FBI Kills Islamic Cleric, Arrests Followers, for Being Muslims at the Wrong Time in America

November 2, 2009
Stephen Lendman

On October 28, New York Times writer Nick Bunkley wrote the following:

"Federal agents (today) fatally shot a man they described as the leader of a violent
Sunni Muslim separatist group in Detroit." Targeted was Luqman Ameen Abdullah "whom
agents were trying to arrest in Dearborn on charges that included illegal possession
and sale of firearms and conspiracy to sell stolen goods."

The Times echoed FBI allegations that Abdullah "began firing at them from a
warehouse (and) was shot in the return fire...." Ones also that he said:

-- "America must fall;"

-- if police tried to arrest him he'd "strap a bomb on and blow up everybody;" and

-- that he urged his followers to get bulletproof vests by "shoot(ing) a cop in the
head and tak(ing) their vest."

In fact, neither happened, and no surprise. No bombs were found or went off, and
bulletproof vests are easily bought online from web sites like bulletproofme.com, so
why shoot anyone to get them.

Post-9/11, America declared war on Islam with the FBI in the lead at home. It
notoriously targets the vulnerable, entraps them with paid informants, inflates
bogus charges, spreads them maliciously through the media, then intimidates juries
to convict and sentence innocent men and some women to long prison terms. Justice is
nearly always denied. At times willful killings are committed. The Detroit Muslims
are their latest victims.

The Muslim Community Reacts

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) "is a public service agency working for the
civil rights of American Muslims, for the integration of Islam into American
pluralism, and for a positive, constructive relationship between American Muslims
and their representatives." Since its 1988 founding, it's become known for promoting
"Mercy, Justice, Peace, Human Dignity, Freedom, and Equality for all."

On October 29, MPAC's Executive Director, Salam Al-Marayati said:

"There is a clear and present danger in the escalating mob mentality against
vulnerable Muslim Americans."

The organization called for an investigation into the shooting death, saying it is
"deeply disturbed" by the incident.

So is the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), a national network of masjids
(mosques), Muslim organizations and individuals committed to addressing the needs of
the Muslim community. It released a statement saying:

"It is with deep sadness and concern that we announce the shooting death of Imam
Luqman A. Abdullah, of Masjid Al-Haqq (Detroit, MI). Imam Luqman was a
representative of the Detroit Muslim community to the 'National Ummah' and the
general assembly (Shura) of the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA)...."

Ummah founder Jamil Al-Amin (aka H. Rap Brown) wanted it to be an association of
mosques in US cities to coordinate religious and social services primarily in the
black community. Calling it a "nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group
consisting primarily of African-Americans" is an "offensive mischaracterization."

Those who've worked with Imam Abdullah know him for having "advocated for the
downtrodden and always sp(eaking) about the importance of connecting to the needs of
the poor." Alleging that he and his followers engaged in illegal activity, resisted
arrest, and waged an "offensive jihad against the American government" are "shocking
and inconsistent."

On October 30, the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a
coalition of major national Islamic organizations, issued this statement:

"It is imperative that an independent investigation of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah's
death make public the exact circumstances in which he died. And unless the FBI has
evidence linking the criminal allegations to the religious affiliation of the
suspects, we ask that federal authorities stop injecting religion into this case.
The unjustified linkage of this case to the faith Islam will only serve to promote
an increase in existing anti-Muslim stereotyping and bias in our society."

AMT also urged the Congressional Tri-Causus (African-American, Latino and Asian) to
call for a judicial inquiry.

A statement from The International Council for Urban (Formations) Peace, Justice and
Empowerment read:

We members "are appalled by the raids on Masjid Al-Haqq and a halal meat packing
plant that left (Abdullah) dead. We are demanding an independent investigation into
this action that is clearly the result of a climate of Islamophobia fed by law
enforcement and a media bent on sensationalism. (The FBI's) complaint and the
resulting raid are nothing more than government sponsored terrorism against a group
that was working to help the community...."

"The inconsistencies in this investigation are glaring. The case is based on sworn
statements of informants. These informants were convicted criminals who were paid by
the federal government for their 'work.' These criminals were used to engage and
entrap law abiding citizens...."

We "never heard Imam Abdullah make any statements (or suggest any actions)
consistent with the statements in the complaint...."

"The FBI has stated that this was not a terrorism case. However, the investigation
was conducted by a counter terrorism unit."

