Publication - Foundation for Defense of Democracies

Transcription

November 20, 2009
ISSUE 2:
The Shooting of Luqman Abdullah
the luqman
abdullah shooting
and the darul
islam movement
“Police, so what? Police die too! Feds die too!...Do not carry a
pistol if you’re going to give it up to police. You give them a bullet.”
— Luqman Abdullah, the late imam of Masjid Al-Haqq1
The Shooting of Luqman Abdullah
Page 1
Jamil Al-Amin
The Former H. Rap Brown
Page 6
The Darul Islam Movement in the
United States
Page 10
An October 2009 shootout at a warehouse in Dearborn, Michigan,
claimed the life Luqman Abdullah, the imam of Detroit’s Masjid al-Haqq,
and in the process garnered national attention. Abdullah had been a Detroit
representative to al-Ummah, which the Muslim Alliance in North America
(MANA) describes as “an association of mosques in several cities in the U.S.
that coordinates religious and social services primarily in the Black American
community.”2 In contrast, a criminal complaint filed by an FBI special agent
describes al-Ummah as “a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group
consisting primarily of African-Americans.”3
Cause Célèbre Islam: Racism,
Revolution, Black Nationalism
Page 14
The Center for Terrorism Research
(CTR) is a project of the Foundation
for Defense of Democracies. CTR
studies terrorist movements and
the ideologies that drive them, and
seeks to identify how major trends in
these areas will affect terrorism and
counter-terrorism activities
in the West.
Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit (center), surrounded by empty lots; served as
the home base for Detroit’s branch of al-Ummah
The shootout occurred during an FBI raid designed to disrupt a variety
of illegal activities being carried out by Abdullah and at least ten of his
associates—activities that were uncovered by an undercover investigation
stretching back for about three years, and a series of transactions pursuant
to a Group I Undercover Operation.4 According to local news reports, the
1
www.defenddemocracy.org/ctr
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the luqman abdullah shooting
shooting came after FBI agents and police from the
Joint Terrorism Task Force “surrounded a warehouse
and trucking firm on Miller Road near Michigan
Avenue where Abdullah
and four of his followers
were hiding.”5
day-to-day operations for some time: he is currently
serving a life sentence at the Supermax prison in
Florence, Colorado, following his 2002 conviction for
shooting two police officers
in Georgia.
In May 2009 in
Abdullah did not
Alabama, Luqman Abdullah
surrender when ordered
claimed
while
under
to; instead, he opened fire.
surveillance that al-Amin
He was shot to death, as
had created al-Ummah
was an FBI K-9, a threeout of fear of government
year-old Belgian Malinois
interference. Two years
named Freddy. Although
before Abdullah became
Imam
Luqman
Abdullah
press reports do not detail
part of the movement,
how the dog was shot, it is common practice for the
several Darul members were killed in a shooting in
FBI to introduce a K-9 to “locate and detain” a suspect
New York. “Jamil Al-Amin said they had to divide
who refuses to surrender. The four men with Abdullah
the group because having too many people in one
did lay down their arms and allow themselves to be
organization made them an easy target,” the criminal
arrested, although the DOJ’s press release leaves
complaint against Abdullah recounts. “According to
some ambiguity as to whether they did so before or
Abdullah, the group is still Dar-Ul, but this is not widely
after Abdullah was killed.6
known because of the United States government. The
Ummah is a cover name for Dar-Ul.”8
The FBI has arrested ten of Abdullah’s
associates, most of whom were members of his
Multiple sources estimate that al-Ummah
mosque and the al-Ummah movement. Three of
under al-Amin had “approximately thirty branches
them—Yassir Ali Khan, Mohammad Philistine, and
in America and the Caribbean.”9 Muslim journalist
Abdullah’s son Mujahid Carswell—were arrested in
Steven Barboza stated that al-Amin’s “followers are
Windsor, Ontario following the raids.7 Windsor is
said to number around 10,000 Muslims.”10
located directly across from Detroit, over the U.S.Canada border.
Detroit’s Masjid Al-Haqq, which had been
located at 4118 Joy Road, was an al-Ummah mosque.
The arrested men face charges that include
It was not only used for prayer services but also
conspiracy to receive and sell goods that the
for weapons and combat training. Abdullah also
defendants believed were stolen from interstate
lived on the premises with his family. In January
shipments, conspiracy to commit mail fraud through
2009, Abdullah and his followers were evicted from
an insurance scam involving arson, providing
the mosque for nonpayment of property taxes.
firearms to a known convicted felon, and tampering
Authorities recovered firearms, knives and martial
with motor vehicle identification numbers to further
arts weapons from Abdullah’s apartment in the
the theft of a vehicle.
mosque, and observed “empty shell casings on the
basement floor, and large holes in the concrete wall
of the ‘shooting range.’”11 Although the mosque was
The Al-Ummah Movement
located in an urban environment, it was surrounded
by empty lots on all sides, and was thus relatively
Al-Ummah—which is either a splinter from,
secluded.
or a cover for, the Darul Islam movement (see this
issue’s article on the history of Darul Islam)—had
been led by Jamil al-Amin, who was formerly known
as 1960s firebrand H. Rap Brown. Though al-Amin
is reportedly still considered al-Ummah’s leader by
the group’s members, he has not been involved in
In addition to describing al-Ummah as a
nationwide fundamentalist group, the criminal
complaint filed against Abdullah asserts that it has
the goal of establishing “a separate, sovereign Islamic
2
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state…within the borders of the United States,
governed by Shariah law. The Ummah is to be ruled
over by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin.”12 MANA, which had
Luqman Abdullah on its majlis ash-shura, claims
that this depiction of al-Ummah “is an offensive mischaracterization.”13
their practice of idol worship. Abdullah said that just
as “the government plots and plans against them so
they need to plot and plan in return and ‘do whatever
it takes.’”18
What would replace the U.S. government?
Abdullah was rather unclear on this point, although
he clearly endorsed the idea of revolution. In this
way, he was similar to his associate Jamil al-Amin.
Before al-Amin’s conversion to Islam, when he was
still known as H. Rap Brown, he spoke often of the
U.S.’s inherently evil nature. Though Brown said that
“America’s very existence offends me,” and suggested
that he endorsed a Communist-style revolution,
he never discussed in any detail the new order he
wanted to impose.19
It is difficult, from available open-source
information, to make a definitive judgment about alUmmah’s religious ideology. However, the three-year
criminal investigation of Luqman Abdullah and his
associates yielded a great deal of information about
Abdullah’s ideas.
Luqman Abdullah’s Teachings
Luqman Abdullah seemed to blend
Islamist ideology with black nationalist grievances,
supplemented by a healthy dose of criminality that
was afforded a thin veneer of religious justification.
One thing the agents and officers
charged with arresting Abdullah must
have had in mind was his promise that if
law enforcement came after him, there
would be a reckoning.
Abdullah saw the world as sharply divided
in a struggle between good and evil. He understood
those concepts not in racial terms, but rather saw
Islam as good and the forces of disbelief as the evil
that must be opposed. To him the entire system of
the United States was of the kuffar (infidels; singular,
kafir). “The U.S. government,” he said, “is nothing
but Kuffars.”14 In October 2008, when the black
community was abuzz with excitement over Barack
Obama’s impending victory (as was the U.S. Muslim
community writ large), Abdullah emphasized that an
Obama presidency would change nothing: “Obama
is a Kafir. McCain, all the rest of them Kuffar, are
Kuffars. You can’t make them a good Kafir, bad Kafir….
