by Jamaaluddin al-Haidar

Last month, on a balmy, spring day in Philadelphia, 18 Muslim leaders met and resolved to further the process of establishing a new national organization--the Muslim Alliance in North America (MANA). The purpose of MANA as stated in its mission statement is to pursue an agenda that reflects the points of view and experiences of the indigenous Muslims of North America and one that addresses their needs and aspirations.

The effort to form an alliance for indigenous Muslims is not new. MANA is merely part of the continuing struggle to unite Muslims in America. However, this particular initiative began almost two years ago when Imam Jamil Al-Amin made a call for the formation of such an alliance.

Less than a year later, the Imam whose clarion call for Islamic unity would inspire the creation of a new national organization----- the Imam who recently served as Convenor of the Shura Council, an executive body of US-based Muslim organizations that included the heads of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the Islamic Society of North America ISNA, and the Muslim American Society, is now fighting for his freedom and indeed for his life. Imam Jamil is facing the death penalty and a prosecutor who has charged him with the murder of Fulton County Sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen and the attempted murder of Kinchen’s partner, Deputy Aldranon English.

It can not be overstated that this case is monumental for Muslims in America. Not since the murder of El-Hajj Malik Shabazz (Malcom X) and the trial of his alleged assassins has one case meant so much and had such far-reaching implications for the future of Islam in America. Yes. This is indeed a test case for this Muslim Ummah. Perhaps this case will sound the alarm that finally awakens this giant who has fallen asleep in the belly of the beast. One struggles against feelings of utter frustration and despair as the timing of the incident is juxtaposed with the present condition of the Ummah. Could the indictment of one of Islam’s most recognizable leaders have happened at a worse time?

These times in which we live find the Muslim Ummah more polarized and disunited than at any other time in recent history. While some of the blame can be assigned to the collective activities of outside forces hostile to the Islamic Movement, most of the fault lies precisely where it should lay..... at the foot of the Muslims themselves. The morale-starved, politically-naive state of the North American Muslim community and its lack of strong viable ‘Islamic’ leadership was evident in the types of responses to the news that Imam Jamil was being sought in connection with the shooting of Deputies English and Kinchen on that fateful night of March 16, 2000. The ‘rush to judgement’ on the part of many...even amongst the Muslim leadership, was painful to witness and conduct unbecoming of a believer in Islam. Allah(swt) commands us:

"O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the facts, lest you harm people unwittingly and afterwards become full of repentance for what you have done." (Al-Qur'an 49:6)

No one who has been awake these past 50 years can deny that the American Government and her host of media propagandists, is steeped in wickedness.

If we employ the same energy and zeal---- if we take the same methodical fine-toothed comb approach that many of us use to disprove and attack one another. If we applied all of that critical analysis to the case of our brother, Imam Jamil El-Amin, we can began to see the wisdom of the Quranic injunction to “investigate and ascertain the facts.” We must understand and not be naive to the notion that while facts are facts they can wear many different suits. It all depends on who the tailor is. On one hand are the selectively “leaked” or revealed facts and on the other are the hidden or concealed facts. Oftentimes the revealed facts are used by one who cleverly insures that exculpatory facts remain concealed in order to sway public opinion and obtain the desired jury verdict. Let us never forget that in the Western court of justice the aim is not to extract the truth so that justice may prevail. The only objective is to win the case; and to do so at all costs.

Sacrificial Lambs

"God sent down a transmission to Ricky Kinchen Thursday night,’Your watch is over, You can go Code 8 [the sheriff's radio code for going out of service or end of shift] and be in service with the Lord for eternity.” —a mourning officer at the funeral of slain Deputy Ricky Kinchen

One disturbing, and terribly tragic, fact is that on the night of March 16, 2000, two Fulton County sheriff’s deputies went to Atlanta’s West End neighborhood to serve Imam Jamil Al-Amin with a misdemeanor warrant and were gunned down by someone in the process. One of the deputies, Ricky Kinchen died as a result of the shooting. His partner, Deputy Aldranon English, survived the shooting and will undoubtedly be a key witness in the capital trial. These two men were sent to do their job. They were sent. They didn’t volunteer to harass a respected pillar of the community during the festive Eid celebrations. They were sent. Not once. They were sent a second time. Sent back to serve, not a felony warrant, but a misdemeanor warrant.
At 10:00pm......under the cover of darkness.

