In recent years, reports have surfaced around the country of people — including Gavin Eugene Long, the man police identify as being the Baton Rouge gunman — claiming to be Moorish nationals and therefore “sovereign citizens” immune to U.S. laws. Though their claims have been debunked, the phenomenon has tainted Moorish Science’s name.
“We’ve put out statements and taken legal actions, asking people to cease and desist from using the name of the Moorish Science Temple of America,” Phillip Chase-El, the grand sheik’s deputy, said in an interview several months ago.
What Moorish Science followers do assert is that racial labels — black, negro, colored – were given to them by others. And they feel that losing their fundamental identity, with its traditions and roots in the past, has meant a loss of power for African Americans.
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