Why isn't this talked about in this sub, or in the community in general?

I have always tried to engage Muslims on the issue of certain Muslim businessmen in the US and UK selling alcohol and tobacco in low income neighborhoods, particularly Black and Latino neighborhoods. Usually, I am given some weird answer, or told to shut up about it.

These aren't just nonpracticing Muslims, either. They wear thobes, have a fistful of beard, pray 5 times a day in the back, their wives observe hijab/niqab/burqa etc. Yet they blatantly sell alcohol and cigarettes in their gas stations/bodegas/cornerstores, many of their customers who are African American. The owners of these stores are usually Desi or Arab, and I know for a fact that they mark up prices because they know they are the only store around and take advantage of their convenient location. To make matters worse, these owners don't even live in the neighborhoods that they work in, rather they live miles away in mostly white suburb, taking their profits away from the community.

I have Black Muslim friends who absolutely loathe these owners. First, because many of these Black Muslims are involved in activism and dawah, they have a hard time convincing the inner city people about the beauties of Islam and the wisdom behind it, because many of these people see the above store owners benefiting off their money and selling alcohol and cigarettes, and think that the people giving dawah are full of crap.

I have confronted some of these store owners. The ones that don't curse me out of the store give me some weird justifications, such as "I only sell to the kufr, so it isn't haram."; "Without the alcohol and tobacco, I won't make money."; "I take the money I make off the alcohol/tobacco and give it to the mosque or for sadaqah."

I don't know, it seems to be a lot of haram going on, no matter what justification they give themselves and others. They are contributing to a societal ill, and many of them don't even care about the damage because they live far from the damage they cause and have their children going to private school.

submitted by /u/uninquisitor
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