If you serve on a board or commission, should you recuse yourself if someone presenting an issue before you shares the same religious belief? What if the presenter attends the same church? Should you recuse yourself even if you have no connection with the issue or relationship with the issue other than your religion?
That was the case last week when Wilson X Wyatt, a Man of the Muslim faith, appeared before the Monroe Planning Commission with a request to rename N. 10th Street after Troy Cade.
A member of the commission, Earnest Muhammad, also a Muslim, recused himself from voting on or discussing the matter because, ethically, he felt there was a conflict of interest.
Wyatt wanted 10th Street renamed after Cade to close a chapter in the city’s hateful actions against Muslims who were beaten by Monroe Police. They attempted to hang him by his necktie, imprisoned him, and tried to drown him because of his religious teaching.
Cade taught that Black people should stop drinking, stealing, and breaking the law. He also taught that Blacks should open black-owned businesses, respect their women and avoid violence. Cade’s small group of Muslims believed that blacks should not intermarry with whites and should live separately and apart from whites for as long as possible.
That is still the core teaching of Black Muslims today. It’s the same belief that Muhammad Ali advocated and won a Supreme Court decision affirming his constitutional right to freedom of religion.
The Supreme Court ultimately reversed Cade’s. The hanging incident in Monroe started a national trend among Black Muslims to wear bowties instead of neckties to avoid future attempts to hang black men by their neckties. Millions of Black Muslims in America wear bowties because of the Monroe event.
Mr. Wilson believed renaming 10th Street for a man the city once tried to hang would be the ultimate way to say that a new day has arrived.
Mr. Muhammad, a man of high integrity and intelligence, recused himself from voting or commenting on Mr. Wilson’s request because he shared the same Muslim belief as Mr. Wilson and Mr. Cade.
While we can respect Mr. Muhammad’s choice, the fact that he felt it necessary to recuse himself speaks to the deep-seated hatred that many people in Monroe still have for Muslims.
Christian commission members will not recuse themselves from participation if a church asks to rename a street or close a street. There is no record of any Christian members of the commission recusing themselves when Mt. Zion Baptist Church had an adjacent street named “Mt. Zion Street” or when the Newlight Baptist Church asked the board to revoke a street to connect its church to an adjoining parking lot.
Should Jewish members of boards or commissions recuse themselves if petitioners share the same religion but are not parties to the petition or request itself?
We think not.
It’s been 60 years since the Black Muslims in Monroe first met in the Miller-Roy Building on 10th Street. There have never been more than 50 members of the local study group or Mosque #99, yet the fear and hatred of these fine citizens are so ingrained in the Monroe culture that persons who subscribed to the faith feel they must do more to demonstrate their objectivity than others.
It’s ironic that when Rev. Thomas, pastor of the First Baptist Church, made the motion to grant Mr. Wilson’s request, he could not get a second to his motion.
In the future, we hope that Mr. Muhammad will never feel he has a conflict of interest because an issue involves a person of the same religious faith or presenter has “Muhammad” or “X” as part of their name.
We respect Mr. Muhammad’s decision but yearn to see the day that his religious affiliation will not be seen as a conflict of interest.