By all public accounts, both of these deputies were considered ‘good’ cops. The emphasis is placed on good and rightly so because of the rampant corruption and scandals that have plagued the ranks of Atlanta-area sheriff departments over the past decade. On the warrant carried by the deputies was a warning that the individual had a prior arrest for aggravated assault and felony possession of a firearm. Their boss, Sheriff Jackie Garrett, admits that under most circumstances such a warrant would have been assigned to another tactical unit or with several back up units to assist in the arrest. However, these two deputies were sent alone. Not once...but twice....for a misdemeanor....at 10:00pm.......under the cover of darkness.

The Middle Course Proves Dangerous

“The believers are but a single Brotherhood. So make peace and Reconciliation between your two contending brothers and fear Allah that ye may receive Mercy.” (al-Quran 49:10)

The free-thinking mind is the worst nightmare for the agents of evil and corruption. They can’t control it because they don’t have it tucked away in some neat little pidgeon-hole. This free-thinking mind has too much creativity and flexibility. It has a vantage point enabling it to see the “big” picture and avoid some of the pitfalls and traps that prey on the feeble tunnel-visioned minds. Allah’s(swt) enemies want to break the Muslim ummah into different sects and groups following one trend or another. To them the more fragmentation, the better. They marvel at how by merely tugging on a few puppet strings they are able to control the mind set and indeed the millah of the Muslim. These times find Muslims hurling at one another, with such reckless abandon, words like kaafir, munafiq, deviant, and innovator. One wonders if these people who profess all of this ilm have any room left in their swollen heads and chests for any ibaadat to sink in.

Imam Jamil Al-Amin has never been one to fall for the devil’s latest deceptive ruse or trend. He has however, had his fair share of detractors who have sought to lure him out into the open for a war of wits and words. He has undoubtedly lost some of his followers, as well as the allegiance of some of his most trusted Imams, to the lure of the latest trends. However, the brother West End neighbors call “The Imam”, has remained unswayed and unimpressed by the new trends and pressed on towards the middle course....Opting instead to extend a peaceful hand to feuding brothers rather than involve himself or his community in the fitnah of the trends.

Someone didn’t like Imam Jamil’s conciliatory posture. They wanted a combative brash-talking H. Rap Brown to suddenly surface so that they would have sufficient cover to kill him and blame it on a religious feud. But every attempt to provoke the Imam failed miserably. Invariably, undercover agents in Imam Jamil’s inner circle as well as those who managed to get close to other key nationally-known Imams were reporting to their handlers that a new alliance of “indigenous” Muslim leadership was imminent.

It should be noted that just last year, these shadowy figures who wield so much influence over what most naively accept as Muslim organizations, did all they could to insure that al-Saud (and by proxy- the CIA), maintains control over the activities of one particular trend by crushing an effort to establish centralized indigenous leadership here in the U.S. They ousted the two leaders for having the gall to attempt it, slapped them with the “deviant” label, unleashed a group of snotty-nosed youth who proceeded to malign their character over the Internet, then in a classic window-dressing move, propped up a couple of their favorite brown-skinned “students of knowledge” to fend off any charges of racism.

To understand the mind set of a beast that is paranoid and living in morbid fear of an African phoenix rising up from the ashes of urban America to lead a strong and progressive Islamic Movement, one only has to look back at the history of race relations in this country.
One of the founding fathers of this nation said when he considered the atrocities that his fellow countrymen were committing against African slaves,

“I shudder in fear for my nation when I think that the Lord is just; and that his justice can not sleep forever.”

This same paranoia consumed FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and fueled his counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) against African-American leadership in the 1950s-1980s. COINTELPRO involved the FBI secretly instructing its field offices to propose schemes to "misdirect, discredit, disrupt and otherwise neutralize " targeted groups and individuals. Close coordination with local police and prosecutors was encouraged. More than 2000 individual actions were officially approved. The documents discovered via the Freedom of Information Act, revealed three types of methods for these actions:

1. Infiltration: Merely spying on political activists was not sufficient. The informers and agents main function were to discredit and disrupt.
2. Other forms of deception: The FBI and police also waged psychological warfare by printing bogus publications, forging correspondence and letterheads, sending anonymous letters, making anonymous telephone calls, and similar forms of deceit.
3. Harassment, intimidation and violence: Eviction, job loss, break-ins, vandalism, grand jury subpoenas, false arrests, frame- ups, and physical violence were threatened, instigated or directly employed, in an effort to frighten activists and disrupt their movements. In the case of the African- American movements, these assaults (including outright political assassinations) were so extensive and vicious that they amounted to terrorism on the part of the government.

