Race Questions Rise From Flames
Was A Muslim-Owned Oakland Liquor Store Fire Race-Based Arson?
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Play CBS Video Video Oakland Attacks Hate Crimes? Attacks against two Muslim-owned convenience stores in predominantly black neighborhoods of Oakland's may be the result of hate crimes. John Blackstone reports.
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Video Alcohol Vandals On Tape CBS News correspondent John Blackstone shows us the security video from the convenience store that may have been vandalized because it sold alcohol.
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Video Well-Dressed Vandals In Calif. Oakland, Calif., police officials are investigating a pair of violent attacks by neatly-dressed men on Arab-owned liquor stores. Vincent Gonzales has a report on the caught-on-tape vandals.
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Early this morning, a fire gutted Muhammad Hamdan's New York Market in one of Oakland's poorest neighborhoods. (CBS)
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"I get up this morning to pray and my wife, she said, 'they burn up the place,'" Hamdan said. "I don't believe it!"
But Hamdan got a violent warning just last week when his store and the San Pablo market nearby were both trashed by a dozen well dressed black men(video). The surveillance cameras recorded the scene in the San Pablo Market as the men in suits and bow ties swept wine, liquor and beer bottles off the shelves.
The owner of the San Pablo Market is also a Muslim.
"They said that we were Muslims and we were selling liquor to the community and we ain't supposed to be doing that," said Khalid Saleh, son of the San Pablo's owner.
Both stores are in predominantly African American neighborhoods and the dress of the attackers suggested they could be members of the Nation of Islam.
Hamdan described last week's attack: "They start grabbing the bottles and everything … and on top of each other and dump it on the floor."
Nation of Islam leaders denied any involvement in the attacks.
"Just because men were dressed in suits and ties, it don't mean that all black men who are dressed in a suit and ties are gang members, thugs," said Tony Muhammad, a Nation of Islam representative.
There have been worries in Oakland in the past about the number of liquor stores in neighborhoods that are largely poor and black. Store owners say they are serving all the needs of the people who live here.
But trashing the stores, or burning them down, isn't the answer, says a local pastor.
"The community is not sympathetic with this type of action, but this is a vulnerable community," said Pastor Raymond Lankford of Voices of Hope Community Church.
And now store owners are feeling very vulnerable too.
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