The Muslims of America Crack Down on the Islamophobes

Jamaat ul-Fuqra is a domestic Islamic jihad organization whose national headquarters is located in a rural area near Hancock, New York.

Scroll down our sidebar and pick from the list of selected posts about JuF, or read The Charlotte County Files, which contains the most comprehensive roundup of the available data on JuF and its front organization, the Muslims of America.

CP is another invaluable resource for investigative reporting on MOA and Sheikh Gilani, the Pakistani founder and leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

The Christian Action Network has been especially tenacious in tracking down and publishing information about Jamaat ul-Fuqra, based on site visits and flyovers of some of its training compounds scattered throughout the USA. CAN’s work culminated with the release early this year of the excellent movie Homegrown Jihad, which documented the activities of the Muslims of America, and featured a jihad training video put out by Sheikh Gilani himself.

Now the group has evidently gotten under the skin of the Muslims of America. The MOA Legal Defense Team has initiated legal action against CAN — but, strangely enough, their minatory letter concerns a video posted by ACT For America, and not CAN.

Brigitte Gabrielle and Martin Mawyer do not resemble each other closely, so this is very strange. But here’s what MOA has to say:

Muslims of the Americas Puts Christian Action Network on Legal Notice

Friday, 27 November 2009

Regarding the Defamatory Video Segment Entitled: “ACT! Interviews Disciple of Islamist Terrorist Sheikh Gilani,” hosted on www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL-pF9cEgX4, MOA attorney Tahirah H. Clark addresses the producers as follows in a letter dated November 19, 2009:

Gentlemen:

This law office represents the Muslims of the Americas, Inc. (hereinafter “MOA”). The purpose of this letter is to place you on formal notice that the above referenced article and video footage contains false and defamatory claims against my client. You are further notified that unless you remove all published versions of the video and immediately publish a full and fair retraction and apology for the matters assigned herein, we will seek injunctive relief against your organization.

First, the aforesaid article is wrought with inaccuracies and flagrant lies. The false accusations and obsessive distortion of the truth inherent in the aforesaid article and program serve one purpose only, to encourage religious bias and hatred. Furthermore, such negligent misstatements of fact place the lives of innocent American men, women, and children at risk and are a form of terrorism itself. This “Media Terrorism” will no longer be tolerated.

While we take umbrage with the entire publication, we specifically address the following:

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1.		The video is entitled “Act! Interviews disciple of Islamist terrorist Sheikh Gilani.” Your video takes a private citizen and presents him to the world as the student of a “terrorist.” Not only is the assertion that Sheikh Gilani is a terrorist blatantly false, but it is also paints the gentleman in a misleading light to the public. This man in your video has legitimate common law claims against your organization for your having presented him to the world in a false and defamatory way.
2.		Next, the footage references the murder of Daniel Pearl as if El Sheikh Gilani was involved. In fact, on June 25, 2007, Randall Bennett of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security stated that El Sheikh Gilani and MOA was absolved of any connection to the disappearance and murder of Mr. Pearl. There has never been any finding or even criminal charges brought against MOA or Sheikh Gilani for Mr. Pearl’s disappearance. In fact, FBI Special Agent Kathy Diskin, of the Karachi Bureau stated that “I had an opportunity to sit [in] an interview with Sheikh Gilani …within 15 minutes of the interview our feelings were that Sheikh Gilani was not involved with this…” Thus, your reference is false, defamatory and misleading.
3.		Your video then segues into a blurb about counterfeit trade. The text states that Sheikh Gilani was purportedly linked to it. MOA has emphatically and repeatedly voiced opposition and condemnation to criminal activity. It is contrary to the tenets of Islam to engage in such unlawful acts.
4.		Continuing, the producers begin to question the gentleman regarding MOA “compounds” and “training camps.” This loaded and inflammatory use of these words have a military connotation that brings to mind anti-social, extremist militia groups. This statement has no basis in fact and relies solely on conjecture. MOA communities where villages have no physical barriers such as fences surrounding its borders. MOA members are homeowners living in villages and contributing to society by virtue of their husbandry and skill. To state that these neighborhoods are “terrorists training camps” is reprehensible. Yet again, your allegations are false and defamatory.
5.		Your video strings together footage of Sheikh Gilani and attributes controversial statements to him. To be clear, it is our position that the materials upon which you rely are manufactured beyond recognition. To that end, it should come as no surprise that Sheikh Gilani would indeed voice opinions regarding self defense. This is particularly so because Mr. Gilani has been a vocal supporter of the Kashmiri people who are in the middle of a civil war. Many of them are his blood relatives and he has not been shy about offering his support for the fight against their oppression. Similarly, Mr. Gilani has spoken out against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, which fully backed by Ronald Reagan and the Pakistani government, as far back as 1979. There is nothing threatening about his voicing this opinion when on this very same issue the most affluent American politicians and law makers continue to debate the role of America in the region. It is a legitimate debate and the expression of an opinion of same does not render one a “terrorist.”
6.		Part of one of the videos shown belongs entirely to the Kashmir Liberation Front. It presents as though Sheikh Gilani is inviting people to come for training. That is all false. These words have been computer generated. Sheikh Gilani is shown with two American security guards belonging to 786 Security Company, who were his personal bodyguards. Beyond that, the viewer will notice that all the people on this film of the KLF are all Kashmiri people and no Americans. The Kashmiri fight against their oppressors has nothing to do with America or American people. Their battle for independence from their aggressors is restricted to that part of the world. In the video Sheikh Gilani gives them words of encouragement and condoles with those who lost family members in the conflict.

If there is such overwhelming evidence against MOA, then it stands to reason that law enforcement authorities would have taken corrective action. Your irresponsible “broadcasts” strive to achieve vigilante justice against innocent people.

The clear motivation behind your publication is to incite contempt, ridicule, public hatred, and violence toward El Sheikh Gilani and Muslims, particularly members of MOA. Furthermore, it has impaired the reputation and standing in the communities of members of MOA. The impact of this your publication has been evident; within a matter of hours the video received dozens of online “comments” on www.youtube.com exhibiting bigotry and hatred for Muslims.

Please be advised that by spreading the false and defamatory information in the video production, you each shall be held liable for any damages that may arise from the publication of these defamatory and harmful comments. Demand is hereby made that you immediately retract, correct and remove this video footage from all websites where it was published. Further, we fully expect that you will apologize for making same. In the absence of such corrective action, my client will initiate a civil action against you.

Please govern yourself accordingly.
Sincerely,
Tahirah H. Clark, Attorney at Law,
2732 B-13 Roods Creek Road
Hancock, New York 13783

This notice was addressed to:
Christian Action Network
PO Box 606 Forest VA 24551
Toll Free Phone: 888-499-4226

Can Christian Action Network be legally liable for the actions of a totally different organization?

It will be interesting to see how far this one goes.

Signs of Denial in Charlotte County

I’ve written repeatedly and at length about the travesty of “Sheikh Gilani Lane” in Charlotte County, Virginia. My earlier accounts are here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

A short version: Under the cover of its front organization known as the Muslims of America, the terrorist organization Jamaat ul-Fuqra operates a rural compound in Red House, which is in northern Charlotte County. The founder and leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra is Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Gilani, and the residents of the Red House compound have named the muddy track that snakes through their compound “Sheikh Gilani Lane”. It is the officially-designated county name for the road, and in defiance of a recent protest by the Christian Action Network, the Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to keep the name as it is.

