Activist Who Called Jesse a Liar is Called a Criminal, Gets 4 Years in Prison

Najee Ali, the California activist and Muslim who lit up this side of the Net when he blasted Jesse Jackson last month, was sentenced to four years in prison.

This is apparently only the latest brush with the law for Ali [photo]. He was sentenced earlier this week after pleading guilty to attempting to bribe a witness in the case of his daughter, Jasmin Eskew, who is awaiting trial on charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

Ali gained a bit of Net fame, here among other places, when he lashed out in July at Rev. Jackson, following Jackson's outburst in which he said he'd like to cut the nuts off Barack Obama, because Obama had "talked down" to blacks. Obama had called on black males to be better fathers, among other things.

Jackson's remarks belittling Obama upset many supporters of Obama, who accused Jackson of being jealous of the black presidential candidate.

For his part, Ali distributed a "open letter" to Jackson in which he suggested that it was hypocritical of Jackson to criticize Obama's call for better black fathers, especially since Jackson had big faults when it came to fatherhood.

(Read last month's post in BrooklynRon.)

In any case, Ali has a very interesting and checkered background, a number of steps removed from that of the late Malcolm X before the latter's conversion to Islam.

Here's an online account of what happened to Ali in court earlier this week, and a peek into his background, which includes identity theft and leaving the scene of an accident. (Click here.)