The Redhunter

Though primarily based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has operational headquarters in New York and openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in hamaats or compounds, such as Islamberg, where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority. Additional hamaats have been established in Hyattsville, Maryland; Red House, Virginia; Falls Church, Virginia; Macon, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Talihina, Oklahoma; Tulare Country, California; Commerce, California; and Onalaska, Washington. Others are being built, including an expansive facility in Sherman, Pennsylvania.

Before becoming a citizen of Islamberg or any of the other Fuqra compounds, 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."

The Anti-Defamation League confirms most of this with their essay on the Muslims of the Americas. Here is an excerpt

Muslims of the Americas (MOA) is a virulently anti-Semitic, Islamic extremist group with ties to Al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization that has carried out firebombings and murders in the United States. MOA claims to have offices in six U.S. cities and Toronto and maintains secluded residential communities in New York, Virginia and California. The group's Web site and e-mails have featured writings by notorious anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, including Michael Hoffman and former Klansman David Duke.

What goes on in Islamberg? Williams again

It is home to hundreds - - all in Islamic attire, and all African-Americans. Most drive late model SUVs with license plates from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee...

While buzzing with activity during the week, the place becomes a virtual hive on weekends. The guest includes arrivals from the inner cities of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and, occasionally, white-robed dignitaries in Ray-Bans from the Middle East...

Islamberg is not as benign as a Buddhist monastery or a Carmelite convent. Nearly every weekend, neighbors hear sounds of gunfire. Some, including a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, have heard the bang of small explosives.

I haven't been able to find a webpage for the group. I found a mention of them on this website, but all links to the MOA are defunct. If any reader can find their current website please leave it in comments.

There is a webpage for Islamberg; http://islamberg.org and on the homepage their description of Islamberg is pretty sparse

Over twenty years ago the village of Islamberg was established. Islamberg's in the catskills mountains upstate New York. Hundreds of muslims live there. There are over forty homes in the valley, where numerous streams gush forth.

There's only slightly more information elsewhere on their webpage

Over twenty years ago, our Imam, Al Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Jilani Hashimi, inspired our Jamaat to extricate ourselves out of the crime infested cities and pool our resources to purchase land where we could build our own Muslim villages. We in fact made Hijra for ALLAH's sake that we might practice our Deen in letter and spirit. ALLAH the most high knows the sacrifices and loss, the hardship and suffering endured in the move from Dar ul Harb to Dar ul Islam. Now over a generation later, Islamberg is a healthy, struggling Muslim community of over forty families, with it's own newspaper, summer camp for muslim youth, grocery store, laundromat, and bakery.

The bottom line is whether they've got it in their minds to commit acts of terrorism. Williams provides some evidence of past ties to criminal activity.

The criminal charges against the group and the criminal convictions are not things of the past. In 2001, a resident of a California compound was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff's deputy; another was charged with gun-smuggling' and twenty-four members of the Red House community were convicted of firearms violations.

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 terror attacks and sundry criminal activities, recruited thousands of members from federal and state penal systems, and appears to be operating paramilitary facilities for militant Muslims, it remains to be placed on the official US Terror Watch List.

My Take

So far I'm concerned about Islamberg, but I put them more in the David Koresh category than the Osama bin Laden one. I hope the FBI is watching them, but I don't see any evidence for a Waco-style raid.

Most likely you most of the people who make up the inhabitants of Islamberg are the spiritually lost who are looking for identity. For whatever reason they feel alienated by society and are drawn to this sort of thing. Islam is a powerful religion, and there is a type of personality who, when they can't identify with their own culture, chooses something radical like this group. They're the type who may talk big, might like to run around in the woods with a gun, but when push comes to shove won't really carry out any terrorist acts.

But there is another type of person who is drawn to this type of group, and who will, if pushed by the right leader, become another Richard Reid or Timothy McVeigh. It is certainly possible that Al-Fuqra is using the Muslims of America to look for just such people, using Islamberg as bait.

In 1996 Morris Dees and James Corcoran published Gathering Storm: America's Militia Theat. I picked it up a couple of years ago at the $1 a book booksales that our library system holds every year. If you substitute "right-wing anti-government extremist" for "Islamist" you have the equivalent to Williams' depition of Islamberg above.

The Anti-Defamation League maintains a section of it's website dedicated to these right-wing groups, and it makes for sobering reading if you're under the impression that only jihadists are the only nuts who set up compounds and run around in the woods with guns.

From the ADL website

The number of militia groups declined after 1996, as did militia activity. Patterns of criminal activity, however, remained more or less constant: militia members continued to get themselves in trouble with the law on a regular basis.

However,

In many areas of the country, the militia movement remains as strong, or nearly as strong, as it was at its height. In particular, the Midwest remains a source of active and fairly large militia groups.

All in all, a fair reading of the ADL article is that while it remains dangerous and bears watching, the right-wing militia movement is not what it was even ten years ago.

My point in all this is that I think there is some similarity between Islamberg and the right-wing militias. One thing that we must avoid at all costs are Waco and Ruby Ridge style standoffs. These incidents proved to be powerful recruitment tools for the militias, as would an ill-advised FBI raid of Islamberg.

The best thing we can do is infiltrate Islamberg and similar "Muslim villages", arrest those who are genuinly guilty of things like gun crimes, and watch for real terrorist activity. Otherwise we are best off just monitoring them and leaving them be.

A Bit More You Should Know

Paul Williams is the author of the forthcoming book The Day of Islam: The Annihilation of America and the Western World. From the book description on Amazon

In two previous books, Osama's Revenge and The Al Qaeda Connection, seasoned investigative reporter Paul Williams revealed the alarming potential for nuclear terrorism on U.S. soil and the sinister connections among organized crime, illegal immigrants, and al Qaeda. Now, Williams broadens his focus beyond al Qaeda to provide readers with newly uncovered information on terrorist activities in Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, other Muslim countries--and our neighbor Canada! What emerges is a harrowing picture of international terrorist activities, all aimed at the destruction of the United States and the collapse of the Western world. This cataclysm will usher in "the Day of Islam," the dream of radical Muslims to see all of humankind fall in submission before the throne of Allah. Based on the "forgotten testimony" of the FBI's "Confidential Source One," as well as other sources, Williams first presents evidence of Osama Bin Laden's purchase of highly enriched uranium in Sudan and nuclear devices from the Chechens and the Russian Mafia. He then offers further information on the workings of Pakistani scientists and technicians from the A. Q. Khan Research Facility to maintain and upgrade al Qaeda's "bespoke nukes" (with explosive yields in excess of ten kilotons) for the "American Hiroshima." This information comes with empirical proof that should dispel any doubts that these weapons not only have been developed but have also been forward-deployed from the seaport at Karachi to strategic locations within the Western world.

On the one hand it all seems a bit hyperbolic, on the other it is certainly true that the Sunni jihadists want to reestablish the Caliphate and the Shiite ones an Imamate.

Update

There's a long article on the Muslims of the Americas and other American-made jihadists in this May 2, 2002 US News & World Report article. I don't have time to go through the whole thing tonight but it looks like it's worth a read.