After a meeting Thursday evening, the board declared in the resolution it “will continue to strive for the objective scrutiny and resolution to the fatal shooting of Cleric Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, not presuming guilt or innocence.”
Latest Updates: Luqman Ameen Abdullah RSS
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abunoor
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abunoor
The Department of Justice confirms it has launched an investigation into the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah, but says it is “routine” and connected with the receipt of the FBI’s own internal investigation, the contents of which are not public, and not the result of any pressure from Rep. John Conyers or the public.
Also, the Imam’s wife, who is from Tanzania, claims that the government is seeking to deport her from the United States.
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abunoor
According to Rep. John Conyers, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S.Justice Department has opened an investigation into the FBI killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah.
Detroit — The civil rights division of the U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation of the Oct. 28 FBI shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, U.S. Rep. John Conyers said at a news conference today.
Joined this morning by a coalition of civil rights groups who, along with Conyers, has been calling for an investigation, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said he received confirmation of the investigation from Washington late Monday and again today.
A call to the civil rights division of the Justice Department was not immediately returned this morning. -
johnpi
Protest over death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah.
A protest is planned for this morning outside the Dearborn Police Department during a news conference to release the autopsy report of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the Muslim leader who died in a shoot-out with FBI agents.
The protest started an hour ago at 10:15 am, but I think it’s important to know that there has been this kind of response to Abdullah’s death.
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abunoor
The autopsy done on Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was released today. You can read it in full here. (pdf)
Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, at whose request the autopsy had been withheld until today (it was complete in November) held a press conference today at which he apparently said nothing except that the investigation will be continuing for a number of weeks. Rep. John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee has already previously written to the Justice Department requesting an independent federal investigation of the killing.
The autopsy confirmed that Imam Luqman sustained 21 gunshot wounds…
The autopsy found Abdullah was hit twice in the chest, four times in the abdomen, twice in the groin, four times in the left hip and side, seven times in the left thigh, once in the scrotum and once in the back.
“At some point his back was turned,” Schmidt said. “Whether that means someone meant to shoot him in the back or not, I couldn’t say. He must have been slightly turned to the left (at the time of the shooting).”
Schmidt said his investigation could not determine whether Abdullah was shot while lying down.
The county’s medical examiners routinely testify in other cases that they use police reports about circumstances and investigator’s observations in helping them arrive at their conclusions. But Schmidt said today his office received no information from law enforcement sources to aid in the autopsy’s findings.
The autopsy also noted abrasions to the hands and face of Imam Luqman, although there was no speculation as to the source of those injuries. The medical examiner said he received no information from law enforcement in coming to his findings, and that it was not part of his examination to do any tests to see if Imam Luqman had fired a weapon.
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johnpi
Confirmed: Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah shot 21 times, more than half below the waist, some shots in the back.
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abunoor
3 months after he was killed, the autopsy of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah is scheduled to finally be released on Monday. The autopsy has been complete since December, but was withheld from the public at the request of the Dearborn Police.
Dawud Walid is quoting a Detroit reporter on his blog (who is quoting a confidential source) indicating that the autopsy will confirm what has long been rumored: that the Imam was shot 21 times, including in the back, and that he was handcuffed.
The Detroit Free Press reports on a forum that took place Thursday where the special agent in charge of the FBI office defended the actions of the FBI in the case, although from the story it seems like he defended it with platitudes (“We did what we had to do”) rather than explaining what happened.
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johnpi
US prosecutors fighting to keep identities of informants against Luqman Ameen Abdullah secret.
The Detroit News reported Sunday that Muslim-American leaders suspect an informant named Jabril played a key role in the case of slain Detroit mosque leader Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed in a police shootout in October.
U.S. prosecutors are reportedly seeking a protective order to keep the identities of three informants used in the case secret as U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., urged Washington to review the use of informants in houses of worship.
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johnpi
Refusal to release imam’s autopsy raises suspicions.
The Wayne County medical examiner’s refusal to release its autopsy report on Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah is fueling concerns in the Muslim community about a possible cover-up of facts surrounding his death, a community leader said Monday.
….The county Medical Examiner’s Office denied a Nov. 2 request The Detroit News filed for Abdullah’s medical examiner report, saying it was not complete.
Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan, said the county office has not responded to a request from his organization requesting a copy of the report once it is completed. The office also quoted exorbitant fees for copies of autopsy photos, he said.
