Posted on 05/31/2007 1:36:48 PM PDT by 3AngelaD
Paul L. Williams is author of "The Day of Islam"
The Islamic practice of taqiyya, meaning “deception” or “concealment,” has been refined into an art-form at a jihad training compound for African American converts near the small town of Red House in Charlotte County, Virginia. The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road leading to it has been named Sheikh Gilani Lane in honor of the guru and founder of a terrorist organization with close ties to Osama bin Laden. The Board of Supervisors of Charlotte Country are either oblivious to the threat of radical Islam on American soil or clandestine advocates of the great jihad. At the end Sheikh Gilani Lane is a sign - - barely visible through the overgrown brush - - that reads, “The Muslims of the Americas.” The sign serves to make the place appear as an innocuous religious settlement, until one realizes that The Muslims of the Americas is, in reality, an outgrowth of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, an alleged sister agency to al-Qaeda.
Several weeks before 9/11, a guard house and a gate had been erected at the entrance to the Red House compound. But the guard house and the gate are now gone, and no sentries - - armed or otherwise - - are in sight, that is until you get well inside the complex of old trailers and pre-fab shanties. The only person to be seen in the the compound is an African American crone in a full black burqa sans the face cover known as a hijab. The day is hot and humid and the burqa serves to give the wizened old woman the appearance of a wayside witch from a Grimm's fairy tale. “The men are all gone,” the crone says from a park bench. “No one is here.”
The Red House compound certainly appears deserted. A few mobile homes, several rusty old trailers, and a few mounds of debris among waist-high weeds remain along an old dirt road that runs through the Islamic village, but there appears to be little of interest, let alone concern. As soon as the investigators park their car and trek into compound, the old woman removes a mobile phone from a sachet and dials a number. In a matter of minutes, a pick-up truck appears at the entranceway. Two young African Americans dressed in skull caps and jalabiyahs emerge from the vehicle. “What are you doing here?” they ask.
Jamal, an Egyptian journalist, says in Arabic, “I’m here to see the Imam. Where does he live?”
One of the young men, whose Arabic name translates as “Slave of God”, indicates that the Imam is not in and he should knock on the door of a ramshackle blue structure where he was told “Ahmed”, one of the Elders may be found. Jamal proceeds to the structure and rings the bell, but no one answers. Another member of our investigative team knocks at the doors of the trailers and mobile homes but there is no response. Some of the windows to the homes have been holed up with bricks save for openings that are ideal for assault rifles....“This is not a place for tourists,” screeches the woman in the Imam's house, “and we don’t like you taking pictures of our houses and automobiles.”
By this time, the Red House compound is swarming with hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children - - and several appear to be deeply agitated by the intruders. Jamal produces a card from a radical imam he had met the day before at the radical Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. It serves as a ticket out of the place.
Is the complex amidst the rolling hills of southern Virginia a peaceful Islamic village where devout Muslims have gathered to retreat from the hustle and bustle of contemporary American life in order to pray, meditate, and to live in strict accordance with the traditions of their faith? Or is it something more sinister - - something that should alarm every American who is concerned about the threat of radical Islam?
These factors are clear: (1). There is an underground bunker at the complex that may be used for paramilitary training and possibly to harbor deadly weapons for use in the great jihad against Christians and Jews. Twenty-four members of this Jamaat ul-Fuqra complex already have been arrested for trafficking in illegal firearms, including the ammunition for AK-47s; (2). Members of the compound have been sent to Pakistan and Afghanistan for specialized training in guerilla warfare - - a fact confirmed by Thomas P. Gallagher, a Special Agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; (3). The Red House compound regularly receives visits from suspicious guests from Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan; (4). The Red House cell of ul-Fuqra has metastasized so that similar Islamic compounds have popped up in neighboring Prince George and Campbell Counties. The 25 acre facility in Prince George County is situated on Mahareen Road, a name selected by the Muslim newcomers and duly approved by the local ordinance officials. Mahareen is the plural of the Arabic mahar, meaning “clever one.” The facility in Campbell County is considerably larger, occupying more than 100 acres. An additional compound reportedly has materialized in Bedford County near the city of Roanoke; (5). Several Virginia compounds appear to possess obstacle courses, and firing ranges; ...
The Muslims of the Americas, the tax-exempt corporation which owns and operates the Red House compound, was formed in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. It is, according to an official report, a “front organization” for terrorist activities. A 2005 Homeland Security report predicts that the Muslims of the Americas will sponsor a major terrorist attack on American soil. The parent organization of The Muslims of the Americas is Jamaat ul-Fuqra or “community of the impoverished” which retains headquarters in Lahore, Pakistan..... Gilani soon came to the realization that it would be financially advantageous to train new recruits for the holy war on American soil rather than to pay the freight of sending them to Pakistan, and the sites of his other training camps throughout the world. And so, Islamberg in Hancock, New York came into being. Soon other hamaats were established in such places as Hyattsville, Maryland; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulane Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. The Red House compound cropped up in 1993. Others are under construction, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania. How many hamaats are now in place throughout the United States is anyone’s guess. A low-ball figure is 38.
