Community anger grows over Imam’s assassination

A community meeting was held March 27 to announce the launching of an independent investigation into the assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. The event was held at the Historic New Bethel Baptist Church on Detroit’s West Side, just several blocks east of the location of the Masjid al-Haqq mosque, where Abdullah served as leader for more than two decades.

Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah

Abdullah was shot 20 times by FBI agents on Oct. 28, during a series of raids carried out by a multijurisdictional task force that included Dearborn, Mich., and Detroit police. The Masjid al-Haqq mosque had been infiltrated by the FBI for more than two years, during which time informants sought unsuccessfully to encourage illegal activities among the members.

Abdullah and several of his members were eventually lured to a warehouse in neighboring Dearborn to assist with the unloading of merchandise. The FBI then sent in a dog that attacked the imam, who was later killed in a hail of bullets.

The March 27 rally was attended by several hundred local activists and religious leaders from the Muslim and Christian communities. The event was co-sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Michigan and the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, with endorsements from the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shutoffs.

DCAPB spokesperson Ron Scott chaired the meeting, and presentations were made by the Nation of Islam, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, CAIR, Congressperson John Conyers and MECAWI. Appeals were made for donations for the legal defense fund for 10 other Masjid al-Haqq members, the Detroit 10, who face felony charges stemming from the raids.

Imam Dawud Walid, Michigan CAIR’s executive director, described the delayed release of evidence. At the request of Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad, the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s report was not issued until Feb. 1. The release of 75 autopsy photographs was also held up by the Dearborn police.

A number of local and national organizations have demanded a Justice Department review of the FBI actions, including the use of informants in religious organizations. Detroit Congressperson John Conyers, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter in February to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder requesting such an investigation. The requests have gone unanswered.

Corporate media slander as photographs released

The much anticipated release of the autopsy and crime scene photographs took place on April 8. Five photos, made public by CAIR, illustrated the brutal nature of the assassination.

However, one day prior to the release, the Detroit News published a front-page story that attempted to undermine the growing community support for Abdullah’s family and the Masjid al-Haqq members. The article claimed that in 1980, a 22-year-old Abdullah attempted to grab the revolver of a Livonia, Mich., police officer during a routine traffic stop. (April 7)

This article asserts: “Livonia police reports detail the incident that led to Abdullah’s 1981 conviction for felonious assault on a police officer, for which he served 26 days in jail. They provide another view of the man some supporters have described as a peaceful observer of Islam but a criminal complaint describes as a radical separatist intent on killing police officers.”

It is unlikely that an African-American youth accused and convicted of felonious assault against a suburban Detroit police officer in 1980 would have served only 26 days in jail. Attorney Nabih Ayad, a Canton Township, Mich., lawyer representing the Abdullah family, told the Detroit News that raising the incident, which is three decades old, was “extremely far-fetched and without any credibility” in relation to Abdullah’s death.

Mujahid Carswell, Abdullah’s son and a well-known Hip-Hop artist who is also a Detroit 10 defendant, told this writer that the claims made against his father in regard to the purported Livonia incident were highly unlikely. Carswell, who is known in the recording world as “Mu,” said that the authorities are attempting to take attention away from the gross injustice done to his father, his family and his followers.

One of the photographs shows the imam handcuffed, lying facedown and riddled with bullets. This photograph was published by the local newspapers; however, more graphic pictures were not shown in the corporate press.

At an April 11 community meeting held by DCAPB at the downtown St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, Walid presented two other photographs that show deep lacerations to Abdullah’s face, apparently from dog bites.

The Detroit Free Press stated in an April 8 editorial: “Efforts to manage community sentiments by withholding information always fail — and often backfire. With many lingering questions about how Abdullah died, Abdullah has become a national and even international figure — and, in some circles, a martyr. Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies have lost credibility with many of the Muslim-American groups they are trying to build relationships with in the post-9/11 era.”

Numerous organizations have issued letters and passed resolutions decrying the assassination and demanding justice, including the NAACP, the Democratic Party 14th District Caucus, MECAWI, the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners, the Congress of Arab-American Organizations and the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.

Both Carswell and Abdullah’s other son, Omar Regan, have expressed their appreciation for the work of MECAWI in organizing three demonstrations in response to the assassination, the appearance of Attorney General Holder in Detroit last November and the delayed release of the autopsy report on Feb. 1.