Free Republic

<p>THERE are a lot of Baptist churches along rural Virginia's Route 615, just south of Appomattox - "where America reunited," as the county welcome signs put it - but there's only one Sheikh Gilani Lane. A gate and a guardhouse prevent the public from driving down it. What lies beyond is a trailer-park compound of black Muslims.</p>

Federal authorities are investigating whether accused snipers John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo had ties to a growing sect of militant American Muslims committed to waging holy war against the United States. Law-enforcement authorities yesterday said investigators want to know whether the suspects — now awaiting separate murder trials in Virginia — were involved with Jamaat al-Fuqra, a militant Muslim group with documented ties to international terrorism that has been linked to 13 slayings and 17 firebombings in the United States and Canada. The al-Fuqra network, through an offshoot group known as the Muslims of America, has established a...

Al-Fuqra Holy Warriors of Terrorism Introduction For over ten years, a secretive Black Muslim sect in the United States and Canada has sought to carry out a self-declared policy of "jihad," or holy war, by taking violent action against its perceived enemies, generally other minorities or other Muslims with whom they disagree. The sect, known as Al-Fuqra, has been linked by law enforcement officials to terrorist violence in Colorado, Arizona, Pennsylvania, the Pacific-northwest and Canada. Most recently, attention has been focused on the group in connection with a plot to bomb public sites in New York, including the United Nations,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A Muslim chaplain who counsels inmates in the city's Rikers Island jail has been reassigned because of his ties to a mosque authorities say is linked to al-Qaida fund raising. Amin Awad, who was named president of the board of trustees at Al-Farooq mosque earlier this month, cannot have contact with inmates and has been reassigned to administrative duties, Tom Antenen, a spokesman for the city Department of Correction, said Friday. Awad, who has counseled Rikers inmates since 1998, is one of seven Islamic chaplains in the city's correctional system, Antenen said. The department has 23...

<p>September 16, 2003 -- A federal judge yesterday blocked an attempt by lawyer Lynne Stewart to suppress tapes of her prison visits to the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Stewart, who faces trial next year on charges of fraud, conspiracy and making false statements, claimed the videotapes, as well as audiotapes of telephone calls, were made in violation of her constitutional right to communicate privately with Abdel-Rahman, whom she was representing.</p>

NEW YORK, Oct 04, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- A Manhattan attorney accused of helping a jailed Egyptian cleric direct terrorism will not go on trial until late next year, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl on Thursday set a trial date of Oct. 7, 2003, for Lynne Stewart and co-defendants Mohammed Yousry, an Arabic translator, and Ahmed Abdel Sattar, a U.S. postal worker. The judge considered setting a Sept. 16, 2003, trial date until Stewart's lawyer objected, arguing it fell too near the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "The risk to a fair trial...

Muslim was rising fast in agency until ex-wife's fraud allegations Gamal Abdel-Hafiz wanted more from life than managing 7-Eleven stores in dangerous neighborhoods around Fort Worth. He yearned for a career in the law, something impressive. His dream was to be an FBI agent. It seemed impossible, but it wasn't. The FBI desperately needed Arabic speakers to work in counterterrorism. A naturalized American from Egypt with a college degree and military experience fit the profile of an almost ideal job candidate. In 1996, Mr. Abdel-Hafiz became perhaps the first immigrant Muslim to earn the badge of a special agent. He...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan's parliament rejected a pro-Taliban candidate and chose Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a moderate who has the support of the powerful army, to be the country's prime minister on Thursday as the country lurches toward a return to civilian rule. Jamali's election paved the way for the formation of a coalition government that will bring together the pro-army faction of the Pakistan Muslim League, dissident members of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's party and independent members of parliament. The pro-Taliban candidate, Fazlur Rahman, was a distant second in the race to become prime minister. MORE

Fifteen thousand feet high in Kashmir and armed with a Kalashnikov–that was not how friends thought Jibreel al-Amreekee would end up. All of 19, the restless kid from Atlanta had grown up in a wealthy family attending Ebenezer Baptist Church, the home pulpit of Martin Luther King Jr. A soft-spoken youth with long dreadlocks, al-Amreekee had a passion for sky diving and reading books on the world's religions. One religion that drew his interest was Islam, and while he was at North Carolina Central University, that interest grew into a calling. By 1997, he had converted and was spending his...

A Staten Island mailman who was a follower of the blind terror sheik tracked down confidential addresses of FBI agents and prosecutors pursuing Al Qaeda, according to court records and federal sources. Ahmed Sattar, described by federal prosecutors as a point man for a major terror group in America, was spotted by one federal agent near his home. The agent moved his family from the area.Sattar also was put on the federal payroll, receiving thousands of dollars to be a paralegal for Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman during his 1995 terror trial, government officials said.Even though federal investigators became suspicious of...

I'll have to check the re-run to be sure--I think there was a "Freudian slip" moment on "Hardball" tonight during the debate with familiar PLO talking-head Hasan Abdel Rahman. It occurs about half-way through the show (the other guest was Israeli ambassador Alon Pinkus). I've seen this heavily-accented fellow on TV a hundred times; he's not a particularly competent diplomat, but is this not a blunder: After the long exposition about Arafat lacking de-facto control of the PA, Chris Matthews asks if Arafat had the responsibility to stop terrorists like Hamas bombers. Arafat is not the police for Israel, says...