Free Republic

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. ...

FRESNO - The founder of a California charter school was sentenced today to 14 years in state prison for siphoning off taxpayer and private funds she was supposed to be using to educate disadvantaged children from the San Joaquin Valley to Sunnyvale. Fresno County Superior Court Judge R. L. Putnam said former Gateway Academy Superintendent Khadijah Ghafur had shown sophistication, planning and leadership and an ``absolute complete lack of remorse in the face of overwhelming evidence of guilt'' for her embezzlement schemes. Today's sentencing of Ghafur and another Gateway administrator, who received probation, close the cooked books on the Fresno-based...

Fresno County Superior Court Judge R.L. Putnam on Monday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Khadijah Ghafur, superintendent and president of the now-closed GateWay Academy charter school system, after she failed to show up for her ongoing trial, where she is accused of stealing public funds. (excerpt)Ghafur is charged with five counts of misappropriation of public funds and five counts of grand theft by embezzlement.

<p>Public school districts and state education officials are failing to monitor the academic success and financial health of California's charter schools, state Auditor Elaine Howle said in a report released Thursday.</p> <p>The inch-thick report on the taxpayer-funded alternative schools also found that some public school districts may be collecting fees from charter schools they sponsor without using the money to hire and train staff members to conduct oversight.</p>

What to make of the Islamic compounds across America affiliated with the Pakistani radical group Jamaat al-Fuqra? WALL STREET JOURNAL reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped when he went looking for the leader of a group called Jamaat al-Fuqra in the terrorist bazaar of Pakistan. At the time he disappeared, Pearl was tracking reports that Fuqra had hosted would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid at its walled compound in Lahore. In the end, it was agents of another group that spirited Pearl off to his death, but Fuqra remains a subject of interest, and not only because of its activities in Pakistan....