Malcolm X’s Daughter Sentenced for Identity Theft

Malcolm X’s youngest daughter, Malikah Shabazz, was sentenced to five years probation for stealing the identity of an elderly woman and using it to run up $55,000 in unauthorized purchases. This continues a string of misfortune and missteps for the offspring of the legendary militant Muslim leader.

What is terribly ironic, and tragic, is that the elderly woman’s deceased husband was the bodyguard of Malcolm X who was with him when he was gunned down inside the Audubon Ballroom in New York in 1965.

Shabazz, a 46-year-old North Carolina resident, pled guilty in June and was released. As part of the agreement with the court, she must pay back all the money she stole or risk being imprisoned for seven years.

Queens, N.Y., District Attorney Richard Brown said that Shabazz preyed “upon the trusting nature” of 70-year-old Khaula Bakr and opened credit cards in the woman’s name. According to reports, Bakr discovered the theft when her bank sent her a letter demanding nearly $30,000 for an overdue account.

Shabazz’s life was evidently crumbling even before the Queens judicial system snatched her up. She was originally arrested in March when social service workers went to her home to investigate reports that her 13-year-old daughter had not been attending school.

The surviving family members of the beloved revolutionary Malcolm X have struggled in the wake of the enormous shadow cast by their father. In 1997, Malcolm X’s wife Betty Shabazz died after suffering third-degree burns over 80 percent of her body from a house fire, a blaze that was deliberately started in her Yonker, N.Y., home by her grandson. He was enraged that he was sent to live with Betty Shabazz by another troubled Malcolm X daughter. The grandson was arrested and held in juvenile custody. –terry shropshire