The premise of Allah, and Islam said, ‘the worst of
[unintelligible], the worst Muslim is better than the
best Kafir.”15
Abdullah at one point suggested that perhaps
small Islamic states could separate from the U.S., “like
the Amish and the Mormons in Utah.”20 Of course,
neither the Amish nor the Mormons are actually
separate from the United States. Abdullah echoed
this theme of separatism in August 2008, stating
that “just as states and cities are separate entities
under the U.S. Government, the members of Masjid
Al Haqq are also a separate entity independent of the
government under their own set of laws.”21 At other
times Abdullah suggested that rather than separating,
the Muslims should seize power. An FBI confidential
source stated that in a May 2009 sermon, Abdullah
said his followers “should make America like Saudi
Arabia, where the Muslims took control by fighting
and dying.”22
In the face of this corrupt, kafir system,
Abdullah insisted that violence was necessary. “[W]e
should be trying to figure out how to fight the Kuffar,”
he said. “You see, we need to figure out how to be a
bullet.”16 He has also emphasized that “you cannot
have a non-violent revolution.”17 In part, he taught
that violence was needed because the system was
conspiring against attempts to establish Islam. He
compared Washington to the Quraish, a Meccan tribe
that had viciously opposed the Prophet Muhammad
because his strict monotheism posed a challenge to
Abdullah expressed his approval for
transnational jihadi movements. He told his
followers in February 2009 that “they need to be
with the Taliban, Hizballah, and with Sheikh bin
Laden.”23 This was based on his binary view of the
world: that Muslims are the party of God, while all
else is the party of the devil. He likewise gave one FBI
source a CD that the source described as “pro-Taliban
propaganda.”24
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A special place was reserved for law
who were between ages 9 and 11, and “told them
enforcement in Abdullah’s teachings. He encouraged
stories about his shooting people with a 9mm gun.”32
his followers to always be armed, even though many
Surveillance also revealed that he had handguns
were convicted felons, to
on him, even though this
prepare for a confrontation with
was illegal because he was a
law enforcement. In April 2008
convicted felon.
he described law enforcement
as “being the devil and evil.”25
In addition to possessing
He also suggested to an FBI
and training with firearms,
source that they should stalk
Abdullah also expressed an
and kill FBI “super Agents.”26
interest in creating TNT-based
And in January 2009, Abdullah
explosive material, which
told the same source that if they
he believed one of the FBI
wanted a bullet proof vest, they
informants could make for
should shoot a police officer
him. Abdullah later expressed
in the head and take it. He
an interest in C4 or another
Masjid Al-Haqq
proceeded to jump around the
type of explosive that could
room making shooting motions with his hands, while
help him do “what he needed to do.”33
shouting “shoot cops in the head” and “pop, pop.”27
Abdullah helped arrange for a new VIN for a
truck that he believed to be stolen. He even justified
this on religious grounds, arguing it was a form of jihad
“because the kuffar would harm them if they were to
get caught.”34 Likewise, Abdullah provided religious
sanction for an arson orchestrated by Ummah
member Mohammad Abdul Bassir: in order to collect
insurance money, Bassir hired his neighbor’s nephew
to burn down his house while he was working as a DJ
at a cabaret (and thus had an alibi).35
One thing the agents and officers charged
with arresting Abdullah must have had in mind was
his promise that if law enforcement came after him,
there would be a reckoning. At one point he said that
if law enforcement tried to arrest him, it would be
worse than Waco—“a straight up war.”28 He also said:
“These pigs don’t even know, their department will
have a bad day when they deal with me.”29
Criminal Activities
Based on this pattern of criminal activity,
as well as several mosque members’ expressions
of willingness to fence stolen merchandise, the FBI
obtained the necessary approval to conduct a Group
I Undercover Operation. The operation was designed
to give members of Masjid Al-Haqq the opportunity
to fence merchandise that they believed to be stolen.
At first Abdullah gave religious sanction to these acts,
insisting repeatedly that he should be given one fifth
of the proceeds because “they need to keep Allah first,”
and by giving 20% to Abdullah “the ‘dirty’ money is
purified.”36 Later, he became more directly involved
in the process. Overall, the undercover operation
featured ten transactions, with the merchandise
that Masjid Al-Haqq members were involved in
fencing including stolen furs, laptop computers, LCD
television sets, and loads of cigarettes.
Though there are several disturbing aspects
to Abdullah’s teachings and ideology, this was not
a terrorism case. Rather, the criminal complaint
describes a pattern of criminal activity culminating
in a major undercover operation.
Some of this criminality involved crimes of
violence by Abdullah and his followers. One FBI source
testified that he saw Muhammad Abdul Salaam, who
is believed to be Masjid Al-Haqq’s First Emir, murder
a person whom he thought had killed his brother.30
Abdullah loved to boast about murdering people. In
May 2009 he visited another al-Ummah mosque in
Montgomery, Alabama, and prior to a study session
that he was to lead he told the attendees about his
experiences shooting other people. Abdullah, quite
animated, illustrated how their bodies reacted when
shot.31 At another al-Ummah mosque in Gainesville,
Georgia, Abdullah sat with the imam’s children,
4
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Controversy
Subject Fatally Shot During Arrest,” Oct. 28, 2009.
7. Canwest News Service, Nov. 2, 2009.
8. Leone, Criminal Complaint, ¶ 67.
Following Abdullah’s death, some American
Muslim organizations jumped into the fray. MANA,
for example, issued a press release:
9. Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience
(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2nd ed. 2003), p. 233.
10. Steven Barboza, American Jihad: Islam After Malcolm X (New
York: Doubleday, 1994), p. 48.
To those who have worked with Imam Luqman
A. Abdullah, allegations of illegal activity,
resisting arrest, and “offensive jihad against
the American government” are shocking and
inconsistent. In his ministry he consistently
advocated for the downtrodden and always
spoke about the importance of connecting
with the needs of the poor…. We urge the
Muslim community and all Americans
committed to justice to actively monitor both
the investigation and trial of the accused.37
12. Ibid., ¶ 5.
13. MANA, “The FBI Raid and Shooting Death of Imam Luqman.”
Abdullah is listed as a member of MANA’s majlis ash-shura on its
web site. See http://www.mana-net.org/subpage.php?ID=about
(accessed Nov. 16, 2009).
15. Ibid., ¶ 18.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid. See also ibid. ¶ 24, in which Abdullah states: “We are
going to have to fight against the Kafir.”
18. Ibid., ¶¶ 20, 37.
The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights
and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major U.S.based Islamic organizations, has also called for an
independent investigation into the shooting that
“makes[s] public the exact circumstances in which
he died.”38 The AMT is an umbrella organization
that includes such groups as the American Muslim
Alliance (AMA), American Muslims for Palestine
(AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and
MAS-Freedom.
19. H. Rap Brown, Die Nigger Die! (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books,
1969), p. 135. For examples of Brown’s endorsement of the
need for revolutionary action, without a specific revolutionary
program, see pp. 128-29. Another intellectual thread that the
Brown in his black nationalist days and Abdullah had in common
is the idea that necessary change could only be obtained through
“long, protracted, bloody, brutal and violent wars with our
oppressors.” Ibid., p. 128.
21. Ibid., ¶ 41.
22. Ibid., ¶ 61. Abdullah also stated in this sermon “that they hate
the Jews and that God hates the Jews.” Ibid.
23. Ibid., ¶ 48.
1. Quoted in Gary Leone, Criminal Complaint, United States v.
24. Ibid., ¶ 53.
Abdullah, No. 2:09-MJ-30436 (E.D. Mich., Oct. 27, 2009), ¶ 11.
25. Ibid., ¶ 29.
2. Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA), “The FBI Raid and
26. Ibid., ¶ 25.
Shooting Death of Imam Luqman,” Oct. 29, 2009.
