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<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6564.shtml" eudora="autourl">
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<dd><font size=4>Activists, family demand justice in death of imam slain
by FBI<br>
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<dd><font size=3>By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Assistant Editor-<br>
<dd>Updated Nov 10, 2009 - 8:53:27 AM<br><br>
<dd>DETROIT, Mich. (FinalCall.com) - Activists continue to demand answers
in the death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the 53-year-old leader of
Detroit's Masjid Al-Haqq gunned down by the FBI under suspicious
circumstances. <br><br>
<dd>Despite cold whipping winds, a spirited demonstration demanding an
independent investigation into the shooting was held on Nov. 5 at the
McNamara Federal Building. Supporters said the man described in the FBI's
43-page affidavit, and portrayed by the mainstream media as something of
a Muslim mafia don, was not the man they knew and loved.<br><br>
<dd>Filled with emotion, Omar Regan, Imam Abdullah's 34-year-old son,
challenged the media to tell the truth about his father and challenged
law enforcement to reflect on their own humanity.<br><br>
<dd>“It's not right for them to set up traps and try to assassinate our
character. It's not right for them to say my father, my brother and all
of their friends were a danger to their community. They're not in the
community! The community loves us!” shouted the young man who lived with
Imam Jamil al-Amin for several years as a teenager. “There are people in
the community now sad because of the loss of my father wondering if
people are still going to be there to feed them, to give them clothes to
take care of them. If they want to know about my father, go inside of the
community and ask the community who he was!”<br><br>
<dd>Some in the crowd began to shed tears listening to his heartfelt
words.<br><br>
<dd>“The man has 13 children and none of us have a criminal record!” said
Mr. Regan. “I want to say to the people, even the ones who are holding
the badges and holding the guns, why don't you do your research and stop
looking at it is as just a job? Find outif you truly have a heartand
stop trying to just earn a check and learn how to be decent human beings!
That's what I learned from my father! How to care about people!”<br><br>
<dd>Members of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice
and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality spearheaded the rally
to show support for Detroit's Islamic community. <br>
<dd>The groups said the community has come under siege from federal and
local law enforcement officials.<br><br>
<dd>Members of the Nation of Islam were in attendance as well as Muslims
from a variety of mosques in the Detroit metropolitan area and
surrounding suburbs. <br><br>
<dd>A broad-based coalition of activists have protested Imam Abdullah's
death, including members of the Detroit Green Party, and many Christian
pastors and organizations.<br><br>
<dd>As the speakers addressed the crowd during rush hour, people drove
by, honked their horns in support, and waved at those gathered. <br><br>
<dd>Sandra Hines, an activist with the Michigan Emergency Committee
Against War and Injustice and the Detroit Coalition Against Police
Brutality, spoke at the demonstration. <br><br>
<dd>“It appears as if this whole incident that took place was entrapment
by the FBI and it almost makes you feel that they may possibly be some
kind of front group against people of color,” said Ms. Hines.<br><br>
<dd>“They have not cracked down on these right wing groups,” said Abayomi
Azikiwe, editor of the Pan African News Wire. “They have even shown up at
events were the president wasarmed. If we would have shown up someplace
when Bush was presidentarmedwe would have been shot on sight,” Mr.
Azikiwe added.<br><br>
<dd>“We think people outside of the Muslim community have to take a stand
on this. The Muslim community has been under fire since 9-11,” Mr.
