Amina Abdullah, the widow of slain African-American Muslim leader who was assassinated by the FBI on October 28, 2009. Community organizations have spoken out against his murder. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Protest, press conferences demand justice for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah
By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
On Feb. 1 the long suppressed autopsy of slain Muslim leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was released to the public at the Dearborn Police headquarters. Imam Abdullah was killed in Dearborn, right outside Detroit on October 28, 2009.
The autopsy reported that the imam was shot 21 times, with numerous wounds in the mid-section, waist and groin areas. At least one shot was through the back. There were also numerous lacerations on his hands and forehead, presumably from the attack dog that was killed during the FBI operation.
There was much anticipation in the Detroit area prior to the release of the autopsy report. The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) held a demonstration and press conference outside Dearborn police headquarters on the day of the release.
This demonstration and press conference was supported by the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and was attended by the son of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah as well as members of his mosque, Masjid al-Haqq. At present ten members of the mosque have felony charges pending against them in connection with the FBI infiltration of the the Masjid al-Haqq.
MECAWI described the death of the imam as a "targeted assassination." This quote was picked up by news agencies throughout the world including the Associated Press, UPI, Islamonline.net, Russia Today, among others.
The following day, Feb. 2, another press conference was held at the Michigan Bldg. in downtown Detroit. It was called by U.S. Congressman John Conyers, Jr., who issued a letter requsting an internal investigation of the actions of the FBI field office in Detroit.
Conyers wrote in the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that "I write seeking your personal assurance that the Department's investigation into the shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Dearborn, Michigan on October 28, 2009, will be appropriately rigorous, thorough, and --most critically--transparent. In addition, I call for the Department's Civil Rights Division to conduct a separate, independent review of whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation's use of confidential informants in our nation's houses of worship may constitute a deprivation of protected constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. 14141."
At the Feb. 2 press conference called by Cong. Conyers, the widow of Imam Abdullah was present on the panel and it was revealed that federal immigration authorities are attempting to deport her from the United States. Amina Abdullah, a national of the East African state of Tanzania, has also been placed on a tether.
In addition to the harassment of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah's widow by immigration authorities, one of the sons of Imam Abdullah, Mujahid Carswell, is a defendant in the Detroit 10 case. Members of the imam's family and mosque were victims of the FBI infiltration of their group. The information supplied by the FBI lured the imam and his followers to the warehouse where he was gunned down by federal agents.
MECAWI told members of the international press on Feb. 1 that the assassination of Imam Abdullah represented a pattern of systematic harassment and persecution of Muslims in the United States and abroad. With the imam being African-American it must also be viewed within the context of the standard government policy to both neutralize and liquidate the effective leadership emanating from this oppressed community.
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