27. Ibid., ¶ 47.
28. Ibid., ¶ 38.
4. Unlike a Group II Undercover Operation, which can be
29. Ibid., ¶ 45.
approved by the Special Agent in Charge in the relevant FBI field
30. Ibid., ¶ 92.
office along with the local U.S. Attorney, a Group I Undercover
31. Ibid., ¶ 66.
Operation requires “painstaking planning, substantial amounts
32. Ibid., ¶ 70.
of documentation, lots of coordination, and minute review
33. Ibid., ¶ 65.
by a panel of senior FBI Headquarters and Department of
34. Ibid., ¶ 33.
Justice officials.” Joseph W. Koletar, The FBI Career Guide: Inside
35. Ibid., ¶¶ 85-88.
Information on Getting Chosen for and Succeeding in One of the
36. Ibid., ¶ 149.
Toughest, Most Prestigious Jobs in the World (New York: AMACOM,
37. MANA, “The FBI Raid and Shooting Death of Imam Luqman.”
2006), p. 77.
38. American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections,
5. Paul Egan, “Detroit Mosque Leader Killed in FBI Raids,” Detroit
Press Release, “Coalition Calls for Probe into FBI Shooting Death
News, Oct. 28, 2009.
of Imam,” Oct. 30, 2009.
6. See U.S. Department of Justice, Press Release, “11 Members/
Associates of Ummah Charged with Federal Violations; One
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jamil al-amin
the former h. rap brown
on the name Rap because of his “ability to talk,” and
even claimed that rap music was named after him.3
We could not, however, find any credible sources
to corroborate this claim. Prior to his conversion
to Islam, al-Amin did rap (“signifyin”),4 often in a
boisterous and sexually explicit tone:
I’m sweet peeter jeeter the womb beater
The baby maker the cradle shaker
The deerslayer the buckbinder the women finder…
I’m the bed tucker the cock plucker the motherfucker
The milkshaker the record breaker the population maker
The gun-slinger the baby bringer
The hum-dinger the pussy ringer
The man with the terrible middle finger.5
In 1967, at age 23, H. Rap Brown became the
chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC). He was preceded in this position
by Stokely Carmichael. Rep. John Lewis (D.-Ga.),
who had once chaired SNCC, recalled: “Some people
thought that Stokely was too moderate. But after they
asked Rap, Stokely told me: ‘This is a bad cat. They’re
going to wish they had me back.’”6
The criminal complaint against Luqman
Abdullah and his associates states that when alUmmah succeeds in establishing a “separate,
sovereign Islamic state,” they intend for it to be led
by Jamil al-Amin, who is currently serving a life
sentence after being convicted of shooting two police
officers.1 Further underscoring al-Amin’s importance
to the movement, an al-Ummah mosque, Atlanta’s
Community Masjid, still lists him as its leader despite
his incarceration.2 This article explores al-Amin’s
background, and how the framework for al-Ummah’s
ideology was built.
Brown, a towering figure at 6-foot-5 and
a naturally gifted athlete, did indeed generate
enormous controversy. He had a notable ability to
package revolutionary slogans in a pithy, memorable
way; his most famous such statement held that
“violence … is as American as cherry pie.”
Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown, made
the transition from black nationalist firebrand to
nationally prominent Sunni imam. In the 1960s, he
issued scathing indictments of America and called
for violent revolution. After his conversion to Islam,
al-Amin adopted a more measured tone in his
societal criticism, but remained attached to the idea
of revolution. Though he focused on a more inwardlooking revolution, one that would transform his
community morally, al-Amin continued to believe
that the system writ large was sick and broken.
Some analysts have questioned how far al-Amin
truly progressed from the violent ideals that he once
openly proclaimed.
In July 1967, Brown delivered a fiery speech in
Cambridge, Maryland, saying: “This town is ready to
explode … if you don’t have guns, don’t be here … you
have to be ready to die.”7 After a school and two city
blocks burned the next morning, he was charged with
incitement to riot. A supporter of Brown’s described
the legal maneuvering that followed as “Kafkaesque,”
writing: “It seemed like every few months he would be
hauled into court in a new jurisdiction on a different
charge and held under an oppressively large bond….
Rap would eventually come out and in a matter of
days be reported somewhere else making even more
‘incendiary’ utterances and be back in custody, there
to begin the dismal cycle all over again.”8
H. Rap Brown
Jamil al-Amin was born Hubert Gerold Brown
in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on Oct. 4, 1943, and was
known during the late 1960s as H. Rap Brown. (He did
not adopt the moniker of al-Amin until his jailhouse
conversion to Islam in 1971). He has said that he took
Brown’s militant orientation, though, was never
in question. He was critical to SNCC’s decision to
renounce non-violence and remove the word “NonViolent” from its name, and its ill-fated attempt to
6
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merge with the Black Panther Party.9 Brown was
named the Panthers’ Minister of Justice; and though
he was only a Panther for five months or so, “it
remains the tie for which he is best known.”10 In 1969
Brown published his political memoir, Die Nigger Die!
Brown continues: “This country is the world’s slop
jar. America’s very existence offends me…. The animal
that is america [sic] must be destroyed.”13
Despite these commonalities, Brown does
not come across well in his own book. For one thing,
there is his anti-intellectualism, something he did
not abandon as an imam. Explaining his refusal to
study Shakespeare, for example, he rattles off several
bawdy verses from games of dozens (a competition
that is part of the African-American oral tradition
wherein two competitors go head-to-head in often
coarse trash talk): “I fucked your mama / For a solid
hour. / Baby came out / Screaming, Black Power.”
After three such verses, he triumphantly concludes:
“And the teacher expected me to sit up in class and
study poetry after I could run down shit like that. If
anybody needed to study poetry, she needed to study
mine.”14
Malcolm X was a towering figure within the
black nationalist movement whose autobiography
is regarded as a literary classic. A comparison of
his book with Brown’s is interesting both for the
commonalities they share, and the differences. One
commonality that Brown’s book has with Malcolm
X’s, in light of Brown’s later conversion to Islam, is its
critique of Christianity as a tool of racial subjugation.
In the book’s first chapter, Brown writes:
White nationalism divides history into two
parts, B.C. and A.D.—before the white man’s
religion and after it. And “progress,” of course,
is considered to have taken place only after
the white man’s religion came into being. The
implication is evident: God is on the white
man’s side, for white Jesus was the “son” of
God.11
A more serious flaw is that Brown leaves his
experiences with racism nebulous. This is different
from Malcolm X’s book, the first sentence of which
describes his mother being intimidated by hooded Ku
Klux Klan riders while pregnant with Malcolm,15 and
which provides enough richness of experience that
the reader can empathize with how he was driven
to extreme conclusions. In contrast, some of Brown’s
examples of discrimination seem petty and contrived.
He writes that he “began to see where ‘the man’ was
at” while employed as a neighborhood worker with
“the poverty program.” The program apparently
sought to financially incentivize good performance;
but to Brown, this exposed the sinister stratagems of
“the man.” He wrote: “It was the whole trick of the
stick and the carrot in front of the mule. If you do
a better job than this other dude, then you get this
carrot.”16
Brown at a SNCC news conference, 1967
Despite the dubious nature of many of
Brown’s complaints, the reality of racism—pervasive,
often deadly racism—was undeniable during this
period. Just as undeniable is the fact that Brown was
personally stung by it. Yet his attitude in Die Nigger
Die! seems to be that this justifies virtually anything
on his part: Brown writes of his open insubordination
toward every employer he had before SNCC,
assuming the reader will side with him because they
were his employers, rather than showing any kind of
injustice or racism on their part. He feels justified in
Brown also sarcastically refers to how whites
try to “[c]ivilize the savage through Christianity,” and
states that one of the problems a black child has is that
“the big white world … forces a white God and a white
Jesus on him and has him worshipping somebody
that doesn’t even look like him.”12 Also like Malcolm X,
Brown believes that the U.S. is flawed to its very core,
beyond redemption. He writes that it “represents
everything that humans have suffered from,” and the
fact of its existence “appals [sic] most of mankind.”
