Sheikh Gilani and Hizbul Mujahideen are commonly associated with Pakistani intelligence, specifically Brigadier Imtiaz Ahmed, a senior operative of the Pakistani ISI intelligence service who led the Intelligence Bureau from 1990 to 1993. Various reports have linked Brig. Imtiaz to Sheikh Gilani.[ii]

An official MOA letter to President Bush dated March 18, 1990 declared that all able-bodied Muslims are required to participate in a jihad against India over its actions in Kashmir. The letter called on Muslims to support an organization named the Kashmir Freedom Front.

A second letter was sent to President Bush two months later. It reiterated that jihad against India was mandatory, comparing India’s alleged crimes in Kashmir to those committed by Nazi Germany. It stated that the MOA endorses “all efforts” to intervene in Kashmir and that Sheikh Gilani had met with the Kashmir Freedom Front. The letter asked the U.S. government to not interfere from stopping Muslim-American recruits from joining the jihad, claiming that the U.S. stopped its recruits from entering Afghanistan in 1982.

Little information is available about the Kashmir Freedom Front in 1990. However, a coalition of over 30 pro-Pakistan militant groups formed in 1993 and was named the All Kashmir Freedom Front. It was essentially controlled by Hizbul Mujahideen.[iii]

Sheikh Gilani has acted as an extension of Hizbul Mujahideen. In 1991, Gilani attended a massive summit in Sudan that brought together leaders of all kinds of jihadist groups in order to foster cooperation despite ideological differences. Hizbul Mujahideen’s chosen representative was Sheikh Gilani.[iii.i]

Brig. Imtiaz led an operation in 1992 by the ISI’s Political Division to unite Kashmiri militants into a single coalition against India. Hizbul Mujahideen was a major focus of the effort.[iv] Sheikh Gilani was likewise preaching in favor of unity at the time and offering guerilla warfare training courses in Pakistan and Kashmir to any aspiring Muslim fighter.[v]

The Buffalo Police Department learned about a newly-established MOA website in 2002.[vi] A search of that website shows that its section about Kashmir linked to the Kashmir American Council. Khadijah Ghafur, a top MOA official, also was a representative of the organization.

The KAC’s leader was arrested by the FBI for being a Pakistani ISI spy who reported to the section that oversees Pakistani support for Kashmiri militant and terrorist groups. The spy, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party and grew up with the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen.

A 2016 State Department counter-terrorism report said that members of the group had been arrested by India for involvement in attacks that included Lashkar-e-Taiba.[vii]

In June of 2017, the U.S. sanctioned the leader of an Islamist terrorist group in Kashmir named Hizbul Mujahideen. The move targets an ideological ally of the U.S.-based Muslims of America organization (MOA), a cultish group known for its “Islamic villages” like Islamberg that is expressing support for the Kashmir terrorist group.

On June 26, the State Department blacklisted Mohammad Yusuf Shah (commonly known as Syed Salahuddin), the leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group that fights in Kashmir against India and operates in Pakistan with backing from the Pakistani government.

Pakistan condemned the U.S. action.

Hizbul Mujahideen is the largest militant force in Kashmir. It condemns nationalism and democracy. It fights to create a theocratic Islamic state and caliphate. It is also closely linked to other Pakistani terrorist groups, including Al-Qaeda affiliates.

MOA’s extremist leader, Sheikh Gilani, is based in Lahore, Pakistan and has long been involved in this circle of Pakistani terrorist groups. A 2003 FBI report says MOA acts as a conduit to groups in Pakistan affiliated with Al-Qaeda. This is substantiated by a former MOA member who went to Pakistan.

That is why it is so concerning that Muslims of America, a group that has boasted of having 22 “Islamic villages” in the U.S., is expressing solidarity with Hizbul Mujahideen.

MOA’s relationship with the group goes as far back as 1990.

On May 2, MOA announced a “multi-dimensional campaign” to “liberate” Kashmir from India. Its written statement was essentially a declaration to Muslims that Allah requires them to rally behind Hizbul Mujahideen.

It exalts the “charismatic leadership” of Burhan Wani, a top Hizbul Mujahideen commander killed last year. It credits him with inspiring “a new generation of fearless youth” and “freedom fighters.” MOA depicts the terrorist group as the face of the Kashmiri resistance to India.

In August 2016, MOA’s newspaper condemned India for killing a “top pro-independence militant leader.” Based on the wording, you’d think MOA was talking about a Kashmiri George Washington. Actually, it was Hizbul Mujahideen’s operations commander. MOA’s coverage presented the group as enjoying massive popular support.

