An official in the Suffolk district attorney’s office who reportedly made antisemitic remarks during a 2016 interview on an Internet radio show produced by followers of the Nation of Islam has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to a spokesperson for the office.
True-See S. Allah, who was named director of Community Engagement/Strategic Partnerships at the district attorney’s office in June 2022, will be on leave during a review of the remarks attributed to him, according to a statement from Jim Borghesani, a spokesperson for Suffolk District Attorney Kevin R. Hayden.
Fox News first reported Friday on Hayden’s decision.
Before hiring Allah, Hayden named him in January 2022 to a Community Advisory Committee that was asked to help evaluate the office’s bureaus, units, supervisory functions, and key policies, according to a news release.
“In keeping with our policy of intolerance for racism, bigotry, bias or prejudice against any segment of our population, we have initiated a review of information provided to us regarding alleged statements made seven years ago by True-See Allah,” said the statement.
Hayden’s spokesperson said the office wouldn’t comment further on Allah.
Reached Saturday morning by phone, Allah said he was looking into whether he could comment publicly about the incident. He didn’t return a voice mail left later Saturday.
Allah, who has held jobs in state and local government law enforcement agencies for more than two decades, earned more than $103,000 last year, according to state payroll records. Before joining the district attorney’s office, Allah worked as director of reentry for the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security under former governor Charlie Baker and at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department.
In the 2016 interview, Allah said he began worshiping at a Nation of Islam mosque in Boston after he was released from prison. He had been incarcerated for his role in a 1989 shooting that paralyzed a man, MacArthur Williams Jr. At the time of the shooting, Allah’s name was Troy C. Watson. He was blamed for instigating the shooting of Williams, but didn’t pull the trigger.
At the mosque, Allah said Minister Don Muhammad introduced him to a man who was involved in bringing Reebok to a Boston neighborhood, according to the 2016 interview. Allah described the man associated with Reebok as a “Jewish guy who’s got short arms and deep pockets.”
Depictions of Jewish people as wealthy and stingy have been a common theme in antisemitic discourse since medieval times, according to the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C..
Organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, Southern Poverty Law Center, and others consider the Nation of Islam to be antisemitic for frequently blaming Jewish people for societal problems that affect Black people, including racism, police brutality, and poverty.
The ADL has called Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, “quite possibly America’s most popular” antisemite.
In July 2020, Allah posted to Facebook an autographed photograph of Farrakhan with his arm around him and wrote that the Nation of Islam leader is the “Undisputed Champion for all of humanity.”
The American Spectator, a conservative publication, reported on Allah’s Facebook post about Farrakhan in May.
Rabbi Jonah Steinberg, the New England regional director for ADL, said Saturday night that the organization met with Hayden on June 8 to express concern about comments Allah made last September while being interviewed for a Nation of Islam podcast. During the interview, Allah said “it’s my job” to get the leader of the Nation of Islam in Boston access to top public officials in the city.
City officials, Allah said, had been hesitant to interact with Nation of Islam leaders because of a “misperception from the Jewish community.”
After the meeting with Hayden, Steinberg said he became aware of Allah’s remarks from 2016.
“It is appropriate that the DA has placed this staffer on leave, pending an investigation,” he said in a statement. “The DA must assure the entire community he serves that prejudice will not be tolerated in his office.”
The 2016 interview with Allah was conducted by Randy Muhammad, who became leader of the Nation of Islam mosque in Boston two years later, and Wakeel Allah, another follower of the Nation of Islam. Randy Muhammad didn’t return an e-mail Saturday seeking comment.
The interview was a program of The Allah Team Radio, which promotes the Nation of Islam, and broadcast on Blog Talk Radio, an Internet-based talk radio platform. Promotional materials called the interview a discussion of the Nation of Islam’s prison reform ministry and included photographs of Allah and Farrakhan.
The Governor’s Council voted 7-1 to pardon Allah in 2015, just days before then-governor Deval Patrick left office. Daniel F. Conley, who was then Suffolk district attorney, and Andrea J. Cabral, who was then the state’s executive secretary of public safety, were among the officials who recommended that Allah be pardoned, the Globe reported at the time.
Williams died in 2010 after being diagnosed with bladder cancer, a condition that doctors told his family probably came about because of his paralysis. His widow publicly forgave Allah in 2014.
Representatives for Allah’s previous employers, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, and Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, didn’t return e-mails Saturday seeking comment.
Laura Crimaldi can be reached at laura.crimaldi@globe.com. Follow her @lauracrimaldi.