The following March 4, 1968 memo was sent to FBI field offices across the nation. It’s language illustrates the depths of FBI Director Hoover’s paranoia. Today with the demise communism, and the experiment in black nationalism having shown it’s inherent flaws, Islam stands alone as the chief adversary to the New World Order. We must realize that COINTELPRO continues today only with Islam and Muslim leadership now, as it’s new target.
The text of the historic memo states:

“For maximum effectiveness of the Counter Intelligence Program, and to prevent wasted effort, long-range goals are being set.

1. Prevent the coalition of militant black nationalist groups. In unity there is strength; a truism that is no less valid for all its triteness. An effective coalition of black nationalist groups might be the first step towards a real “Mau Mau” in America, the beginning of a true Black revolution.

2. Prevent the rise of a “messiah” who could unify and electrify the militant black nationalist movement. Malcolm X might have been such a messiah; he is the martyr of the movement today. Martin Luther King, Stokely Carmichael, Elijah Muhammad all aspire to this position. Elijah Muhammad is less of a threat because of his age. King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed “obedience” to “white liberal doctrine”(non-violence) and embrace black nationalism. Carmichael has the necessary charisma to be a real threat in this way.”

It should be noted that at the time of this memo, Imam Jamil Al-Amin (known then as H. Rap Brown) was one of the key leaders of the Student Non-Violent Co-ordinating Committee (SNCC). Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure) was chairman of SNCC. Both Carmichael and Brown had grown weary of their elder civil rights leader’s (i.e. Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, etc.) non-violent doctrine in the face of increasingly violent white mobs who attacked the peaceful demonstrators with chains, bats, shovels, and various kinds of vicious two-legged and four-legged dogs. A former SNCC member recalls, “In those days we had an office with two separate smaller meeting rooms. On one door was the words “Student Non-Violent” with the dove underneath.

The other door said “Co-ordinating Committee” except it had a rifle and spear on it. Stokely waited until everyone was asleep and had it painted that way. When we saw it the next morning, the message was crystal clear”.

Amidst reports of cooperation between SNCC and the Black Panther Party, and a possible merger of the two, the FBI stepped up its attack on SNCC. They effectively neutralized Carmichael by “bad-jacketing” him. This highly effective and often used practice involved planting dubious “evidence” to fuel speculation that the targeted individual is actually an agent working for the FBI or CIA. In Carmichael’s case, a carbon copy of a “field report” that operatives typically use to communicate findings to their handlers was planted in his car by his bodyguard (an undercover FBI agent who had worked his way through the ranks of SNCC) in such a way as to insure discovery by fellow associates. In fear of his life, Carmichael went into hiding---eventually settling in the West African nation of Guinea.

With Carmichael gone, Imam Jamil (known as H.Rap Brown at the time) became the new target. Several attempts to “bad-jacket” him were made with hopes that associates or rival leaders would kill him. The federal government would eventually resort to using local authorities to carry out their assassination attempt. As Imam Jamil and another associate escorted a woman from a rally, four plain clothes police officers sprang from behind bushes and fired their weapons at him. Such is the nature and workings of arguably the largest, most diabolical intelligence community in the world. They are experts in “damage control.” They have a backup plan for everything. They couldn’t get H.Rap Brown so they devised a plan to get rid of Imam Jamil Al-Amin. But Allah also plans....and Allah is the Best of Planners.

Phantom Evidence

"My mom always told me, 'Look a man in his eye, always look a man in his eyes,' So I remember 'cause I was looking at him in his eyes. .... I remember them gray eyes." --------Deputy Aldranon English

"I shot him. I know I shot him," -------words of Ricky Kinchen to his fellow deputies before he died

At least one deputy swears he saw blood on the ground where the alleged shooter stood in front of a grocery store owned by Imam Jamil Al-Amin. The “presence” of blood is an important piece of the puzzle in this case. Both deputies English and Kichen stated that they had shot the assailant. After the capture of Imam Jamil revealed that he had no injuries, the importance of the blood disappeared in thin air...and so did the spatters of blood. In fact, the Atlanta police sergeant who filled out the affidavit testified to the judge that he had lied when he swore that he saw blood in order to secure a warrant for Al-Amin's West End store. In the affidavit, the sergeant swore that blood was found at the spot where the shooter stood. Blood that disappears in thin air can’t be tested in the lab and scrutinized by DNA analysis. Someone who realized that the blood would point to another assailant made sure that the blood evidence went away.

