RADICAL ISLAM COMES TO FULL BLOOM IN
By
Paul L. Williams, Ph.D.
(author of The Day of Islam)
with the
able assistance of
Shawn Michaels
Jamal Babour
and
Dr. Hugh Cort
Entrance to
the Jamaat ul-Fuqra
Compound at Red
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
The fifty-acre compound is easy to find since the main road
leading to it has been named
At
the end
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.”
Road and
observation tower
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.
The
young African Americans, who have shown up on the scene, are becoming agitated.
They begin to make calls on their cell phones.
Then something miraculous happens.
At the Imam's residence, Muslim
men begin to emerge in droves from a small storage shed attached to the house.
It seems like a scene from a Marx Brothers movie in which dozens of people pour
out of a closet. The investigators are suddenly surrounded by forty or fifty
members of the complex in Islamic gowns and white skullcaps. “What brings you here?” they ask..
Imam’s
residence at Red House compound
“We heard about the village,” Jamal says, “and wanted to
pay a visit. I thought I could stop by for evening prayers.”
“The evening prayers are over,” says one of the newly
materialized men, who could be a professional body builder.
In the blink of an eye, another wondrous thing occurs.
Hundreds of more African Americans in Islamic garb materialize
from the dense forests, the high grass of the open meadows, and the rusty
trailers that just seconds ago appeared to be deserted.
A covey of late model cars and SUV’s converge on the
compound from a network of dirt roads. The Muslims who emerge from the vehicles
appear more affluent than the others. The men wear white halabiyahs with matching head
coverings. The women are dressed in colorful caftans and flowing abayas. They seem to be models from the
Crescent Moon boutique.
“Are you the police?” a female villager asks through the
shaded window of the Imam's residence,
“No,” George answers. “We just stopped by to join in
prayer.”
“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
“Achmed’s” residence at Red House
What is taking place in the Red
House complex? 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
(4). The Red House cell of ul-Fuqra
has metastasized so that similar Islamic compounds have popped up in
neighboring
(5). Several Virginia compounds appear to possess obstacle
courses, and firing ranges.
(6). Members of the compounds have been known to refer to
themselves as “soldiers of Allah” and “Mohammad’s commandos.”
(7) What happens in the Red House compound stays in the Red
House compound. The members of the radical Islamic community rarely appear in
the nearby town; conduct little business with local merchants; and stay to
themselves.
Mosque
and
The
Muslims of the
The
parent organization of The Muslims of the
A
quack practitioner of something called “Quranic
psychiatry, Sheikh Gilani refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan ul
Faqr." The Sheikh claims to have supernatural
powers and to receive regular visits from “non-human beings.” In 1979, Gilani came to believe that he could begin the processing
of purifying Islam through violence with the aid of socially disgruntled and
economically disenfranchised blacks within the inner cities of New York and New
Jersey. The basis of this belief was Gilani
conviction that a sizeable number of African Americans fostered an innate
hatred of the
At
the al-Farouq mosque in Brooklyn, a dingy
establishment at 554 Atlantic Avenue, Gilani,
sporting ammunition belts, spoke of Islam as the cure for all societal ills and
called upon the young men in attendance to take up arms in the holy war against
the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Hundreds answered the call and headed off
to a training camp in
Knowing the need for new recruits, Gilani
turned to the penal system and focused his attention on converting incarcerated
blacks to his radical Islamic doctrine. Imams and religious instructors were
dispatched to local, state, and federal prison facilities to accomplish this
objective. The results were mind-boggling. Thousands converted on a weekly
basis, drawn to the offers of protection, special meals, and release from work
detail for daily prayers and the entire month of Ramadan.
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
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.
#
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
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
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
But
few, it seems, are listening.