ISIS Comes To Warwick (UPDATED)

Today the quiet neighborhood of Governor Francis Farms became the center of a federal-level investigation as state and local police, as well as members of the FBI, investigated a house on Aspinet Drive linked to Usaama Rahim, a African American Muslim killed yesterday in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston by police.  Rahim, whose older brother Ibrahim is an imam at the Oakland, California Lighthouse Mosque and earlier Masjid Al-Quran in Dorcester, was said by police to be carrying a "military-style" knife.  However, the brother of the deceased claims that his brother was on the telephone with his father at the time he was confronted at a bus stop beside a CVS Pharmacy, hoping to create a record.  The authorities claim that the deceased had recently become radicalized by ISIS via the internet and had been under surveillance for some time.
Police Commissioner William Evans later convened a meeting with local civic religious leaders, including Boston Imam Abdullah Farooq, and screened a copy of the security camera video.  Farooq said that he felt the video was inconclusive and described it as vague while also saying that the deceased was not at a bus stop, was not shot in the back, and he appeared to be approaching the police officers.
This is not the first brush with violence linked to Islam for Rhode Island.  It is known now that a man from West Warwick was perhaps involved in radicalizing Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was killed in the manhunt for the two assailants after the 2013 attacks.  The elder Tsarnaev also was married to a woman originally from North Kingston.  However, the wind blows both ways on this account.  On September 12, 2001, Providence Police responded to a tip and arrested Milford, Massachusetts resident Sher J.B. Singh at the Amtrak station over alleged connections to terrorism, even though Mr. Singh was in fact a Sikh, not a Muslim.
UPDATE, JUNE 3, 10:16 PM: Information has yet to be forthcoming about the exact nature of the investigation.  However, Glenn Greenwald over at The Intercept has posted this great commentary piece about the situation:

Even the police’s version of events, if believed, raises all sorts of questions. They say Rahim was under “24-hour surveillance” by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, and were monitoring him for at least two years. When they approached him, they had no arrest or search warrant, but instead simply wanted to question him. When they did so, he pulled out his knife, and when he refused to put it away and walked toward them, they shot and killed him…  What was their intention in approaching him this way? Were they wearing uniforms, and — supposedly believing he was an ISIS operative eager to kill police — did they do anything to make him feel threatened?

Pasha Hookah Bar Remains Closed Over One Death, Others Remain Open Despite Cancer Risks

Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News

The big news story today was the continued closure of Pasha Hookah Bar on Allens Avenue in South Providence after a recent shooting outside the establishment.  However, there was no discussion of the deaths associated with the sixteen other hookah lounges or bars in Rhode Island that allow smoking inside.
Since March 1, 2005, there has been an indoor smoking ban in effect.  However, exceptions exist for the following:

• Cigar bars (income over 50% tobacco products) 
• Outdoor areas 
• Private and semiprivate rooms in nursing homes 
• Retail tobacco stores 
• Stage performances involving smoking 
• Private residences, except used as a licensed child care, adult daycare, or healthcare facility 
• The two state-licensed gambling facilities, Newport Grand and Twin River Casino

In the wake of the general indoor smoking ban taking effect, a niche market of specialized venues to host smokers has become a thriving industry.  Rhode Island has sixteen other hookah bars in operation throughout the state.  And despite efforts to mediate issues caused by smoking by means such as ventilation, tobacco consumption remains a deadly habit that affects not just the individual smoker.  Data from CDC.gov says that there are 42,000 deaths each year among adults from secondhand smoke in America, with 7,333 annual deaths from lung cancer and 33,951 annual deaths from heart disease caused exclusively by secondhand smoke.  Further risks from hookah include the consumption of carbon monoxide by both the smoker and those in the surrounding area.
This can spell certain dire consequences for the staff and servers of such establishments.  Furthermore, pay in these venues is far from ideal.  Many of the servers earn $2.89 per hour plus tips, which can often come at the expense of respect or dignity.  Sexual harassment of female wait staff is a real phenomenon, with patrons making lewd remarks or even physically violating boundaries that would otherwise be deemed poor table manners, especially since these venues also have liquor licenses, Pasha being case and point.

Photo taken from Pasha FaceBook page.

There is now an effort at hand to increase the minimum wage for tipped staff in Rhode Island, a movement bitterly opposed by industry lobbyists and barely acknowledged by Democrats in the General Assembly.  Parties interested in these efforts are encouraged to contact the Providence IWW here for further information.