Dennis Niemiec, a spokesman for the county, confirmed Monday that the report is completed but is being withheld at the request of Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, who does not want the report released until his department completes its investigation. The county will seek more information from Haddad about how the release of the report would hamper his investigation, Niemiec said.
They can stall, but eventually that autopsy report will be released to the public. There is too much attention and pressure about this case for them not to…
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abunoor
Imam Zaid Shakir “Remembering Imam Luqman Abdullah”.
On Wednesday, October 28, 2009, Imam Luqman Abdullah, a humble servant of America’s underclass, was killed by a fusillade of bullets fired by government agents, some of whom had played an integral role in helping to stage the crimes he was accused of committing. His story, like that of all humans is a complicated one. Unfortunately, most people in this country will never learn of Imam Luqman Abdullah, the complicated man. The complexity of his life will be drowned out by the simplistic images of the homegrown Muslim extremist –a caricature.
The nuances of his story, his dedication to family, friends, and community; and his struggle to live a dignified life despite the crushing weight of poverty, will all be lost. With their loss, America loses yet another opportunity to attain a small part of the understanding so vital to move this country towards the sort of policies it needs to pursue, both domestically and internationally, if it is to avoid the consuming trap of imperial hubris and the inevitable ravages her twin sister, who is never too far behind her -Nemesis.
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abunoor
Omar Regan, who was raised by Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, speaks at a rally November 5 in front of the federal building in Detroit.
Filled with emotion, Omar Regan, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s 34-year-old son, challenged the media to tell the truth about who his father really was and challenged law enforcement to reflect on their own humanity at a rally in front of the McNamara Federal Building in Detroit, MI on Nov. 5. Another of the imam’s sons, Jamil Carswell looks on. (Photo Ashahed M. Muhammad)
You can listen to an audio excerpt of Omar Regan’s emotional remarks here.
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abunoor
National Lawyers Guild calls for “immediate and independent investigation” into the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah by the FBI.
New York—The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) calls for an immediate and independent investigation into the FBI’s fatal shooting on October 28 of Islamic leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Dearborn, Michigan. The FBI killed him during a series of raids of the Masjid Al-Haqq Mosque by federal and local law enforcement officials in which 11 others were arrested. While mainstream media outlets are calling the killing and arrests a counter-terrorism operation, the raids arose out of criminal complaints containing no specific allegations of violations of federal law or acts of terrorism.
All reports from local residents and community leaders indicate that Imam Abdullah and Mosque members were dedicated to improving the community, feeding hungry neighborhood residents and helping young people in need, even letting many sleep in the mosque during inclement weather.
By publicizing the killing and arrests as related to terrorism, absent any such allegations in the complaint, the FBI seems to be engaging in the same tactics used in its Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), in which it spied on, infiltrated and disrupted political movements. Imam Abdullah had a close relationship with Imam Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, was a field organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and later served as national chairman of the Black Panther Party (BPP).
Note: The headline of the press release on the NLG website refers to the killing as an “assasination,” this language is not used in the actual body of the press release. Junaid Afeef, who continues to push for Muslim organizations to push harder for an investigation, thinks the use of this language in the headline was probably a ‘publicity tactic’ but thinks it would be better to avoid such language which presumes the outcome of the investigation and to focus on gathering a broader coalition to demand the investigation.
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abunoor
ISNA releases statement on killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah.
ISNA supports the vital work carried out by law enforcement agencies to protect the public against violence and criminal activities, and finds no justification for resisting duly executed arrest warrants. It further calls on all Muslims to reject any attempts that aim at undermining the rule of law or subverting the constitution. The only morally and legally acceptable way to challenge the actions of law enforcement agents is by working through the justice system and the court of law.
ISNA also calls on the FBI and other law enforcement agencies involved in Wednesday’s raid to conduct a full investigation and to bring clarity into circumstances that led to the shootout and the killing. The Muslim community must be brought fully on board in the fight against violent extremism and must be persuaded that FBI agents do not use excessive force or act out of an unfounded suspicion and exaggerated fear.
We urge the community leaders to convene community meetings to explore ways and means to prevent the repeat of this troubling incident. The defendants live in a downtrodden part of Detroit, and the community’s long-term response must address the underlying conditions that give rise to alienation and mistrust. We urge privileged Muslim communities to take greater interest in improving the conditions of disadvantaged communities and to join local leaders in dealing with the long standing plight of inner cities.I could analyze the problematic nature (in my view) of some of that statement at length but that could fall into the category of mistakenly treating a pr statement as some kind of intellectually rigorous statement of principles.
