[Ppnews] Activists, family demand justice in death of imam slain by FBI

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6564.shtml

Activists, family demand justice in death of imam slain by FBI
By Ashahed M. Muhammad -Assistant Editor-
Updated Nov 10, 2009 - 8:53:27 AM

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.

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.

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.

“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!”

Some in the crowd began to shed tears listening to his heartfelt words.

“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!”

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.
The groups said the community has come under 
siege from federal and local law enforcement officials.

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.

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.

As the speakers addressed the crowd during rush 
hour, people drove by, honked their horns in 
support, and waved at those gathered.

Sandra Hines, an activist with the Michigan 
Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice and 
the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, spoke at the demonstration.

“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.

“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.

“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.”

Neo-COINTELPRO underway

In an exclusive interview with The Final Call 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.

<http://www.noi.org/cointelpro/>COINTELPRO was a 
covert operation employed by federal and local 
law enforcement to disrupt and destroy Black and 
progressive organizations during the civil rights and Black Power movements.

Mr. Scott said Black men labeled as “radicals” 
mixed with Islam are an “obvious target” and 
another primary issue is funding for law enforcement.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.”

Questions about government investigation of imam's shooting

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

The narrative delivered by the FBI is widely disputed.

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.

Official autopsy results have not yet been 
released, which adds to the uncertainty, and 
necessitates an independent investigation, said activists.

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 everyone should speak out against 
injustice, otherwise they might be the next victims.

“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.'”

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.”

When asked by The Final Call why it appeared as 
if the preliminary information about the shooting 
was so sensationalistic and inaccurate, he 
attributed the problem to “lazy reporting.”

“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.

“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.

“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.

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.”

<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6535.shtml>Racial, 
religious profiling root of terror cases? (FCN, 10-26-2009)

<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_6395.shtml>The 
strange saga of an alleged FBI-paid instigator (FCN, 09-11-2009)

<http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/Skepticism_about_dubious_plot_in_New_York.shtml>Skepticism 
about dubious plot in New York (FCN, 06-01-2009)

<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? (FCN, 04-18-2009)

<http://web.archive.org/web/20010821094226/www.subliminal.org/archive/deefiles/shabazz/qs-sanction.html>The 
FBI-Manufactured Plot to Kill Farrakhan (03-1995)

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