The peculiar manner in which the blood evidence disappeared is rivaled only by the all too convenient manner in which evidence appeared or was “recovered” in Whitehall, Alabama. The township of Whitehall is not a large city. However it certainly is large enough to hide a license plate. According to police, a license plate registered to a car owned by Imam Jamil, and used to flee the crime scene, was “recovered” in a field adjacent to an abandoned sandwich shop that he once operated. Whitehall is certainly large enough to hide the two weapons police claim were used in the deputy shootings and “recovered” from a field near the site where Imam Jamil was taken into custody. If all of these small items were easily “found” in Whitehall, how could authorities not find a black Mercedes Benz in the small town until 10 days after Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s arrest?

Surviving deputy Aldranon English was adamant that the assailant had gray eyes “I remember 'cause I was looking at him in his eyes. ... I remember them gray eyes." Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s eyes are dark brown.

Agent Provocateur 101: Laying the Trap

"82! 82! Radio. 82!"( four more shots ring out.) "At Oak Street. 1182 Oak Street. 1128 Oak Street. Radio. I've been shot. Officer down." ---- voice of Deputy Aldranon English making distress call to radio dispatch.

I have heard the dispatch tapes that were released prior to the judge’s gag order. The harrowing screams of Deputy English, the deadly silence of Deputy Kinchen, and gunfire from at least two separate caliber weapons can be distinctly heard in the background. What can also be heard is the communications of other officers who arrive on the scene immediately after the shooting. Deputy English allegedly stated to the dispatcher that the shooter drove away in a black Mercedes. Yet on the tape, officers can be heard looking for suspects who fled on foot. One officer from Atlanta radioed that he was following a trail of blood to an abandoned house. Officers would eventually surround that house and find it empty. Other officers spoke about a possible suspect with a rifle under his jacket hiding behind a building. Police also received reports that night of a wounded man trying to flag down a ride five blocks away.

On April 13, 2000, three weeks after Imam Jamil is taken into custody by Alabama authorities, a man bearing a striking resemblance to him is extradited from Georgia to Nevada where he is held by police. The man, Otis Jackson had “absconded supervision”, a violation of his parole. Nevada documents show that as he was being booked into the Clark County Detention Center, “Jackson indicated to the officer that he had been involved in a shooting/murder of an officer when he was in Georgia.” The detention officer who documented the statement did not investigate. He returned the inmate over to the Nevada Department of Prisons. The matter, however was deferred to prison authorities. A State of Nevada Corrections Memorandum dated July 24, 2000 and addressed to a Sgt. Bennet of the Atlanta Police Department shows that someone believed that Jackson’s story was credible enough to warrant further investigation. It reads: “it would be greatly appreciated if you would investigate Jackson’s assertion of involvement in a shooting/murder.”

The manner in which authorities handled this whole affair is most intriguing. For instance, what was going on with respect to any questioning and/or investigation into inmate Jackson’s statements between April 13 and July 24 ? Why did it take Nevada authorities so long to contact Georgia authorities about a case that was in the national headlines? Why for instance does the FBI question Otis Jackson in the presence of two Las Vegas police officers on June 29 th while Georgia authorities on the scene of the alleged crime, are not notified about the existence of a confession until another 25 or so days later? And what about the confession made to the FBI in the June 29th interview and alleged recantation two weeks later on July 13? Isn’t it a bit too convenient that Georgia authorities aren’t contacted until AFTER Otis Jackson recants?

According to Otis Jackson, on the night of March 16, 2000, he and another black male were at Imam Jamil’s residence when after approximately 10 minutes, Imam Jamil arrived. As the three men were talking, a police car arrived and the two officers attempted to serve Al-Amin with a warrant. Jackson admits that he initiated an argument with the officers “that got heated”. After Deputy English attempted to handcuff him, Jackson began fighting with him. Deputy Kinchen came over to assist his partner. Jackson says he spun out of Kinchen’s grasp and punched him in the face. At this time Jackson pulls his 9mm Smith and Wesson pistol and fired a shot at Kinchen. Jackson then ran to his car’s trunk where he had an SKS assault rifle, an M-16 machine gun, and a mini 14. Jackson said that he thinks he grabbed the mini 14, but wasn’t sure.. Kinchen’s partner, Deputy English ran away toward the main street. Jackson was able to shoot the retreating officer in the leg. Jackson stated that during the shooting Imam Jamil tried to stop him from shooting at the officers by getting in Jackson’s way. When Imam Jamil asked him why he shot the officers, Jackson told him that he didn’t know and that he was going home.

Jackson said that he thought the other man was wounded because he saw him lying on the street. Jackson then says that he left in his 1981 or 82 Chevy Caprice Classic. When the FBI investigators asked him why he shot the officers Jackson said that he didn’t think that the warrants against Imam Jamil were valid, and that he didn’t like police. When investigators asked him why the police believed that Al-Amin shot the officers, Jackson stated that he felt they made a mistake because all three men were black men with bald heads.