Azikiwe said. He called on President Obama and Attorney General Eric
Holder to “stop the murderous policies against Muslims in this
country.”<br><br>
<dd>Neo-COINTELPRO underway<br><br>
</b>
<dd>In an exclusive interview with The Final Call</i> at the Michigan
office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), Imam Dawud
Walid, the group's area director, and Ron Scott, head of the Detroit
Coalition Against Police Brutality both expressed concern of what they
believe to be a “neo-COINTELPRO” directed at organizations with Black
Nationalist and Islamic leanings.<br><br>
<dd><a href="http://www.noi.org/cointelpro/">COINTELPRO was a covert
operation</a> employed by federal and local law enforcement to disrupt
and destroy Black and progressive organizations during the civil rights
and Black Power movements. <br><br>
<dd>Mr. Scott said Black men labeled as “radicals” mixed with Islam are
an “obvious target” and another primary issue is funding for law
enforcement.<br><br>
<dd>The multi-jurisdictional task forces of the FBI and ATF, along with a
number of agencies, want funding from the Justice Dept., so there is
motivation to keep the threat level high, he said.<br><br>
<dd>“The more threat they have, the more money they get, the more they
are able to continue this, in addition to the fact of the actual bias,”
said Mr. Scott. “There has always been a Black scare coming out with the
COINTELPRO program of which I was a victim of, along with many others,”
added Mr. Scott, a former Black Panther active with the organization in
the 1960s. <br><br>
<dd>Increased scrutiny of Islamic charities such as the Holy Land
Foundation in Richardson, Texas, has had a “chilling effect” on American
Muslim organizations nationwide, said Imam Walid. This “was only the
first step” in a growing focus on charitable, humanitarian and service
oriented groups with members who practice Islam, he continued. <br><br>
<dd>Calling the use of agent provocateurs “a national policy issue,” Imam
Walid criticized the use paid informants inside mosques, intimidation by
law enforcement and selective outrage by politicians.<br><br>
<dd>In the final days of the Bush administration, former attorney general
Michael Mukasey introduced controversial new FBI guidelines related to an
initial threat assessment, he observed. Under the new guidelines, race
and religion can be used as primary factors to begin an initial
assessment without any real proof that anything is planned or whether any
terrorism connections are present. <br><br>
<dd>A June 2009 study by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) titled
“Blocking Faith, Freezing Charity,” found the U.S. government's
effortswhich many activists call harassmentunfair and ineffective while
“seriously undermining American Muslims' protected constitutional
liberties and violating their fundamental human rights to freedom of
religion, freedom of association, and freedom from discrimination.”
<br><br>
<dd>The religious leaders of the Council of Islamic Organizations of
Michigan released a statement Nov. 6 decrying the use of informants and
agent provocateurs sent into mosques on “fishing expeditions.”<br><br>
<dd>Questions about government investigation of imam's shooting<br><br>
<dd>As a standard procedure, the FBI dispatched a Shooting Incident
Review Team following the fatal encounter with Imam Abdullah. The results
of the review will be forwarded to the Justice Dept. Many activists say
the FBI's nefarious dealing with Black people and organizations brings no
confidence the agency can fairly investigate itself and the actions of
field agents.<br><br>
<dd>Dearborn police are involved in the investigation, which also
troubles Mr. Scott. “The Dearborn Police Department has a horrendous and
vicious history of racism and Islamophobia,” he said. <br><br>
<dd>In the FBI's 43-page affidavit attached to the criminal complaint,
Imam Abdullah is described as “a highly placed leader of a nationwide
radical fundamentalist Sunni group consisting primarily of
African-Americans, some of whom converted to Islam while they were
serving sentences in various prisons across the United States. Their
primary mission is to establish a separate, sovereign Islamic state ‘The
Ummah' within the borders of the United States governed by Shariah
law.”<br><br>
<dd>Stemming from a federal investigation of the group which began in
2007, the FBI said Imam Abdullah and the other defendants are charged
with running an interstate crime ring that received and sold stolen
goods, engaged in mail and insurance fraud, illegally possessed firearms
and body armor and tampered with motor vehicle identification numbers.
