Jamaat Ul Fuqra

Jamaat ul Fuqra in the United States

Court documents link Jamaat ul Fuqra to Muslims of the Americas, a tax-exempt group that Sheikh Gilani established in the United States in 1980. Almost all of the U.S.-based ul Fuqra members are American citizens.

During the 1980s, Jamaat ul Fuqra members in the United States attacked a variety of targets that they saw as enemies of Islam, including Hindus and Muslims they regarded as heretics. The group is believed to be responsible for firebombing Hare Krishna temples in Denver and Philadelphia, and for the January 1990 murder of Rashad Khalifa, a Tucson, Arizona, Muslim cleric. Jamaat ul Fuqra and its members have been investigated for a number of alleged terrorist acts, including murder and arson in New York, Detroit, Philadelphia, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, and Tucson.

During the 1980s and 1990s, ul Fuqra members in the United States purchased isolated rural compounds, where they lived communally and engaged in paramilitary exercises. The discovery in 1989 of guns, explosives, pipe bombs, military training [Page 313]manuals, false identification documents, and workers compensation claim forms in a storage locker in Colorado eventually led to the arrest of several members of the group. A two-year investigation resulted in the indictment of several members by a Colorado grand jury in 1992 on racketeering charges, including theft, mail fraud, murder, arson, and forgery.

In 2001, several members of an ul Fuqra commune in Virginia were arrested on fraud and weapons charges. The group was believed to be filing fraudulent workers compensation claims and sending the proceeds to Gilani in Pakistan. In California, a member was arrested for the murder of a Fresno County deputy sheriff in August 2001. Five months later, the Fresno school district revoked a charter for a school run by a member of Muslims of the Americas, citing (among other infractions) the inability of the charter school to account for $1.3 million in state money.

In January 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan while investigating a connection between Jamaat al Fuqra and the failed shoe bomber Richard Reid. Pearl's family told the authorities that he was scheduled to meet with Gilani before he disappeared. Pearl was murdered by his abductors. Gilani was arrested by Pakistan but was later released, and he is not believed to have been a part of Pearl's abduction and murder.