A man described as aleader of a radical Sunni Islam group in the U.S. was fatally shotWednesday afternoon while resisting arrest and exchanging gunfire withfederal agents, authorities said.
Agents at awarehouse in Dearborn were trying to arrest Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53,on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegalpossession and sale of firearms. Ten followers listed in a criminalcomplaint were also being rounded up in the area.
Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents, FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said. In a court filing,the FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam,or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary missionis to establish an Islamic state within the United States.
No one was chargedwith terrorism. But Abdullah was “advocating and encouraging hisfollowers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agentGary Leone said in an affidavit.
“He regularlypreaches anti-government and anti-law enforcement rhetoric,” Leonesaid. “Abdullah and his followers have trained regularly in the use offirearms, and continue to train in martial arts and sword fighting.”
Leone said members of the national group mostly are black and some converted to Islam while in prisons across the United States.”Abdullah preachesthat every Muslim should have a weapon, and should not be scared to usetheir weapon when needed,” Leone wrote.
It was not immediately clear how many of the other 10 suspects were in custody.
The group believesthat a separate Islamic state in the U.S. would be controlled by JamilAbdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a lifesentence in a federal prison in Colorado for shooting two policeofficers in Georgia in 2000, Leone said. Al-Amin, a veteran of theblack power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam inprison.
“They’re not takingtheir cues from overseas,” said Jimmy Jones, a professor of worldreligions at Manhattanville College and a longtime Muslim prisonchaplain. “This group is very much American born and bred.”
The movement at onetime was believed to include a couple of dozen mosques around thecountry. Ummah is now dwarfed in numbers and influence by otherAfrican-American Muslim groups, particularly the mainstream Sunnis whowere led by Imam W.D. Mohammed, who recently died.By evening,authorities still were working the scene near the Detroit-Dearbornborder and the warehouse was surrounded by police tape.
The U.S. attorney’s office said an FBI dog was also killed during the shootout.Abdullah’s mosqueis in a brick duplex on a quiet, residential street in Detroit. A signon the door in English and Arabic reads, in part, “There is no God butAllah.”
Several mencongregated on the porch Wednesday night and subsequently attacked aphotographer from The Detroit News who was taking pictures from acrossthe street. Ricardo Thomas had his camera equipment smashed and had abloody lip from the attack.
Imad Hamad,regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee inDearborn, said the FBI had briefed him about Wednesday’s raids and toldhim they were the result of a two-year investigation.
“We know that this is not something to be projected as something against Muslims,” Hamad said.