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Cleric's followers have hopscotched around California
Knight Ridder/San Jose Mercury ^ | 2/3/02 | SEAN WEBBY AND BRANDON BAILEY

Posted on 02/04/2002 10:32:56 AM PST by veronica

The name of Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani has been little-known in California, except to a small number of African-American Muslims who follow his teachings, and to law enforcement authorities who have tracked their movements across the state.

But two other names are prominent in the history of Gilani's followers here. Abdullah Baqi was once described by law enforcement authorities as the West Coast leader of a dangerous group they called Ul-Fuqra. And an analysis of public records indicates that Baqi was married to the woman now called Khadijah Ghafur, who later founded the community outside Fresno known as Baladullah.

California authorities first came across Gilani's followers in 1983.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were investigating a prowler report in Compton when they noticed two men stowing something in a car trunk. The deputies reported finding a rifle, a silencer and a police scanner in the car. According to Susan Fenger, the lead state investigator on a major Ul-Fuqra case in Colorado in the 1990s, they also found documents linking the two men to other Gilani followers in the United States.

One of the two men was later identified by law enforcement authorities as Abdullah Baqi. They determined that Baqi had opened a branch of Gilani's International Qur'anic Open University at a modest home in Compton, a crowded, working-class community that was plagued by drugs and gang activity in the 1980s.

The owner of that house in Compton still lives in a neighboring city and remembers her tenants well. Landlady Verdie Faas said she rented the home to a man and his wife, Deanna, although she soon discovered dozens of other people living in trailers behind the house. Public records show that Deanna Baqi, who used the same Social Security number as Khadijah Ghafur, lived at the Compton house.

By 1984, authorities had traced Baqi to a remote spot in the high desert of the San Bernardino Mountains, about 100 miles northeast of Compton. Baqi and two other men had bought a 10-acre parcel of land there.

Neighbors today recall several dozen people - men, women and at least 20 young children - living in military-style tents and old trailers, on a dry, wind-swept parcel in an area called Summit Valley.

"They never bothered anybody, but you were always leery of them," recalled Dave Weber, who lived nearby. He remembered hearing gunfire on the property at night.

Some valley residents knew Baqi as James A. Jennings, which Baqi listed as his other name on a real-estate deed from that time. Weber described him as a cordial, well-spoken man who said he had studied in Pakistan. In another legal document from that time, Abdullah Baqi gave his wife's name as Khadijah Baqi.

After a year or so, Weber's neighbors moved farther into the hills. Then, one day in 1986, they were gone.

Sheriff's deputies searched the site and reported finding typewritten notes about the 1983 murder of a Muslim leader in Michigan, according to Fenger. They also found photographs of a mosque that had been firebombed and a photo of Baqi with another Gilani follower, Stephen Paster.

Paster was later convicted of firebombing an Oregon hotel owned by the Baghwan Shree Rajneesh, an Indian religious leader who had established his own sect in a rural part of that state.

One of the co-owners of that first desert parcel was Rasuli Jabari. Now living on a farm in Mississippi, Rasuli Jabari chuckled when he was asked about those days.

"I was a young Muslim," he said. "Having grown up through the `60s and `70s, and to be an African-American and Vietnam veteran - it was all about being a search. I was gullible and easily influenced."

Jabari said he long ago parted ways with the group, and declined to elaborate. Abdullah Baqi disappeared from the public record in the late 1980s. In 1989, Khadijah Baqi incorporated a non-profit group called Banaatun-Noor in San Bernadino County. The Muslims of the Americas today say that is the name of their affiliate for Muslim women that conducts educational trips to Pakistan.

Shortly after, Khadijah Baqi leased a former Baptist youth camp in the Central Sierra.

Property manager Polly Doyle remembers that the tenant wanted to use the site as a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families.

Soon there were several dozen people living in the cabins. But problems arose: Neighbors reported hearing gunfire on the property and local land-use officials found numerous violations of building and safety codes. By 1993, the group had fallen months behind on the rent and the owner filed to evict them.

