On the heels of a deadly FBI shootout with a radical imam in Detroit and a Muslim extremist in the military launching a shooting attack at Fort Hood killing 13 people, a new videotape has been publicized showing American Muslims training in similar tactics, almost without a doubt on American soil.
The tape was given to me as the national security researcher for the Christian Action Network by a reliable law enforcement source. This source has provided me with other credible information on the Jamaat ul-Fuqra group that operates in the U.S. under the name of “Muslims of America” and the International Quranic Open University, among others. Although the tape is of poor quality, it clearly shows African-American Muslim women fluent in English dressed in military-style camouflage receiving guerrilla warfare training, including hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, scaling fabricated walls, stealth maneuvering, and firing guns at a lake. They clearly are Americans and the training almost certainly takes place on U.S. soil.
The time stamp on the video is partially cut off, showing only “January 28, 20.” The last two appearing digits indicate that it was filmed in the year 2000 at the earliest. My source said it is believed that the video was taken at a place called “Islamberg” in New York, an isolated 70-acre community in the Catskill Mountains that serves as the group’s headquarters in the U.S. Martin Mawyer, the president of the Christian Action Network, is certain this is the case by comparing the footage to aerial photos his organization took of various Muslims of America sites around the country.
This tape comes in addition to another tape obtained by the Christian Action Network that formed the basis of its Homegrown Jihad documentary released earlier this year. The tape shows Sheikh Mubarak Gilani, the founder and leader of Jamaat ul-Fuqra and Muslims of America, training his recruits in hijacking vehicles, murdering guards, various forms of hand-to-hand combat, use of explosives and firearms, and other techniques any wannabe jihadist would need education in. In the film, Gilani specifically says that those watching the film can take their “advanced training courses in Islamic military warfare” by contacting any of his Quranic Open University offices in the U.S., Canada, or Pakistan.
The tape is powerful evidence of the intent behind the construction of these sites but lacks a filming date or location. This second tape proves that the training is occurring on U.S. soil and it was done, at the least, in the past decade. If such paramilitary training is still going on at Islamberg, it would not be the only Muslims of America site doing so.
Over the past year, I’ve received reports from a neighbor to a site called “Islamville” in York County, South Carolina, about how gunfire was being heard from inside the compound. The neighbor has provided me with videotape where loud gunfire can be heard allegedly from the direction of the site. Other information obtained by CAN has confirmed the presence of weapons inside the site as of earlier this year.
Attention has been brought upon a site in Red House, Virginia, as well for naming one of its streets “Sheikh Gilani Lane,” after the Pakistan-based radical leader of Muslims of America and Jamaat ul-Fuqra. A leaked March 2009 report from the Virginia State Police Fusion Center confirms that “there have been paramilitary drills involving MOA members using firearms” in the state and members of the organization have been involved in a wide range of criminal activity. Although the report contains a general criticism of the Homegrown Jihad film, the information contained in the report actually substantiates the film’s concerns.
A new site in the beginning stages of construction in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, is also of concern to neighbors who claim to be hearing gunfire come from the area. In Homegrown Jihad, CAN discovers this compound and when they arrive, they notice a tattered American flag with bullet or knife punctures hanging off the side of the building. This means that there is evidence of paramilitary training in at least four compounds in four states, and many more sites exist throughout the country. According to a 2006 report by the Regional Organized Crime Information Center funded with a Justice Department grant given to CAN, “Today, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has more than 35 suspected communes and more than 3,000 members across the United States, all in support of one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.”
Sheikh Gilani has stated that Muslims are treated better in America than anywhere else in the world and that he forbids attacks on the U.S. Past statements like “we are fighting to destroy the enemy; we are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are in America” and past violent and criminal actions by members of his organization cast doubt on this statement. Even if his statement is genuine, he is preparing his followers for war against somebody, and the rabidly anti-Semitic, extremist teachings he espouses mean his followers are becoming indoctrinated in isolated locations cut off from the outside world. When I traveled to Islamberg a few years ago, I was immediately asked, “Are you Jewish?” This was said with a clear disdain despite the friendly demeanor of the man I spoke with.
Gilani may be purposely not activating his networks out of fear of jeopardizing a long-term plan. Or maybe he isn’t preparing his American followers to fight the U.S., even though he believes that the government is part of a Jewish new world order conspiracy that carried out the 9/11 attacks. Or maybe he is just trying to build an American network to support a fight against his enemies on other continents. Whatever the case, the highly combustible ingredients of radical Islamic indoctrination, paramilitary training, and the establishment of isolated communities are being combined right here in America.
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