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Director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, DC, Imam Abdul Alim Musa |
The following is the transcript of a Press TV interview with US Muslim activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, DC, Imam Abdul Alim Musa, on the recent killing of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah by US federal agents during an alleged shootout in Detroit.
Over one thousand American Muslims gathered in the city of Detroit on Saturday to mourn the prayers leader who was shot several times by the FBI in an apparent attempt to arrest him.
As well as giving a new angle into what actually occurred, Imam Musa's intriguing comments can also provide an insight into the current atmosphere of the American Muslim community and the US establishment's attitude toward Islam in general.
Q. The FBI has said that Imam Luqman resisted arrest and shot the police dog before being killed. Do you have any other information on what took place?
A. I am now reading what I have in my hand, the indictment from the United States court. This is about a 42-page indictment, and this indictment has information that was given to the federal government by certain informants. I want to read a portion of this document to give you an idea why we call the Imam Luqman killing an assassination by the FBI.
If you notice the government, in order to do something to you, they have to prearrange a scenario so that they do whatever crime that they want to commit. When they wanted to invade Iraq they said there were weapons of mass destruction. So, this is what they said. Although it wasn't true it justified the invasion.
I would like to read what source number one, who is an FBI informant, says about Imam Luqman. This is in December 2007. It says source number one testified that on many occasions he heard Luqman Abdullah preach that Islam should be spread through violent jihad and advocate violence against the government and against law enforcement.
Abdullah told his followers that if the police tried to take his weapon or tried to apprehend him he would respond with violence and they will have to shoot him before they can arrest him. Ok, this is a government informer giving the government the information that they want to justify using violent means against Imam Luqman.
So, what we are saying is that we refer to his killing as an assassination by the federal government. This is to intimidate the rest of the Muslim community. The Muslims in America are under a lot of pressure and the masjids, the Muslim centers, the community centers are full of government infiltrators, spies, and saboteurs who try to break the back of this wonderful Islamic movement in North America.
So what the government is doing by assassinating Imam Luqman is trying to intimidate the Muslim community, especially the black community. And I say that because the immigrant community, which is about half of the Muslims in the United States and the African American Muslim community, which form the other half, have different views about Islam in America and how it should be fostered.
The immigrant community has been frightened since the 9/11 terrorist attack and they practice the kind of American style Islam. Now, the killing of Imam Luqman is to intimidate us. But our message is different. We will not be intimidated by the United States government or by the FBI.
We all state clearly what Imam Luqman said on one occasion. I have from the same information something that source two, another government informer said about Imam Luqman. This is on December 12 2007. Source two told me he had been with Luqman Abdullah outside the masjid on that day and he was able to surreptitiously record their conversation.
S2 told Abdullah he had authority to donate five thousand dollars to pay to have someone do something during the 2006 super ball in Detroit.
Abdullah said he would not be involved in injuring innocent people for no reason. If there is something to be done it is going to be legitimate. This is what we are saying.
This is from the FBI's own records. They had sent an informer to donate five thousand dollars to have Imam Luqman do some terrorist type thing at the super ball, which was in Detroit in 2006. Imam Luqman, by sticking to his principles of Islam, said and this is recorded on page four of the FBI indictment, it says that Imam Luqman said he would not be involved in injuring innocent people for no reason.
You see, so, this is the principle that we all follow here in America. This is in their own FBI record. They knew, already, that Imam Luqman was not violence prone. They already knew that he would not do any harm to any citizen, by his own words, that was not legitimate and that we would not harm innocent people for no reason.
But when you listen to the television and the radio and all of the news they try to portray Imam Luqman and his group, and the larger group, al-Ummah [not Ummah, which is usually interpreted as the overall Muslim community] as violence prone; as wanting to establish an independent Islamic state in North America ruled by Sharia law and that Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin, which is the leader who is now in a super max prison up in Florence, Colorado would be its leader.
Q. Can you give us a little bit of information about this group, Ummah. Can you explain a little bit about it?
A. al-Ummah is led by Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin who was a great civil rights leader during the 1960s. He converted to Islam in 1972 and became a part of one of our great Islamic movements in North America called Dar al-Islam Movement.
When that movement broke up in about 1980 and 1981 Imam Jamil Al Amin inherited or kept together one section of that group. That group became known as al-Ummah or basically the community, and so, they have centers all around America, in Atlanta in Detroit, in many cities in Philadelphia, and other cities around the country.
It is mostly an African American organization and it believes in the principle of strong leadership, and so, the goal of this leadership, and I am telling you from experience; I have worked very closely with the brothers, we have been friends and associates for 25 or 30 years now; this group's goal is to spread Islam in America, not through violent means, but by what the Quran says - bring to the way of the lord through wisdom and preaching.
So their goal is to invite the American people to Islam through beautiful preaching, through Da'wa [Arabic for invitation], through Tabligh [Arabic for advertisement] through all the legitimate means, but the government in America is fearful of any group that has any Islamic organization with good strong leadership, especially if that leadership has ties to Muslims around the world, which Imam Jamil Al Amin does.
So the goal of the government is to destroy this group and to send the message to other African Americans that the federal government will not allow any unified, organized Islamic activities to be carried on inside of the United States of America. But we have a message for them. We will not be intimidated by the government of the United States of America.