Christine is the Operations Director of the 910 Group. As reported earlier in the Charlotte County Files, she had a testy exchange of emails with Averett Jones, the editor of a local newspaper called The Southside Messenger. Mr. Jones had written an editorial supporting the name “Sheikh Gilani Lane”, and Christine made a valiant attempt to convince the man that there was overwhelming evidence showing that Sheikh Gilani is a terrorist leader. If you haven’t read this post, I recommend that you click the link and take the time to look at the exhaustive job Christine did in unearthing information on Sheikh Gilani.


But Mr. Jones was not to be convinced. He evidently had no desire to be confronted with mere facts.

He has been doing that little routine made so familiar to us by the liberals of the MSM, the high-toned journalistic version of a little kid who puts his fingers in his ears and chants loudly, “LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!”

Readers will enjoy the letters to the editor over at The Southside Messenger. Mr. Jones endured some pretty hard flak from people who took exception to his dhimmi-like stance.

Also, his latest editorial is worth reading [incorrectly closed quotes are in the original]:

Interestingly, ALL of the complaints regarding our coverage of Gilani Lane have come from out of the Southside Virginia area. Those that were not anonymous came from Fairfax, Virginia to California. Many of these are from a group calling themselves the 910 Group whose executive director is Christine Brim.

The ones that actually have content instead of just insults demand the answers to questions. Most say, “Why don’t you believe Christine?” Why didn’t you print ALL of the information Christine sent you?”

Our response to these “Christineeys” is “Why should your Christine be considered a reliable source? The links she sent do not prove Sheikh Gilani is a terrorist.

There are several interesting nuggets in that little snippet. So, most of the “Christineeys” who wrote him were 910 Group members, eh? I’ll wager that a lot of you non-910 Gates of Vienna readers went over there to The Southside Messenger and had a few choice words to say. Not to mention all the lizardoids who followed the link over here from LGF. But we’ll let that one go.

Mr. Jones has promoted Christine to “Executive Director” of the 910 Group. Whoa! I didn’t know Mr. Jones could do that. He must be a powerful man indeed. Or maybe he gets his facts about Christine as straight as he does the information on Sheikh Gilani.

But the key assertion he makes is that the links Christine sent don’t prove that Sheikh Gilani is a terrorist. Given how many links he refused to list, and given how little of the material he deigned to read, it’s not surprising that he thought the evidence failed to prove anything.

LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA! I can’t hear you! I can’t hear you!

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Christine read Mr. Jones’ latest articles and editorials and sent along her own rebuttal for me to post here. First, Mr. Jones’ own words:
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1. Key excerpts from Averett Jones’ Editorial “A Road Sign or Sign of Intolerance?“

Our initial step was to research the groups involved and read the material presented by CAN. The first thing we noticed was that none of the links provided were official government websites. Since then, new links have been provided which are official but in my mind do not prove what is claimed. See sidebar at right: Links”

We then contacted residents of the village, who denied Gilani is a terrorist. They also claimed the road is named for a 6th century Sheikh of the same name.”

Every lane was named by the owner of the property not the county. The owners of Gilani Lane have the American right to honor anyone they choose.”

The second: Is Sheikh Gilani a terrorist? This is open for debate. However, the information sent to us by Brim flatly states he is not on the “Foreign Terrorist Organization.” See Sidebar: Links

Now Christine’s rebuttal:

2. The Sidebar: Links

Mr. Jones’ introduction: “Ms. Brim and others state these links provide conclusive proof that Sheikh Gilani is a terrorist, others disagree with this conclusion.”

Mr. Jones then provides two State Department links and a single link to the National Institute of Justice study. He seems to think he discredits the NIJ study by citing the standard disclaimer shown for any grant-funded study.

But in this case, he is trying to discredit a terrific 93-page case history of Jamaat ul-Fuqra in the United States, “Identifying the Links between White-collar Crime and Terrorism for the Enhancement of Local and State Law Enforcement Investigation and Prosecution” (report in pdf format), funded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Research and Evaluation. The grantee who actually did the study was the National White Collar Crime Center, a congressionally funded research center.

And Mr. Jones’ explanation for not providing all the links: “Other links were included, most based on the information in the 1995-1999 Patterns of Global Terrorism reports or complete with disclaimers equivalent to the aforementioned disclaimer.”

The weasel word is “most” — since he edited out all the links to important documents that are more recent than 1999, and that had no disclaimers.

Links that Mr. Jones left out

Here are two State Department links, where reporters repeatedly questioned the State Department’s reasons for keeping Jamaat ul-Fuqra off their list of terrorist organizations, one a transcript from the Australian government, the other from the State Department itself.

Here is a State Department link to testimony by Daniel Pipes about Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

Here are reports on recent criminal activity by members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra in 2004, from the California Department of Justice on Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature 2004 (pdf format).

Here’s a report from the Colorado Attorney General’s office: “It is believed the activities of UL FUQRA across the nation continue.”

Mr. Jones does, however, remember to provide links for some letters to the editor.

We ask that he fulfill his promise: publish official government information about Jamaat ul-Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani. We ask that he keep his word.

If he doesn’t, we can only conclude that he has decided his job is to be a censor, and not a reporter.

On the remote chance that someone reading this is not a 910 Group member and lives in Southside Virginia, please drop Averett Jones (editor@southsidemessenger.com) a line. Tell him that you meet his selection criteria for having an opinion about Sheikh Gilani Lane. Then tell him what you think.

Be polite. Don’t call him names, or accuse him of being on the take. Visit some of Christine’s links, find some juicy quotes, and include them in your email. Deluge him with facts.

If he publishes your emails, he will discredit himself. If he doesn’t, he will have made it abundantly clear exactly what kind of “journalist” he is.

MSM Digest: Sheikh Gilani Lane

I want our readers to know that Gates of Vienna beat all the MSM web outlets last night in posting the news story about the Charlotte Courthouse demonstration. We scooped the Richmond Times Dispatch by about half an hour. Plus we had photos!

But here’s a survey of the Real Journalism coverage of the event as of this morning. It ranges from mediocre to not so hot.

WSET TV (ABC 13) had the best account. They also used a copy of Gates of Vienna’s exclusive photo of the “Sheikh Gilani Lane” sign. But that’s OK; we let Christian Action Network borrow it; and the TV people can have it, too.

Group Protests Sheikh Gilani Lane Name

It wasn’t on Tuesday night’s agenda, but that didn’t stop protesters from getting across their opposition to Sheikh Gilani Lane. About two dozen protestors paraded around the county building.

Their chants included demands that the county rename the road, which is inside a Muslim community in Red House. The Christian Action Network organized the protest, because they say Sheikh Gilani a terrorist. Along with the protestors, there was another group in support of leaving the street sign up.

Nathalie Jones, Supports Sign — “I’m a Christian, and I believe in letting your neighbors make their choice about who they worship.”

Copeland Casati, Wants Sign Removed — “I think there’s a misconception that this is an attack on neighbors. This is not. It’s a concern about Sheikh Gilani.”

Haywood Hamlet, County Supervisor — “We see no need of changing it and opening the precedence of changing names all over the county.”

Despite the county’s stance on the issue, the Christian Action Network says they’ll keep fighting. They say they want to educate county residents about the situation, and say they may hold another protest in the future.

Copeland, by the way, is a young woman. You should see her on TV — she did an excellent job.
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Next is WDBJ TV (CBS 7):

Road bearing name of suspected terrorist sparks controversy

A road bearing the name of an international terrorist has sparked controversy in Charlotte County.

