Muslim Nonprofit Legitimizes Violence and Suicide at ‘Vigil’ in Boston; Seeks to Suppress Reporting

(Photo by Dexter Van Zile)

More than 200 protesters attended a rally in Boston Public Garden last Wednesday to hear speakers from a local Muslim organization use the rhetoric of martyrdom to affirm the suicide of a troubled leftist who recently immolated himself in front of the Israeli consulate in Boston. The organization, the Muslim Justice League (MJL), also legitimized a recent attack against a pro-Israel protester—who was able to defend himself—in nearby Newton, portraying the assault as a justifiable response to public support for Israel. To top it off, MJL speakers portrayed Marcellus Williams, a Missouri man executed the previous day for murdering a social worker, as a victim of “state murder.”

The MJL’s website describes the organization’s mission as to “organize and advocate for communities whose rights are threatened under the national security state in the United States. Led by Muslims, our organizing brings justice for ALL communities deemed ‘suspect.’” The organization oddly conflates Islamism and leftism.

The organization, according to its website, was “formed by four Muslim women in Boston in 2014, in response to a pressing need for local Muslim-led defense of our communities’ human and civil rights against the ‘War on Terror.’” The organization has received support from the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation, and other long-established Boston-area foundations such as the Hyams Foundation, the Episcopal City Foundation, and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.

MJL protest organizers and participants sought to prevent this reporter from recording the September 25 event, as detailed below. Attempts of this kind are becoming a regular occurence at such rallies, a fact with worrying implications for press freedom, especially in the run up to the presidential election in November.

Murderers, Self-Immolators Eulogized as Defenders of “Justice”

“The state took Marcellus Williams from us tonight. It took over 500 of our Lebanese family this week. It has taken tens of hundreds and thousands of Palestinians, of Afghans, of Iraqis. And I’m sure you are all here because, like me, you’re really f-----g tired of losing people,” said Fatema Ahmad, who leads the MJL.

(Photo by Dexter Van Zile)

Williams, a recent convert to Islam, received significant attention at the rally, with Ahmad describing him as a “Black Muslim whose Muslimness was erased” in media coverage of his death. Williams, Ahmad said, was a victim of both racism and “Islamophobia.”

“It’s not that this country hates Muslims because we’re different,” she said. “It hates Muslims because we love justice and there is nothing this country hates more than justice.”

Ahmad then turned her attention to Matt Nelson, who immolated himself on September 11, 2024, in protest of American support for Israel. In addition to closing the rally by reciting the words Nelson uttered into his iPhone before immolating himself, Ahmad complained of the media failing to report about his friendship with Aaron Bushnell, another anti-Israel activist who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., in February.

“We are holding this vigil so that neither of them are erased, even with the threats to our safety, even with the people who want to come complain about it,” she said.

Ahmad then invited a young woman from Newton, Massachusetts, to praise and defend Caleb Gannon, the troubled young leftist from the same city who suffered a gunshot wound after he tackled Scott Hayes, a pro-Israel protester on September 12, 2024. In a transparent attempt to misrepresent what Hayes’s lawyer described as a textbook case of self-defense, the young woman, who did not give her name, said, “We do not know exactly what prompted Caleb to run across the [street]” toward the group of pro-Israel protesters standing across the street in downtown Newton.

“We know, [however], that Caleb was arguing against their violent rhetoric and that Scott Hayes has been harassing anti-genocide community members for many months,” she said, later describing Hayes as a “white supremacist” who regularly showed “up to leftist spaces to intimidate and terrorize our comrades.”

The young woman said that MJL “wants to counter the narrative that Caleb was acting irrationally.”

“How can we not relate to the urge to throw our bodies on the line for Palestine?” she said, apparently forgetting that Gannon was throwing Hayes’s body, not his own, on the sidewalk the night he was shot. The woman then promised Gannon, who has regained consciousness and is expected to survive, that the rally attendees will keep him in their thoughts and prayers. “We will keep fighting for Palestine as you did with your body and your words,” she said, implying that Gannon’s example of attacking Zionists is a good one to follow.