In March 2017, MOA’s newspaper covered a battle between Indian forces and Hizbul Mujahideen and sided with the jihadists. It referred to them as “Kashmiri freedom fighters” contesting the “oppressive and violent treatment of the Kashmiri people by Indian forces.”

There’s good reason to suspect that MOA is providing Hizbul Mujahideen with more than sympathy.

MOA has a long relationship with the terrorist group. In 1990, MOA even wrote a public letter calling on all Muslims to contribute to jihad in Kashmir and to support the “Kashmir Freedom Front,” which was essentially another name for Hizbul Mujahideen.

On July 6, 2016, MOA published a public letter to the U.N. that said Muslims in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir are required to defend the Kashmiris against India “by every possible means.” Gilani and MOA have had a long presence in Kashmir, including a village named “Gillaniville.” Therefore, the letter is declaring that MOA is obligated to become involved “by every possible means.”

The letter also called on Muslim countries to unite into a single organization with a single force for intervention in places where Muslims are oppressed. In other words, to form a caliphate. MOA’s ideology has always been in favor of a caliphate, theocratic sharia law and violent jihad in places like Kashmir.

MOA’s May 2 press conference emphasized activism and humanitarian aid, but it did not reject violence or supporting violent elements.

In fact, MOA endorsed jihad by calling on Pakistan to intervene against the Indian military, an obviously violent action. Additionally, MOA’s claim that India is engaged in “genocide” would make jihad defensible, if not mandatory, to any Muslim audience.

The online statement announces its support for Kashmiris’ “struggle for self-determination.” Struggle is the synonym for jihad. That same statement heaps praise upon Hizbul Mujahideen for its jihad against India. MOA obviously chose to avoid using the eye-catching word in favor of the vaguer synonym, knowing that a Muslim audience would understand that it is referring to jihad.

MOA chief executive Hussein Adams, son of convicted terrorist Barry Adams, boasted at the May 2 press conference that MOA has been involved in supporting the Kashmiri “struggle” since the 1980s. Of course, he didn’t mention their involvement in jihad and soliciting of support for Hizbul Mujahideen.

Their own documents acknowledge this violent role in the Kashmir jihad. It is also seen in a secret video by Sheikh Gilani filmed and distributed among some MOA members in 1991-1993. Gilani explicitly says that MOA communes in North America can facilitate such training for jihad in places where Muslims are in battle, with Kashmir being the top priority. Training was open to Muslims outside of MOA.

“Sheikh Gilani’s tape, which I was the first to publicly release long excerpts of, showed that MOA’s public face is different than what it says and does in private. This is undeniable proof that MOA was engaged in terrorism and that Gilani used his American camps to train and recruit terrorists for Kashmir and other places,” Martin Mawyer, president of the Christian Action Network told Fuqra Files.

The Fuqra Files later obtained and released a video of women at Islamberg receiving guerilla training that was filmed in 2001-2002.

MOA spoke of its providing of money, food, supplies and medical to Kashmiris using two fronts: The Kashmir American Friendship Society and the American Muslim Medical Relief Team. We know from government reports and prosecutions that MOA sends money, personnel and material to Gilani in Pakistan for more extremist purposes.

MOA complained that its applications for its “journalists” with its newspapers to go to Pakistan and Kashmir are not being approved. Obviously, the Pakistani government and/or the U.S. government don’t see their trips to Pakistan so innocuously.

This issue exposes a gap in America’s national security policy: Neither Hizbul Mujahideen nor Jamaat ul-Fuqra (the original informal name of MOA) are on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

A dozen Muslim organizations in North America have asked the State Department to review Fuqra/MOA for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, as it fits the listed criteria. The case for designating Hizbul Mujahideen is much stronger, as the State Department has just acknowledged that it fits the criteria for its leader to be blacklisted as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The State Department acknowledges that Hizbul Mujahideen fits the definition of a Foreign Terrorist Organization and it should now designate it as such. Doing so could sever whatever material relationship exists between Hizbul Mujahideen and Islamists in America like MOA and enable investigations and prosecutions of jihadists in America involved with the Pakistan-backed terrorist group.

[i] “Iran Destroys 100,000 Satellite Dishes in ‘Morality Crackdown.’” (2016). Islamic Post. https://www.islamicpostonline.com/featured/2016/08/13/iran-destroys-100000-satellite-dishes-in-morality-crackdown/

[ii] These ties are discussed in greater detail in the section of this website about Fuqra activity outside of the U.S.

[iii] Phillips, David L. (2011). From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition. Transaction Publishers.

[iii.i] Jewett Millard Burr, “The Terrorists’ International,” American Center for Democracy, 2009.