Sheikh Gilani Lane is an access road into the Muslims of the Americas community in Red House. It is a rural area of Charlotte County, about 15 miles south of Appomattox.

The U.S. government considers Gilani a terrorist. They believe he is responsible, in large part, for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Last week, Charlotte County Supervisors voted not to change the name of the road.

The Christian Action Network, out of Forest, is stepping up its pressure on the board to do something about the road’s name. They demonstrated in front of the county administration building Tuesday night. They chanted slogans and demanded the sign be removed.

However, the board did not address the issue again. Muslims in Red House tell us they are just trying to ignore the controversy and lead a normal life.

That’s not bad; it’s got the WTC bombing aspect in it, which you don’t hear much about.

Finally, the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

Charlotte road’s name protested

Carrying signs and chanting as they marched, 20 people turned out last night for an hourlong protest over the name of a road they say honors a terrorist.

Repeating, “Remember our heroes and ground zero,” “It’s about time to remove the sign” and “V-A the American way,” the protesters marched around the Charlotte County administration building, waved their signs along the road and gathered on the lawn under a flagpole in front of the building.

The Forest-based Christian Action Network contends that Sheikh Gilani Lane, located in the Muslims of America enclave, was named after an international terrorist. The network has pushed to have the road sign removed.

Martin J. Mawyer, the group’s president, said he hopes the protest will raise public awareness and urge the county’s supervisors to change the name.

Established in the mid-1990s, the Muslim community sits on 44 acres in the western part of Charlotte County and is made up of mostly mobile homes. Sheikh Gilani Lane was named after Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarik Gilani, who founded the area and other similar sites in the United States. About 20 families were estimated to live at the Charlotte site a few years ago.

Opponents of the road name say the Muslims of America communities are hideouts for the al-Fuqra terrorist organization. They also blame Gilani for the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl, who was reportedly on his way to interview Gilani when he was abducted Jan. 23, 2002, in Karachi.

But residents of the communities repeatedly have denied terrorist ties, insisting the areas are “a pure and safe environment for raising families and for worshipping the One Almighty Creator of all things.”

This month, the county supervisors declined to change the name of the road, citing their long-standing policy against changing road names. County rules allow residents to name their private lanes.

“As citizens of the United States, these individuals have the right to name the [road] whatever they want to,” Supervisor Joseph Carey said.

Mawyer said he will contact the national media about the issue. “It had been our hope that the Board of Supervisors would handle this without bringing national embarrassment to the state and the county,” he said.

The Christian Action Network is a nonprofit lobbying organization that says it is dedicated to protecting traditions of the American family and defending the nation against radical Islam.

The Rev. Sam Weddington, who lives in the county, said last night’s protest makes Muslim residents feel they are not welcomed.

“They are good people,” he said.

Sam Weddington, by the way, is probably the Presbyterian minister I mentioned in my last post. I never got his name.

The tone of this story is not bad; it just has a major factual error. CAN doesn’t blame Sheikh Gilani for Daniel Pearl’s abduction; they just cite his probable involvement in the betrayal of Mr. Pearl to his murderers.

My best guess is this: Sheikh Gilani had arranged through intermediaries to meet Daniel Pearl for an interview. He needed a favor from the group that kidnapped Mr. Pearl, or maybe he needed to ease the tensions of inter-group rivalry. So he traded in his bit of information about where to find his would-be interviewer, and when. And that was it for Daniel Pearl.

It would defy common sense, given the Sheikh’s notorious history, to assert that he had no involvement whatsoever with the abduction of Daniel Pearl. But there’s no way to tell exactly what his rôle was.

The Charlotte County Files

In the recent days The Southside Messenger — a small regional newspaper covering an area that includes Charlotte County, Virginia — has published pair of letters to the editor from residents of the Muslims of America compound near Red House, as well as an uncritical “news” story — dare I say puff-piece? — about the MOA.

Christine, the Operations Manager of the 910 Group, was dismayed by the lack of substantive information in the newspaper about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. She wrote an email to Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, and suggested that he consider some of the available sources on Sheikh Gilani’s terrorist and criminal activities.

Mr. Jones proved an unreceptive audience. At first he suggested that there was no information about any terrorist activities by Sheikh Gilani, that all the allegations floating around on the web were derived from questionable fringe groups such as the Christian Action Network. Only information from the federal government would convince him. If he could be shown any such data, he would be glad to publish a story about it in his paper.

After Christine provided a copious amount of government information, Mr. Jones insisted that he meant that there was none from the State Department, which he considered the authoritative source. When supplied with State Department links, he added a requirement that they be recent documents, not from before 2002.

Christine has now supplied him with recent government documents, both state and federal, State Department and otherwise, detailing the extensive criminal and terrorist activities of Sheikh Gilani and the Muslims of America. But she is convinced that Mr. Jones is not acting in good faith, and will never make good on his promise to publish such material if she were to produce it.

As a result, she has decided to go public with the whole exasperating exchange. She is writing to all her contacts in Charlotte County — local government officials, law enforcement personnel, businesspeople, and ordinary citizens — to let them know that their local newspaper editor has been engaging in de facto censorship concerning Sheikh Gilani, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and the Muslims of America compound near Red House.


In the process of dealing with a recalcitrant newspaper editor, Christine has managed to compile the web’s most comprehensive collection of links to official documents detailing the activities of Sheikh Gilani. Readers who are interested should save her lists for future reference.

Notice how closely Mr. Jones’ attitude reflects that of the MSM — no need to find out the facts; we know what’s true; any information obtained from conservative sources is by definition invalid; etc., etc.

It’s the Tiny Trickle Media aping the Mainstream Media.

Averett Jones, the editor of The Southside Messenger, told Christine, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Don’t hold your breath for that one.

Christine has given me permission to post the entire email exchange here. Take a look, and see the extremes to which denial, self-dhimmification, and willful blindness will go.

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Email sent to Charlotte County residents, February 19, 2007

Hi,

You may have heard that a rally will be held Tuesday February 20 at 6:00 pm at the County Court House administration building, to protest the Charlotte Board of Supervisors’ vote on February 6 to honor Sheikh Gilani by naming a road after him. I will attend the rally as a concerned Virginia resident, and I hope you will too, if you read even some of the information provided here in links to 9 official U.S. federal or state government websites and reports that link Gilani to terrorism.

According to press reports, the public road sign has since been removed (the private one remains), but the Board’s vote preserves it on official government maps, and keeps it as part of Virginia’s cultural heritage and economic development profile. The negative impact extends to the entire state, not just to Charlotte County.

The Charlotte Board’s decision was based on incorrect information. According to the February 6 issue of the Charlotte Gazette (page 3), the Board’s decision to honor Sheikh Gilani was based on Supervisor Nancy Carwile’s research:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’”

Supervisor Carwile is incorrect. Sheikh Gilani is linked to terrorism, as shown in several official U.S. federal and state government websites listed below.

I presented these links in a lengthy email to Averett Jones, editor of the Southside Messenger; that email is attached in entirety and summarized below. Mr. Jones stated, initially, that these websites are “pretending” to be official, and therefore he will not publish any articles on their existence.

I urge you to decide for yourself, to inform yourself about Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra, and to determine on your own the validity of this information and its serious implications for your community.

The exchange with Mr. Jones is included below, in chronological order, to explain why I am sending this information out, citizen to citizen. After a very long effort, I have given up trying to encourage Mr. Jones to publish the information. I include the links to the reports first, for your convenience.

