason why they have such a bad reputation in black communities.
So, while extremist fringe groups do believe that it is permissible to engage in fraud in the name of “daroorah”, the vast majority of these guys getting caught in these FBI stings are just greedy and corrupt and have no interest in anything other than stuffing their pockets with cash by any means (legal or illegal)
It is amazing to me where you can find them. Como, Mississippi, a town of about 1,300 people, only has three stores - two of them owned by Arabs. I went into one of the stores and saw that they were openly selling tickets to the Tennesse lottery (It is illegal to even advertise a lottery in Mississippi, much less sell tickets)
Of course when all else fails, play the race card
“They’re raiding all the Arabic stores,” said Jamil Ahmed, a young man of Yemeni descent who said his father owned the Mini Mart on
Tunnel Drive. “It’s a racial thing, I think.”
The irony is that many of these guys hate it when the race card is played on them by their customers
Filed under: Muslim Isolation, The Culture of Denial and Pretense
Food stamp fraud is another possibility. What happens is that Muslims are under a big spotlight because of terrorism and the government isn’t finding terrorism, because there are very few, but they are finding some criminal activity in the community.
Food stamp fraud is nothing new, and not only limited to Arab stores. In Chicago, many small restaurants used to buy your stamps at a cut rate, giving you the cash and them extra money to buy supplies. Black restaurants did it also. It’s not a racial thing, as you noted. It is a sad thing.
Ya Haqq!
Salam alaikoum
you bring back memories of college in north Mississippi and my early convert days, “dawah” from gas stations…. those were the days. I remember one guy trying to justify himself to me, being new convert and all, with the, “you don’t have to do right by the kuffar in the land of the kuffar” and “I have to send money back home, I’m the only one out here”…yeah mmm-kay.
CNCZ:
North Mississippi? Small world, I was born in Sardis, Mississippi
Subhan’Allah
Salaam alaikum,
I wonder if this Muslim family in NOLA that I know is involved? I hope now but…I really do wish they would stop selling that stuff.