Bailey, who was
gunned down in broad daylight near the Alameda County Courthouse, was
investigating Your Black Muslim Bakery, a combined bakery, bookstore and
community outreach center operated by a group of black Muslims in west Oakland.
One of the suspects, 19-year-old Devaughdre
Broussard, a handyman who worked at the bakery, reportedly has confessed to the
shooting.
Bailey's colleagues
believe he was killed because he was looking too closely at the organization's
finances and internal affairs. Individuals associated with the bakery have been
linked to at least two other killings in Oakland, have been seen brandishing
weapons in the neighborhood and allegedly have attacked local stores that sell
alcoholic beverages, burning one of them. Oakland police raided the bakery Aug. 3 - the day after the slaying - following what
authorities said was a yearlong investigation into several violent crimes
associated with the organization. Seven people, including Broussard, were
arrested.
The bakery was
founded in 1968 by Yusef Bey, a black activist influenced by the writings of
Elijah Muhammad, leader of the black separatist group Nation of Islam. Although
there were similarities between Bey's organization and the Nation of Islam, the
two were, and remain, separate organizations. By 1971, the bakery had become a
center of the black nationalist community, and Bey intended for it to become a
model for black businesses and black economic self-sufficiency. Bey died in
2003 and was succeeded by Waajid Aliawaad
Bey, who was slain in 2004. Antar Bey, one of Yusef's sons, then took over the
organization but was killed in 2005 during a carjacking attempt. Another of
Yusef Bey's sons, Yusuf Ali Bey, also known as Yusuf Bey IV, took over the
organization and was listed as its CEO in October 2006 when the bakery, facing
more than $1 million in debt, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. He reportedly
was one of the people arrested in the Aug. 3 raid.
Groups on the fringe
of the U.S. Muslim community, including Your Black Muslim Bakery, are
especially scrutinized by intelligence and law enforcement agencies because of
their possible links to domestic or international terrorism. Actors such as the
Jamaat al-Fuqra movement, the Miami Seven and convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad are not
part of the mainstream Muslim community in the United States, but exist on the
fringe and often follow unorthodox practices. Some of these Muslims
disassociate with the main Muslim community in order to
pursue violent agendas or engage in criminal activities. We start
with an earlier report from us before we started this website:
After the Jury, Sniper/History of Ideas P.1
After the Jury, Sniper/History of Ideas P.2
After the Jury, Sniper/History of Ideas P.3
White hate,
anti-abortion and animal rights groups, as well as biker gangs, receive similar
law enforcement attention. These groups also exist on the fringes of society
and often have militant agendas or advocate violence. Some biker gangs also are
heavily involved in criminal enterprises. In many cases, investigations into
these group's finances lead law enforcement to their criminal or militant
activity.
Although they might
believe their activities are not attracting attention, fringe Muslim groups -
like white hate and certain activist organizations - figure prominently on the
watch lists of law enforcement and intelligence agencies. These groups often are
shut down before they actually kill anyone. In the
case of Your Black Muslim Bakery, however, it seems the authorities arrived too
late.
Although we do
believe that right-wing extremists pose a threat to the security of the United
States, the group we describe does not give its compounds names like Elohim
City, the infamous compound of white supremacists in Adair County, Okla. Instead they call them Islamburg
(N.Y.), Ahmadabad (Va.) and Holy Islamville (S.C.).
The group is Jamaat
al-Fuqra - Arabic for "community of the
impoverished" - founded in the 1980s by Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, a
religious figure from Pakistan who incorporated the group as a tax-exempt
organization under the name Muslims of the Americas. Its educational arm, the
Quranic Open University, takes American Muslims to Pakistan for training,
expecting them to return and instruct others.
Residents of Muslims
of the Americas communities keep a low profile, display a benign image and most
of all deny the existence of Jamaat al-Fuqra. They
claim to be peaceful people who simply are attempting to escape the decadence
of American society. Actions by some of the residents, however, belie that
claim.
Many of the original
al-Fuqra members were converts to Islam, and most
were African Americans. However, one of its first members - and its first
bombmaker - was Stephen Paul Paster, who converted from Judaism to Islam.
Paster was convicted for his role in the 1983 bombing of a Portland, Ore.,
hotel owned by the Hindu Bhagwan Rajneesh cult from India. He also was tried
and acquitted on charges stemming from two other West Coast bombings. Upon his
release from prison, Paster moved to Lahore, Pakistan, to join Gilani and other
instructors at the Quranic Open University, where he allegedly helps to teach
what Gilani calls "advanced training courses in Islamic Military
Warfare."
The U.S. government
claims that al-Fuqra members were involved in 13
bombings and arsons during the 1980s and 1990s and were responsible for at
least 17 homicides. Many of these attacks targeted Indian groups such as the
Hare Krishnas, or heterodox Muslim groups such as the Ahmadiyya sect. In 1991,
five al-Fuqra members were arrested at a border
crossing in Niagara Falls, N.Y., after authorities found their plans to attack
an Indian cinema and a Hindu temple in Toronto, Canada. Three of the five later
were convicted on charges stemming from the plot.
According to sources,
many al-Fuqra members have fought in Afghanistan,
Kashmir, Lebanon, Bosnia and Chechnya. Several members also have been
affiliated with the al-Kifah Refugee Center -- popularly known as the Brooklyn
Jihad Office. Group member Clement Hampton-el, for
example, provided weapons training to several people associated with the
Brooklyn Jihad Office. One of those men, El Sayyid Nosair
later would use that training to assassinate the Rabbi Meir Kahane in
Manhattan. Hampton-el was convicted along with
several other men, including Nosair's cousin, Ibrahim
Elgabrowny and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, also known
as The Blind Sheikh, in the 1993 New York Bomb Plot Case, and sentenced to
serve 35 years.
More recently, police
investigators working on the D.C. sniper case tied convicted killer John Allen
Muhammed to al-Fuqra. Rumors also surfaced that
"Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid was connected to the group. Wall Street
Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in fact, was investigating the Reid/al-Fuqra connection and was in the process of attempting to
interview Gilani when he was abducted and killed.
In addition to
Hampton-el, several other members of al-Fuqra are in federal and state prisons on a variety of
weapons charges and convictions stemming from worker's compensation, credit
card, welfare and driver's license fraud. The group allegedly uses its
imprisoned members to recruit other prisoners. Furthermore, it was revealed
during Hampton-el's trial that one of the
organization's tasks was to recruit American veterans to fight in Afghanistan.
Al-Fuqra members own several security companies, which provide
a source of income and security for the group and its compounds,
but also offer a plausible explanation for the presence of firing ranges
on the properties - a cover for the paramilitary training that allegedly is
conducted at the compounds.
Perhaps most
disconcerting is that al-Fuqra's cadre of battle
tested jihadist warriors - men who refer to themselves as "Soldiers of
Allah" and "Mohammed's Commandos" - are mostly Americans who
legally can obtain U.S. passports and operate in the United States without
raising suspicion.
As the United States
advances its war on terrorism abroad and takes measures to tighten immigration
procedures in order to protect U.S. citizens from
foreign militants, it is important that authorities not overlook America's
homegrown jihadists.
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