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Thus far, this story is perhaps the most thorough story written regarding the killing of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah and the arrests of 12 members of Masjid Al-Haqq in Detroit.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-26018-SE-Michigan-Islamic-Examiner~y2009m11d9-Black-mans-life-worth-less-than-terrorists#
Black man’s life worth less than a terrorist’s
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?
http://www.upi.com/Features/Culture_Society/2009/11/09/In-Michigan-questions-linger-over-Fort-Hood-imam-killings/12578022711078/
In Michigan, questions linger over Fort Hood, imam killings
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.”
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.