<br><br>
<dd>Andrew G. Arena, special agent in charge of Detroit's FBI office, has
consistently said his agents acted appropriately on Oct. 28 when,
according to the FBI, during a raid on a warehouse just outside of
Detroit, Imam Abdullah refused to surrender. An FBI dog was dispatched to
go after him and, according to FBI, after Imam Abdullah shot the dog,
they fired, killing him.<br><br>
<dd>The narrative delivered by the FBI is widely disputed.<br><br>
<dd>Members of Masjid Al-Haqq said Imam Abdullah surrendered along with
the others, and only fired on the FBI dog after the dog was specifically
sent to attack him. Family members were told Imam Abdullah was handcuffed
after being shot and left bleeding and dying, while the wounded FBI dog
was taken via medical helicopter to a treatment center. Family members
ask why officials chose not to take Imam Abdullah to the hospital after
being shot, when they argue, the only reason to handcuff him would be if
he were alive after being wounded. <br><br>
<dd>Official autopsy results have not yet been released, which adds to
the uncertainty, and necessitates an independent investigation, said
activists.<br><br>
<dd>Hodari Abdul-Ali, a radio host and chair of the Social Justice Task
Force for the Muslim Alliance in North America, served with Imam Abdullah
on the Majlis ash-Shura, the governing body which sets policy for the
organization. He told The Final Call</i> everyone should speak out
against injustice, otherwise they might be the next victims.<br><br>
<dd>“The FBI and all of these right wing racist hate-mongers with
microphones are just stirring up this anti-Islamic fervor around the
country and this is something that all right-minded people need to speak
out against,” said Mr. Abdul-Ali. “I think of that statement Angela Davis
made back in the day, ‘If they come for me in the morning, they'll come
for you at night.'”<br><br>
<dd>Imam Walid said after the initial report of the Oct. 28 shooting
appeared in the media, he contacted many publications directly,
protesting some headlines, challenging news reports and telling
journalists not to simply “regurgitate the government line.” <br><br>
<dd>When asked by The Final Call</i> why it appeared as if the
preliminary information about the shooting was so sensationalistic and
inaccurate, he attributed the problem to “lazy reporting.”<br><br>
<dd>“With so much left unknown in the developing case, MPAC is warning
government agencies and media outlets of the alarming exploitation of
this isolated incident that is stigmatizing Muslim American communities
around the country,” said the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, in a
statement.<br><br>
<dd>“This imam was for the Yemeni community, for the Black community, for
the Latino community. We know him as a person who feeds the hungry, opens
his home, opens his mosque, he would give you the coat off his body for
you to be warm,” said Ibrahim Aljahim, president of the Detroit-based
Arab American Outreach.<br><br>
<dd>“This was a set up by the government. We have to wake up and realize
it. He was getting stronger and stronger and they didn't want that,” said
Mr. Aljahim. Many strong leaders, such as Minister Louis Farrakhan of the
Nation of Islam, are also feared and targeted, added Mr.
Aljahim.<br><br>
<dd>Mr. Scott agreed. “It is a very dangerous situation and it is being
pushed via propaganda. And it is either allowed to be done, or planned,
so that any potential unification of Islam whether it is between Arabs
and African Americans, or unification of younger and older African
Americans, and unification of any group of people who are in favor of
progressive movement, that is what they are concerned about,” said Mr.
Scott. “That is why I believe they are beginning to start a new movement
and Muslims are an obvious target and African-American Muslims are a
specific target.”<br><br>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6535.shtml">
Racial, religious profiling root of terror cases?</a> (FCN,
10-26-2009)<br><br>
</i>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6395.shtml">
The strange saga of an alleged FBI-paid instigator</a> (FCN,
09-11-2009)<br><br>
</i>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/Skepticism_about_dubious_plot_in_New_York.shtml">
Skepticism about dubious plot in New York</a> (FCN, 06-01-2009)<br><br>
</i>
<dd>
<a href="http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/Cointelpro_2009_FBI_up_to_old_dirty_tricks.shtml">
Cointelpro 2009: FBI up to old dirty tricks?</a> (FCN, 04-18-2009)
<br><br>
</i>
<dd>
<a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010821094226/www.subliminal.org/archive/deefiles/shabazz/qs-sanction.html">
The FBI-Manufactured Plot to Kill Farrakhan</a> (03-1995)<br><br>
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