October 11, 2005

Jamaat ul-Fuqra: In Your Backyard?

What is Jamaat ul-Fuqra, you may ask? It's a Muslim group founded in New York in 1980 by Sheik Gilani. Gilani is the cleric who was interviewed by Daniel Pearl in 2002. Remember? Pearl was betrayed by his sources, then kidnapped while in the Middle East and subesquently beheaded.

Gilani hangs out with nice people.

Anyway, it turns out Jamaat ul-Fuqra has a compound in rural Red House, Virginia. Baron Bodissey of the Gates of Vienna blog posts about the group, and his (I'm assuming his!) journey to Red House to check out the scene. He chats up a local and gets some interesting information.

It's compelling reading. Click here to read it in its entirety. But for you impatient types, here it is in a nutshell:

What we do know is that an organization with a history of violence had set up shop locally, refused to let its girl children go to school, and had top members arrested and convicted by the FBI for firearms violations. In addition they have set up a remote and isolated ÒTraining Camp for Young Muslim-American MenÓ Ñ to train young men for what? Auto repair? The food service industry? I have my doubts.

Located right here in the good ol' US of A. Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy?

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