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abunoor
Green Party of Michigan condemns FBI Raid and Murder of Imam Luqman Abdullah.
The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) offers its condolences to the family of respected community and religious leader, Imam Luqman A. Abdullah.
The Green Party of Michigan is joining the call from Imam Abdullah’s family and others for an independent investigation into an FBI raid in Dearborn, MI on Oct. 28 that resulted in Imam Abdullah being shot 18 times and left to die.
“We condemn this FBI raid and murder of an innocent man,” Green Party of Michigan Chair Fred Vatale said. “The FBI fails even today to bring charges of terrorism against the other people arrested. Rather it and the corporate media make wild accusations; their only witnesses unreliable former criminal informants, dependent on the FBI for food and freedom. It appears that the only charges are those associated with petty crime, and even these were instigated by government agents and grinding poverty.”
“We are having a hard time believing the FBI claims that this was simply an arrest gone wrong. We are deeply concerned by reports that Imam Abdulluh was left to die from his wounds while an injured police dog was airlifted for medical treatment. Such behavior demonstrates an intent to kill rather than enforce the law,” said Derek Grigsby, Detroit Green Party Co-chair. “Given the historical and current antipathy of the FBI towards people of African descent and Muslims, we are left to wonder if the death of Imam Abdullah was not exactly what was intended for that day.”
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abunoor
American Muslim Blogger (and attorney and activist) Junaid Afeef asks some of the questions about the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah and urges Muslim organizations to push for an independent investigation.
Did the FBI special agents in Detroit, Michigan really shoot Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah last week because he shot a dog?
Did they unleash a dog to subdue Abdullah because he would not get down on the ground as had the other targets of the arrest warrant?
Did the FBI special agents shoot Abdullah 18 times?
Did the FBI special agents handcuff Abdullah after he had been shot 18 times?
Did the FBI special agents airlift the FBI dog for immediate medical care while Abdullah lay handcuffed and bleeding with 18 bullet wounds?
And is it true that Abdullah did not shoot at FBI agents but only at the dog that was unleashed upon Abdullah?
Is it true that, prior to two years ago (prior to the confidential informants being planted), Abdullah and his followers were not planning crimes?
Is it true that the FBI headquarters in Detroit are very close in proximity to Abdullah’s mosque and that the FBI has no evidence of any planned attacks on the facility and or a member of the agency?
With regard to the alleged plot to attack the super bowl a few years ago (as reported by the newspapers), is it true that Abdullah is recorded or reported as having said that he did not want to attack and or harm innocent people?
Is the location of the shooting being preserved so that evidence of the shots fired from Abdullah firearm can be analyzed vis-a-vis his location and the location of the special agents on the operation in order to assess (probably rather than precisely – since only Abdullah could have told us what his intent was) what he was aiming at and attempting to shoot?
What is the FBI’s policy on use of deadly force and for shooting to kill?
These are the kinds of questions people are asking, and these are the kinds of questions that need to be answered in order to address allegations that the shooting of Abdullah was unlawful.
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abunoor
This article does a good job of describing the atmosphere at Imam Luqman Abdullah’s funeral Saturday, which I was blessed to attend along with hundreds of others from all over the country.
Upset yet content with God’s will, Muslims called for justice Saturday at the funeral of an Islamic leader who was killed by FBI agents in a shootout last week.
More than 1,000 packed the Muslim Center in Detroit in a spillover crowd that was at times teary-eyed over the fatal shooting of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a Muslim leader, or imam, who led another Detroit mosque. One speaker called him a martyr.
Muslims from metro Detroit, Virginia, New York, Philadelphia, and Atlanta attended the hour-long ceremony followed by a burial at Knollwood Memorial Park in Canton. At the burial, speakers urged the crowd not to seek revenge on the police or the informants they used in the case, saying that any punishment would come in the afterlife.
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johnpi
The New York Times has a much better article about the Luqman Ameen Abdullah funeral than the earlier one I linked.
“They knew a long time ago that this was a penny ante operation, and they could have stopped it,” Abdullah El-Amin, an imam at the Muslim Center, Detroit’s largest black mosque, said of federal authorities. “It didn’t have to get to this point, people getting killed.”
Mr. El-Amin said he had known Mr. Abdullah for more than 20 years, although they had never attended the same mosque. Mr. El-Amin said he had heard Mr. Abdullah talk about wanting a separate state, but described it as “sort of like the Pennsylvania Dutch have their own communities and stuff.” Some, but not all, mainstream Muslim leaders agreed that Mr. Abdullah had held that view.