7
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threatening whites physically, or lying about them to
their managers; and he endorses the idea of collective
racial guilt, stating that after some whites attacked a
black man in Fort Deposit, Alabama, “I thought that
we should at least jack up 10 or 12 crackers.”17 Even
theft is justified under this worldview as an act of
“liberat[ing] food.”18
first year in Atlanta al-Amin “opened a one-room store
across from West End Park, and in that neighborhood
of danger and drugs became an imam.”24 Indeed, he
helped clean up the neighborhood where he made
his new home, something that both Muslim and
non-Muslim residents deeply appreciated. As West
End resident Barbara Jordan told the Atlanta Journal
Constitution five years later, al-Amin’s followers “laid
the law down” when they confronted drug dealers
and other undesirable elements that were then
ubiquitous in the neighborhood.25
Conversion to Islam
In March 1970, Brown skipped his trial date
for the Cambridge riot and disappeared for about 17
months. During his time on the run, the FBI placed
him on its Most Wanted List. He was apprehended
in 1972 after robbing the Red Carpet Lounge, a bar
in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Time reports that
Brown and his three accomplices “ordered about
25 customers to lie on the floor, assaulted some of
them, took their wallets and laid down a barrage of
fire as they left.”19 After leaving the bar, the robbers
were chased by six carloads of police. The ensuing
“running gun battle” left two policemen injured, and
resulted in Brown being wounded by two shots to the
abdomen and ultimately captured.20 Though Brown’s
standing declined after this because he “seemed
to have crossed the line between militant political
defiance and flat-out criminality,”21 some of his
supporters have attempted to justify the episode by
arguing that the bar was targeted for its exploitation
of the local community.
Community Masjid in Atlanta, at which al-Amin was the imam
Al-Amin became the leader of Darul Islam/
al-Ummah, and multiple sources estimate that
“approximately thirty branches in America and
the Caribbean” fell under his leadership.26 Muslim
journalist Steven Barboza stated in 1994 that alAmin’s “followers are said to number around 10,000
Muslims.”27 Al-Amin also cultivated relationships
with a variety of nationally prominent Muslim
organizations. He was elected Vice President of the
American Muslim Council in 1990, and became a
member of the Bosnia Task Force, USA in 1992. He was
later elected chairman of the Islamic Shura Council,
an umbrella group that also included the secretary
generals of the Islamic Society North America (ISNA)
and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA).
Brown converted to Islam in 1971 while in
prison, and adopted the new name Jamil al-Amin.
He later explained that he found Islam through the
Darul Islam movement: “I was in prison in New York.
The Dar-ul-Islam movement had a prison program
and brothers would come in to conduct juma and
for dawah purposes.”22 Ihsan Bagby, who currently
is an associate professor of Islamic Studies at the
University of Kentucky, told the Associated Press in
2000 that “the Dar-ul Islam movement appealed to
Al-Amin and many other black militants because it
blended the rhetoric of black power with a call for
strict devotion to Islam.”23
The most comprehensive expression of alAmin’s Islamic thought is his 1994 book Revolution
by the Book. The first five chapters are themed
around the five pillars of Islam—tawheed, prayer,
zakat, fasting, and hajj. They make clear that al-Amin
is theologically situated within the Sunni tradition,
and is not part of one of the quasi-Islamic movements
that is more black nationalist than it is Muslim (such
Islamic Activism and Ideology
After leaving prison, al-Amin went on hajj to
Mecca, then moved to Atlanta. In a 1995 profile of him,
the Atlanta Journal Constitution explained that in his
8
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as the Nation of Islam).
You may be totally “out-of-pocket” in terms
of what you see or perceive after you drink
chemicals.34
Al-Amin makes clear that he continues to
embrace revolutionary struggle, that his
conversion to Islam was “a continuation
of a lifestyle” rather than a 180-degree
transformation. “See,” he explains, “most
people don’t have a true picture of what
Islam is. Islam is not nonviolent. There is a
right to self-defense, and there is [a] right
to defend your faith. Allah says that fighting
is prescribed for you.”28 He argues that
success in revolutionary struggle “requires
a spiritual consciousness,”29 and that the
problem with social movements in the
1990s was that they had been reduced to
sloganeering:
To al-Amin, the U.S. Constitution is a
part of the problem by reinforcing secular
culture, being “diametrically opposed to
what Allah has commanded upon us.” Its
concept of freedom is “unique,” blinding us
to “our relationship with our Creator” and
thus blinding us “to true freedom.”35
Past revolutionary movements in
the United States failed because their
understanding was limited. Al-Amin is
particularly critical of the movements of
the 1960s, of which he was a part. Though
1960s era social movements “rebelled against the
unnatural way human beings were being treated,” the
revolution “was defused because it was not based on
a Divine program. In many ways, it was itself artificial,
based on man-made solutions and personal agendas,
devoid of truth and sincerity.”36
It is criminal that, in the 1990’s, we still
approach struggle on the basis of sloganeering,
saying, “by any means necessary,” as if that’s a
program. Or, “we shall overcome,” as if that’s a
program. Slogans are not programs.30
Al-Amin sees Islam a methodology for
revolution, and the Prophet Muhammad’s life as “a
clear blueprint for changing a society, for bringing
about revolutionary change even under the most
difficult conditions.”37 Much of what he advocates is
inner struggle designed to remove ignorance, to help
Muslims curb their appetite. “The Qur’an,” he writes,
“is either an argument for you or against you. Islam is
a cutting force; it is a vanguard movement that sets a
standard for people.”38
What did al-Amin want to overthrow? Though
his tone was far more measured, he continued to see
the entire system as overrun by sickness. The cause
of the malady seemed to be secularism, “the distance
from the Word of God that keeps an individual in
darkness.”31 This is manifested in a polluted and
degraded natural environment, and citizens who
pollute and degrade themselves. This occurs even in
the diet, wherein preservatives and the hormones
we give to animals disrupt the digestive process.
Moreover, al-Amin claims that when males eat these
hormones, “the male begins to take on feminine
characteristics. He takes on an affinity for feminine
things. He wants to pierce his ears, he wants to get
manicures.”32
Conclusion
Throughout the 1990s, al-Amin was seen by
many who knew him as having changed from violent
to non-violent revolutionary, from focusing on the
outward struggle to the inward one. As Nation of
Islam spokesman Wendell Muhammad told the local
press: “He did a 180-degree turn on that. He was the
epitome of the peace of Islam.”39 However, there were
clues that this was not the entire picture of Jamil alAmin. Some of these clues came from his followers. In
the criminal complaint filed in the Luqman Abdullah
case, for example, Mohammad Abdul Bassir told an
FBI source that “he learned from Jamil Al-Amin that
one does not have to appear angry in order to let
“If a person takes LSD, he might hallucinate,”
al-Amin writes.33 But noting the artificiality of Tang,
al-Amin likens the breakfast drink to LSD:
I often think of Tang, the breakfast drink that
they have out there for you to buy. Tang does
not have even one natural ingredient in it. Not
even one. It is a totally chemical drink that is
flavored with a chemical orange flavor, that is
sweetened by processed sugar. And when you
consume it, there has to be some effect on you.
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somebody know that you would kill them.”40
20. Ibid.
21. Thelwell, “Foreword,” p. xxiv.
The biggest clue, of course, is his 2002
conviction for shooting two police officers in Georgia,
one of whom died. Following the shooting, al-Amin
was again on the run, again placed on the FBI’s Most
Wanted List, and eventually arrested in White Hall,
Alabama. He is now serving a life sentence at the
Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.
22. Barboza, American Jihad, p. 49
His supporters maintain his innocence to this
day, and there are web sites dedicated to freeing Jamil
al-Amin. He will continue to be regarded as a leader
within al-Ummah, and his imprisonment one of the
perceived injustices around which its members rally.