[iv] “Slain Pakistani Militants Were on ‘Unity’ Mission.” (1992). India Times.

[v] The appeal for unity was stated in the “Soldiers of Allah” tape produced by Sheikh Gilani. More information about the tape can be found in the section of this website about Fuqra/MOA guerilla training.

[vi] The discovery was mentioned in an Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation into MOA in 2003-2004.

[vii] “Country Reports: South and Central Asia Overview.” (2015). U.S. State Department Bureau of Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism. http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2015/257518.htm

A U.S. government agency confirmed in a letter to the Clarion Project that an investigation into a terror-linked Islamist cult named Muslims of America (MOA) is ongoing. The group is known for its “Islamic villages” in North America, with its “Islamberg” headquarters receiving the most attention.

The October 19 letter from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) states that 10 documents from a previous investigation into MOA must be withheld because “the investigation related to the documents that were referred is still open.”

The Justice Department says that releasing the information could interfere with law enforcement proceedings as they concern an “ongoing investigation.”

Muslims of America (MOA) used to be known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra when it carried out a series of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from the 1970s to the early 1990s. The group is led by a radical cleric in Pakistan and claims to have 22 “villages” in the U.S., some of which are known to have been used for basic military-type training.

FBI documents from 2003 released by Clarion Project earlier this year state that MOA is was linked to al-Qaeda in Pakistan at that time.

The Justice Department letter is referring to a Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) terrorism and counter-intelligence probe into MOA activity possibly impacting the U.S. military. The Clarion Project has received a series of documents from that investigation dated between 2002 and 2004, and the files confirm that concern about MOA’s extremism is warranted.

The documents refer to “Islamberg” in Hancock, New York; “Ahmadabad West” and “Ahmadabad East” in Red House and Meherrin, Virginia; “Islamville” in York County, South Carolina; “Hassanville” in Ontario, Canada; the “village” in Dover, Tennessee and one in the state of Washington. Travel to and from Pakistan, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago is also of concern.

The NCIS explicitly states that MOA is the “U.S. name” for Jamaat ul-Fuqra and that there are reports of gunfire, including automatic gunfire, at some of the “compounds.”

The documents state that “all locations have individuals who are involved with criminal scams to raise money for MOA/JAF,” including worker’s compensation fraud, insurance fraud, credit card fraud, illegal straw purchases of weapons and conversions of semi-automatic firearms into fully-automatic guns. MOA members send the funds to “Islamberg” in New York and/or Lahore, Pakistan for Sheikh Gilani.

“MOA members from all compounds also travel to Pakistan for both religious education as well as military-style training and operational experience fighting in the Kashmir region of Pakistan,” the document states.

Major Activity in Virginia

The declassified NCIS documents show extensive MOA activity in the state of Virginia outside of the two known compounds.

The Virginia MOA compounds are suspiciously secretive. The documents recount how the compound in Red House behaved after a hurricane in 2004. They refused to grant access to the property for the local fire department and Virginia Power to fix power lines for several days. There are similar stories from other compounds.

At the time of the documents’ writing in 2002-2004, life in MOA’s Virginia compounds was known to be very strict. Two families left the Red House compound after televisions were banned. Multiple MOA-affiliated sources have mentioned this ban to this author as well as Martin Mawyer.

The Virginia State Police provided information showing that “the group has expressed an interest in harming a VSP [Virginia State Police] trooper if they pose a threat to MOA members in central Virginia.”

Members living at the Red House compound were instructed to buy firearms and ordinance every single month “to enhance the defenses of their compound.”

The activity at the compound includes paramilitary training, presumably like that seen in videotaped training of women at “Islamberg” around 2002. The investigatory files state:

“Reporting to BATF has noted that MOA, Red House, VA, conducts squad-type training in surrounding woods/swamps and that they have made uncorroborated statements that they would fight any law enforcement encroachment on their compounds by use of defensive force.”

Suspected MOA members are reported to travel to the area and cash counterfeited payroll business checks. They then disappear. Members also operate convenience stores in the towns outside of the compounds and were looking to buy more land at the time.

Infiltration of Local Police

 According to the NCIS documents, the person in charge of the Red House compound’s security was a local Orange City Police Department officer.

Seized MOA documents show a concerted effort to infiltrate law enforcement and establish security companies as fronts.

Infiltration of U.S. Military Bases

“Many” MOA members are alleged to have U.S. military backgrounds, the documents warn.

The investigators are especially concerned with MOA infiltration of Naval Air Station LeMoore and Fort Irwin in California by at least two “long-time members of the terrorism-tied Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of America” group.