Then, a woman who gave her name as Elizabeth and described herself as a religious leader who was raised in the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition, offered a prayer.

“God, who is with all martyrs, including Matt [Nelson] and Marcellus [Williams] all taken by genocide here and there, by Zionist violence here and there, by death penalty and state violence, … hold us close,” she intoned. After calling for Gannon to be healed, she asked God to “bring the justice our martyrs deserve.”

(Photo by Dexter Van Zile)

The ceremony came to a close with Ahmad exhorting her listeners to donate to those suffering in Gaza and Lebanon to “make up for the taxes that we pay toward their slaughter.”
“Find ways to take action, big and small, because, again, we are honoring folks who are truly resisting. That is why they are shahids; that is why they are martyrs. They are acting for justice and again, Muslims love justice and there’s nothing this country hates more than justice. Then, after her sermon, Ahmad closed the liturgy by reading Matt Nelson’s last words and then led the protesters in a march through the city.

No Filming Allowed

The rally was attended by a preponderance of white women in their twenties and thirties, and another group of white women in their sixties and seventies, a few people of color, and a smaller number of young men who acted as enforcers on behalf of the women who directed the proceedings.

Like other rallies of its kind, the protesters seemed intent on generating attention for their antics while at the same time working to prohibit the documentation of their words and actions. Soon after beginning her talk, Ahmad stopped speaking and summoned rally marshals to the front of the crowd. After a brief consultation, she asked that her talk, which was being broadcast through an expensive sound system, not be filmed or recorded.

“We take on risk when we do talk about this,” Ahmad said. “The anxiety about these cameras is because there have been plenty of threats in the wake of what happened locally.” After Ahmad made her request, a masked protester instructed this reporter to stop filming the event. I refused, telling the protester, who was standing in front of his iPhone to obstruct the recording, that “it’s a public event.” Then, an elderly white-haired woman approached, blocked my view of the proceedings and reminded me of Ahmad’s request not to be recorded.

“It’s a vigil,” she said earnestly.

“It’s a public vigil,” I responded, prompting the white-haired lady to declare, “You and I will talk because I really want to hear your perspective,” in an obvious attempt to distract me from the speeches taking place.

Then, an activist summoned marshals to encircle me and intimidate me into stopping filming. “This is a person who’s recording,” an organizer declared. Two young men stood in front of me; one of whom was familiar to me from a previous encounter, stood and glared at me with great hostility, blocking my view. His partner, who at times during the rally carried a flag for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), did the same.

After I shifted my recording from video to audio in response to my now obstructed view, the young man who previously held the PFLP flag, responded to a speaker’s reference to Malcom X’s time in prison by declaring, “I just spent two years in jail, speaking of that. I don’t give a f—k. So keep doing this [recording].” He then pulled up a sleeve to reveal a tattoo of some sort. “See this? I don’t give a f—k.” The message was clear: he was quite willing to go to jail on another assault charge if this reporter insisted on recording. The recording continued.

(Photo by Dexter Van Zile)

Finally, when the rally was about to come to an end, the young man whom I had met previously on the steps of the Massachusetts State House, who had yet to say a word to me, said in a low, nearly inaudible, and clearly threatening tone, “Dexter, go home.”

After witnessing the agitation and radicalization taking place at the rally, it’s tough to square MJL’s agenda with the background of at least one of the charitable foundations that has supported the organization since its founding in 2015. MJL has, over the years, received at least $100,000 from the Lenny Zakim Fund established by the man of the same name who, after his death, had a prominent bridge in Boston named after him in honor of his work as executive director of the Boston chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.

Nevertheless, despite the radicalism and the clearly evident hostility toward Zionists and patriotic Americans on display at the rally, event organizers appeared intent on keeping things from getting out of hand, at least for now.

“They’re keeping their ammo dry until after the November election,” said Luke Moon, executive director of the Philos Project, a New York-based nonprofit that recruits young Christians into the pro-Israel camp and a close observer of the anti-American left. “Let’s see what happens on November 6.”