What followed was an eviction process like Doyle had never seen. FBI agents came to interview her and the owner. And when the residents finally moved on, Doyle said, the FBI searched the camp.

A number of those residents would later turn up at Baladullah, including Khadijah Ghafur and a man named Saleh Ghafur, who has been identified in a Fresno newspaper as Khadijah Ghafur's husband.

James A. Jennings - Abdullah Baqi's other name - also turned up at Baladullah, according to tax documents citing that as his address in 1998.

Khadijah Ghafur has said she founded Baladullah as a refuge for inner-city families, particularly women and children. But at least two men from other communities of Gilani followers have come to Baladullah in recent years.

James Hobson was living at a South Carolina settlement, when he and five others were charged with illegally selling firearms to New York investigators in 1999.

Hobson fled but authorities tracked him to Baladullah. They arrested him last March at the Gateway Academy charter school in Fresno, which is operated by the non-profit organization that owns Baladullah. Then came the shooting death of a Fresno County deputy sheriff during a burglary at a cabin near Baladullah last August. Authorities have charged a young man who came to Baladullah from New York a few months earlier.

The father of shooting suspect Ramadan Abdullah said his son was showing signs of mental illness last year. Mahdi Abdullah said his son had attended youth retreats organized by a community of Gilani followers outside Binghamton, N.Y. Then, his son dropped from sight.

When the family next heard from him, Ramadan Abdullah was calling home from Fresno, where he said he was getting help in the form of "Koranic psychotherapy."

The next thing they heard, Mahdi Abdullah said, was the news of their son's arrest.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alfuqra; amati; armsdealig; armsdealing; armssmuggling; baqi; drugs; firebombing; fresno; ghafur; gilani; jamaatulfuqra; jihadinamerica; kadijahghafur; khadijahghafur; kou; moa; qou; ramadanabdullah; sheikhgilani; sheikhmubarakgilani; sheikhmubarikgilani; thedoctor; ulfuqra
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1 posted on 02/04/2002 10:32:56 AM PST by veronica
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To: truthandlife, vrwc54, lent, cachelot, onyx, alouette, weikel, bahbah, long cut, dennisw
FYI.
2 posted on 02/04/2002 10:34:02 AM PST by veronica
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To: college repub, benf, nachum, sjackson, monkeyshine, hockey pop, catspaw, agrace
FYI.
3 posted on 02/04/2002 10:35:00 AM PST by veronica
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To: veronica
This is spelled C-U-L-T. It shouldn't be surprising to find that, just like most other religions, the Muslims have problems with cults too.
4 posted on 02/04/2002 10:46:59 AM PST by goody2shooz
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To: veronica; Ernest at the Beach; Travis McGee; Clovis Skeptic; Lady in Red; all; *Jihad in America
Thanks veronica.

This is ping to the rest of you!

Eventually this wretched mess will be in more and more fish wraps, even the left wing PC ones.

This is more of the link of the despictable Black Muslims and this terror group and band of roving international Islamic terrorist and terrorist supporters!

5 posted on 02/04/2002 10:48:19 AM PST by Grampa Dave
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To: goody2shooz
Muslems seem to have more problems with cults than any other religion I know. And very few Moslem groups speak out against, or call these factions 'cults'.
6 posted on 02/04/2002 10:53:42 AM PST by bird4four4
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To: Shermy; harpseal; nix2; kayak; nita nupress; s. jackson; uncle bill; all; Ernest at the Beach...
This is for all of you great researchers and indexers on this subject.

One of you needs to develop a ping list of all the good Freepers who have spent hours indexing the articles that deal with the *Jihad in America. That way we/the rest of us can ping one of you to notify the other heavy duty researchers on *Jihad in America when we find something of interest.

I'm sure that I have left off some names here, and I apologize.

Thanks to all of you dedicated researchers in identifing these cancer *Jihad in America cells and the linking of them to other anti America/American Islamic terrorists!