Experience (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2nd ed.
23. Justin Bachman, “Who is Al-Amin?,” Associated Press, May 12,
2000.
24. David Kindred, “Imam Jamil Al-Amin Has No Regrets,” Atlanta
Journal Constitution, Aug. 16, 1995.
25. John Blake, “Mosque a Stabilizing Influence,” Atlanta Journal
Constitution, Mar. 17, 2000.
26. E.g., Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American
2003), p. 233.
27. Steven Barboza, American Jihad: Islam After Malcolm X (New
York: Doubleday, 1994), p. 48.
28. Jamil al-Amin, Revolution by the Book: The Rap is Live
(Beltsville, MD: Writers’ Inc., 1994), p. xvi.
29. Ibid., p. 6.
30. Ibid., p. 119.
31. Ibid., p. 103.
1. Gary Leone, Criminal Complaint, United States v. Abdullah, No.
32.. Ibid., p. 47.
2:09-MJ-30436 (E.D. Mich., Oct. 27, 2009), ¶ 5.
33. Ibid., p. 56.
2. This statement can be found at http://communitymasjid.org/
34. Ibid.
home.html (accessed Nov. 18, 2009).
35. Ibid., p. 126.
3. Quoted in Steven Barboza, American Jihad: Islam After Malcolm
36. Ibid., p. 153.
X (New York: Image/Doubleday, 1994), p. 49.
37. Ibid., p. 10.
4. “Signifyin occurs when one makes an indirect statement about
38. Ibid., p. 144.
a situation or another person; the meaning is often allusive and,
39. Blake, “Mosque a Stabilizing Influence.”
in some cases, indeterminate.” Cheryl L. Keyes, Rap Music and
40. Leone, Criminal Complaint, United States v. Abdullah, ¶ 85.
Street Consciousness (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press,
2002), p. 24. “[S]torytelling, ritualized games” like signifyin and the
dozens “provided a foundation for rap.” Ibid.
5. H. Rap Brown, Die Nigger Die! (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books,
The Darul Islam Movement
in the United States
1969), p. 27.
6. Richard Lezin Jones, “Conflicting Images of a Former Panther,”
Philadelphia Inquirer, Mar. 22, 2000.
7. Quoted in Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, “Foreword,” in Die
The 1960s were a time of great social upheaval
in the U.S. Within the African-American Muslim
population,
young
organizations
trumpeted
separation from mainstream American culture. Of
these groups, Darul Islam “was the largest indigenous
Muslim group until W. Deen Mohammed transformed
the Nation into a more inclusive Sunni Islam.”1 This
article explores the evolution of Darul Islam.
Nigger Die! (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2002), p. xx.
8. Ibid., p. xxi.
9. R. Robin McDonald, “Spiritual Ministry Replaces Rhetoric from
Earlier Era,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, Aug. 9, 1995.
10. Jones, “Conflicting Images of a Former Panther.”
11. Brown, Die Nigger Die!, p. 4.
12. Ibid., pp. 14, 47.
13. Ibid., p. 135.
14. Ibid., p. 26.
15. Malcolm X with Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The Islamic Mission to America and Darul Islam’s
Founding
(New York: Ballantine Books, 1964), p. 1.
16. Brown, Die Nigger Die!, p. 75.
17. Ibid., p. 93.
Darul Islam’s founding members came from the
Islamic Mission of America, which was founded in
1924 by Sheikh Daoud Ahmed Faisal and based out
18. Ibid.
19. “Cherry Pie,” Time, Oct. 25, 1971.
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of the State Street Mosque in Brooklyn, New York.
His thinking, which derived “as much from Franz
Fanon’s anticolonialism as the literature of Islamic
revivalism,” held that African-Americans “needed to
totally transform themselves—their language, dress,
customs, and even their daily interactions—in a
ritual of purification that would cement them to the
real foundations of the worldwide Islamic revival that
was occurring across the Atlantic.”2
is an Arabic term meaning “abode of Islam.”
Darul Islam’s Religious Methodology
Darul Islam is ideologically influenced by “the
teachings and writings” of Pakistani thinker Abu
Ala al-Mawdudi.7 One of its founding themes was
the experience of racism, with Islam viewed as “the
liberating force.”8 Gutbi Mahdi Ahmed notes that “[l]
ike many black movements of the sixties Darul Islam
was a militant movement, with occasional outbreaks
of violence.”9
However, Faisal did not advocate for complete
withdrawal from American society, nor disloyalty to
it. Unlike some organizations that taught AfricanAmericans that they were originally Muslim (such
as the Moorish Science Temple), the Islamic Mission
did not instruct followers to resist the military draft,
but “permitted its male followers to join.”3 In this
way, “Faisal thought that blacks should reclaim their
Islamic heritage and also lay claim to an American
allegiance.”4 Though the Islamic Mission originally
brought together Muslim immigrants and Americanborn converts in one congregation, over time “the
fraternal atmosphere” at the State Street Mosque
“degenerated into two thinly disguised factions, the
new Americans (Arab Muslim immigrants) and the
new Muslims (African-American converts).”5
Darul Islam emphasized a literal translation of
the Qur’an, strict adherence to the Sunnah of Prophet
Muhammad, and “the avoidance of assimilating
non-Islamic influences”—all of which “translates
into a sustained suspicion, if not hostility, toward
American social, political, religious and educational
institutions.”10
Membership in Darul Islam was not granted
to everyone, but was instead “awarded on the basis
of demonstrated ability to learn the information
contained in the Fundamentals of Islam, a study book
developed by Shaykh Dauod for the training of new
members.”11 Once granted access, new members
swore an oath of bayat to the group. This pledge
stated:
In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful;
Allah is the greatest; Bearing witness that
there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad
(peace be on him) is His Messenger, and being
a follower of the last Prophet and Messenger
of Allah, I hereby pledge myself to the
Shariah and to those who are joined by this
pledge. I pledge myself, by pledging my love,
energy, wealth, life and abilities. I also pledge
myself to the Majlis (Imamate), whose duty
is to establish, develop, defend and govern
according to the precepts of the Shariah.12
State Street Mosque in Brooklyn, site of the founding of Darul Islam
With this degeneration in social relations,
Rijab Mahmud and Yahya Abdul Karim led a group
of African-American converts away from the State
Street Mosque, and founded a new mosque in nearby
Brownsville, Brooklyn in 1962. This breakaway
group’s members relied on the religious counsel of
a Pakistani religious instructor, Hafis Mahbub, who
was affiliated with the Tablighi Jamaat. The new
group “set out to build an urban community governed
under the sharia,” calling it Darul Islam.6 Darul Islam
Immigrants were excluded from membership in
Darul Islam for several years “in order to exclusively
convert African Americans to mainstream Islam.”13
Darul Islam members were expected to widen
their understanding of Islam through religious
11
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courses that included Arabic, and the study of the
Qur’an and ahadith.14 Conservative rules of gender
relations were enforced on the congregation, with
men and women sitting separately during Friday
prayers, women wearing full hijab, and male and
female alike adhering to “moral dress,” wherein “men
wear long baggy pants and shirts, women wear long,
loose clothing with a veil.”15
they reached out to Abdul Karim, the first spark that
eventually led to Darul Islam’s Prison Committee and
its prison dawah activities.
With Darul Islam’s assistance, the Green Haven
prisoners created their own mosque, calling it Masjid
Sankore. Sheik Ismail Abdul Rahman, who acted as
Darul Islam’s emissary to Green Haven, noted: “When
you walked in there [Masjid Sankore], it was another
world. You didn’t feel like you were in Green Haven in
a maximum security prison. Officers [prison guards]
never came in. It was like going to any other masjid
on the outside; you felt at home.”24 The conditions of
worship were transformed there, and over time the
changes at Green Haven spread to other correctional
facilities; it became the model for Darul Islam’s prison
work moving forward.