“The very incendiary rhetoric that the F.B.I. alleges, I never heard that from him,” said Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “There was nothing extraordinary about him.”
The Muslim Public Affairs Council, a policy and advocacy group based in Los Angeles, is calling for an investigation of Mr. Abdullah’s killing, which it describes as “deeply disturbing.”
But Eide A. Alawan, director of the office of interfaith outreach at the Islamic Center of America, one of the largest Muslim centers in the Midwest, in Dearborn, took a critical view of Mr. Abdullah and his defenders.
“This is not the first time in history that someone has used a religion to do some harm in the name of faith,” Mr. Alawan said. “Now is an opportune time for some to show their militancy. It gets attention. But it’s no different than the Ku Klux Klan in the 40s and 50s using the cross.”
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johnpi
Funeral for Detroit mosque leader draws hundreds, Cnadian police arrest last two men.
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.
….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.
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johnpi
USA Today: ‘Blacks still drawn to Islam despite FBI raids.’
Sekou Jackson is used to the questions: Why does he need to leave a work meeting to pray? Don’t black Muslims convert to Islam in jail? Why would you even want to be Muslim?
“It’s kind of a double whammy to be African-American and Muslim,” said Mr. Jackson, who studies the Navy at the National Academy of Science in Washington. “You’re going to be judged.”
Mr. Jackson’s struggle may have gotten harder when the FBI on Wednesday raided a Detroit-area warehouse used by a Muslim group. The FBI said the group’s leader preached hate against the government, trafficked in stolen goods and belonged to a radical group that wants to establish a Muslim state in America. The imam of the group’s mosque, a black American named Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was killed in a shootout with agents. The FBI says he resisted arrest and fired a gun.
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johnpi
Muslim leaders gathering for Detroit imam’s funeral.
Muslim leaders are preparing for the funeral of a Detroit imam who was fatally shot by federal agents after authorities say he resisted arrest and fired his weapon.
The service for Luqman Ameen Abdullah was set for Saturday morning at the Muslim Center in Detroit.
Imam Abdullah El-Amin of the Muslim Center says after the burial speakers will discuss pursuing “peace and reconciliation” following Wednesday’s shooting in Dearborn.
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johnpi
Muslim leaders say Luqman Ameen Abdullah informants were unreliable thieves.
Muslim leaders who met with the FBI on Thursday said the shooting death of a Detroit imam seemed like a case of entrapment involving unreliable informants who targeted poor Detroiters.
About 20 local imams met at the Islamic Organization of North America, a mosque in Warren, with Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Terrence Berg.
Federal authorities claim that Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah — killed Wednesday by FBI agents during a shootout — was bent on attacking the U.S. government and establishing Islamic rule.
But local Muslims told FBI officials that the criminal complaint reveals a case involving undercover informants who enticed Abdullah and his followers to deal in stolen fur coats and laptops and commit a couple of other minor crimes to earn needed cash.
“This was petty stuff,” said Imam Abdullah El-Amin, head of the Muslim Center of Detroit. “A bunch of petty thieves.”
And so, El-Amin said, he wondered why federal authorities continued the investigation for more than two years.
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johnpi
The sensational media feeding frenzy around the death of Luqman Ameen Abdullah continues as news organizations around the country begin to make desperate, absurd efforts to “localize” the story by claiming Abdullah “had ties” to the local area if he has ever happened to pass through there.
This is from a tv station out of Atlanta:
Federal authorities in Detroit said the leader of a radical U.S. Sunni Islam group, whom Channel 2 has confirmed had ties to Atlanta, was killed in a shootout with federal agents.
What are the “ties”?
Channel 2 Action News investigative reporter Mark Winne said Abdullah had many friends and associates in Atlanta. Winne said Abdullah attended the opening ceremonies for an Islamic sports competition in 2007 in Atlanta’s West End area. Prominent Islamic leaders from around the country were also there.
The result of this kind of ‘localization’ will be to heighten fear and mistrust of local Muslims, and will likely feed into new incidents of discrimination and hate crimes.
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johnpi
Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s son has been arrested in Ontario. Mujahid Carswell was one three men the FBI was still seeking from yesterday’s raid where Abdullah was slain.
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johnpi
According to religious experts, Luqman Ameen Abdullah is the first religious leader the US government has killed on American soil since the 1993 death of David Koresh at the Branch Davidian ranch in Waco, Texas.
