Protests Demands Justice as Slain Muslim Leader's Autopsy Released

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire
Detroit
Published Feb 10, 2010 7:09 PM

On Feb. 1 the long-suppressed autopsy of slain Muslim leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was released to the public at the Dearborn, Mich., police headquarters. Imam Abdullah was killed in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, on Oct. 28.

The autopsy report states the imam was shot 21 times, with numerous wounds in the midsection, waist and groin areas. At least one shot was through the back. There were also numerous lacerations on his hands and forehead, presumably from the attack dog that was killed during the FBI operation.

There was much anticipation in the Detroit area prior to the release of the autopsy report. The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice held a demonstration and press conference outside Dearborn police headquarters on the day of the release.

These actions were supported by the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality and attended by the imam’s son as well as members of his mosque, Masjid al-Haqq. Ten members of the mosque currently have felony charges pending against them in connection with FBI infiltration of Masjid al-Haqq.

MECAWI described the death of the imam as a “targeted assassination.” This quote was picked up by news agencies throughout the world, including the Associated Press, UPI, Islamonline.net and Russia Today.

On Feb. 2 another press conference, called by U.S. Congressperson John Conyers Jr., was held in downtown Detroit. Conyers issued a letter requesting an internal investigation of the actions of the FBI field office in Detroit.

Conyers wrote in the letter to Attorney General Eric Holder that he seeks Holder’s “personal assurance that the Department’s investigation into the shooting death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah ... will be appropriately rigorous, thorough, and — most critically — transparent. In addition, I call for the Department’s Civil Rights Division to conduct a separate, independent review of whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of confidential informants in our nation’s houses of worship may constitute a deprivation of protected constitutional rights under 42 U.S.C. 14141.”

At the Feb. 2 press conference, the widow of Imam Abdullah was on the panel. It was revealed that federal immigration authorities are attempting to deport her from the United States. Amina Abdullah, a national of the east African state of Tanzania, has been placed on a tether.

One of the imam’s sons, Mujahid Carswell, is a defendant in the Detroit 10 case. Members of the imam’s family and mosque were victims of FBI infiltration of their group. The information supplied by the FBI lured the imam and his followers to the warehouse where he was gunned down by federal agents.

MECAWI told members of the international press on Feb. 1 that the assassination of Imam Abdullah represented a pattern of systematic harassment and persecution of Muslims in the U.S. and abroad. This assassination must also be viewed within the context of standard government policy to both neutralize and liquidate effective leadership emanating from the oppressed African-American community.
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