Regards,
Christine

Summary of U.S. Federal and State Government Websites and Reports linking Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul-Fuqra to terrorism

1.		These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name. Search text for “Gilani”: http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/ www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html
2.		The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm
3.		This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: Search text for “Gilani” http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm
4.		This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm
5.		This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at: http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm
6.		These reports for 2004 and 2005, published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature.” See pages 2,23,24 and 25 in 2004; page 26 in 2005 http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
7.		This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website: http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”
8.		This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra: http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
9.		The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here): http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

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Email Exchange and Link Summary between Averett Jones, Editor, Southside Messenger, and Christine

[Mr.Jones’ computer appears to be set a day ahead – it may be a yahoomail problem.]

[All emails below will be forwarded, individually, at your request, if you wish to validate the accuracy of this email exchange. All emails are included here in entirety, with the exception of the very long Feb. 18, 2007 email with 9 categories of links, which is summarized in this page and included in full as an appendix.]

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:16:34 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs ---,

Thank you for your letter and the links to Mercury news.com. I have personally read every article I could find on Gilani both in mainstream press and on web sites. I read your link to Mercury News and found the same information I have found in hundreds of websites and on CAN’s website. Our problem with this information is that not one of the claims regarding Gilani is ever documented. Gilani is not listed on any government website as a possible terrorist.

The article states “But over the years, state and federal authorities have described him as the head of an international terrorist group who draws financial support from followers in the United States.”

I have found this quote many times but again no reference to which “state and federal authorities.”

If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it. At this point all we have found are rumors mostly taken from CAN’s website. We have also received dozens of emails with quotes alleged to be from Gilani which also appear to originate on CAN’s website. If you find any additional information please do not hesitate to send it to us.

Thank You for writing.
Averett Jones
Editor, The Southside Messenger

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Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 19:57:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I searched on U.S. government sites and immediately found a number of links, which I provide with annotation below for your convenience. I hope that you will follow through on these. I will make them available, to assist your own efforts, to other stakeholders in our state and nation.

The total time required to find these was approximately 1 hour. I went to the central search website for the U.S. and state government sites, USAsearch.gov. I have not searched Lexis Nexis yet, since you expressed an interest primarily in official government sites.

You state in your email to me, “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.” Below, I provide reports from the State Department, the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Department of Justice, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, the Library of Congress research service, and a 93 page report on Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra funded by the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

These reports provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection for Sheikh Gilani and Jamaat ul Fuqra. I will be happy to see you publish these materials. Please send me a link to the published article.

The nine links follow below, with summary annotations and excerpts for your convenience.

[See Appendix at the end of this email for the details supplied to Mr. Jones.]

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 09:02:47 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Morning Ms ---,

Again, thank you for the information. I have already seen these sites but the problem is that when I attempt to return to the “State Department” website from them, they are not attached to that site. This indicates they are not official sites. Please advise me if you find additional information.

Sincerely
Averett Jones
The Southside Messenger

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 06:43:56 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

Mr. Jones, I’m beginning to think you’re not actually looking at these links. Let me urge you to do so, with greater care.

Of the nine itemized links below to official government sites that I provided, ALL of them have a link back to the official home page of the government agency. I just checked.

Two of them are old enough that they go back to an archived home page:

1.		In the five links provided for item #1 below, the first item is an archive file, and clicking on the state department link returns to the archive home page. Perhaps you are not aware of the archiving policies for websites within the U.S. Government. Of course, clicking on the State Department link for the other four items leads to the current State Department home page. Is it possible you clicked only on the first link of all those I provided? Surely not.
2.		Item #3 is also an archive file from an embassy website, but clicking on the “home” page link leads to an official homepage. This appears to me to be a non-standard approach to archiving, by the way, and I am happy for you not to treat it as an active link.

That leaves 8 additional links — plus the four from Item #1 — that are not archived files, but are active and all are on identified official government websites.

I look forward to your researching these documents, preparing a balanced article, and publishing it as you said you would do in an earlier email. Please send me a copy when you do.

As noted before, I will also be helping your efforts to educate the public, by sharing our email exchanges with stakeholders in our state and nation.

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 10:32:33 –0500
From: Averett Jones editor@southsidemessenger.com
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Sheikh Gilani Road Sign Rally Feb 20

Dear Mrs ---,

I AM looking at the links. The address to the state Department is http://www.state.gov. Any link that does not begin with this address is not an official website it is a private site made to look official. I have serious reservations with any site made to look official with no official standing. The site I mentioned earlier has a return link to the State Dept. but the site itself is not official. The only official links you provided are in item 2 and 4.

Item 2 Question: The group headed by Shaykh Gilani used to be designated by the State Department as a terrorist group but it was taken off the list. Why?

Answer: Jamaat ul-Fuqra has never been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. It was included in several recent annual terrorism reports under “other terrorist groups,” i.e., groups that had carried out acts of terrorism but that were not formally designated by the Secretary of State. However, because of the group’s inactivity during 2000, it was not included in the most recent terrorism report covering that calendar year.

This does not state Gilani is a terrorist in fact it states ul-Fuqua was not included in 2000. (and has not been included for the past 6 years.) As I said earlier we are searching for the truth. I have difficulty believing the truth will be found in sites pretending to be official government sites.

Regards
Averett

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 11:58:21 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

I have two questions for you, Mr. Jones.

1. Question #1:

In an article by Robert Benning, “Name Will Stay the Same” (Charlotte Gazette, 2/7/07, page 3), Nancy Carwile of the Charlotte Board of Supervisors is quoted as follows:

“But Carwile said she had extensively researched FBI, State Department, and Justice Department websites and could find no proof of any Gilani-based terrorist acts. In fact, during a brief Power Point presentation at the beginning of the meeting, all she did find were sites ‘made up’ by groups and individuals that supposedly showed ‘facts.’

“Anyone can make up a website that says anything...you have to be careful when you search the internet,” she said. “If it doesn’t end with ‘.gov’ then it is not an official government site.”

This statement by Carwile closely reflects your own statements in our exchange of emails. Are you the source of Carwile’s research? Did you prepare the powerpoint she provided to the Board? The Board made their decision based on an assessment that no official websites or reports, federal or state, exist that link Gilani with terrorism. Are you responsible for that assessment, and therefore for their decision?

2. Question #2:

As to your suggestions that the websites I sent you are, in your words, “sites pretending to be official government sites,” your assessment is simply wrong, and you do need to learn more about domain name conventions within .gov sites. The site URLs that you have decided are pretending” are Embassy websites. Their URLs are either listed as subdomains within the state department website, or as their own URLS with a .gov suffix.

The other website links that I provided are also either U.S. federal or state government sites. You have not commented on these other links in your emails, although I am confident you exercised prudence and due diligence, followed each link, read the webpage content or the attached reports, and assessed the validity of the URLs, before dismissing them as “sites pretending to be official government sites.”

The URLs for these additional sites include:

1.		Three websites with the http://www.state.gov URL which you say you trust;
2.		The Office of the Attorney General of California (NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL) http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf
3.		The Office of the Attorny General of Colorado (NOTE — NOT A .GOV ADDRESS, BUT STILL OFFICIAL) http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm
4.		The Library of Congress, ending in a .gov address http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html
5.		The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, also ending in a .gov address http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

So this is my second question, Mr. Jones. You state in your email, “I have already seen these sites.” If so, and if you suspected that they were “pretending,” can you document your phone calls or emails to the official government agency webmasters, or to their public information offices or, in fact, to anyone, in which you actually verified that these sites were not official? Please forward that documentation if it exists.

