[wvns] 5 Men Arraigned In FBI Sting

Men Arrested During Series Of Raids in Dearborn, Detroit

5 Men Arraigned In FBI Sting
Thursday, November 12, 2009
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/21597743/detail.html

DETROIT -- Five men who were arrested in connection with conspiracy to sell stolen goods and being followers of a radical Imam who was killed during FBI raids were formally charged in federal court Thursday.

Muhammad Abdul Salaam, Mujahid Carswell, Abdullah Beard, Adam Hussain Ibraheem and Garry Laverne Porter all either stood mute or entered not guilty pleas on federal charges ranging from illegal possession and sale of firearms, arson, theft from interstate shipments and tampering with vehicle identification numbers.

•Image Gallery: FBI Conducts Raids
•Download: Mich. Terror Legal Complaint #1
•Download: Mich. Terror Legal Complaint #2

The men, except for Carswell, were arrested during a series of FBI Raids on Oct. 29. Several other men, who did not appear in court Thursday were also arrested.

After a two-year investigation, the FBI raided three locations in Detroit and in Dearborn and arrested several people suspected to have ties to a group called the Ummah, which translates to "the brotherhood."

During the raid in Dearborn, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, aka Christopher Thomas, was killed in crossfire with the FBI.

Ummah's primary mission is to establish a separate sovereign Islamic state governed by Sunni law, according to FBI charging documents. Abdullah called his followers to an offensive jihad, rather than a defensive jihad, according to the FBI.

FBI charging documents also said the group was financing its version of Islam by fencing stolen goods and that their leader, was interested in killing federal agents and making a bomb.

Carswell is Abdullah's son. He was arrested a few days after the raids in Canada. He was the only man who was already out on bond.
The rest of the men will remain in police custody until they apply for bond.

Local 4 has learned Porter, 59, is a convicted felon and a current teacher at A.L. Holmes Elementary School in Detroit.

Deeper Look At Ummah

The group consists primarily of African-Americans who converted to Islam while serving sentences in various prisons around the county.

•Watch: Ummah: Who Are They?

The nationwide leader is believed to be Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rapp Brown. He is currently serving a life sentence in prison for [being falsely accused of] the murder of two police officers in Georgia.

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 FBI built its case over two years with the help of confidential sources close to Abdullah who recorded conversations and participated in undercover operations involving the sale of furs, laptop computers, televisions, energy drinks and power tools.

Abdullah received at least 20 percent of any profit and claimed the "Prophet Muhammad said that it is okay to participate in theft; as long as that person prays, they are in a good state," stated an affidavit. [?]

The FBI complaint described Abdullah as an extremist who believed the FBI bombed New York's World Trade Center in 1993 and the Oklahoma City federal building two years later.

The group preaches violence against law enforcement officials and has trained members of the Ummah inside of a mosque located on Joy Road on how to use firearms, martial arts, sword fighting and other types of self-defense in anticipation of government violence, according to the FBI.

Undercover agents in the organization have told the FBI that Abdullah used to discipline its members starting at an early age by beating them with sticks on their hands, knees and legs, and that once he beat a boy so badly that the child was unable to walk for several days.

Abdullah was spiritual leader at the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit until the group was evicted for not paying taxes. When the group left that location, a search turned up empty shell casings, and large holes in the concrete walls, which were used as shooting ranges.

The group moved to a location on Clairmount Street in Detroit and put up a sign in front of the building Wednesday evening notifying the members to meet in another location.

In October 2008, a source the FBI called "credible" recorded statements by Abdullah at a mosque during prayer where he said that Muslims need to cut ties with Christians, Jews, and Kuffars, which the FBI said means all non-Muslims.

"Obama is a Kafir. McCain is a Kafir, all the rest of them Kuffars, are Kuffars…. The worst Muslim is better than the best Kafir," said FBI documents.

Dawud Walld, executive director of the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the FBI paints a very different picture of the Abdullah that he knew.

"He was known by thousands of Muslims in Metro Detroit. He was very well-respected amongst his piers and other Imams," said Walld.
Walld said Abdullah used to open the mosque to homeless people and he would hold regular soup kitchens.

"They're altering his legacy and someone needs to speak out about it and the good things he has done," said the defendant's brother Juhadel Jihad. "They killed a great man. He shouldn't be labeled anything than that. He was a God fearing man who prayed five times a day and gave to charity."

===

Funeral For Slain Imam Draws Hundreds
Son Of Ummah Leader Arrested In Canada
Friday, October 30, 2009
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/21478963/detail.html

DETROIT -- Hundreds of people offered hushed prayers Saturday at the funeral for a slain Detroit mosque leader while authorities across the border in Canada made the final two arrests in a criminal case that is stirring some anger in the Muslim community.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah was remembered as a caring man who followed the tenets of his Islam faith as an imam, or prayer leader, of a small mosque north of downtown. Fellow imams said he was generous and a good brother, and no one mentioned the FBI's claim that he had a violent, anti-government ideology.

The FBI says Abdullah, 53, was fatally shot inside a suburban warehouse Wednesday after firing at agents and resisting arrest. Agents wanted him on charges of weapons violations and conspiracy to sell stolen goods, one of 11 people named in a criminal complaint.

•Watch: Fed Raids Target 11 Charged With Crimes

"We ask Allah to reward him with the promised reward of those who are martyred," Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid of New York told mourners at the Muslim Center in Detroit.

As is custom, men sat on the floor, shoulder to shoulder, during the service, with women watching and listening in the rear of the large room. Prayers were given in Arabic and English during the 30-minute service.

Some speakers demanded an independent investigation of Abdullah's death, saying the fatal shooting seemed excessive.

Imam Abdullah El-Amin asked people to decline to speak to reporters and avoid news cameras outside.

No terrorism charges have been filed against Abdullah, formerly known as Christopher Thomas, or the 10 others accused in the complaint. According to the FBI, Abdullah was a leader of a national radical Sunni group that wants to create an Islamic state within the U.S. Most members are black.

That Islamic state, investigators said, would be ruled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for killing two Georgia police officers.

Abdullah's mosque has dismissed as "utterly preposterous" the allegations that he was part of a radical group.

Meanwhile, the last of the 11 defendants were arrested Saturday in Windsor, Ontario, where they live across the border from Detroit. Authorities said Mohammad Philistine, 33, and Yassir Ali Khan, 30, were taken into custody without incident.

Both are charged with conspiring to sell stolen goods. They will not immediately be transported to Detroit and it was not known if they had lawyers.

Abdullah told an informant that Philistine is a "soldier and a warrior" and they would do anything for each other, according to the FBI complaint.

One of Abdullah's sons, Mujahid Carswell, 30, was arrested Thursday in Windsor. A U.S. magistrate set bond Friday at $100,000, but had problems getting an electronic tether and was still in custody Saturday, said a sister, Bernita Regan. Carswell's attorney has said the charges against him are allusions based on guilt by association.

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