Black man’s life worth less than a terrorist’s

http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-26018-SE-Michigan-Islamic-Examiner~y2009m11d9-Black-mans-life-worth-less-than-terrorists#

November 9, 11:29 AMSE Michigan Islamic ExaminerHeather Laird

A man is alleged to have committed crimes resembling organized crime by the FBI and is gunned down by the FBI and members of the Dearborn police department. Imam Luqman Abdullah, father of 13, was killed on October 28, 2009. There are competing stories about what actually happened that day. The public will never get the chance to know exactly what happened from the perspective of Imam Luqman as he cannot speak for himself. Many community accounts have been given about his generosity and how he would give anything he had to the Mosque and people in need. What is definite knowledge is that Imam Luqman was shot at least 18 times. He was handcuffed after being shot and no medical attention was sought for a man who allegedly committed what amounts to a felony, if even true. After attending a town-hall meeting in Detroit on Friday, November 6, 2009, it seems pretty clear to the people who knew him the most that these charges were not applicable to him. What is just shocking to the senses is that this man cannot defend nor speak for himself because he was shot at least 18 times after trying to stop a dog commanded to attack him from chewing him apart. He wasn’t wounded or given medical help. And it raises the question as to why? Why was this alleged criminal not saved? Was it because he is black and a black man’s life is still worth less than others? There is a great foundation of history to question why this one black man’s life was not saved.

In 1995, Timothy McVeigh otherwise known as the Oklahoma City Bomber was arrested by officer Hanger and taken into custody without incident. He indiscriminately killed men, women and children as they burned in the inferno created by his 4000-pound bomb in his rental truck. He committed acts of terrorism and was taken into custody without harm.

October 2002, John Mohammed, DC Sniper killed 10 people and critically injured others all along the Eastern seaboard of the United States and was taken into custody at a rest area without incident. An act of terrorism as the whole nation watched and were afraid to go outside.

November 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan commits acts of terrorism, treason and murder at Fort Hood. He was taken down by four shots to the chest and every effort is made to revive him. He is now talking and expected to make a full recovery. Although, it is still being debated in American law there is no doubt that according to Islamic law Major Hasan committed hiraba or terrorism. Terrorism in Islamic law is more broadly defined than American law. It is any aimless public violence that would frighten people from using the highways and by-ways. Major Hasan definitely engaged in terrorism under Islamic law. After shooting 13 people and wounding dozens more there is no human punishment available to reconcile the effects of the crimes this man committed. The reaction of the military was to save one of their own to get more information. These crimes are much more heinous than any of the alleged crimes that Imam  Luqman of Detroit was accused of committing and yet he had to pay with his life; be handcuffed after being shot at least 18 times.

A gunman in Orlando, Jason Rodriguez opened fire on an office full of people killing one person and injuring five others. A terrorist act. He created fear in Orlando for people to even go out into the street. When he was apprehended it was done without incident. He was viewed through the curtains of his mother’s home. He was asked to present himself outside and taken into custody without injury. This man who took another human life and frightened a whole city and terrified a Country was taken without harm.

One has to wonder with real doubt why Imam Luqman Abduallah was gunned-down for alleged theft activity. Alleged theft activity where he never killed, maimed or terrorized anyone.  Not wounded, not taken without incident, but bitten by a dog, shot at least 18 times  and handcuffed. If you believe the accounts of the community he was also dragged across the floor spilling blood while the other suspects were made to walk through his blood. Where is the justice here?

 

In Michigan, questions linger over Fort Hood, imam killings

http://www.upi.com/Features/Culture_Society/2009/11/09/In-Michigan-questions-linger-over-Fort-Hood-imam-killings/12578022711078/

By Dan Redford, Written for UPI

Published: Nov. 9, 2009 at 4:50 PM

EAST LANSING, Mich., Nov. 9 (UPI) — The shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, raised new concerns for Muslims in southeast Michigan, coming so soon after the killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah during an FBI raid in the Detroit area.

“(The community) is on edge here. It is frightening,” said Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council for American-Islamic Relations. “We’re afraid of backlash.”

Walid said he worried about the negative light the coverage of Fort Hood was casting on Islam. The suspect in the shooting at the Texas U.S. Army base is Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who had reportedly claimed Islamic law took precedence over the U.S. Constitution.

“The Muslim community is always forced to defend itself when someone with an Arab name or a person claiming to be Muslim is involved in these tragic events,” said Walid.

He mentioned a double homicide in Orlando, Fla., last month that made national news, with no mention of the killer’s religion.

“Why mention Islam in the first story (Fort Hood), yet ignore religion altogether in the second?” he asked.

In East Lansing, Muslims also said they were looking for answers.

