Jamaat ul Fuqra, Muslims of the Americas tied to U.S. counterfeit trade

In the past we have reported on Jamaat ul Fuqra and those 45 Jihadi para-military training camps in the US.  The Canada Free Press report below provides information as to how some with ties to Jamaat ul Fuqra likely secured funding for these camps. The report details how members of Jaamat al Fuqra’s front group, Muslims of the Americas, set up by extremist Pakistani Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani, were selling counterfeit goods generating millions of dollars to fund their programs. Three suspects were sentenced in a U.S. Eastern Virginia Federal District Court for terms ranging from 21 to 57 months.

We have argued that Congress should be investigating Jaamat ul Fuqra and its front group, Muslims of the Americas, given this evidence of terror financing. You ACT members ranked this issue very high up on national matters to be dealt with by our government and Congress.

By Douglas J. Hagmann, Director, & Judi McLeod, Founding Editor, Canada Free Press, November 16, 2007

16 November 2007: Earlier this year, a multi-million dollar counterfeit clothing ring based in New York City with its tentacles reaching into various states and internationally was busted by federal authorities after a lengthy investigation. Investigation revealed that at least three of those arrested have definitive ties to the terrorist organization Jamaat ul Fuqra and its front group, the Muslims of the Americas, led by Pakistani terrorist Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani. The latest action in this case occurred this week. On Wednesday, 14 November 2007, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson sentenced Ronald Roundtree, 51, a member of the Muslims of the Americas camp in Virginia to 21 months in federal prison for his role in a multi-state, multi-million dollar counterfeiting ring.

The counterfeiting ring was busted by federal authorities on 7 March 2007, as announced by the United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Virginia. In a press release, authorities announced the arrest of eight-(8) individuals in Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, and New York, as part of a FBI led investigation into trafficking in counterfeit goods and copyright infringement.

According to investigative reports, the counterfeit clothing ring led by Abbas CHOUMAN, 43, of Astoria, NY generated over $7 million in revenue. CHOUMAN was sentenced on Friday, 12 October 2007 to 57 months in federal prison for his role in the criminal copyright infringement scam. In September, HAQQ, PIERRE and HARMON were sentenced to 8, 24, and 27 month prison terms respectively for their roles in the operation; on August 2, Ishoc Uthman Ibn-Abdus SALAAM, was sentenced to 18 months in prison after being found guilty by a federal jury in Richmond of attempted conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods. Additionally, Terri SINGLETON, 34, of Beckley, WV, one of ROUNDTREE’s three wives, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods with ROUNDREE. SINGLETON received two years probation in a separate federal court penalty hearing last month.

As part of the investigation conducted by this agency, it was determined that three of the above named defendants, Ismail HAQQ, 33, Cherubin PIERRE, 32, and Ronald ROUNDTREE, 51 have ties to the Muslims of the Americas and Jamaat ul Fuqra encampments located within the United States and Canada. The headquarters for Jamaat ul Fuqra is located on the outskirts of Hancock, NY, nestled in a wooded area near the water reservoir that supplies the majority of fresh water to the greater New York City area.

Jamaat ul Fuqra is the Islamic terrorist organization operational within the United Stated and Canada that uses the Muslims of the Americas as an allegedly innocuous Islamic organization that is led by the Pakistani terrorist Sheikh Mubarek Gilani. Gilani, most notably, was identified as the Muslim leader that Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl was on his way to interview when he was kidnapped and brutally beheaded. Investigators from the Northeast Intelligence Network first reported on the activities of Jamaat ul Fuqra on this web site in a comprehensive report last year. That report drew the ire of Pakistani Sheikh Gilani against the Northeast Intelligence Network, along with denials of his involvement in any criminal or terrorist enterprise in the U.S.

As verified by Interpol, the FBI and CSIS, there is a vast amount of money being made in the sale of counterfeit goods, and in many cases, the profits are being funneled to Islamic terrorist groups. From brake pads to CDs and clothing, it’s easy to find a source for “knock-off” goods in the city where you live. According to Interpol, most terrorist organizations, including al Qaeda, will have a counterfeiting arm built within their organization that raises money for the terrorist leaders to fund terror operations and sustain their organizations.

