WASHINGTON, Oct 29 — A leader of a Muslim separatist group was shot and killed by authorities in the Detroit area yesterday as they moved to arrest him on federal criminal charges, the FBI said in a statement.
Luqman Ameen Abdullah, 53, was a leader in a group known as Ummah or “the brotherhood,” a mostly African-American group of converts to Islam that seeks to establish a separate Sharia law-governed state within the United States, the FBI said.
Abdullah and 10 other people were charged with conspiring to commit federal crimes, including theft from interstate shipments, mail fraud, illegal possession and sale of firearms, and tampering with motor vehicle identification numbers.
None was charged with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes.
Federal agents carried out a series of arrests yesterday, ordering suspects to surrender.
“At one location, four suspects surrendered and were arrested without incident. Luqman Ameen Abdullah did not surrender and fired his weapon. An exchange of gun fire followed and Abdullah was killed,” the FBI statement said.
Abdullah had espoused the use of violence against law enforcement, and had trained members of his group in use of firearms and martial arts in anticipation of some type of action against the government, according to an affidavit unsealed yesterday.
The group Ummah consists primarily of people who converted to Islam while serving sentences in various US prisons, Detroit television station WDIV reported on its website.
The FBI said the group was led by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, a major figure in the militant Black Panther party in the 1960s. Brown is serving a prison sentence for the murder of two police officers in Georgia. — Reuters
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
