Mayor Newsom this afternoon leveled the thinly veiled charge of hypocrisy at Nation of Islam Minister Christopher Muhammad for keeping his ministry school in the very neighborhood Muhammad today claimed is intentionally poisoned by Lennar Corporation.
Muhammad spoke in a 90 minute City Hall steps press conference attended by southeast sector residents, religious spokespeople, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, and Supervisor Chris Daly.
At issue is whether southeast redevelopment contractor Lennar Corporation has poisoned neighborhood air by stirring up toxic asbestos dust during construction.
Some neighborhood leaders have asked for a moratorium on further construction until health concerns are addressed to community satisfaction.
Despite an independent study completed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month which found construction dust no more hazardous than asbestos naturally occuring in the atmosphere, some speakers were strident in disregard.
Minister Christopher Muhammad, who oversees the Nation of Islam School in the Bayview, framed neighborhood air as “purposely poisoned.”
“It appears as if Lennar as affected, and infected, policy, procedures, protocols, governmental institutions, mayors’ offices, congreswoman, senators,” Muhammad told a small group of gathered listeners.
“All of them seem to be bowing to a corporation that has proved to be a rogue corporation that purposely poisons children.”
The CDC report found otherwise.
“These health concerns predated Lennar’s construction activities and involve symptoms that are not associated with exposure to naturally occurring asbestos,” John Balmes, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, said in a prepared statement in September.
Mayor Newsom, who supports the redevelopment project and a $50 million bond measure to rid the entire southeast region of residual toxins, countered Muhammad with a question.
“You know what, why does Minister Muhammad still have his kids up there?” an angry Newsom asked following a late afternoon City Hall event.
“Why does he still have his kids in that school?
“He was given an opportunity to move his kids.
“If he believes what he is saying, why would he still allow those kids to still be there?”
Undaunted by scientific study, another religious spokesman invoked welfare of children in the earlier press conference and also claimed construction dust remains toxic.
“Lennar Corporation, a multi-billion corporation, is poisoning our children with asbestos, abusing the treasures of our human family with toxic-laden dust and pollutants, selling our children’s future lives for a corporate profit, discarding our children as collateral damage in a war — a war against the residents and people of the Bayview, Hunters Point, and the shipyards, a war of greed, a war of race, a war for corporate domination,” posited Father Daniel Solberg, pastor of Saint Paulus Lutheran Church.