Detroit groups to protest FBI terrorism on Nov. 5

Funeral services for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah were held Oct. 31 at the Muslim Center on Detroit’s west side. More than a thousand people attended the memorial from the Detroit area and around the United States. The Muslim leader had been gunned down by FBI agents on Oct. 28.

Speakers at the services stressed that Imam Abdullah was known throughout the city and country as a peaceful man who worked tirelessly to help the poor people in the community surrounding the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque, where he had presided for decades. Questions were raised about the account of the events given by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s office and the corporate media.

According to information that surfaced just days after his assassination, the Imam was shot 18 times by FBI agents at a warehouse in Dearborn, located right outside the city of Detroit. The warehouse had been set up by the FBI in an attempt to frame the mosque members for involvement in “stolen goods.” The purported “stolen goods” were also supplied by the FBI.

Imam Dawud Walid, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Michigan, told the Fighting for Justice radio program, which aired on the Detroit affiliate of Air America on Nov. 1, that “Imam Luqman was shot 18 times before he was handcuffed and placed on a stretcher. In a meeting between the FBI, representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s office and area leaders of the Muslim community on Friday, they informed us that Imam Abdullah never fired on the federal agents. They said that the Imam shot at an FBI dog and then he was shot by the agents. The dog was medivaced to a veterinary hospital while the Imam received no medical attention,” Imam Walid said.

Also speaking on the program was Imam Abdullah Bey El-Amin of the Muslim Center, where the funeral was held for the assassinated leader. Imam El-Amin corroborated that “Imam Abdullah had multiple, multiple, multiple gunshot wounds to his body.” El-Amin, a funeral director by profession, prepared the slain leader’s body for burial.

Imams Walid and El-Amin, plus other prominent Islamic leaders in the Detroit area, have called for an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding Imam Abdullah’s death. Callers to the radio program viewed the shooting and the arrests of other Masjid Al-Haqq members as a continuation of the federal government’s Counter-Intelligence Program (Cointelpro), which was implemented against so-called dissidents between the 1950s and the 1970s.

The African-American community suffered the most damage from the Cointelpro terror operations, which resulted in the deaths of numerous leaders and the framing of others by the federal government and local police agencies across the country.

Groups to demonstrate at Federal Building

In response to the assassination of Imam Abdullah, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) has called for a mass demonstration outside the federal building in downtown Detroit on Nov. 5, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. The demonstration is designed to both condemn the assassination of the Islamic leader as well as demand an independent investigation into his death at the hands of the FBI.

A statement issued by MECAWI on Nov. 2 said that “The FBI and the media headlines are trying to cover up this outrageous murder. But their story has changed every day as more and more facts have come to light. Even the government’s own ‘criminal complaint’ makes it clear that there was no reason for this huge assault on the Muslim community.”

Groups endorsing the demonstration include the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, Latinos Unidos of Michigan, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Detroit Green Party and Workers World Party.