Detroit Muslim Cleric Hate
Detroit imam urged use of force to start a new society
BY NIRAJ WARIKOO AND ROBIN ERB
Detroit FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
October 29, 2009
A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday in Detroit provides
unprecedented detail into a world where, authorities say, a group of
radical Sunni Muslims were urged to take over the U.S. government and
establish Islamic law.
The complaint says that the imam or leader of the group, Luqman Ameen
Abdullah, repeatedly used rhetoric that urged Muslims to seize power
with violence and establish a society where Muslims would rule over
non-Muslims.
"America must fall," Abdullah said, according to the complaint. At
another point, he "told followers that they need to be with the
Taliban, Hizballah, and with Sheikh Bin Laden."
"We should be figuring out how to fight the Kuffar," Abdullah said at
another point, the indictment states. Kuffar "is a highly derogatory
term" used to describe non-Mulisms, the document states.
"You see, we need to figure out how to be a bullet," Abdullah said, according to the government.
In chilling detail, the 43-page indictment portrays a mosque where
hateful rhetoric was repeatedly used by Abdullah, including during
Friday sermons, traditionally the most popular gathering time in
mosques.
Abdullah also used violence to enforce control, the indictment said, often beating children.
"We got to take out the U.S. government," Abdullah said at another point. "The U.S. government is nothing but Kuffars."
In a two-year undercover investigation, federal agents reported that
Abdullah's followers were repeatedly told that criminal actions were OK
if they were for the good of Islam.
Abdullah said that the Quran, the holy book for Muslims, "justified
stealing, robbing and other illegal acts, as long as they profit Islam."
Authorities said that Abdullah had had a criminal past and run-ins with
the law, including a 1981 conviction for felonious assault and carrying
a concealed weapon.
But Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, said he has a completely different
knowledge of Abdullah from his 10 years of association.
Walid said that Abdullah, who is married and has children, let homeless
people sleep in the group's mosque and fed people who were hungry.
"I know him as a respected imam in the Muslim community," Walid said.
Walid said he and other imams from the local Muslim community plan to
sit down today with Andrew Arena, the head of the Detroit FBI office,
to talk to him about their concerns about linking the weapons and
smuggling charges to the Muslim faith.
The indictment repeatedly states that Abdullah cited Islam as a way to justify his calls to violence.
Walid criticized any links between the allegations of violence to
Islam, saying that the faiths of other defendants in other cases are
not relevant.
The incident, he said, may inflame already tense relations between
federal agencies and those who feel Muslims have been unfairly targeted
within their own mosques.
"As much as our president says nice, flowery things about Muslims and
Islam in Cairo or Istanbul, these types of stories just erode that,"
Walid said.