FBI: Former H. Rap Brown leads violent sect from prison

By Christian Boone

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Detroit imam shot and killed Wednesday in a gunfight with federal agents belonged to a Muslim separatist sect led by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, better known as 1960s militant H. Rap Brown, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday.

Al-Amin is  serving a life sentence at Supermax, a federal facility in Colorado known as the country's most secure. The prison also houses an al-Qaida terrorist and Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph. Al-Amin was convicted of killing a Fulton County sheriff's deputy in March 2000 and wounding his partner.

In the late 1960s Al-Amin served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and justice minister of the Black Panther Party. The man famous for his proclamation that "violence is as American as cherry pie" insists he is wrongly targeted by police because of his past.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah, imam of the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque in Detroit, was killed Wednesday after he pulled a gun on federal agents arresting him on federal charges including conspiracy, receipt of stolen goods and firearms offenses.

Charges were also filed Wednesday against 11 of Abdullah's followers. In the federal complaint Abdullah, 53, is identified as a "highly placed leader" in "Ummah," the black Muslim group headed by Al-Amin. Ummah advocates creation of a separate state within the U.S. governed by Sharia law.

Al-Amin was once the imam of a West End mosque. Former followers later claimed that Al-Amin hid behind his religion, ruling the area through intimidation and violence.