I am, of course, particularly interested in seeing it, if your assessment of these sites was the basis for the Board of Supervisor’s decision to name the road in honor of Sheikh Gilani.

Thanks!

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia

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Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:52:52 –0500
From: Averett Jones
To: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research

Mrs. ---

I apologize for any misunderstanding. I am trying to answer your concerns and get my work done at the same time. I was not saying the websites you listed were not official. They are. When I said I could not find information on official sites, I should have said current sites. I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist. There are hundreds of current sites which contain the same information that was official from 1995 to 2002 which are not official but have current dates. I have been unable to find anything official with current dates. I should have said I have seen the same information listed on these unofficial sites. I have never discussed this matter with Dr. Carwile until after the board meeting, nor am I responsible for any board decision. I will again apologize for the miscommunication and if you can find any current information regarding Gilani, please share it with me. My personal opinion is simple. I believe that everyone is innocent until proved guilty and this includes you, me, the Muslims in Red House and Sheik Gilani.

Sincerely, Averett Jones

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Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:30:48 -0800 (PST)
From: Christine
Subject: Re: Two questions regarding Charlotte Board and Sheikh Gilani research
To: editor@southsidemessenger.com

Hi,

You state below, “I have been unable to find anything after the 2002 statement that Gilani is no longer listed as a potential terrorist.”

Please refer again to the list of links that I sent you. No doubt you reviewed them carefully and simply missed the dates of the documents. The report from the U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/
grants/209520.pdf, is dated April, 2005, and includes significant cited information from 2004.

The report from the California Department of Justice is, in fact, their 2004 Annual Report on Organized Crime.

Since you are concerned about recent information, I also found references to Gilani in the California 2005 Annual Report on Organized Crime, available here: http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2005.pdf

This means that the latest official government information I could find, based on a 1 hour search, is less than two years old.

As mentioned before, I look forward to your doing what you said you would: “If anyone could provide concrete evidence to a terrorist connection we will be happy to publish it.”

Please do so.

Thanks,

Regards,
Christine
Fairfax, Virginia


APPENDIX

1. These first links all refer to the annual State Department “Patterns of Global Terrorism” Reports. Sheikh Gilani is mentioned in each of them. I provide links for all years in which I found his name.

http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps14740/www.state.gov/
www/global/terrorism/1997Report/backg.html
http://sweden.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1998/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1996/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1995/appb.html
http://stockholm.usembassy.gov/terror/rpt1999/appb.html

2. The next link is a reply to a query about the delisting of JUF in 2000 by the State Department:
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2002/7738.htm

3. This link is to the transcript of a State Department briefing from 01/31/2002: The mention of Sheikh Gilani is the following excerpts from the transcript:
http://usembassy-australia.state.gov/hyper/2002/0131/epf401.htm

		QUESTION:		Pearl. Do we know anything, or does the State Department know anything about this sheikh that they have arrested, Sheikh Gilani or his group? Just tell us everything.
		MR. BOUCHER:		That’s the problem. I don’t think I’m in a position to tell you everything about what we know, about groups or an ongoing investigation. So I’m going to have to believe that it wouldn’t be in the best interests of Mr. Pearl for us to do that. I can make clear that the Pakistani police are continuing their efforts. We are assisting them, US law enforcement officials are assisting them. The cooperation is very close, and as the Secretary told you, the senior Pakistani officials are interested and involved. Our Embassy in Islamabad and the State Department have been in very close touch with Mr. Pearl’s family and with the Wall Street Journal to work with them, to keep them updated. The Embassy met today with American journalists in Pakistan to advise them on the security situation. And we have taken other measures to increase the security awareness of official and non-official Americans. We issued that new Travel Warning yesterday to include information on possible kidnappings and terrorist actions. Mr. Pearl should be released immediately and unconditionally. His continued detention is no help to any cause. This continuing to hold him, threatening to kill him would only hurt the people who are holding him. He is a Wall Street Journal reporter, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally. He is a respected journalist. He has no connection with the US Government.
		QUESTION:		With the arrest of Sheikh Gilani, does the United States believe they are going in the right direction (inaudible) with Daniel Pearl?
		MR. BOUCHER:		Again, I’m not going to comment on the process of investigation, on the progress of the investigation. I think I really have to let that proceed, and it would not help Mr. Pearl for me to try to talk about it or second-guess it from here. I’m sorry…
		QUESTION:		Without getting into the details of the investigation, this group that Mr. Gilani belonged to used to be on the State Department terrorism list and was taken off. Could you say why?

4. This excerpt is from the State Department briefing from March 27, 2002.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2002/9025.htm

				QUESTION:				The group Jamaat ul-Fuqra , which is associated with Sheikh Gilani, who may or may not be implicated in Daniel Pearl’s murder, was taken off the FTO list last year or in --
				MR. BOUCHER:				A couple years ago, I think, yes.
				QUESTION:				In the 2000 Report. With its reemergence, why hasn’t that been put back on the list?
				MR. BOUCHER:				We look at these things very carefully. It is a very careful review. It is an extensive review of the information before we do it. As you know, some of these have been challenged in court, although they were ultimately upheld. So it’s a very careful process to make sure that we gather all the available information and take the appropriate steps.
								Now, there are some designations under the Treasury Department’s list; for example, some of these groups get designated first in order to block their assets before we formally make them a Foreign Terrorist Organization. But it is a very careful process to make sure we get it right.
				QUESTION:				Can you say whether that was being looked at again?
				MR. BOUCHER:				I don’t think we’re able to say whether a specific group is under review, but we’re looking at various groups all the time for possible designation.

5. This testimony by Daniel Pipes is provided by the State Department at:

http://www.state.gov/s/p/of/proc/tr/11443.htm

Concerning Sheikh Gilani, the state department website excerpt from Pipes states:

“Daniel Pearl was suppose to meet with Sheikh Gilani, Pakistani militant Islamic leader who some 20 years ago organized a group known in this country as Al-Fuqra, which literally means “the poor.” It was made up primarily of African-Americans converts who live mostly in self-contained rural communities with their own schools and militias. They have a history of violence, for example murdering an Egyptian immigrant in Arizona in 1990 and recently a member of the California branch was arrested for killing a policeman. This is an extremely dangerous group, but I have no idea if Daniel Pearl was on the track of discovering something new about it .”

6. This is a report published by the California Department of Justice on “Organized Crime in California, Annual Report to the California Legislature 2004.”

http://caag.state.ca.us/publications/org_crime2004.pdf

Here are interesting excerpts:

“connection to a compound located on 377 acres off of Highway 245 in a rural mountain area of northeastern Tulare County near Fresno, California, known as Baladullah. The compound was, at one time, advertised as a site for a chapter of the Islamic Quranic Open University (IQOU). The school was founded by Pakistani cleric Sheik Sayed Mubarik Ali Gilani and has campuses on similar type compounds in various regions of the country. Sheik Gilani is also the founder of Jamaat el- Fuqra, a group that has been designated by the U.S. Department of State as a terrorist organization, which he created in the 1980s while in Brooklyn, New York, for the purpose of purifying Islam through violence. Sheik Gilani heads the organization from his base of operations in Lahore, Pakistan. Law enforcement authorities suspect that the compound may have been owned and occupied by individuals connected to Jamaat El-Fuqra, in part, because the IQOU and the terrorist organization are believed to be linked due to their crossover membership and that both groups operate under Gilani’s authority.

