“Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.” Imagine the national media frenzy if that sentence were about a Catholic priest or an evangelical pastor. But this story will get media notice only because Abdullah was killed — and much of it will probably center on questions of whether the shooting constitutes “Islamophobia.”
Detroit Jihad Update. “Son of Radical Islam Leader Killed in FBI Shootout Caught in Canada,” from FoxNews, October 29 (thanks to Mackie):
One of three people sought by the FBI was captured in Canada Thursday and two were still on the loose after a federal raid and deadly shooting of a radical Islam leader whose goal authorities say was to take down the U.S. government.
Federal authorities in Detroit said the son of 53-year-old Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed in Wednesday night’s shootout with FBI agents, was arrested across the border in Windsor, Ontario.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police took 30-year-old Mujahid Carswell, who was considered armed and dangerous, into custody Thursday. No other details were released.
Carswell was among 11 people charged Wednesday in a criminal complaint in federal court in Detroit.
Andrew Arena, the head of the FBI office in Detroit, says the men follow “a very hybrid radical ideology” that mainstream Muslims “would not recognize.”
It would be interesting to see him explain the differences. But probably this statement arises either from ignorance or from a desire to provide some politically correct cover.
Two were still at large: 30-year-old Yassir Ali Khan of Warren and Ontario, and 33-year-old Mohammad Philistine of Ontario.
Abdullah was killed in a gunbattle in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn as federal agents tried to arrest him on a number of charges including conspiracy to sell stolen goods and the illegal possession and sale of firearms.
Abdullah repeatedly told followers that the U.S. government was their enemy and they should be willing to fight the FBI, even if it meant death, according to the criminal complaint against him.
“You cannot have a nonviolent revolution,” Luqman Ameen Abdullah said, according to a 2008 conversation secretly recorded by a confidential FBI source.
Abdullah was killed Wednesday at a warehouse in Dearborn, where agents were attempting to arrest him. FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents.
He was one of 11 people named in a criminal complaint after a two-year investigation.
Among the others charged with Abdullah and in custody were a state prison inmate, the U.S. attorney’s office said….
Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.
Neither Abdullah nor his co-defendants were charged with terrorism. But he was “advocating and encouraging his followers to commit violent acts against the United States,” FBI agent Gary Leone wrote in an affidavit filed with the complaint.
The FBI said Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the U.S.
Abdullah told followers that it was their “duty to oppose the FBI and the government and it does not matter if they die” and to “simply shoot a cop in the head” if they wanted the officer’s bulletproof vest, Leon wrote.
The affidavit also said bombs, guns and even the recipe for TNT were among Abdullah’s regular topics with his allies. Group members and former members said they were “willing to do anything Abdullah instructs and/or preaches, even including criminal conduct and acts of violence,” the FBI agent wrote.
He and his followers were American born, mostly African-American converts to Islam….