The organizational structure of Darul Islam
movement was hierarchical, with leadership
“selected on the traditional criterion of being ‘most
knowledgeable’ of the Qur’an and the hadith.”16 At
the top of the organization, the majlis ash-shurah
(governing body) would make decisions affecting the
community as a whole.17 Under the majlis ash-shurah,
Darul Islam was organized into several ministries,
each with distinct responsibilities, including
propagation (dawah), defense, information, culture,
education, health and welfare, and protocol.18
The ministry of defense had its own paramilitary
wing called the Ra’d, meaning “thunder” in Arabic.
Members of the Ra’d performed a variety of activities,
including acting as personal bodyguards, providing
building security and community protection, and
“administering punishments to those who broke the
laws of the community.”19
Imam Yahya Abdul Karim led the overall
movement; individual communities had their own
imams responsible for day-to-day operations. By the
1970s, the movement had “formed a federation of
mosques around the country.”20 There were around
twenty Darul Islam mosques in the New York area
alone,21 with affiliates in Canada and the Caribbean.
Sign inside Masjid Al-Haqq
In 1975, the New York State Department of
Corrections “offered to hire Muslim chaplains as
direct employees of its Ministerial Services Division.”25
Abdul Karim balked at the offer out of concern that
direct payment from the corrections department
would compromise the autonomy of Darul Islam’s
Prison Committee. The movement pulled back on its
prison dawah for a short time, only resuming it in
1978.
Prison Outreach
This issue’s article “Jamil al-Amin” describes
how al-Amin converted to Islam under the tutelage
of Darul Islam. Indeed, the movement’s prison
education program was particularly active in New
York state prisons.
Darul Islam Splinters
In 1978, Pakistani sheikh Syed Gilani began
preaching at the Islamic Center in New Jersey.26 His
charisma led to a growing following that included
Abdul Karim and other Darul Islam leaders. Al-Amin
Abdul Latif, president of the Islamic Leadership
Council of New York City and a former high-ranking
Darul Islam member, said in 1993: “The brothers
In the 1960s, Sunni Muslims “began to worship
openly in New York state correctional facilities.”22
Of particular importance to Darul Islam, Muslims in
the Green Haven prison were not “recognized by the
administration as a legitimate religious community
deserving an area designated as a mosque.”23 Thus,
12
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fell in love with [Gilani]. Yahya and the leadership
accepted him. When he [Abdul Karim] did that, we
had problems with that. For many of us, loyalties
were very strong. That caused a split in the Dar.”27 In
1980, Abdul Karim abdicated his leadership of Darul
Islam to follow Gilani, and the movement fractured.
8. Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1999), p. 98.
9. Gutbi Mahdi Ahmed, “Muslim Organizations in the United
States,” The Muslims of America (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1991), p. 20.
10. Ibid.
11. McCloud, African American Islam, p. 70.
Sheik Gilani named his group Jamaat al-Fuqra,
meaning “community of the impoverished.” Al-Fuqra
is an incredibly controversial organization today;
members have attacked ethnic Indians and Indian
sects, and the group has also been linked to an attack
against a Muslim leader in Tucson, Arizona. Al-Fuqra
has bought and developed a number of properties in
rural regions of the U.S., maintaining its headquarters
in Hancock, New York. Al-Fuqra members are said to
receive weapons and other military-style training on
these properties. One analyst has warned that the
group, now known as the Muslims of the Americas,
is “capable of committing violence toward any
proponent of a belief set that does not match their
own.”28
12. Quoted in R.M. Mukhtar Curtis, “Urban Muslims: The
However, several mosques that were a part
of the Darul Islam federation stayed loyal to the
movement’s ideology and organizational structure,
including the Universal Islamic Brotherhood in
Cleveland, the Ta’if Tul Islam ministry in Los Angeles,
and the West End Community in Atlanta.29 Jamil alAmin ended up leading this group, which took on the
moniker of the National Ummah, or al-Ummah.
23. Ibid.
Formation of the Dar ul-Islam Movement,” in Muslim Communities
in North America (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, Yvonne Yazbeck
Haddad & Jane I. Smith eds., 1994).
13. Richard Brent Turner, Islam in the African-American Experience
(Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2nd ed. 2003) p. xx.
14. Smith, Islam in America, p. 98.
15. McCloud, African American Islam, p. 71.
16. Ibid., p. 70.
17. Aminah Beverly McCloud, African American Islam, (New York,
New York: Routledge, 1995) p. 70.
18. Curtis, “Urban Muslims,” p. 61.
19. Ibid.
20. “African-American Islam Reformed.”
21. Ahmed, “Muslim Organizations in the United States,” p. 20.
22. Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam, p. 170.
24. Quoted in ibid., p. 171.
25. Ibid., p. 172.
26. Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam, (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002) p. 74.
27. George E. Jordan & M.P. McQueen, “Pakistani Sheik Swayed NY
Sect,” Newsday, June 29, 1993.
28. Zachary Crowley, “Jamaat al-Fuqra Dossier,” Center for
Policing Terrorism, Manhattan Institute, Mar. 16, 2005, p.9.
Darul Islam has had a lasting impact on AfricanAmerican Islamic organizations in the U.S. Moreover,
its offshoots—like al-Fuqra and al-Ummah—are of
continuing relevance today.
1. “African-American Islam Reformed: ‘Black Muslims’ and the
Universal Ummah,” The Pluralism Project, Harvard University
2. Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam (Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 2002), p. 63.
3. Aminah Beverly McCloud, African American Islam, (New York:
Routledge, 1995) p. 22.
4. Ibid.
6. Ibid., p. 67.
7. Sherman Jackson, Islam and the Blackamerican (Oxford, UK:
Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 49.
13
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EVENT TIMELINE
The shooting of Luqman Abdullah, the imam
of Detroit’s Masjid al-Haqq and a representative to
al-Ummah, provided a glimpse into a movement
that blends conservative Sunni Islamic practice
with the legacy of black nationalism. Abdullah’s
rhetoric weaves references to the Qur’an and ahadith
together with the language of militant jihadism and
assertions of injustice perpetrated against AfricanAmerican Muslims by the U.S. government in the
form of harassment, targeted raids, arrests, and
“assassinations.” Other preachers similarly fuse these
themes, resulting in a distinctive understanding of the
faith that can be described as “cause célèbre Islam.”
1913 First Moorish Science Temple founded in Newark, N.J.
1924 Islamic Mission of America founded by Sheikh Daoud Ahmed Faisal
1930 W.D. Fard, founder of the Lost-Found Nation of Islam, arrives in Detroit and begins his ministry
1962 Darul Islam Movement formed by a group of African-
American converts to Islam
Feb. 21, 1965 Malcolm X assassinated in New York
1967 H. Rap Brown becomes chairman of SNCC
1971
Brown converts to Islam while in prison, adopts nameamil
1975 Sheikh Gilani begins preaching at the Islamic Center in
For Abdullah and his followers, this doctrine
provided justification for criminal behavior. In other
cases, cause célèbre Islam prepares adherents for
an inevitable violent revolution against the U.S.
government: this revolutionary vision is at least
as indebted to the ideas of men like Huey Newton,
Bobby Seale, Eldridge Cleaver, and Malcolm X as it is
to more typical advocates of Islamic revolution like
Sayyid Qutb. Those who share this view tend to be
suspicious of outsiders, and outside influences.
New Jersey
1980 Darul Islam fractures, Sheik Gilani forms Jamaat al-Fuqra
1994 (approx.) As-Sabiqun formed
2002 Jamil al-Amin convicted of shooting two police officers in Georgia, sentenced to life in prison
Oct. 28, 2009
Luqman Abdullah shot and killed in FBI raid in Dearborn, Mich.