Over one thousand American Muslims gathered in the city of Detroit on Saturday to mourn the prayers leader who was shot several times by the FBI in an apparent attempt to arrest him.
As well as giving a new angle into what actually occurred, Imam Musa's intriguing comments can also provide an insight into the current atmosphere of the American Muslim community and the US establishment's attitude toward Islam in general.
Q. The FBI has said that Imam Luqman resisted arrest and shot the police dog before being killed. Do you have any other information on what took place?
A. I am now reading what I have in my hand, the indictment from the United States court. This is about a 42-page indictment, and this indictment has information that was given to the federal government by certain informants. I want to read a portion of this document to give you an idea why we call the Imam Luqman killing an assassination by the FBI.
If you notice the government, in order to do something to you, they have to prearrange a scenario so that they do whatever crime that they want to commit. When they wanted to invade Iraq they said there were weapons of mass destruction. So, this is what they said. Although it wasn't true it justified the invasion.
I would like to read what source number one, who is an FBI informant, says about Imam Luqman. This is in December 2007. It says source number one testified that on many occasions he heard Luqman Abdullah preach that Islam should be spread through violent jihad and advocate violence against the government and against law enforcement.
Abdullah told his followers that if the police tried to take his weapon or tried to apprehend him he would respond with violence and they will have to shoot him before they can arrest him. Ok, this is a government informer giving the government the information that they want to justify using violent means against Imam Luqman.
So, what we are saying is that we refer to his killing as an assassination by the federal government. This is to intimidate the rest of the Muslim community. The Muslims in America are under a lot of pressure and the masjids, the Muslim centers, the community centers are full of government infiltrators, spies, and saboteurs who try to break the back of this wonderful Islamic movement in North America.
So what the government is doing by assassinating Imam Luqman is trying to intimidate the Muslim community, especially the black community. And I say that because the immigrant community, which is about half of the Muslims in the United States and the African American Muslim community, which form the other half, have different views about Islam in America and how it should be fostered.
The immigrant community has been frightened since the 9/11 terrorist attack and they practice the kind of American style Islam. Now, the killing of Imam Luqman is to intimidate us. But our message is different. We will not be intimidated by the United States government or by the FBI.
We all state clearly what Imam Luqman said on one occasion. I have from the same information something that source two, another government informer said about Imam Luqman. This is on December 12 2007. Source two told me he had been with Luqman Abdullah outside the masjid on that day and he was able to surreptitiously record their conversation.
S2 told Abdullah he had authority to donate five thousand dollars to pay to have someone do something during the 2006 super ball in Detroit.
Abdullah said he would not be involved in injuring innocent people for no reason. If there is something to be done it is going to be legitimate. This is what we are saying.
This is from the FBI's own records. They had sent an informer to donate five thousand dollars to have Imam Luqman do some terrorist type thing at the super ball, which was in Detroit in 2006. Imam Luqman, by sticking to his principles of Islam, said and this is recorded on page four of the FBI indictment, it says that Imam Luqman said he would not be involved in injuring innocent people for no reason.
You see, so, this is the principle that we all follow here in America. This is in their own FBI record. They knew, already, that Imam Luqman was not violence prone. They already knew that he would not do any harm to any citizen, by his own words, that was not legitimate and that we would not harm innocent people for no reason.
But when you listen to the television and the radio and all of the news they try to portray Imam Luqman and his group, and the larger group, al-Ummah [not Ummah, which is usually interpreted as the overall Muslim community] as violence prone; as wanting to establish an independent Islamic state in North America ruled by Sharia law and that Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin, which is the leader who is now in a super max prison up in Florence, Colorado would be its leader.
Q. Can you give us a little bit of information about this group, Ummah. Can you explain a little bit about it?
A. al-Ummah is led by Imam Jamil Abdullah Al Amin who was a great civil rights leader during the 1960s. He converted to Islam in 1972 and became a part of one of our great Islamic movements in North America called Dar al-Islam Movement.
When that movement broke up in about 1980 and 1981 Imam Jamil Al Amin inherited or kept together one section of that group. That group became known as al-Ummah or basically the community, and so, they have centers all around America, in Atlanta in Detroit, in many cities in Philadelphia, and other cities around the country.
It is mostly an African American organization and it believes in the principle of strong leadership, and so, the goal of this leadership, and I am telling you from experience; I have worked very closely with the brothers, we have been friends and associates for 25 or 30 years now; this group's goal is to spread Islam in America, not through violent means, but by what the Quran says - bring to the way of the lord through wisdom and preaching.
So their goal is to invite the American people to Islam through beautiful preaching, through Da'wa [Arabic for invitation], through Tabligh [Arabic for advertisement] through all the legitimate means, but the government in America is fearful of any group that has any Islamic organization with good strong leadership, especially if that leadership has ties to Muslims around the world, which Imam Jamil Al Amin does.
So the goal of the government is to destroy this group and to send the message to other African Americans that the federal government will not allow any unified, organized Islamic activities to be carried on inside of the United States of America. But we have a message for them. We will not be intimidated by the government of the United States of America.
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