Author: Ryan Mauro
The United Muslim Christian Forum (UMCF) is the interfaith branch of Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas that was established around 2008. The organization has official chapters in New York, Alaska and Trinidad. It has also said it has a chapter at Binghamton University. It is based at the 70-acre Fuqra headquarters in Hancock, N.Y. named “Islamberg,” where its sign has been seen at the entrance. The UMCF’s former website explicitly stated it was established by Sheikh Gilani. The chairperson is Khalifa Hussein Adams, a leader of MOA and Islamberg. UMCF says it seeks to “recognize similarities between Muslims and Christians,…
MOA says IQOU/QOU is “a premier institute for the study of Holy Qur’an, Islamic traditions and Sufic Sciences.”[i] IQOU operates as MOA’s educational branch and awards certain members with unaccredited degrees. It has also served as a recruiting center for participants in Sheikh Gilani’s guerrilla warfare training courses, as he stated in his secret “Soldiers of Allah” videotape filmed in the early 1990s.[ii] The FBI said during the trial of Fuqra members for a 1991 bomb plot in Toronto that the International Quranic Open University in Lahore, Pakistan is a front for terrorism.[iii] In 1992, the MOA training camp in Colorado was raided and…
The Fuqra/MOA front group for female members, Banaatun-Nur, sent a solicitation for $1 million to the Sultan of Brunei from its headquarters in Hesperia, California. The request said it was for various service projects.[i] The Sultan of Brunei took power in 1984 and has remained in power ever since. He sparked international controversy in 2014 when his phased implementation of theocratic Sharia Law escalated to outlawing homosexuality. Celebrities like Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres protested and vowed to boycott hotels and other companies that the Sultan had a significant financial stake in. [i] The solicitation letter was seized by the law…
22. “They bullshit them. They bullshit them.” Ali Abdelaziz lamented the lack of cooperation between the federal, state and local agencies when it came to intelligence-sharing and investigations. This dysfunction, he felt, is part of the reason that MOA is able to get complimentary remarks from law enforcement personnel who are kept in the dark and manipulated by MOA’s public relations campaign. “They fight so stupidly,” he complained. He claimed that the NYPD Intelligence Division instructed him not to share the intelligence they gathered with the FBI, and attributed turf wars to the tension between the two over his service…
21. “It’s sad. It’s sad to see this in America.” Sheikh Gilani’s exploitation of women and children is what most bothered him. The estimates that MOA had 1,500 to 3,000 members was grossly underestimated, he felt. The real number had to be closer to 15,000 when the children are included. Other sources agreed, mentioning that the number probably doesn’t account for the group’s international expansions. They also said MOA was having success in recruiting Somalis, inside and outside of America. Several violent terrorist plots against MOA, specifically Islamberg, followed by sympathetic media coverage, are said to be actually helping the group. Abdelaziz…
20. “Modern Warrior Slaves” Ali Abdelaziz summarized MOA as “Modern Warrior Slaves,” loyal cult members ready to do absolutely anything for their Pakistan-based leader, from living a life of a poverty so he can get every dime possible to dying in combat at his request. He said: “You have to understand this. These kids, all they been living for their whole lives is they want to fight a holy war. These are kids. They start at age 17 in the compound and they become a gangster, they wanna become gangsters for what they think is a holy war… Let me…
19. Abdelaziz Approaches Mawyer In 2010, Martin Mawyer’s office received an unexpected call from someone with a thick accent. The person was Ali Abdelaziz and he wanted to meet in person. He offered to help Mawyer in exposing the threat posed by MOA. Abdelaziz was hoping Mawyer could help him get into contact with NYPD Detective David Calla, who oversaw Abdelaziz’s work as an informant. Mawyer had talked to him on the phone to discuss MOA years earlier. Mawyer called Calla and was surprised by the ferocious response. Calla asked if Abdelaziz was trying to threaten him and his family.…
18. The Spy Game Comes to an End As Ali Abdelaziz’s relationship with MOA became strained, so did his relationships with the NYPD and FBI. According to Enemies Within, the FBI’s skepticism of Abdelaziz grew after he was detained by the Egyptian authorities. The FBI pressured the NYPD into bringing him to a local FBI office to take a polygraph on April 8, 2008, conducted by agent Michael Templeton. The polygraph indicted he answered deceptively about whether he intended to be truthful. When asked whether he disclosed his covert work for the U.S. government to someone in Egypt, the polygraph indicated…
17. A Strained Relationship Ali Abdelaziz’s relationship with MOA became increasingly strained, decreasing his effectiveness as an informant. MOA-affiliated sources say that many members in New York didn’t like him from the start and that his personality increasingly alienated people, even though Canadian members of MOA like Hussein Adams continued to covet his friendship. A major break happened when he suddenly divorced his wife, Fatima. Her father, Ihsan, and other family members were filled with resentment as she and her baby were abandoned. They claimed he had mistreated her during the marriage, too. It was widely known that Ihsan wanted…
15. The White Hawk Investigation Suddenly Ends As frustration with the case grew, so did concern over the wisdom of a potential confrontation with MOA and its 22 or more “Islamic villages.” The group has an apocalyptic ideology. The group was preparing for the day when hostile authorities would raid their camps, which they had a divine command to resist. Fears of another Waco—or series of Wacos—were warranted. According to the U.S. Army’s collection of intelligence reports, one of the squad members twice tried to buy AR-15 rifles in South Carolina in August 2007. And then, suddenly, in the final years of the…