Cause Célèbre Islam:
Racism, Revolution, Black
Nationalism
Cause Célèbre: An Indigenous American Islamic
Movement
1
“We can’t just be saying, ‘O.K., everything is
run by the U.S. government,’ we got to take out
the U.S. government. The U.S. government is
nothing but Kuffars.”
—Luqman Abdullah, imam of Masjid al-Haqq
and Detroit representative to al-Ummah2
“So the goal of the government is to destroy
this group [al-Ummah] and to send the
message to other African Americans that the
federal government will not allow any unified,
organized Islamic activities to be carried out
inside of the United States of America. But
we have a message for them. We will not be
intimidated by the government of the United
States of America.”
The “cause célèbre Islam” movement arose
from a combination of uniquely American conditions
and experiences. Because many of the movement’s
leaders were children of the civil rights era and were
active in the black nationalist movement, or had
significant exposure to members of that movement,
the leaders’ rhetoric fuses black nationalist themes
with conservative or militant Islamic ideas.
—Abdul Alim Musa, imam of Masjid alIslam and founder of al-Sabiqun3
14
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Antecedents of this movement include quasiIslamic sects that catered to African-Americans by
trying to frankly address the reality of racism in
America, such as the Moorish Science Temple and the
Lost-Found Nation of Islam. However, unlike these
groups, there is nothing within the cause célèbre
Islamic movement—such as the Nation of Islam’s
belief in W.D. Fard’s divinity and the prophethood of
Elijah Muhammad—that clearly places it outside the
mainstream of Islamic theology.
against what we used to call the “white man”
is dead. Isn’t that right?5
This article now turns to the revolutionary
threads and criminal threads within cause célèbre
Islamic ideology.
Revolutionary Threads
Revolution and potential confrontation with
the U.S. government are overarching themes within
the movement’s thinking. They featured prominently
in Luqman Abdullah’s rhetoric, for example. “[W]e
should be trying to figure out how to fight the Kuffar,”
he said. “You see, we need to figure out how to be
a bullet.”6 Further, he said, “you cannot have a nonviolent revolution.”7
This issue’s article “Jamil al-Amin” profiles a
significant leader within the cause célèbre Islam
movement, a man who continues to serve as an
ideological inspiration and who has himself become
one of its causes célèbre following his conviction
and life sentence for shooting two police officers in
Atlanta. Al-Amin’s supporters claim he was framed
because the U.S. government feared his power and
influence.
There are various gradations of how revolution
is seen within the movement. At their most extreme,
the revolutionary ideas are pegged to the notion of
establishing an Islamic state within the U.S., or more
ambitiously seizing the instruments of government
and imposing Islamic rule throughout the nation.
At other times, the idea of revolution within the
movement’s rhetoric is more secularized, with “the
oppressed” (and not just Muslims) rising up against
the institutions that hold them back. And in their
mildest form, the movement’s revolutionary ideas
are inward-looking, with fighting against ignorance
and addiction seen as transformative in themselves.8
Abdul Alim Musa is an associate of Jamil al-Amin,
and the leader of the Washington, D.C.-based group AsSabiqun, which subscribes to the same cause célèbre
brand of Islam as al-Ummah. Speaking of al-Amin’s
trial, he commented: “You know a different America
than I do. I know America coming from Arkansas of
lynchings, of burning, and of torture. I don’t know an
America of a fair trial. I don’t know America of a Bill
of Rights. I have never seen that America. Imam Jamil
came out of a generation coming up out of Louisiana.”4
He has further explained his deep admiration for alAmin, describing him as a living legend:
The revolutionary theme fosters an “us versus
them” mentality, putting the U.S. government in
the role of the community’s oppressor. This can
isolate members of the movement from outsiders,
and also cultivate a lack of respect and trust for the
government’s authority. Members of the movement
will see law enforcement action that has an impact
on those within their community as calculated, part
of a grand strategy to keep the movement weak. One
example of this conspiratorial view is an article in
New Trend Magazine, an online Islamist publication,
which remarked that “Muslims of America, especially
African Americans, are leaderless. The government
knows this and wants to keep Imam Jamil in prison
on a bogus case which should have been thrown out
long ago.”9
You know who Imam Jamil al Amin is? I’m
gonna tell you who he is. You see all these
movies, a last man standing, right? A guy who
goes through houses being blown up. Ran
over by a train. Legs ripped off, sawed in half,
buried alive. Isn’t that right? And he’d come
out the last man standing. Imam Jamil al Amin,
they tried to blow him up in 1967. They tried
to assassinate him on several occasions. Isn’t
that right? They ran him into exile in the late
60’s and the early 70’s. But he came on back.
The last man standing. Martin Luther King
is dead. Malcolm X is dead. Medgar Evers is
dead. Isn’t that right? [Huey] Newton is dead.
Eldridge Cleaver is dead. Everyone you read
about in a black history book that struggled
15
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Criminal Threads
around. As Abdul Alim Musa has declared: “[W]hat the
government is doing by assassinating Imam Luqman
is it’s trying to intimidate the Muslim community,
especially the black community. And I say
that because the immigrant community,
which is about half of the Muslims in the
United States, and the African American
Muslim community, which form the other
half, have different views about Islam in
America and how it should be fostered.”12
Though Luqman Abdullah and
his associates were heavily involved in
criminal activity, this is certainly not the
case for all adherents of this brand of
Islam. Indeed, many antecedents of the
cause célèbre Islamic movement, such as
the Nation of Islam, prided themselves in
giving followers with a criminal past the
self-discipline necessary to avoid lapsing
back into criminality.
As-Sabiqun
As-Sabiqun logo
Many within this movement
Certainly, one cannot draw complete
have served time in prison, but in part this may be
analytical conclusions about a movement’s theology,
due to the fact that Darul Islam and similar groups
doctrine, and strategy based on what is disclosed in
have systematized prison dawah programs. Often
court documents: criminal complaints and other such
Islam provides an attractive alternative to the
documents are used to support a criminal prosecution,
violent and degrading prison environment. “Acting
and are not meant to provide a comprehensive history
through the principle of freedom of worship, Islam
or account of the subject’s activities. Therefore, in
meets these challenges and shows a remarkable
assessing the movement’s priorities it is helpful to
capacity to redefine the conditions of incarceration,”
look beyond Abdullah, and toward an active group
writes Robert Dannin. “A new Muslim repeats the
that is part of the cause célèbre Islamic movement.
attestation of faith, the shahada, before witnesses
at the mosque. His Islamic identity then means a
As-Sabiqun, which is another offshoot of Darul
fresh start, symbolized by the choice of a new name,
Islam, is one such group. Group leader Abdul Alim
modifications to his physical appearance, and an
Musa was a close associate of Jamil al-Amin, and is
emphasis on prayer.”10
very active in the campaign to free him from prison.
In his public statements, Musa often warns of a war
But not all converts to Islam leave behind
on African-American Muslim converts by the FBI at
their criminal past. Among other reasons, some of
the behest of a “Zionist-controlled U.S. government.”
them may not be able to shake old worldviews and
He uses every incident involving law enforcement
habits after adopting their new faith. Others may not
actions against African-American converts as an
even try to shake old them at all, and may in fact use
opportunity to bolster his claim. He also speaks of the
their new Islamic framework to justify criminality.
need for dramatic change to the government:
Luqman Abdullah, who served two prison terms
(one for carrying a concealed weapon, the other for
[I]t is the responsibility of God-serving people
assaulting a police officer), continued to justify theft
to champion the right of self-determination—
and crimes of violence after his conversion to Islam.
to alter that government, and to institute
After his conversion, he used religious justifications
a new form of administration that is in
to argue that such activities were legitimate; when
conformity with the eternal principles and
he helped arrange for a new VIN for a truck that he
values of God’s Law; a government which
believed to be stolen, he described it as an act of
is both human-friendly and earth-friendly.
jihad.11 He encouraged members of Masjid al-Haqq
Prudent and just means must be employed
to carry firearms, which many did even though their
to accomplish the establishment of such
criminal records made it illegal.
a government. The timeless prescribed
methods to address tyranny are threefold: the
The shooting of Abdullah now gives the
usage of the hand (physical or military might),
movement the opportunity to establish his status as
the tongue (to raise our voices in defense of
a martyr, and to create another cause célèbre to rally
Truth and justice), or the heart (to detest it
16
ctr vantage
internally and implore for God’s assistance).13
addition, Musa travels extensively to lecture, often
speaking to Muslim youth groups and Muslim student
associations at U.S. universities.