“During 2004, members of groups supporting international terrorism were engaged in the following criminal activity....

“...In November, a California resident and suspected Fuqra member was arrested in York, South Carolina, on a federal warrant for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. This individual, a former resident of the Baladullah compound in Fresno and Tulare counties, was extradited to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he remains in custody at a federal detention center awaiting trial. In early November 2004, Baladullah was placed into foreclosure.”

7. This link is from the Colorado Attorney General’s official website:

http://www.ago.state.co.us/pr/121001_link.cfm

Gilani’s name is spelled here as “Jilani.”

The page content is the following:

“INFORMATION REGARDING COLORADO’S INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF MEMBERS OF JAMAAT UL FUQRA

Beginning in the late 1980s, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office successfully prosecuted members of a fundamentalist Sufi-militant Islamic sect known as “JAMAAT UL FUQRA”. Five FUQRA members were ultimately prosecuted between 1993 and 1994.

“FUQRA” is an Arabic word, which translates most accurately as “the impoverished”. The sect advocates the purification of the Islamic religion by means of force and violence. Sheikh Mubarik Ali Jilani Hasmi, who is known by many other aliases, and who also calls himself the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr, originated this group in Pakistan.

In addition to being suspected of committing numerous acts of domestic terrorism, FUQRA members in the United States have been suspected of committing fraud against various governmental entitlement programs in an effort to financially support their activities.

Colorado’s investigation indicated that the United States FUQRA movement was composed of approximately 30 different ‘Jamaats’ or communities, somewhat mobile in nature. Most of these ‘Jamaats’ are believed to currently exist today, along with what investigators deemed to be several ‘covert paramilitary training compounds’ -- one of which had been located in a remote mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colorado prior to Colorado’s prosecutions in the mid-1990s. The corresponding FUQRA ‘Jamaat’ to the Buena Vista compound was located in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Colorado’s investigation of FUQRA was initiated in 1989 when Colorado Springs Police Department detectives, initially investigating a series of burglaries, were contacted by the owner of a storage locker site and were told about a locker of, what appeared to be, abandoned property.

In September 1989, detectives executed a search warrant of the storage locker upon suspicion of illegal explosives. The search of the locker disclosed numerous items believed to belong to the FUQRA sect then residing in that area. Several explosive components-- thirty to forty pounds of explosives, three large pipe bombs, a number of smaller improvised explosive devices, shape charges, ten handguns-- some with obliterated serial numbers-- silencers in various stages of manufacture, military training manuals, reloading equipment, bomb-making instructions, and numerous FUQRA-related publications were located in this storage area. Titles of some of the publications included “Guerilla Warfare”, “Counter Guerilla Operations”, “Understanding Amateur Radio”, and “Fair Weather Flying,” and “Basic Blueprint Reading and Sketching.” Several silhouettes for firearms target practice were also discovered, including one with the words “FBI Anti-terrorist team” written on the target’s torso bullseye.

Of great interest to law enforcement officials were documents concerning potential ‘targets’ for destruction and murder in the Los Angeles, Tucson, and Denver areas, including surveillance-type photographs, maps with hand-drawn overlays, notes, etc., concerning these targets. In addition, references to Buckley Air National Guard Base, Rocky Mountain Arsenal, the Air Force Academy, and electrical facilities in Colorado, and Warren Air Force Base, and two Wyoming National Guard armories in Wyoming were found. A somewhat detailed description of a firebombing attack on what is believed to have been the Hare Krishna Temple in Denver was also discovered. An attack, as described in these writings, did, in fact, take place in Denver in August 1984, causing an estimated $200,000 in damage. Investigation by Denver authorities at that time revealed that a Hare Krishna Temple in Philadelphia, where FUQRA activity also had been noted, was firebombed in a similar fashion.

Among the many documents found in the Colorado Springs’ storage locker were numerous blank birth certificates; blank social security cards; several sets of Colorado drivers’ licenses, each containing a picture of the same individual, but each with a different identity; and many underground press publications concerning the assembly of phony identification -- to be reproduced in a manner to “withstand even close government scrutiny”.

Finally, the search disclosed a number of workers’ compensation claims, which ultimately led to a full-scale fraud investigation being conducted by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in coordination with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Joint Terrorist Task Force.

This investigation revealed that Colorado Springs FUQRA members had defrauded the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment of approximately $350,000 dollars between September 1984 and January 1992. The mobility and multiple addresses and identities of the various FUQRA members posed a significant challenge to early detection and normal prevention of the fraud. As a result of the two-year investigation, five FUQRA members were indicted by the statewide grand jury in September 1992 on racketeering charges involving theft, mail fraud, and forgery. Six months after the indictments, further racketeering charges, including theft of rental property, conspiracy to commit murder and arson (the Denver Hare Krishna Temple), were also filed against the five individuals and a sixth person -- all FUQRA members. Some of the fraudulently obtained workers’ compensation funds were traced directly to payments for a parcel of land near Buena Vista used by the group as a residence compound and training site.

One of the FUQRA defendants convicted is James D. Williams. After his conviction in 1993 for conspiracy to commit first degree murder, racketeering, and forgery, Williams fled and remained a fugitive until being apprehended in Virginia in August 2000. He was returned to Colorado and sentenced this past March to 69 years in prison. From at least the middle 1980’s through 1990, Williams was a leader of a Colorado FUQRA.

The conviction for conspiracy to commit first degree murder referred to a comprehensive written plan for the murder of a Tucson, Arizona Muslim cleric, Rashad Khalifa. Khalifa was murdered in January 1990 in a manner that was remarkably similar to the written plan.

It is believed the activities of UL FUQRA across the nation continue. Just recently the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (BATF) arrested one of the former Colorado defendants and FUQRA member, Vincente Rafael Pierre, in Virginia on alleged ammunition violations. In California, a FUQRA member was arrested on the suspected murder of a Fresno County Deputy Sheriff this last August. In addition, FUQRA operates something called the Quranic Open University in Los Angeles, which has received over $1.5 million dollars over the course of the last two years in charter school funding. This entity is also located in New York City and Philadelphia. There are believed to be active UL FUQRA training compounds still existing in New York, Michigan, South Carolina, California, and perhaps other states.

FUQRA or its members have been investigated for alleged terrorist acts including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles and Tucson. UL FUQRA is suspected of more than thirteen firebombings and, at least, as many murders within the United States”

8. This Library of Congress site provides a brief summary for a report on Jamaat ul-Fuqra:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/international/hispanic/terrorism/pakistan.html

Jamaat ul-Fuqra

(http://www.ict.org.il/inter%5Fter/orgdet.cfm?orgid=16)

The International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), located in Herzlia, Israel, provides a profile for the terrorist organization, Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which is based in Pakistan. The Islamic sect commits acts of violence against those that they view as enemies of Islam. The ICT discusses the history and terrorist activities of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.”

9. The National Criminal Justice Reference Service, of the Department of Justice, provides this 93 page report on Jamaat ul Fuqra and Sheikh Gilani (spelled Jilani here):
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/209520.pdf

Annotation: Using a case study of the investigation and prosecution of members of a terrorist group (Jamaat Ul Fuqra) in Colorado, this research report identifies the types of white-collar crimes used by the group for funding + mechanisms and identity deception and suggests how lessons learned from white-collar crime investigations can provide guidance for State and local police and prosecutors who may investigate terrorist groups.