"....Masjid Al-Haqq, under the direction of Imam Abdullah, fed the hungry, housed
the homeless, worked with gangs and the formerly incarcerated to turn a crime ridden
and drug infested neighborhood around to becoming a productive community....The most
disturbing fact is that a religious leader who reached out to his people and his
community is dead, the victim of a society that sees anyone who is different as
dangerous."

Omar Regan, Abdullah's son, led the Friday, October 30 prayers at the Al-Haqq
mosque, and said the following:

"My father was a sharp-tongued individual. He would talk about his dislike of the
government, about how law enforcement wasn't protecting and serving the people. But
speaking his emotions and acting on (them) are two different things."

Other community members echoed that sentiment in accusing the FBI of heavy-handed
tactics that killed Abdullah maliciously from multiple gunshot wounds.

Abdullah El-Amin, an imam at Detroit's Muslim Center (the city's largest black
mosque), said he knew Luqman for years and never heard him talk about wanting a
separate Muslim state, just something "like the Pennsylvania Dutch have (with) their
own communities and stuff."

He and about 20 other Detroit imams attended an October 29 meeting with US Attorney
Terrence Berg and FBI Special Agent Andrew Arena at which they charged the Agency
with entrapping Abdullah, then killing him in cold blood. One informant, they said,
was a former Abdullah follower with a criminal past, and he and the others "came to
a place where people are not getting social security, unemployment. They had
nothing," so could easily be manipulated to sell stolen items they provided.

Dawud Walid, Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

"The very incendiary rhetoric that the FBI alleges, I never heard that from
(Abdullah). There was nothing extraordinary about him....I knew him as a respected
imam in the Muslim community....I knew him to be charitable. He would open up the
mosque to homeless people. He used to run a soup kitchen and feed indigent
people....I knew nothing of him that was related to any nefarious or criminal
behavior."

Walid added:

"Is this the kind of excessive force that we black Americans are all too familiar
with?" He also questioned using informants he called "agent provocateurs" who entice
law-abiding people to self-incriminate.

Other community members believe Abdullah was maliciously targeted, that the FBI
likely initiated gunfire, and if he shot back it was in self-defense.

Even the FBI's complaint admitted that whatever alleged crimes were planned or
committed, they were minor and inconsequential. Hardly offenses warranting a
high-profile raid, shoot-out, and political assassination.

Department of Justices Allegations

On October 28, a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release headlined: "Eleven
Members/Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations - One Subject Fatally
Shot During Arrest." The FBI and US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan,
Terrence Berg, charged:

"Luqman Ameen Abdullah, aka Christopher Thomas, and 10 others with conspiracy to
commit several federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud
to obtain the proceeds of arson, illegal possession and sale of firearms, and
tampering with motor vehicle identification numbers. The eleven defendants are
members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period
of many years, and known to be armed."

Those charged were "believed to be armed and dangerous (so) special safeguards were
employed by law enforcement to secure the arrests without confrontation. During the
arrests today, the suspects were ordered to surrender. At one location, four (did)
and were arrested without incident. Luqman Ameen Abdullah did not surrender and
fired his weapon. An exchange of gun fire followed and Abdullah was killed."

"Abdullah was the leader of part of a group which calls themselves Ummah ('the
brotherhood'), a group of mostly African-American converts to Islam, which seeks to
establish a separate Sharia-law governed state within the United States. The Ummah
is ruled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a
(life) sentence (without parole) in USP Florence, CO, ADMAX (supermax), for the
murder of two police officers in Georgia."

In the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, a criminal complaint
named:

-- Luqman Ameen Abdullah (aka Christopher Thomas);

-- Mohammad Abdul Bassir (aka Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams);

-- Muhammad Abdul Salaam (aka Muhammad Addul Salam; aka Gregory Stone; aka Gun Man;
aka Norman Shields);

-- Abdul Saboor (aka Swayne Edward Davis);

-- Muhahid Carswell (aka Muhahid Abdullah, Luqman's son);

-- Abdullah Beard (aka Detric Lamont Driver);

-- Mohammad Philistine (aka Mohammad Palestine; aka Mohammad Al-Sahli);

-- Yassir Ali Khan;

-- Adam Hussain Ibraheem;

-- Garry Laverne Porter (aka Mujahid); and

-- Ali Abdul Raqib.

At the time of the raid, three of the men were still at large - Mujahid Carswell
(Abdullah's son), Mohammad Philistine and Yassir Ali Khan. However, Windsor, Ontario
police announced the arrest of Carswell the next day, and on October 31, they
arrested Philistine and Ali Khan.