“We don’t know all the facts,” said Najim Salman, religious coordinator for the Islamic Center of East Lansing. “I know one thing: We are against killing innocent people. Islam should not be judged as a whole on this incident. This man must speak for himself.”

The discussion also reached the campus of Michigan State University where a former student was arrested a few weeks earlier on charges that he had made terrorist threats.

Freshman Chris Barnett, who said he prefers to be known as Abdallah, said that he feared the sequence of events would contribute to more “Islamaphobia” and misunderstanding of Muslims.

“With the arrest of a 17-year-old on the first floor of my dorm for terrorism, to the shooting in Dearborn, to the shooting at Fort Hood, I fear that it will be easier for people to point the finger at my religion instead of the people involved in these incidents,” he said.

“I think that these events together will make more people angry at Muslims and blame us for other people’s actions, despite the fact that in none of the incidents I mentioned were the Muslims acting according to Islam.”

In addition to the concern voiced after the Fort Hood massacre, Muslims in the Detroit community were still trying to understand last week’s FBI shooting of Imam Luqman Abduallah in suburban Dearborn. Walid said that incident was affecting not only Muslims but others in the area.

“There is a lot of frustration in the community,” Walid said. “People are asking themselves ‘did he really do what they say he did?’”

Family members alleged that the imam was shot 18 times and that a dog wounded in the shootout was airlifted for emergency care before the imam was given treatment. The FBI said agents returned fire from suspects in the targeted warehouse and the raid was necessary to protect the community and national security.

Abdullah’s Committee of Islamic Organizations of Michigan has called for an independent investigation of the shooting.

Ron Scott, director of the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, endorsed that demand.

“It is extremely important,” Scott said. “There are too many unanswered questions.”

The imam was African-American and Scott said such killings by law enforcement personnel were too common.

“There is evidence that they have been putting informants in mosques,” Scott said. “They used to do this when trying to root out the Black Panthers. Old wounds have been reopened.”

Scott said a “combination of fear, anger and resentment” toward the police and FBI lingered within the community.

For Abdallah at Michigan State, an explanation for the recent violence involving Muslims was not so obvious.

“I feel confused and frustrated,” he said. “I don’t know who to blame or if I should even blame anyone. I cannot come away from this feeling that justice has been served.”

Repudiation of Al-Awlaki calling Maj. Hasan a ‘hero”

CAIR REPUDIATES PRAISE FOR FORT HOOD SHOOTER

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/9/09) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today repudiated online remarks by a former Virginia imam praising Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 29 others in a shooting spree last week at Fort Hood in Texas.

The posting on the web site of Anwar al-Awlaki called Hasan a “hero” and said American Muslim groups, like CAIR, that condemned the Fort Hood attack are “hypocrites” and traitors to Islam.

In a statement, CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said:

“As American Muslims said with one voice when this cowardly attack first occurred, no ideology could ever justify or excuse such violence. To call the alleged killer a ‘hero’ makes a mockery of every Islamic principle of justice. The twisted and misguided views in Anwar al-Awlaki’s posting are not those of American Muslims and do not reflect mainstream Islamic beliefs or sentiments.”

Immediately following the attack at Fort Hood, CAIR issued a strong condemnation of the deadly shootings and urged the nation to remain calm and unified.

Philosophy of sacrifice at Hajj & its implications with Jesus

G’d says in the Qur’an (37:103 – 107):

When both surrendered [to G'd] and [Abraham] flung down his son on his forehead.
We called out, Oh Abraham!
You have indeed fulfilled your dream. Thus do We reward the doers of good.
Surely this was an apparent trial.
And We ransomed him with a mighty sacrifice.

—
Hajj or pilgrimage is a series of rituals that relives events within the lives of Abraham(AS), Hagar (AS) and Abraham’s first son, Ishmael (AS). One of these rituals that has many meanings or implications is the slaughtering of a sheep or goat on the 10 day of Dhul-Hijjah in commemoration of G’d pardoning Abraham from sacrificing his son Ishmael (AS), not Isaac (AS) according to Islam, and giving him a ram (scapegoat) in his place.

In times past, human sacrifice was a common practice. Civilizations would sacrifice people, virgins in many cases, to atone for perceived community sins after a natural disaster or calamity befell the society. Part of the wisdom of the story of Abraham (AS) and Ishmael (AS) is that G’d was conveying to human beings from that time on that He is in no need for the sacrificing of the innocent, children or virgins for man to prove his faith or to atone for sins. Abraham’s willingness to obey G’d was sufficient for him to be given grace.

وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا الْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَكِنْ شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِنْهُ مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا
G’d says in the Qur’an (4:157):

And they said, Surely we killed the Messiah Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of G’d whereas in fact they neither slain him nor crucified him but the matter was dubious to them and those who differed about it too were in a state of doubt. They have no definite knowledge about it, but merely follow conjecture, and they slew him not.

لَنْ يَنَالَ اللَّهَ لُحُومُهَا وَلَا دِمَاؤُهَا وَلَكِنْ يَنَالُهُ التَّقْوَى مِنْكُمْ
He also says in the chapter called The Hajj (22:37):

Neither their flesh nor their blood reaches G’d, but their piety reaches him from you…
—
In following the wisdom of the Qur’an and the logic of the Hajj, Islam not only textually but philosophically does not accept the idea that the Messiah Jesus (AS) was crucified. It would be outside of the justice of the Most Just G’d to sacrifice the innocent and shed his blood to atone for the crimes and sins of the criminal. That would be like an innocent person being sentenced to the death penalty for a mass murdering spree of a group of criminals even after the criminals confessed to committing the crimes. G’d is more just than we, and we would find the punishment of the innocent person to be completely repugnant in such a circumstance. The very nature of the human being, which G’d created rejects injustice.

Praise be to G’d, the Lord of the Worlds, who chose Abraham (AS) to be an example for mankind and made his religion to have clarity and logic.

And surely G’d knows best.

Michigan Citizen regarding killing of Imam Luqman Abdullah

For those who do not know, The Michigan Citizen is a popular African-American newspaper in Detroit.  In public statements and ethnic media reports, the broader African-American community seems to be more critical than Metro Detroit Muslims, probably due to the long history that Blacks in Detroit have with being abused by law enforcement.

Below is a link to the story and section that I’ve attracted.  It’s a very long article!

http://www.michigancitizen.com/default.asp?sourceid=&smenu=1&twindow=&mad=&sdetail=7960&wpage=1&skeyword=&sidate=&ccat=&ccatm=&restate=&restatus=&reoption=&retype=&repmin=&repmax=&rebed=&rebath=&subname=&pform=&sc=1070&hn=michigancitizen&he=.com

FBI murders Detroit Imam, targets Muslims nationally

Imam Luqman Abdullah’s mosque predominantly Black, poor
By Diane Bukowski
Michigan Citizen

Imam Adullah’s family members, who washed his body for burial in the Muslim custom, said he was shot at least eighteen times. The FBI reportedly airlifted a police dog killed during the melee but accorded no medical attention to the Imam.

“Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was known in Detroit for his many, many years of work feeding the hungry and housing the homeless.  Instead of assassinating such leaders who help the people, the FBI should be raiding the bankers who are behind the growing hunger and homelessness,” said Mike Shane of the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI).

MECAWI planned a demonstration against the raid in front of the McNamara Federal Building Nov. 5. In a flier, the group noted that the FBI-charged Black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey with mail fraud in the 1920s, worked with the KKK in murders and attacks on civil rights workers in the 50s and 60s, and likely orchestrated the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. The FBI also raided, arrested and murdered Black Panther Party and American Indian Movement members in the 1960s.

In one conversation, informant S-2 said he tried to get Imam Abdullah to “do something” during the 2006 Super Bowl in Detroit. S-2 said, “Abdullah said he would not be involved in injuring innocent people for no reason: ‘If there’s something to be done … it’s going to be legitimate.’”

The complaint also claims Imam Abdullah was part of a national organization led by Imam Jamil al-Amin (former Black Panther, H. Rap Brown). Imam al-Amin is currently serving a natural life sentence at the ADX Florence Supermax Prison in Colorado, convicted of killing a police officer in Fulton County, Georgia in 2000. His supporters claim it was a political frame-up. Police said they found the murder weapons “near” Imam al-Amin’s location, and that they followed the wounded killer’s blood trail there, but Al-Amin had no wounds.

The arraignment of eight of the Detroit Muslims in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald A. Scheer Oct. 29 was packed with family members and supporters. During the hearing, federal pre-trial services recommended that most of the detainees be released on bond, with or without tethers.

U.S. Attorney Cynthia Oberg continually objected to those recommendations.

The men’s lawyers contended they were stable family men with wives and children and faced relatively minor sentences if convicted. Judge Scheer released three of the men, continued the detention of three others, and took one man’s release under advisement.

That man was Muhammad Abdul Salaam, who is represented by prominent Detroit attorney and activist Jeffrey Edison. Salaam, along with other defendants, is charged with the interstate sale of stolen goods and faces a maximum sentence of five years.

“Mr. Salaam has 10 children, six of whom live here in Detroit with his wife,” said Edison. “Any reporting referenced by the government in the complaint against him does not reflect the words of Mr. Salaam, and I question the trustworthiness of what someone else said.”