Before becoming a citizen of the Red House compound or any of the other Fuqra communities, the recruits - - primarily inner city black men who became converts in prison - - are compelled to sign an oath that reads: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.” They are also obliged to contribute 70% of their welfare checks and other sources of income to Muslims of the Americas, Inc.
Mission accomplished among the African Americans, Sheikh Gilani returned to his native Lahore circa 1990. In December 1993, he was an honored guest at an international gathering of jihadis at the residence of Hassan al-Turabi in Khartoum. At the gathering, attended by members of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine, Sheikh Gilani, Osama bin Laden, and other prominent terrorist leaders were caught on film chanting, “Down, down with the USA!” “Down, down with the CIA,” and “Death to the Jews.”
Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul-Fuqra have been convicted in US courts of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers’ compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen fire-bombings between 1979 and 1990. Associates of the group were also instrumental in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center...
The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a 19 year-old former resident of the Red House compound a California compound was charged with the first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff’s deputy in California. By 2004 federal investigators uncovered evidence that linked both the DC “sniper killer” John Allen Muhammed and “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid to the group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was captured and beheaded in the process of attempting to obtain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.
Even though Jamaat ul-Fuqra has been involved in bloody bombings and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, the terror organization remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and The Muslims of the Americas continue to operate, flourish, and expand as a legitimate nonprofit, tax-deductible charity. Meanwhile, the hills of rural Virginia are alive with the sound of jihad.
Jim Jones, call your office.
L
Janet Reno knows what to do...
I swear I read this same thing (most of the text is the same) about a place in New York state somewhere, except the front gate is guarded and people cannot easily get in.
I'm curious how this guy knows this. His last article about an Islamic compound in upstate NY had a lot of questionable claims and contradictions as well.
If so many of them are felons, how can they legally possess firearms?
And why do local govermnents let these people move in and establish such rat’s nests? Is it simply M-O-N-E-Y?
And thirdly how can Americans be so stupid as to be taken in by this cult?
(Rhetorical question - people have been taken in by it for six-hundred years now)
You don’t have to Janet Reno them, for Pete’s sake. There is no Hobson’s choice here. You just have to cut off the welfare, the water, the electricity etc. and wait them out. Then pick them off one at a time as they exit the hell hole. The organizers, who I don’t for one minute believe live there, should be deported. Like the folks in Islamberg, they have created a wretched prison for themselves. That said, I have no doubt they are planning to do us harm.
Islamburg in New York state..... reported by a Canadian journalist who was on Laura Ingraham’s show a couple of weeks ago. Very disturbing......
Yes, unfortunately, this writer has only one style, and he sticks to it. I think he might be more effective if he quit trying to be Jane Austin or whoever, and just conveyed the facts. I did like the part about the crone in the burka, however.
It’s the same guy. And both articles are questionable, IMO.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra in Virginia, Part 1
This is from the blog "Gates of Vienna," from October 10, 2005.
I live in Virginia and have friends who live down there. They say it is worse than this describes. They hear gunshots and other alarming sounds, and can’t figure out why they are allowed to do what they do. There is constant traffic of strange people in and out. I apologize for the writer’s lack of a variety of styles. But the fact that such a compound is here bugs me no end.
Yeah, the author of the article here is the same guy who caused quite a stir a little while ago with this story: Springtime in Islamberg - Radical Muslim paramilitary compound flourishes in upper New York state.
I applaud you for being skeptical about what you read on the 'net. I wish more people had that skill. In this case I'd love to know more about what makes these articles seem "questionable" to you. I'm not trying to be a smart-ass -- I'm genuinely curious.
To me, his articles have the ring of truth because what he's described is so similar to the articles from Gates of Vienna from late 2005, which also caused quite a stir.
Sounds like the concerned citizens needs some donations for some telophoto lenses and a balloon ride over the complex...
Where do I donate to or can I be part of the team?
I've seen enough bogus journalism over the years to pay attention to the small stuff - that's what usually gives it away.
So unless I see better (and independent) confirmation of this story, color me a skeptic.
See post No. 14.
I did. A bunch of grainy aerial photos that tells me little. That’s part of the problem here. The photos I saw for the NY compound were very inconclusive as well. One would think it wouldn’t be that hard to get solid photo documentation for this.
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