Abstract: The Fuqra group was first organized in Pakistan by Sheikh Mubarik Al Jilani Hasmi, who also established a United States Fuqra organization in 1980. Most members of the U.S. Fuqra are African-Americans who have adopted extremist beliefs and live in communal environments or “Jamaats.” In August 1989, the discovery of a storage locker by the Colorado Springs police marked the beginning of an investigation that focused on fraudulent claims for worker’s compensation, a white-collar crime that is the focus of this report. Linked to the fraudulent worker’s compensation claims were other white-collar crimes, notably identification fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. Proceeds from these crimes were used to plan violent terrorist acts. This research obtained information on these cases through interviews and document analysis. This report describes the Colorado investigation in a module format. The first module describes the organization and activity of Fuqra, followed by a module on the investigation of properties that included a vehicle search, a storage locker search, and the search of a Fuqra compound. The third module details investigations of four fraudulent worker’s compensation claims, and the fourth module addresses the group’s cash flow from fraud to the purchase of property. Legal strategies are profiled in a fifth module, and the sixth module discusses lessons learned and best practices. 13 tables, 4 charts, and 3 supplementary appendixes

Main Term(s): Domestic Preparedness

Index Term(s): White collar crimes; Organized crime investigation; Fraud; Revolutionary or terrorist groups; Prosecution; Organized crime; Insurance fraud; Terrorist tactics; Investigative techniques; Money laundering; NIJ final report; Colorado

Sheikh It Up

 
Back in early 2002, Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani had his fifteen minutes of media fame as the “reclusive sheikh” of Pakistan, whom Daniel Pearl was attempting to interview about an alleged connection with Richard Reid, aka the “Shoe Bomber”. When Mr. Pearl was abducted and murdered, Sheikh Gilani immediately became a suspect, and various media organizations began their own investigation of him.

CBS News sent a “60 Minutes II” team to Lahore, and somehow — better-paid bodyguards? a higher media profile? not being Jewish? — they managed to survive and interview the sheikh. According to a web version of the report:

	Gilani is a mysterious figure in the Islamic world. He is said to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed. But for Pearl two other things set him apart. First, Gilani along with his followers have appeared on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. Second, and even more provocative, the sheik has thousands of disciples who live right here in the United States. Dan Rather reports.
	Pearl was following a lead. He thought that Richard Reid, the alleged shoe bomber, may have been a part of Gilani’s network of disciples. When 60 Minutes II Reporter George Crile arrived in Pakistan on Feb. 11, 19 days after Pearl had been taken captive, Pearl’s fate was still unknown. But Gilani was now behind bars, a principal suspect in Pearl’s kidnapping.
	[…]
	In the [State Department] report, Gilani’s organization was described as an “Islamic sect that seeks to purify Islam through violence.” His followers, who call themselves The Muslims of America,” are based in the United States, thousands operating in 19 states across the country.
	Most of them are African-American Muslims, who live in self-contained Islamic communities, like one they named Islamville in South Carolina, with its own mosque, its own school and more than 100 residents. All of them accept Gilani as their ultimate authority.
	[…]
	The sheik welcomed them into his home. Was this man at the heart of a terror network that threatened the U.S.? Was he behind Richard Reid? Crile had the opportunity to ask those questions, to a man who does not operate in public and does not give interviews.
	Gilani said that he had nothing to do with Pearl’s kidnapping. He also said he did not know anything about Richard Reid, and that Reid was not part of his group.
	[…]
	Gilani also said he was not part of al-Qaeda. “Why should I be part of it? I don’t, I just - I’m a reformer, educationist. And I am not part of anybody.” He also said he didn’t know bin Laden, and has never met him.

That’s it? That’s the extent of the investigation? I guess we’re just supposed to take the sheikh’s word for it. Isn’t CBS even going to forge a few documents to support their contentions?

As it happens, there is ample evidence of Sheikh Gilani’s association with the Great Islamic Jihad. As Mira L. Boland reported in the Weekly Standard:

	Sheikh Gilani has rubbed shoulders at international terrorist confabs with gunslingers from Hamas and Hezbollah, their mullah backers, and Osama bin Laden. And he has trained fighters for the battlefields of Kashmir, Chechnya, and Bosnia.
	[…]
	Over the years, at least a dozen Fuqra members have been convicted of crimes including conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud in the United States or Canada…
	Sheikh Gilani found his first American recruits by raiding the ranks of an existing American Muslim organization, the Dar ul Islam. At a Brooklyn mosque, Gilani, sporting ammunition belts, preached Islam as the path to a better life and called for fighters to join the holy war against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Couldn’t CBS have looked at Ms. Boland’s sources and checked the man’s record out thoroughly? Spend a few minutes on the web googling him, and you’ll find plenty of information about the sheikh’s proclivities.

But CBS News does offer a glimpse into other aspects of Sheikh Gilani’s worldview:

	He wanted to talk about what he sees as the most serious threat to the world, why bad things happen in America, including acts of terrorism. These bad things, he says, are caused by invisible forces.
	“There are beings who are not visible to you,” he says. “But they inhabit this earth. And they are damaging, causing psychotic diseases, fits, epilepsies. And controlling the agents, controlling the human beings.”
	Gilani says he can control those evil forces. He says that he is not a threat to the U.S., but could be its salvation.
	To understand why, he points to an American television show “The X-Files.” He says the mind control and evil influence that aliens wield over human beings in the program is much like the power of the invisible forces he believes in.
	“What is an X-file? Most of things - could have happened or will happen,” Gilani said. “Human beings can be made to do things against their will. They can be made to commit crimes. They can made to go and kill people. You know? And all your missiles, all your rockets, space ships go up. And electronics, they can be damaged, influenced, and misdirected through the agencies of gin [sic – should be jinn or djinn] beings.”
	Muslims all over the world also believe in these invisible evil forces that are described in the Koran. The sheik feels that these forces are a much bigger threat to the U.S. than terrorism. He says the United States should thank him for passing on his message about the invisible world instead of accusing him of terrorism.

So it seems that Sheikh Gilani is quite an interesting fellow, with much more intellectual depth than the average “Kill the Jews and Crusaders” mujahid.


But the sheikh had second thoughts about CBS after the interview. Evidently the evil djinni had possessed “60 Minutes,” and Sheikh Gilani felt compelled to set the record straight.

On his merchandising website, the sheikh is now selling a video called Beyond 60 Minutes II. According to its product description:

Discover the conspiracy to abduct and character assassinate, Sultan Syed ubarik Jilani Qadri by falsely connecting him with the Daniel Pearl and Richard Reid cases.

	Imam Jilani was a victim of Zionist media terrorism which was unleashed worldwide against him, the Int’l Quranic Open University of NY, and 22 Islamic villages in the USA. They alleged that R. Reid, so called shoe bomber was a student of our University and a follower of Imam Jilani.
	El Sheikh Jilani, Sajjadah Nasheen of the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Mian Mir Qadri of Lahore, has hundreds and thousands of American Muslim followers spread out in 22 towns in the USA and other countries in the world, was a victim of character assassination.
	On the 13th of Sept., CNN News broadcastedthat Richard Reid admitted to acting independently alone without any outside help.
	In Part 1, all of the false propaganda is revealed and irrefutable evidence about 9/11 is shown, unveiling the conspiracy against the American people and the world at large.
	Also, the most important point is the factthat thousands of people have witnessedhundreds of miracles as well as many miraculous healings in hospitals since the arrival of El Sheikh Jilani in the 1980’s, proving that our Imam and his Jamaat are saviors to the people.