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abunoor
Here is a statement from the Muslim Alliance in North America on the death of Imam Luqman Abdullah. Imam Luqman was an active member of the MANA Shura.
The National Community or “Ummah” was established by Imam Jamil Al-Amin (formerly known as H. Rap Brown). It is an association of mosques in several cities in the U.S. that coordinates religious and social services primarily in the Black American community. Reference to the “Ummah” as a “nation-wide radical fundamentalist Sunni group consisting primarily of African-Americans” is an offensive mis-characterization.
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.
It is our hope and prayer that a thorough investigation will be carried out with the greatest integrity. We urge the Muslim community and all Americans committed to justice to actively monitor both the investigation and trial of the accused. Also, we urge law enforcement authorities to release Imam Luqman’s remains expeditiously so that they may be buried according to Islamic practice.
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johnpi
This media report from the Detroit Free Press so sensationalizes Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s past that it literally communicates that they were trying to arrest him for running a “Sunni Muslim group with the mission of establishing a separate Islamic nation within the United States.” It’s not until the sixth paragraph into the story that we find out the charges were not religion or terrorism related.
Here’s the first graphs:
After a 2-year investigation, FBI agents descended on a Dearborn warehouse Wednesday hoping to capture the suspected head of an Islamic fundamentalist group.
The scene quickly turned chaotic, however, in a shootout that caused agents to gun down Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, leader of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit. Abdullah is accused in a federal complaint of heading a Sunni Muslim group with the mission of establishing a separate Islamic nation within the United States.
Eleven other men were criminally charged in the raids, which also occurred in Detroit.
Abdullah, known to some as Christopher Thomas, died after firing on officers during the raid, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. An FBI dog also was fatally wounded.
The suspects “are members of a group that is alleged to have engaged in violent activity over a period of many years and known to be armed,” a joint statement from the Detroit FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Does anybody know what ‘violent activity’ that “Ummah” as a group has been involved in? WIkipedia has no entry for the “group,” but there is a paragraph on it in H Rap Brown’s entry, and there is no mention of any violent incidents that the “group” has committed.
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johnpi
In a report about the shooting of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, a Detroit newspaper reports that a police dog was also slain in the attempt to arrest Abdullah.
That provokes the question of under what circumstance was the dog killed? If the dog had been sent to attack Abdullah and he defended himself, that presents Abdullah’s killing in a very alarming and provocative new light.
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johnpi
More hyperbolic, distorting absurdity in the indictment against Luqman Ameen Abdullah and 10 other Muslims: FBI says a mosque that one of the suspects attended was “affiliated with CAIR.”
A claim in the indictment states that a mosque that one of the suspects attended was “affiliated with CAIR,” or the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is a national advocacy and civil rights group for Muslims.
Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), called any link to CAIR “bogus” and said the organization has no connection with the Windsor mosque mentioned in the indictment or with the leader of the alleged Sunni Muslim group, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, who was killed Wednesday during a raid by the FBI and Wayne County authorities.
Walid said Abdullah was never a board member or employee of CAIR, nor did he have any business dealings with CAIR.
“No one in that mosque has ever been a board member, or a staffer, or even a dues-paying member for that matter,” he said.
Abdullah was shot dead yesterday in an FBI raid.
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johnpi
A second-day story from the Associated Press has a lot more inflammatory reporting about Luqman Ameen Abdullah than the one Mirelle objected to yesterday.
The 43-page 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. Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.
….Abdullah told followers that it was their “duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die” and to “simply shoot a cop in the head” if they wanted the officer’s bulletproof vest, Leon wrote.
The affidavit also said bombs, guns and even the recipe for TNT were among Abdullah’s regular topics with his allies. Group members and former members said they were “willing to do anything Abdullah instructs and/or preaches, even including criminal conduct and acts of violence,” the FBI agent wrote.
This affidavit from the FBI reminds me of a documentary I saw years ago about the raid on David Koresh’s compound in Waco, Texas (the raid that ended in the death of most of the members of the group and was the inspiration for the Oklahoma City bombing).
In that case, the affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) stating the reasons for a judge to approve the raid was about two-thirds about suspected child abuse involving adult men marrying teenage girls, and the press cited the accusations in dubbing Koresh “The Sinful Messiah.” The ATF however has no jurisdiction over child abuse. The implication of the documentary was that the child abuse allegations were included to demonize Koresh and his followers in the public eye and legitimize extreme government violence against the group.