The unsealed complaint charged Abdullah with "espous(ing) the use of violence
against law enforcement, (and) train(ing) members of his group in the use of
firearms and martial arts in anticipation of some type of action against the
government." It said "Abdullah and other members of this group were known to carry
firearms and other weapons."

According to FBI Counter-Terrorism Squad Special Agent Gary Leone, a "confidential
source" (aka paid informant) called S-2 provided "reliable and credible"
information, "independently corroborated by other sources, and by consensual
recordings he has made with the members of The Ummah at the direction of the FBI."

In a "surreptitiously" recorded December 12, 2007 conversation, "S-2 told Abdullah
he had asked to donate $5,000 to pay to have someone 'do something' during the 2006
Super Bowl in Detroit. Abdullah said he would not be involved in injuring innocent
people for no reason: 'If there's something to be done....it (has) to be
legitimate.' "

He then allegedly said...."things are coming....I got some violence (in me) because
of what they did to Imam Jamil (H. Rap Brown)....I got some stuff, man, I got some
soldiers with me....Brothers that I know would, you know, if I say 'Let's go, we
going to go and do something,' they would do it."

Leone said this and other recordings "confirm(ed) by (another paid informant) S-1
(showed) that Abdullah and his followers view themselves as soldiers at war against
the United States government, and against non-Muslims," yet nothing in his above
statement says that, so charges amount to putting FBI allegations in the mind of a
dead man, unable to refute them.

The DOJ presented no evidence of a plot, a crime, or intent to commit one.

The FBI used three paid informants for over two years. On October 10, 2008, the
third, S-3, allegedly recorded Abdullah saying:

"We have to cut the ties to (Christians, Jews, and the Kuffar (infidels). You cannot
please them until you follow their religion....Obama is a Kafir (infidel,
non-Muslim, an insulting term for any African American)....the premise of Allah and
Islam (is) 'the worst Muslim is better than the best Kafir....we should be trying to
figure out how to fight the Kuffar....Washington is trying to stop everything we
do....they are my enemy, and I should be trying to plot as to how to make moves to
get some things accomplished....(we) need to plan to do something."

These and other recordings show anger, not intent to commit crimes. Yet that's what
the DOJ alleges. Saying "We are going to have to fight against the Kafir" suggests
resistance against a hostile state. Even stronger statements, allegedly recorded,
aren't hard evidence of planned violence against the FBI, other federal agents, or
anyone else.

In its October 28 press release, the DOJ acknowledged that the above criminal
complaint "is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A trial cannot be held on
felony charges in a complaint. When the investigation is completed a determination
will be made whether to seek a felony indictment." Yet the FBI killed Abdullah,
allegedly in a shoot-out with only its account for proof, an Agency notorious for
political assassinations and twisting facts to make its case.

Imam Umar Responds

In a widely distributed message, an Imam Umar wrote:

"The FBI ups the ante. They set up Imam Luqman of Detroit and murdered him. We know
him and the community he comes from. This is no terrorist trap. This was part
criminal sting and when the Imam and his brothers peeped the tricks of the FBI, they
lured him to a warehouse and killed him. Now they accuse Imam Jamil (H. Rap Brown)
who has been in prison for the past ten years as leader of this group. He is an easy
target. A lone Imam with the FBI was also an easy target. The FBI is not only tricky
and devious....they are extremely dangerous thugs and murderers."

A follow-up message added:

"The FBI is known for their murderous tactics all over the world. When they are
given an assignment they use every imaginative strategy to accomplish their goal.
When they were under J. Edgar Hoover, he found various ways to discredit Martin
Luther King....They turned the Black Stone Rangers against the Black Panthers in
Chicago that (caused) the death of the (BPP) leaders. They got the Huey P. Newton
and Eldredge Cleaver factions to kill one another. They have gone after the
so-called terrorists with one phony case after another. They first went after
immigrants, decimating their numbers in America. Now they are after African American
Muslims. Next will most likely be the support groups of mostly white people....These
FBI devils are very shrewd and their evil spreads....The murder of a good Muslim
will only make it more dangerous to live in America. They know that black people
sooner or later will fight back."

"The Ummah is not a 'brotherhood,' it is the Arabic word for 'community.' This group
setting up a Muslim state? What a joke. They can hardly set up an annual conference.
This information is to cause fear....to cause backlash against Muslims....Let the
FBI continue with their tricks, lies and murder. Before long, everyone will see
through their veil and they will become the target."

Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Formerly Known as H. Rap Brown

Born Hubert Gerold Brown, he became famously known as H. Rap Brown, a 1960s civil
rights activist, social commentator, and chairman of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (succeeding Stokely Carmichael) where he distinguished
himself as a charismatic leader and effective organizer. In 1968, he was named
minister of justice for the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense that strove for
ethnic justice, racial emancipation, and real economic, social, and political equity
across gender and color lines.

As a result, he was targeted by federal and state authorities, charged with inciting
a riot in Maryland, violating the National Firearms Act, and illegally crossing
state lines to skip bail. During his 1970 firearms trial, he disappeared for 17
months and was placed on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list. In late 1971, he
reemerged after being arrested and falsely charged with armed robbery in Manhattan.
Convicted, he served five years in Attica State Prison.

While there, he converted to Islam and changed his name to Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.
After release, he started an Atlanta mosque and operated a small grocery store and
community center. Then in 2000, he was charged with murdering a black police officer
and injuring his partner in a gun battle outside his store.

In 2002, he was tried, and despite strong evidence of his innocence, was convicted
on 13 counts, including murder, aggravated assault, obstruction, and possession of a
firearm by a convicted felon, and sentenced to life imprisonment with no possibility
of parole.

At trial, his lawyers argued for a case of mistaken identity, claimed prosecutors
were out to get him for decades, and presented a strong defense in his behalf,
including:

-- his fingerprints weren't on the murder weapon;

-- he wasn't wounded in the incident even though the arresting deputy said he shot
the assailant;

-- he also identified his eyes as gray; Al-Amin's are brown;

-- his attire didn't match clothing the shooter wore;

-- blood found at the scene was discounted and unchecked;

-- potentially exculpatory evidence relating to the sheriff's vehicle was either
lost or destroyed;

-- a man named Otis Jackson confessed to the crime; it was ignored, never introduced
at trial, days later Jackson recanted, and the defense team never got a chance to
interview him; and

-- withheld evidence and proceedings were so controversial that observers believed
Brown was convicted pre-trial for his civil rights activism and conversion to Islam;
he was clearly a targeted man;

It became clearer when the Georgia Supreme Court agreed that the prosecution
committed a grave constitutional error when, in closing arguments, the assistant
district attorney directed jurors to consider posed questions relating to Al-Amin's
failure to present testimony or evidence. Nonetheless, the Court upheld the verdict.

Afterward, his legal team filed a habeas corpus writ citing gross irregularities,
including:

-- not investigating Otis Jackson's confession;

-- denying a change of venue due to negative publicity;

-- prohibiting Al-Amin from testifying in his own defense;

-- eliminating Muslims from the jury pool;

-- dismissing three of his four trial lawyers;

-- prohibiting potentially exculpatory evidence from being introduced;

-- denying favorable testimony in his behalf;

-- withholding discovery from the defense team;

-- denying them a chance to cross-examine an FBI agent relating to his prior
misconduct against a Muslim, his misleading and false testimony, and charges that he
tampered with evidence; and

-- inflammatory media reports during trial, portraying Al-Amin as a radical extremist.

A Final Comment

As a nationally known civil rights champion and Islamic leader, Al-Amin was a prime
FBI COINTELPRO target, the agency's infamous counterintelligence program against
political activists, legitimate dissent, independent thought, and non-violent
opposition to the Vietnam war, and racial and social injustice.

It continues today against men like Abdullah, his followers, and dozens more like
them for their faith, ethnicity, race, activism, prominence, and opposition to
government injustice at the wrong time to be Muslim in America.

According to an Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) December 2007 report on
Al-Amin titled, "Prisoners of Faith Campaign Pack," many thousands of "Muslim
prisoners of faith around the world" are being held in Muslim and non-Muslim
countries, including politicians, human rights activists, students, writers, and
others with "one thing in common:" their adherence "to the Islamic belief and way of
life."

They're portrayed as "terrorists, inciters of religious hatred or of even trying to
change the constitution of the country" where they live. They're vilified and denied
their civil rights. In custody, they're neglected, brutalized, tortured, and
forgotten as non-persons. As one of them, Al-Amin once said:

"For more than thirty years, I have been tormented and persecuted by my enemies for
reasons of race and belief....I seek truth over a lie; I seek justice over
injustice; I seek righteousness over the rewards of evil doers; and I love ALLAH
more than I love the state."

For others like him, their struggle for equity, social justice, and mutual
understanding persists against hostile government oppression. In America as much as
anywhere. Its tradition continues.

Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.
He lives in Chicago and can be reached
at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research
News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday - Friday at 10AM US Central time for
cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues. All
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