Despite the innocuous characterizations by some in law enforcement and neighboring residents that the Muslim compounds housing members of the Muslims of the Americas, or more precisely, Jamaat ul Fuqra are “good residents and neighbors,” evidence uncovered by our investigation suggests that activities at these compounds could involve terrorist training. In addition to such training, additional evidence was uncovered that Gilani’s disciples are involved in raining money for terrorist operations though Muslim charities inside the U.S. The counterfeiting operation is just one more method of fund raising for terrorism operations.

The following story is an absolute must-read. If you can’t read it right now, come back to it later. It’s that important.

I have highlighted some points for emphasis, but one really stands out.

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, makes this astounding statement:

“…the mapping of Muslim communities…seems premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths.”

ACLU, Muslim Groups Resist
Anti-terror Measures Again

by Robert Spencer
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23371&s=rcmc

The Los Angeles Police Department announced plans Thursday to map Muslim communities, hoping to identify people who might be liable to succumb to – as Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing put it – “violent, ideologically based extremism.” Downing said that the LAPD would work with a Muslim partner, and added: “We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities.”

The ACLU of Southern California, an association of Muslim lawyers called Muslim Advocates, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote to Downing that “singling out individuals for investigation, surveillance, and data-gathering based on their religion constitutes religious profiling that is just as unlawful, ill-advised and deeply offensive as racial profiling.” And also, “the mapping of Muslim communities…seems premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths.” [emphasis added]

Of course they aren’t: that’s why we see Presbyterians blowing themselves up in crowded restaurants, Buddhists flying planes into buildings, and Amish waving placards crowing that they will soon dominate the world. The mapping of Muslim communities is sensible in light of the violent acts committed around the world – over 9,000 separate attacks since 9/11 – in the name of Islam. But political correctness has kept law enforcement officials (and the media) from asking the hard questions they should ask of Muslim leaders in the United States. Absurdities abound. One police official lamented: “We’ll come back from a Kumbayah meeting with a local mosque and realize that these guys who just agreed to help us are in our terror files!” Cleveland Muslim leader Fawaz Damra signed the Fiqh Council of North America’s condemnation of terrorism — and was later deported for failing to disclose his ties to terrorist groups. [emphasis added]. Damra was never expelled from his communities in Brooklyn, New York, or Cleveland despite having said at a 1989 Islamic conference that “the first principle is that terrorism, and terrorism alone, is the path to liberation.”

Peaceful American Muslims have not moved to expose, expel, or separate themselves from those who hold such sentiments. [emphasis added]. There is no wall of separation in the American Muslim community between Muslims who accept American pluralism and want to live ordinary lives and those who hold to the ideology of jihad and the subjugation of infidels held by Osama bin Laden. And authorities have not investigated the presence of such sentiments at all, despite the fact that they could be a reliable indicator of who might commit violent acts in the future and who might not.

Are there really jihadist sympathizers in American mosques? Yes. Sahim Alwan, a onetime leader of the Yemeni community in Lackawanna, New York and president of the mosque there, has the distinction of being the first American to attend an Al Qaeda training camp. Maher Hawash’s transition from secular Intel exec to jihadist was accompanied by an increase in his Islamic fervor and frequent mosque attendance.

This doesn’t mean that every Muslim in the United States is secretly plotting a jihad attack. But would it really be wise to risk everything on the assumption that none are?

The outrage of the ACLU and the Muslim groups over “the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths” founders on the fact that many Muslim groups have actually declared their desire to commit violent acts in the United States. We would be foolish – suicidally so – not to take all necessary steps to protect ourselves accordingly. If American Muslim groups were genuinely concerned about the unfair targeting of Muslims, they could direct their efforts to making concerted efforts to work with law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists in the United States, and to turn Muslims in America away from the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism. [emphasis added].

The fact that they do not do this, and instead work against genuine efforts to protect this country from a catastrophic attack, is revelatory. Despite their complaints, this mapping should continue, and expand.