7 posted on 02/04/2002 11:14:43 AM PST by Grampa Dave
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To: Grampa Dave
bttt
8 posted on 02/04/2002 11:20:18 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Grampa Dave;
I know where Summit Valley is. It is above the Silverwood resevoir which is at the end of the Great Aqueduct that comes acroos the Antelope Valley to the Victor Valley and then dumps into Silverwood resevoir. From there I not sure where the water flows but I am sure it shows up as drinking water for many of the cities below. Just to the east of the I-15 on the east leg of the State 138.

JIHAD IN AMERICA:

To find all articles tagged or indexed using JIHAD IN AMERICA, click below:
  click here >>> JIHAD IN AMERICA <<< click here  
(To view all FR Bump Lists, click here)



9 posted on 02/04/2002 11:24:14 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
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To: Grampa Dave;*Jihad in America
Firearms Training For Jihad in America

The Violence Policy Center (VPC) has obtained a copy of the document, How Can I Train Myself for Jihad. The six-page document—which has reportedly been found in terrorist safe houses in Kabul, Afghanistan—advises that "military training is an obligation in Islam upon every sane, male, mature Muslim, whether rich or poor, whether studying or working and whether living in a Muslim or non-Muslim country."1 It offers tips on various ways to make "suitable preparations for battle," including physical training, martial arts, survival and outdoors training, firearms training, and military training. This report focuses on the firearms and military training aspects of the pamphlet.

Origins of the Pamphlet. The pamphlet appears to have been originally posted on Azzam.com, run by the British company Azzam Publications, and on qoqaz.net, an affiliate of Azzam.2 Azzam was founded in late 1996 and is named after Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, a mentor to Osama bin Laden.3 Azzam has operated a site dedicated to worldwide jihad, from which funds have been steered to the Taliban in Afghanistan and to guerillas fighting the Russians in Chechnya.4 Azzam sites reportedly published explicit photographs of laughing mujahedeen warriors brandishing the body parts of Russian soldiers,5 and praised suicide bombers as "martyrs."6 Some of those sites have been shut down, but archived sites contain duplicate information such as How Can I Train Myself for Jihad. The Violence Policy Center obtained its copy from one of those sites.

Links to Al Qaeda Terrorists. In addition to the general support for worldwide jihad described above, the training pamphlet was posted on one of the Azzam-affiliated web sites, www.qoqaz.de in Germany.7 After a hacker cracked the Azzam site, posted a list of subscribers to Azzam newsletters offered through the site, and turned the list over to authorities, it was discovered that Said Bahaji was apparently one of the subscribers.8 Authorities investigating the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States have described Bahaji as the "brains" behind a key support cell that the investigation uncovered in Germany.9 German investigators say that Bahaji was responsible for logistics, including helping the suicide pilots who crashed jetliners into the World Trade Center obtain their visas to enter the United States.10

Firearms and Military Training Urged in Pamphlet. In addition to urging would-be holy warriors to prepare themselves for jihad physically and through martial arts, the pamphlet notes the advantages the United States offers for firearms training and advises readers on how to exploit them:

"Firearms training differs from country to country....In some countries of the World, especially the USA, firearms training is available to the general public. One should try to join a shooting club if possible and make regular visits to the firing range. There are many firearms courses available to the public in USA, ranging from one day to two weeks or more. These courses are good but expensive. Some of them are only meant for security personnel but generally they will teach anyone. It is also better to attend these courses in pairs or by yourself, no more. Do not make public announcements when going on such a course. Find one, book your place, go there, learn, come back home and keep it [to] yourself. Whilst on the course, keep your opinions to yourself, do not argue or debate with anyone, do not preach about Islam....You are going there to train for Jihad, not call people to Islam."

"Useful courses to learn are sniping, general shooting and other rifle courses. Handgun courses are useful but only after you have mastered rifles."