It is clear to me at least one if not both men that were on the street allegedly with Imam Jamil were sent there to set him up. Otis Jackson sounds like the typical agent provocateur who is sent to disrupt the normal routine of activity or provoke a rogue act, thereby granting his superiors the excuse to move in for an arrest or suitable cover for a kill. During the 20 or so years that I have played an active role in the Islamic community, I have encountered men like Otis Jackson several times and left them exposed and befuddled. Jackson’s credibility is suspect. It is possible that Imam Jamil was never on the scene. However, if in fact he was, I know Imam Jamil Al-Amin. I know what his jamaat is like. I was affiliated with his jamaat. I was Amir of Communications for one of his more loyal Imams. No one could’ve gotten that close unless he trusted him. Someone close to the Imam had to have betrayed him. The shooter wasn’t a disciplined soldier for Allah who would’ve used his head and obeyed his Imam, he was an agent provocateur. And only someone... someone very close to the Imam could’ve put the two together that night and waited for the right moment to provoke a fight with the deputies.

Peace Be Still

And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? (Mark 4:39)

There was both panic and outrage during the days immediately following the news reports that Imam Jamil Al-Amin was being sought in connection with the shootings of two Fulton County Sheriff deputies in the West End Community. Like so many people, Muslims and non-Muslims alike who love and respect the Imam, I wondered why the Imam did not immediately surrender himself to authorities.

After the second day my thoughts shifted to grave concern about his safety. I had just finished reading a book about an eleven—day siege In August, of 1992. Randy Weaver, a Vietnam veteran and ex-member of Special Forces had refused to spy for the US government. All it took was one federal agent charging that Weaver had a shotgun with the barrel 1/4" too short for over 500 Federal personnel (federal marshals, FBI and ATF agents, US Army soldiers, some of whom had just returned from the killing fields in Iraq) to surrounded the Weaver home; I flew US Air Force planes and personnel flew above. Included in the Federals on the ground were crack snipers, trained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Their job was to kill Weaver. Weaver had vowed not to surrender to the Federal Government on the phony charges brought as punishment for refusing them.

The siege ended August 31, with the surrender of Weaver, but not before the snipers had shot Weaver's 14-year old son Samuel in the back, killing him, and blew his wife's head apart as she stood at the front door of the cabin, holding their ten-month-old baby girl in her arms. A Government sniper bullet shattered Mrs. Weaver's skull (a mother of four) with such force that as her skull exploded, bone fragments struck the chest and arm of family friend Kevin Harris as he was running through the doorway, causing serious infection in his lung. The baby, covered with the crimson blood of it's mother, fell to the floor in screams of un-understanding terror.

I thought surely if these dajjalic agents would do this to a white Christian family in Idaho, they would have no problem killing a black man, and a Muslim leader suspected of killing a cop. Thoughts of my brother being hunted down like an animal and killed before he could clear his name in court filled me with anger.

After the third day I started to ponder on what I would do if I were in my brother’s shoes. What would I do if I had a community to which I had dedicated so many years of my life? What would I do if I knew how hostile to me the general public had become because of the mountain of guilt that the media had built around me? What would I do if the rush to judgement had even consumed many of my own co-religionists? What would I do if I realized that I was being framed and that someone I trusted was a party to the conspiracy?

I concluded that I would’ve done exactly what the Imam did. I would’ve went into hiding and not subjected myself to the mass hysteria and lynch mob mentality that immediately followed the incident. I would’ve communicated with the believers in my jamaat through channels that I could trust. I would’ve appealed to them for peace and calm. I would’ve instructed them on how to remain vigilant in their salah and keep up their ibaadah in these difficult times. I would’ve waited until cooler heads prevailed and until some of the discrepancies in the case were made public.

I remember the last time I was alone with Imam Jamil, I left the masjid and walked across the street to his store. I had come to say goodbye and inform him that I was heading back to Detroit. He greeted me then as a free man the same way he receives his visitors today as a prisoner. Although his hands and feet are bound by shackles the Imam is seemingly unfettered by his circumstances and more concerned about yours. Everyone I’ve talked to who has visited him in tell me the same thing. After exchanging salutations he smiles warmly and says: “How are you? How’s your family? Is there anything I can do for you? Some leaders have that ability to navigate through perilous times with a calming spirit and disposition. Some of us are like Peter in the boat we need to be reminded that with faith Allah can deliver us out of dire circumstances.

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