A Jewish organization raised objections Saturday to a Chicago Housing Authority decision to hire a security firm that is connected to the Nation of Islam.
The firm, New Life Inc., has a share of a contract to provide security at two CHA complexes. New Life employees are associated with the Fruit of Islam, the security unit of the Nation of Islam, said Kristen Anderson, a CHA spokeswoman.
Jonathan Levine, Midwest regional director of the American Jewish Committee, said his organization planned to protest to the CHA the decision to hire New Life because of its connection to the Nation of Islam.
“We would very much oppose the use of public funds for such a contract, just as we would oppose the use of funds for a security organization related to the Aryan Nation or the Ku Klux Klan,” Levine said.
The Chicago-based Nation of Islam, a black Muslim group headed by Louis Farrakhan, has come under attack for remarks that some groups consider bigoted and racist.
Earlier this month, Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a top aide of the group, was dismissed for remarks he made during a November speech that were strongly anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic.
New Life provides security at Ogden Courts and Maplewood Courts on the West Side, and is about to conclude a deal to provide security at Rockwell Gardens.
Some tenants said New Life security personnel routinely display information about the Islamic faith and the Nation of Islam in the lobbies. The tenants, who said they approved of New Life’s services, often call the employees “the Muslims.”
Anderson, the CHA spokeswoman, said the group should not be distributing religious literature and said their contract would be rewritten to explicitly prohibit that.
The Nation of Islam has connections to the residential security business in several cities such as Washington, where the Nation of Islam Security Agency Inc. has provided security at apartment complexes.
Anderson said that New Life is involved in a joint venture with Moorehead & Associates, a real estate management firm, to provide CHA security.
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Anderson said CHA deals with New Life as a private security firm and does not discriminate against any group’s religious affiliation when contracting for help.
“Yes, this is the group affiliated with the Nation of Islam, but they are not coming to the CHA to provide any religious services, but security service,” she said.
Officials of New Life and Moorehead could not be reached for comment, and a person answering the telephone at the Nation of Islam declined to comment.