Iman shooting follow up

[7624U]

By ED WHITE, Associated Press Writer Ed White, Associated Press Writer – 23 mins ago


DETROIT – A man described as a leader of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S. was fatally shot Wednesday afternoon while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire with federal agents, authorities said.

Agents at a warehouse in Dearborn were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms. Ten followers listed in a criminal complaint were also being rounded up in the area.

Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said.

In a court filing, the FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the United States.

No one was charged with terrorism. But Abdullah was "advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States," FBI agent Gary Leone said in an affidavit.

"He regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric," Leone said. "Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use of firearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting."

Leone said members of the national group mostly are black and some converted to Islam while in prisons across the United States.

"Abdullah preaches that every Muslim should have a weapon, and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed," Leone wrote.

It was not immediately clear how many of the other 10 suspects were in custody.

The group believes that a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two police officers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said. Al-Amin, a veteran of the black power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam in prison.

"They're not taking their cues from overseas," said Jimmy Jones, a professor of world religions at Manhattanville College and a longtime Muslim prison chaplain. "This group is very much American born and bred."

The movement at one time was believed to include a couple of dozen mosques around the country. Ummah is now dwarfed in numbers and influence by other African-American Muslim groups, particularly the mainstream Sunnis who were led by Imam W.D. Mohammed, who recently died.

By evening, authorities still were working the scene near the Detroit-Dearborn border and the warehouse was surrounded by police tape.

The U.S. attorney's office said an FBI dog was also killed during the shootout.

Abdullah's mosque is in a brick duplex on a quiet, residential street in Detroit. A sign on the door in English and Arabic reads, in part, "There is no God but Allah."

Several men congregated on the porch Wednesday night and subsequently attacked a photographer from The Detroit News who was taking pictures from across the street. Ricardo Thomas had his camera equipment smashed and had a bloody lip from the attack.

Imad Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, said the FBI had briefed him about Wednesday's raids and told him they were the result of a two-year investigation.

"We know that this is not something to be projected as something against Muslims," Hamad said.

___

Associated Press writers David Runk, Corey Williams, David N. Goodman and Rachel Zoll contributed to this story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091028/...raids_michigan

[The Reaper]

Good thing the domestic terrorism focus is on those disgruntled vets and angry white guys.

TR

[SF-TX]

Yahoo didn't post the entire report from the AP. Here is the part that was omitted:

...The complaint shows the FBI built its case with the help of confidential sources close to Abdullah who recorded conversations.

A source said that Abdullah regularly beat children inside the mosque with sticks, including a boy who was "unable to walk for several days," Leone said.

The source, according to the agent, regularly listened to a recording of a 2004 sermon in which Abdullah said, "Do not carry a pistol if you're going to give it up to police. You give them a bullet!"

In January 2009, members were evicted from a former mosque for failing to pay property taxes. An FBI search turned up empty shell casings and large holes in the concrete wall of a "shooting range," Leone said.

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the federal authorities' description of Abdullah's extremist links didn't match what he knew of Abdullah.

"I knew him to be charitable," Walid said. "He would open up the mosque to homeless people. He used to run a soup kitchen and feed indigent people. ... I knew nothing of him that was related to any nefarious or criminal behavior." [Of course not.]

Abdullah had a wife and children, Walid said. A phone number for the family had been disconnected.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[SF-TX]

October 28, 2009
http://detnews.com/article/20091028/METRO/910280436

Detroit mosque leader killed in FBI raids

PAUL EGAN
The Detroit News

Detroit -- The leader of a black separatist Detroit mosque was shot and killed Wednesday during a series of FBI raids that resulted in charges against 12.

At least six of those charged -- who face conspiracy, weapons, and stolen goods charges but not terrorism charges -- were in federal custody late Wednesday afternoon.

The case involves the Joint Terrorism Task Force and prosecutors from the national security unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit names Luqman Ameen Abdullah, imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, as "a highly placed leader of a nationwide radical fundamentalist Sunni group." He was killed in a gun battle during one of the raids, according to a joint statement by federal officials.

