Special to JTA Mosque Shoot-out May Be Due to Black Muslim In-fighting over Funds from Libya

The shoot-out Monday night at a Bedford-Stuyvesant Muslim mosque that left four people dead may have been the result of in-fighting within the Black Muslim community in this country over the division of money sent here from Libya and some Persian Gulf sheikhdoms to help oil the propaganda machinery of the movement headed by Elijah Mohammed, known officially as the Nation of Islam.

According to the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith there have been reports, although unconfirmed, that a delegation representing Elijah Mohammed’s movement–fundamentally and consistently anti-Israel–has made a total of five trips to Libya over a period of time to ask President Muammar Qaddafi for grants to refurbish the mosque in Chicago, the national headquarters of the Nation of Islam. In May, 1972, Libya granted a $2,978,406 short-term loan to Elijah Mohammed’s group. This loan was renegotiated in Sept. 1972 so that payment would not be due until 1981.

This past summer another delegation representing the Nation of Islam went to Libya and asked Qaddafi for an additional $15 million but the Libyan leader turned this down reportedly because rival Muslim groups advised Qaddafi that the Nation of Islam was not genuinely Moslem and because the group is anti-white, the ADL said.

GIFTS FROM PERSIAN GULF SHEIKHDOMS

According to the ADL, the Nation of Islam has also received as outright gifts $125,000 from Abu Dhabi, $100,000 from Qatar, $35,000 from Syria and $20,000 from Bahrain. These monies were ostensibly given, as was that by Libya, for religious purposes and to help refurbish the Chicago mosque. The speculation now is that the shoot-out in Bedford-Stuyvesant was the work of members of Elijah Mohammed’s group who were angry over the intercession by other Black Muslim groups that killed the additional $15 million grant request. The members of the Ya Sin Mosque in Bedford-Stuyvesant consider themselves to be authentic Moslems.

The ADL also reported that the Nation of Islam’s bookstore at 117 Lenox Avenue in New York’s Harlem area sells large quantities of three different editions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: an edition published in Kuwait, one published in Pakistan, and another published by Gerald L.K. Smith. In addition, the bookstore also distributes the “International Jew” by Henry Ford which Ford later repudiated. Another big seller, the ADL reported, is the notorious “The History of Jewish Crimes.” published in Pakistan.