One of Musa’s favorite themes is the use
of “snitches and FBI informants” as a tool of the
government to eliminate the movement’s leaders.
In June 2007, he delivered a lecture at his mosque
entitled “How to Punk the FBI,” which included such
pointers as: “How to bring the sissy out of your local
FBI agent. Counter-harassment techniques (Did your
mamma buy that shirt?) Laugh your fears away by
laughing in your oppressor’s face.” And in July 2009,
Musa hosted another seminar to discuss the position
of the African-American Muslim community toward
the FBI entitled “RE-PUNK THE F.B.I.: Practitioners of
Tyranny & Oppression.”
As-Sabiqun’s web site is a first place to look to
understand the group ideologically:
Carrying on the torch lit by El-Hajj Malik Shabazz
(Malcolm X) and past homegrown Islamic movements
such as the Darul Islam movement and the Islamic
Party of North America, As-Sabiqun aspires to:
• make Islam a living force by challenging
and breaking the grasp of social and
political forces seeking to suppress and
destroy the Deen.
• obliterate the hold of jahiliyyah through
moral and spiritual development.
The justification for holding the meeting was
described in a release issued by As-Sabiqun in June
2009. It read, in part: “The history of the Zionistoccupied United States government has been one
of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in
direct object the establishment of an oppressive and
tyrannical world order. Prudence demands that we,
the oppressed, list some of our outstanding grievances
in this regard.” The release asserts that “actions, on
the part of the Zionist-occupied U.S. government, has
created an atmosphere of pervasive fear, that exists
both nationally (via the FBI, Homeland Security,
Immigration, and others) and internationally (via the
CIA and its partners in crime throughout the globe).”
The announcement then asked supporters to join
them at their masjid “for an afternoon of courage
and clarity, where Imam Musa will, insha’Allah, give
a detailed discussion on two very critical and timely
topics: the Re-Africanization of the Islamic movement
in North America & the De-Israelization of the global
Islamic movement.”14
• establish Islamic homes and build model
communities where Islam is lived.
• work toward total economic independence.
• stand up against those who oppress
Muslims and all other human beings
across the globe as well as the earth and
Allah’s creation itself.16
As-Sabiqun members are encouraged to
familiarize themselves with the writings of thinkers
like Abu Ala al-Mawdudi, Hasan al-Banna, Sayyid
Qutb, Malcolm X, and Ayatollah Khomeini. This list
is telling in itself: though a number of conservative
and militant Sunni Muslims were heartened by Iran’s
1978-79 Islamic revolution, they largely turned
against Khomeini in the 1980s due to their problems
“My enemy is the United
States….We are living under a
dictatorship in the U.S.”
Many followers of As-Sabiqun are ex-convicts
who converted to Islam while in prison, as did
Musa, who spent several years in the United States
Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas after being
convicted of charges that included drug trafficking.
As-Sabiqun engages in dawah efforts directed at
prison inmates, and offers them a community where
they can go after their release. According to Musa’s
biography on his personal MySpace page, “His
‘street’ background helps explain part of his appeal
to inner-city youths and ex-convicts, with whom
he can identify through personal experience.”15 In
with Shia theology. Not so for Musa, for whom being a
revolutionary seems to be a top concern.
As-Sabiqun’s stated goal is to establish the
“Islamic State of North America” no later than 2050.17
However, Musa has given somewhat contradictory
guidance about this aspiration. On the one hand, he
tells his followers to invite people to Islam peacefully;
on the other, he glorifies suicide bombers as heroes.
17
ctr vantage
Ameen Abdullah to Intimidate the Black American Muslim
In a June 2008 speech delivered to a group in
Dearborn, Michigan, honoring Ayatollah Khomeini,
Musa said, “My enemy is the United States…. We are
living under a dictatorship in the U.S.” Though he
preceded these comments by telling his audience
to “invite people to Islam instead of shooting,” he
went on to say that “we are being harassed to a
point.”18 Perhaps, then, Musa is suggesting that
violence is now justifiable, given the extremes to
which the Muslim community in the U.S. has been
“pushed.”
Community,” Press TV (Iran), Nov. 2, 2009.
4. Abdul Alim Musa, speech at Jamil al-Amin Fundraiser, University
of California at Irvine, Sept. 9, 2001, accessed from the Investigative
Project on Terrorism web site, Nov. 20, 2009.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid. See also ibid. ¶ 24, in which Abdullah states: “We are going
to have to fight against the Kafir.”
8. Examples of this framework can be found in Jamil al-Amin,
Revolution by the Book: The Rap is Live (Beltsville, MD: Writers’ Inc.,
1994).
9. Kaukab Siddique, “Dr. Siddique Interviews Sister Karima al-
Conclusion
Amin,” New Trend Magazine, Sept. 9, 2009.
10. Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam (Oxford, UK: Oxford
The shooting of Luqman Abdullah does not
eliminate potentially violent groups that fuse
Islamism with black nationalist grievances. This
movement, which we dubbed “cause célèbre
Islam,” is broader than Abdullah, with a traceable
ideological foundation based on the heritage and
experience of African-Americans. It is certainly
a movement that will remain on the radar of
those who are concerned about the possibility of
homegrown terrorism.
University Press, 2002), p. 175.
12. “FBI Assassinated Luqman Ameen Abdullah to Intimidate the
Black American Muslim Community,” Press TV.
13. “RE-PUNK THE F.B.I. “Practitioners of Tyranny & Oppression,”
posted to Abdul Alim Musa’s Facebook page on June 24, 2009
14. Ibid..
15. This page can be accessed at http://www.myspace.com/
imammusa2 (last visited Nov. 20, 2009).
16. As-Sabiqun’s web site can be accessed at www.sabiqun.net (last
1. Portions of this article were originally published in
visited Nov. 20, 2009).
Counterterrorism Blog, “The Threat Here—2008: As Sabiqun,”
17. This statement can be found at http://www.sabiqun.net/join.
by Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland, July 28, 2008.
html (last visited Nov. 20, 2009).
2. Gary Leone, Criminal Complaint, United States v. Abdullah,
18. Video of this speech can be seen at http://www.shiatv.net/
No. 2:09-MJ-30436 (E.D. Mich., Oct. 27, 2009).
view_video.php?viewkey=7dbc9960ae158598a6a9 (accessed Nov.
3. “Washington’s Imam Musa: FBI Assassinated Luqman
20, 2009).
ctr vantage
Written and Edited by
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross
&
Madeleine Gruen
Thank you for taking the time to read the CTR Vantage. If you would
like to subscribe or unsubscribe to our regular analytical report on
terrorism in the West, please email CTRVantage@defenddemocracy.org.
We welcome your feedback on this issue and your ideas for themes to
cover in upcoming issues. Please send your comments and suggestions
to CTR@defenddemocracy.org
“The Darul Islam Movement in the United
States”
written by Laura Grossman
Center for
Terrorism Research
Josh Bronfman and Sara Westfall
contributed research and writing
foundation for defense of democracies
Layout and Design by
Noah Chestnut
&
Sara Westfall
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