Abdullah, 53, also known as Christopher Thomas, was the local leader of a black Muslim group that calls itself "Ummah," or the brotherhood, and wants to establish a separate state within the United States governed by Sharia law, Interim U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg and Andrew Arena, FBI special agent in charge in Detroit, said in a joint statement.

The Ummah is headed nationally by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a state sentence for the murder of two police officers in Georgia.

A 45-page complaint alleged that Luqman Ameen Abdullah "calls his followers to an offensive jihad," "regularly preaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric" and preaches that every Muslim should "have a weapon and should not be scared to use their weapon when needed."

The complaint further alleged that an armed group known as the "Sutra team" protected the mosque. In January, when members were evicted from a building on Joy Road for non-payment of property taxes, Detroit police confiscated two firearms, about 40 knives and martial arts weapons from Abdullah's apartment, the complaint alleged.

The mosque then relocated to Clairmount in Detroit, the complaint says.

Abdullah was to be arrested on a complaint that included charges of conspiracy to commit federal crimes, sale or receipt of stolen goods, providing firearms to a convicted felon, being a felon in possession of body armor, and altering or removing vehicle identification numbers.

According to the complaint, Abdullah told an informant that if the FBI came to get him: "I'll just strap a bomb on and blow up everybody." On another occasion, he said: "We've got to take out the U.S. government," the complaint alleges.

The others charged are:

# Mohammad Abdul Salaam, also known as Gregory Stone, 45, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and sale or receipt of stolen goods.

# Abdullah Beard, also known as Detric Lamont Driver, 37, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Abdul Saboor, also known as Dwayne Edward Davis, 37, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Mujahid Carswell, also known as Mujahid Abdullah, 30, of Detroit and Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Adam Ibraheem, 38, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Gary Laverne Porter, 59, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

# Ali Abdul Raqib, 57, of Detroit with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Mohammad Alsahi, also known as Mohammad Palestine, 33, of Ontario, Canada, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Yassir Ali Khan, 30, of Ontario, Canada, and Warren, with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

# Mohammad Abdul Bassir, also known as Franklin D. Roosevelt Williams, 50, of Ojibway Correctional Facility with conspiracy to commit federal crimes, sale or receipt of stolen goods, mail fraud, supplying firearms to felons, possession of weapons by a felon, and altering or removing motor vehicle identification numbers.

One more man, A.C. Pusha, was charged in a separate complaint late Wednesday and charged with conspiracy to commit federal crimes.

Salaam, Saboor, Porter, Beard, Ibraheem, Raqib, and Pusha all appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit late Wednesday afternoon and were held pending detention hearings Thursday. Others charged are still at large.

The operation involved locations in Detroit and Dearborn.

Yellow police tape was put up outside a trucking and warehouse firm on Miller Road just north of Michigan Avenue, and a Dearborn police car was parked outside.

Another site involved in the raids was on Tireman near Interstate 96 on the city's west side. A third site raided by the FBI was on Genesee in Detroit.

pegan@detnews.com">pegan@detnews.com (313) 222-2069 David Josar, Charlie LeDuff, Oralandar Brand-Williams and George Hunter contributed.

[dennisw]

The U.S. attorney's office said an FBI dog was also killed during the shootout.

RIP canine hero. If there's any justice in the afterlife, you'll be spending your days eating good dog chow and biting the shit out of this POS who was blown away.

[Five-O]

Originally Posted by dennisw

RIP canine hero. If there's any justice in the afterlife, you'll be spending your days eating good dog chow and biting the shit out of this POS who was blown away.

I missed that little factoid. Sad. Well Prislamm is alive and well and one of the single most dangerous internal threats. Fortunately 99% of those guys are complete idiots. I'll give it to the leader "christoper thomas"...most of those leaders go down without a fight like the cowards they are.

[Five-O]

...also...shooting HRT's dog is ill advised...you will have the rest of your very short life to regret it..