Posted on 02/04/2002 10:32:56 AM PST by veronica
The name of Sheik Mubarik Ali Gilani has been little-known in California, except to a small number of African-American Muslims who follow his teachings, and to law enforcement authorities who have tracked their movements across the state.
But two other names are prominent in the history of Gilani's followers here. Abdullah Baqi was once described by law enforcement authorities as the West Coast leader of a dangerous group they called Ul-Fuqra. And an analysis of public records indicates that Baqi was married to the woman now called Khadijah Ghafur, who later founded the community outside Fresno known as Baladullah.
California authorities first came across Gilani's followers in 1983.
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were investigating a prowler report in Compton when they noticed two men stowing something in a car trunk. The deputies reported finding a rifle, a silencer and a police scanner in the car. According to Susan Fenger, the lead state investigator on a major Ul-Fuqra case in Colorado in the 1990s, they also found documents linking the two men to other Gilani followers in the United States.
One of the two men was later identified by law enforcement authorities as Abdullah Baqi. They determined that Baqi had opened a branch of Gilani's International Qur'anic Open University at a modest home in Compton, a crowded, working-class community that was plagued by drugs and gang activity in the 1980s.
The owner of that house in Compton still lives in a neighboring city and remembers her tenants well. Landlady Verdie Faas said she rented the home to a man and his wife, Deanna, although she soon discovered dozens of other people living in trailers behind the house. Public records show that Deanna Baqi, who used the same Social Security number as Khadijah Ghafur, lived at the Compton house.
By 1984, authorities had traced Baqi to a remote spot in the high desert of the San Bernardino Mountains, about 100 miles northeast of Compton. Baqi and two other men had bought a 10-acre parcel of land there.
Neighbors today recall several dozen people - men, women and at least 20 young children - living in military-style tents and old trailers, on a dry, wind-swept parcel in an area called Summit Valley.
"They never bothered anybody, but you were always leery of them," recalled Dave Weber, who lived nearby. He remembered hearing gunfire on the property at night.
Some valley residents knew Baqi as James A. Jennings, which Baqi listed as his other name on a real-estate deed from that time. Weber described him as a cordial, well-spoken man who said he had studied in Pakistan. In another legal document from that time, Abdullah Baqi gave his wife's name as Khadijah Baqi.
After a year or so, Weber's neighbors moved farther into the hills. Then, one day in 1986, they were gone.
Sheriff's deputies searched the site and reported finding typewritten notes about the 1983 murder of a Muslim leader in Michigan, according to Fenger. They also found photographs of a mosque that had been firebombed and a photo of Baqi with another Gilani follower, Stephen Paster.
Paster was later convicted of firebombing an Oregon hotel owned by the Baghwan Shree Rajneesh, an Indian religious leader who had established his own sect in a rural part of that state.
One of the co-owners of that first desert parcel was Rasuli Jabari. Now living on a farm in Mississippi, Rasuli Jabari chuckled when he was asked about those days.
"I was a young Muslim," he said. "Having grown up through the `60s and `70s, and to be an African-American and Vietnam veteran - it was all about being a search. I was gullible and easily influenced."
Jabari said he long ago parted ways with the group, and declined to elaborate. Abdullah Baqi disappeared from the public record in the late 1980s. In 1989, Khadijah Baqi incorporated a non-profit group called Banaatun-Noor in San Bernadino County. The Muslims of the Americas today say that is the name of their affiliate for Muslim women that conducts educational trips to Pakistan.
Shortly after, Khadijah Baqi leased a former Baptist youth camp in the Central Sierra.
Property manager Polly Doyle remembers that the tenant wanted to use the site as a shelter for disadvantaged children and their families.
Soon there were several dozen people living in the cabins. But problems arose: Neighbors reported hearing gunfire on the property and local land-use officials found numerous violations of building and safety codes. By 1993, the group had fallen months behind on the rent and the owner filed to evict them.
What followed was an eviction process like Doyle had never seen. FBI agents came to interview her and the owner. And when the residents finally moved on, Doyle said, the FBI searched the camp.
A number of those residents would later turn up at Baladullah, including Khadijah Ghafur and a man named Saleh Ghafur, who has been identified in a Fresno newspaper as Khadijah Ghafur's husband.
James A. Jennings - Abdullah Baqi's other name - also turned up at Baladullah, according to tax documents citing that as his address in 1998.
Khadijah Ghafur has said she founded Baladullah as a refuge for inner-city families, particularly women and children. But at least two men from other communities of Gilani followers have come to Baladullah in recent years.
James Hobson was living at a South Carolina settlement, when he and five others were charged with illegally selling firearms to New York investigators in 1999.
Hobson fled but authorities tracked him to Baladullah. They arrested him last March at the Gateway Academy charter school in Fresno, which is operated by the non-profit organization that owns Baladullah. Then came the shooting death of a Fresno County deputy sheriff during a burglary at a cabin near Baladullah last August. Authorities have charged a young man who came to Baladullah from New York a few months earlier.
The father of shooting suspect Ramadan Abdullah said his son was showing signs of mental illness last year. Mahdi Abdullah said his son had attended youth retreats organized by a community of Gilani followers outside Binghamton, N.Y. Then, his son dropped from sight.
When the family next heard from him, Ramadan Abdullah was calling home from Fresno, where he said he was getting help in the form of "Koranic psychotherapy."
The next thing they heard, Mahdi Abdullah said, was the news of their son's arrest.
This is exactly the techinque that the deputy murderer in Fresno was described as doing. Now we are taking a year to decide if he is sane or not, instead of getting on with his trial. I am wondering if part of his training was to act like he is insane if caught.
An update since this post in 2002. After finding Ramadan Abdullah sane and able to stand trial, during jury selection, a judge once again stopped the trial at the request of his lawyer to see if he is insane!
I am so angry about this! How long is this terrorist going to get coddled like this by the courts? What is going on in this country?
"What is going on in this country?"
As long as there are left wing judges in America, who hate America, GW and love our enemies including our home grown al Fuqra thugs, bs like this will continue to happen.
Jamaat ul Fuqra is now going by the name United Muslim-Christian Forum (UMCF)
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