Notice that the sheikh acknowledges twenty-two Muslims of America communities. Can you identify them all? Red House and Meherrin are the two nearest Gates of Vienna, but there may be one just down the street from you.

In a book for sale on his site, Sheikh Gilani expands on the history of Islam in America (modestly including his own role in it):

	This book covers the history of Islam in America, from its early roots among the Native Americans who had been interacting with Arab traders hundreds of years before Columbus “discovered” America, and its long period of dormancy until the 20th century when Islam suddenly began to come under the spotlight, although it was propounded mainly by many false and misguided people. Islam was at first misrepresented as a “black mans religion” and Holy Quran was mistranslated into the English language in accord with the wishes of those proponents of the New World Order, whose intention was to feed the American people a “watered down” and distorted Islam because they knew that if people were to become true Muslims they would never stand for the injustice and oppression which is the very backbone of their plan for world domination.
	Consequently, through their agents the Wahabis, the Mazais and others, a vicious and many faceted plan was set into motion to keep those people who became Muslims ignorant of the real teachings of Islam, and to create an atmosphere of fear and mistrust towards Islam among the general population of America. However, as “Allah is the best of Planners.” The tables were turned and all their plans backfired when in the 1970s American Muslims began to realize they were being duped, and a desire for true Islam was awakened in their hearts.
	In answer to that earnest desire, Allah, the Most Merciful sent a rightly guided Murshid in the person of his eminence El Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Jilani, who was immediately recognized and followed by thousands of American Muslims, who by his blessed guidance formed Muslims of the Americas, and began a great Hijra, leaving the decadent cities to establish their own Muslim towns and villages throughout the land where true Islam would be fully implemented and practiced. This book tells the story of their long journey from ignorance to enlightenment, their “tragedy and triumph” from the beginning to the present day.

Boy, that explains a lot. Now we know why the Indians took scalps, massacred settlers, and murdered innocent women and children — they were Muslims! And it was the evil infidel Crusaders’ firewater that brought about their downfall, as we all know.

Leaving aside history, Sheikh Gilani takes up medicine, specifically Quranic Psychiatry,

Book 1, Ultimate Fraud of Freudists contains results of a research and demonstration project done at the Psychiatric Research Institute, Saudi Arabia – and U.S.A Research Centers since 1977. In front of researchers from eight countries, El Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Jilani, Vice Chancellor of International Quranic Open University, demonstrated the affects of chapters and lines from Holy Quran in healing some “incurable” mental and physical diseases. Since a large number of patients have been healed by the qualified practitioner of Quranic Psychiatry (QOU), this book gives theoretical and practical explanations of causes and remedies of many “incurable” diseases.

El Sheikh Jilani was declared Imam of Quranic Sciences in a meeting of physicians and researchers in Taif. Afterwards, Dr. Rushdee Mahmood was inspired to write a long poem in Arabic extolling the extraordinary title and honor bestowed upon his eminence El Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Jilani, Hashmi, Wal Husseini.

Wouldn’t you rather be under the care of a Quranic practitioner rather than some (probably Jewish) “psychiatrist”? I know I would.

In another video, the renowned polymath expounds on the same topic he covered in the CBS interview, namely the influence of evil spirits. Look at the blurb for The Science of Interpreting Events Seen During Sleep and Awakened States and the Method of Directing and Averting the Ill Affects:

The International Quranic Open University Inc. is pleased to produce this most valuable and informative documentary which concerns every person. No one can afford to remain ignorant of the least basic knowledge of understanding and knowing the interpretation of events seen during sleep and awakened state. Allah taught this to Hazrat Yoosuf (as) and the purpose was not only to teach him, but to also give him knowledge of averting and directing the harmful affects of things seen. We see that Pharaoh, the then ruler of Egypt, saw in his sleep state 7 lean cows devouring 7 fat cows. Similarly, there is a lot in Surah Yoosuf for us to learn. Hazrat Yoosuf interpreted not only what it meant, but also adapted various methods to combat the ill affects of the 7 years of famine by which this beholding meant.

	Therefore, in this short documentary, a basic understanding has been developed with a focus to rid people of superstition and unknown fear, which arises out of ignorance when interpreting events seen during a sleep state.
	This documentary is one in the series of the Revival of Islamic Sciences.

Mind you, this effort to get rid of superstition is a revival of Islamic Science. Just think what the world would be like if we could rid ourselves of the pernicious influence of such infidel sciences as Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, and return to the golden age of Islamic learning! Remember, everything that we could ever need or want to know is already present in the Quran.

Sheikh Gilani has many more important items for sale on the VCTech Productions site, and they’re all worth a look. I was curious about vctechpro.com, and wanted to know more about them, but their “Information”, “About Us”, and “FAQs” pages are all blank. If you go to “Contact Us”, you get a web form which will take your message and carry it away — presumably by affrit — to… Well, to somewhere.

As a matter of interest, in its domain information, vctechpro.com lists as its contact one Razzaq Clark, in Johnson City, NY. I’ll bet you’re not surprised that Johnson City is just a short hop down the highway from Hancock, NY, the headquarters of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.

A Sixth-Century Sheikh Gilani?

Here’s an update on Tuesday’s decision by the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors to retain Sheikh Gilani Lane. Most of the material in this story from The Richmond Times-Dispatch is similar to yesterday’s WSET news story, but there are a few interesting additions.

First of all, our congressman, the Hon. Virgil H. Goode, Jr., has made his feelings on the issue very clear:

Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-5th, said in a statement that he had no vote or voice in determining the name of any road in Charlotte County, but if he did, he had an opinion.

“If I did,” Goode said in the statement, “I would vote against naming a road for Sheikh Ghilani, based upon my knowledge of Sheikh Ghilani and his background.”

The RTD also talked to Martin Mawyer:

Martin J. Mawyer, president of Christian Action Network, yesterday called the supervisors’ action “outrageous and an act that borders on cowardice.” His group says it is a nonprofit lobbying organization dedicated to protecting traditions of the American family and defending the nation against radical Islam.

But my favorite snip is this one:

In the supervisors’ discussion, a question also was raised as to whether the road sign may have referred to someone who lived in the 6th century.

This little tidbit is so rich in ignorance that it’s hard to know where to begin.
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The residents of a Muslims of America compound, for some reason, decided to name their road for a guy who lived a hundred years before Islam began?

The organization known as “The Muslims of America” was founded in New York in 1980 by Sheikh Syed Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani. The Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House has a prominent sign at its entrance that reads, “The Muslims of America”. Yet there’s no connection between between MOA’s Sheikh Gilani and the name on the road sign, right?

Does the Board of Supervisors also have some prime Florida swampland that it wants to sell us?

If you’re new to this issue, start with my first JF post and follow the links to the sources. Or look down our left sidebar to find links to more Jamaat ul-Fuqra stories. Or visit CP’s place and look through his archives; he has more data on Sheikh Gilani, the Muslims of America, and Jamaat ul-Fuqra than anyone else on the web — and maybe more than the FBI.

The amount of information available about the nefarious activities of Sheikh Gilani is extensive and still growing. After you read it, see if you think that the Red House compound is just a retreat for peaceful religious believers.

See if you think that Sheikh Gilani deserves to be recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia with an official road sign bearing his name.