"In other countries, e.g. some states of USA, South Africa, it is perfectly legal for members of the public to own certain types of firearms. If you live in such a country, obtain an assault rifle legally, preferably AK-47 or variations, learn how to use it properly and go and practice in the areas allowed for such training."

"Respect the laws of the country you are in and avoid dealing in illegal firearms. One can learn to operate many arms legally, so there is no need to spend years in prison for dealing in small, illegal firearms. Learn the most you can according to your circumstances and leave the rest to when you actually go for Jihad."

VPC

10 posted on 02/04/2002 10:46:51 PM PST by Nix 2
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To: Nix 2; Travis McGee
The little bastard who shot the deputy in the Fresno area was obviously trained.

He was laying on the floor behind a wall in a hallway/room. This is a technique taught not learned. When the deputy came into the line of fire, the slimey little American/Islamic terrorists shot and killed the deputy while he laid on the floor with his weapon and sheltered/hidden by the corner of the wall.

The more we all knows about these home grown Islamic Terrorists, the better off we are!

Thanks for posting this scary bit of news.

11 posted on 02/05/2002 6:25:43 AM PST by Grampa Dave
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To: Grampa Dave,lent,patent,FITZ,dennisw,onyx
bttt
12 posted on 02/05/2002 7:16:45 AM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Veronica; Travis McGee
Bump.
13 posted on 02/05/2002 9:54:23 AM PST by patent
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To: patent
rebump!
14 posted on 02/05/2002 2:57:50 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: Travis McGee
Spike
15 posted on 02/05/2002 3:18:22 PM PST by patent
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To: veronica;Grampa Dave
thanks for the post, and the ping. I am having problems finding this story via the link, must be my ole slow computer.......

Of interest to Fresno folks, is the aliases being used by the superintendet of the Gateway Charter Shool. Wow!! This story is great. Who is this woman??? A taxpayer money $tealing terrorist sympathizer, thats who!!! Great research by those reporters.

I have forwarded this story to Fresno County sup of Schools, both CA senators, local assemblyman, congressman and all.

Of course the local Fresno Bee, remains silent on all this lately.

I even called the Fresno FBI office, and got a quasi un-informed field agent, that assured me that they are well aware of these varmints, and are watching them closley.

16 posted on 02/05/2002 4:22:29 PM PST by Clovis_Skeptic
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To: Clovis_Skeptic,patent,grampa dave
I'll bet you dimes to donuts that if you called the FBI last August about arabs taking 747 flight simulator classes, they would have said "we are watching them very closely".
17 posted on 02/05/2002 8:20:23 PM PST by Travis McGee
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To: ELS; Sabertooth;
Still BUMP worthy....
18 posted on 03/09/2002 3:18:21 PM PST by father_elijah
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To: Clovis_Skeptic
I was once a member of this organization, and I want to clarify a few issues that were brought up in this article. This group is comprised mostly of low-class street-trash. They moved into these compounds to get away from creditors and to hide from "THE MAN". But the evil is personified in the body of one Kadijah Ghafur, a.k.a. Amati, a.k.a., THE DOCTOR. She is a doctor of lies and hypocracy. she banned televisions for the compound, yet she had one in her home. They had theit power shut off for non-payment, but they told the followers that the power was cut off in order to bring the residents to a higher level of spirituality. Mrs. Ghafur is a liar and a theif. She belongs in prision and she needs to be sued for all of the money she stole from Fresno Unified. May God help her see the error in her ways.
And i hope that this will not cast a bad light on Islam as a religion. I believe that the actions of the members of MOA are not in line with the teachings of Islam. If you doubt the validity of Islam, that is your right. But you should allow me to worship in any method that I feel is appropriate. So if you have no ill-intentions to true Muslims, who believe in peace, honesty, and the American way, than may God be with you.
19 posted on 08/26/2002 5:58:57 PM PDT by Sharif
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To: Sharif
What is Kadijah Ghafur up to these days?

Is she still in the Fresno area?

20 posted on 09/01/2002 6:49:05 AM PDT by Clovis_Skeptic
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