The files refer to suspected MOA members working as a housing contract officer at LeMoore and as a contract administrator with the acquisitions command at Fort Irwin. Concern is also raised about a MOA-owned cab company that may have access to U.S. bases and services performed by a MOA member who is a contractor for Avaya Communications.

At the time the files were authored, at least two “long-time members of the terrorism-tied Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of America” group were known to have worked as a housing contract officer at LeMoore and as a contract administrator with the acquisitions command at Fort Irwin.

The two MOA members were from the group’s 400-acre “Baladullah” compound in Fresno County, California that was abandoned after its leaders were indicted for defrauding the state government of $1.3 million in a massive charter school scam.

The money is believed to have been funneled to MOA’s leaders in Pakistan. The compound was “alleged to have support terrorism,” NCIS writes.

The NCIS was concerned that the MOA members were using their positions to earn “kickbacks” to fund their organization and its leaders in Pakistan.

Conclusion

Declassified documents since the NCIS papers show that the concern about MOA is ongoing. For example, when the Clarion Project exposed a MOA enclave in Texas in 2014, the report included FBI documents from 2003-2007 with frightening warnings about the threat posed by MOA’s extremism, terrorist history and international infrastructure.

A retired federal source confirmed to Clarion Project in April that he was given urgent national security briefings about MOA after 2009 with an emphasis on the group’s acquirement of weapons and tactical capabilities, including training of women and children.

Government documents are only released after they have aged. Those who contend that MOA poses no threat point to a gap in time between an incriminating investigatory file and the time of publication. However, the U.S. government’s private assessments of MOA since the 70’s have been consistent. The most up-to-date evidence from declassified files show that MOA is not the “moderate” group it claims to be.

MOA members were subjected to a spate of arrests in New York state this year, as reported by this author and Martin Mawyer based in part on their confidential informants inside the group. One reported MOA associate, Ramadan Abdullah, was apprehended with a weapons stockpile.

MOA may also be feeling heat because of its long relationship and public support for Hizbul Mujahideen, a terrorist group in Pakistan and Kashmir. The U.S. State Department designated Hizbul Mujahideen as a Foreign Terrorist Organization on August 16, prohibiting any material assistance to the group.

This item was originally published by The Clarion Project

Tahirah Amatul Wadud (Photo: Video screenshot)

The newest Democratic congressional candidate in Massachusetts, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, is a prominent official of not one but two Islamist groups: Jamaat ul-Fuqra and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

Jamaat Ul-Fuqra, which now goes by the name of Muslims of America (MOA), is a jihadi cult that is currently under federal investigation. Amatul-Wadud has long been an advocate for Fuqra and serves as the group’s “general counsel.”

CAIR has been identified by the Justice Department as a Hamas-linked entity of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Clarion Project was the first to report on Amatul-Wadud’s political aspirations when she expressed her intentions to eventually become the governor of Massachusetts.

Now, the 44-year old attorney just announced that she’s running in the Democratic primary for Massachusetts’ 1^st Congressional District, challenging Rep. Richard Neal, who has held the seat since 1988. The media coverage has focused on her status as an attorney in Springfield and that she is a four-year member of the Commission on the Status of Women.

Her campaign website says she will improve national security by “combating terrorism and supremacy in all its forms.” She also mentions criminal justice as one of her top concerns.

Nowhere does her campaign website mention her official involvement with Muslims of America/Jamaat ul-Fuqra or the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Her business website does identify her as the “counsel” to the “Islamberg” commune that serves as MOA’s national headquarters. An obvious decision was made to omit that from her biography.

Media coverage of her candidacy also failed to report on these affiliations. In fact, she was practically endorsed by Amanda Drane, a reporter for the Berkshire Eagle, who called her a “champion of marginalized communities.”

CAIR also promoted her candidacy in its national newsletter, leaving out her long-time affiliation with MOA/Fuqra. CAIR-Massachusetts’ website only makes a vague reference to her being a “general counsel for a New York Muslim congregation.”

As of the publication date of this article, none of MOA’s official websites or social media pages have acknowledged her candidacy.

She is running as a Democrat and not with MOA’s Islamic Political Party of America. The status of that party is unclear.

Fuqra/Muslims of America

The criminal history, terrorist attacks and secretive and paramilitary nature of Fuqra/MOA have long been documented.  MOA claims to have 22 “Islamic villages” across the country. The U.S. government recently confirmed that there are ongoing investigations into MOA.

MOA’s Pakistan-based leader, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani, acts like the master of a radical Islamic cult. He and his group preach a radical ideology that includes anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, as seen in this screenshot from Islamberg’s old website:

In 2014, Sheikh Gilani published through MOA an article that claimed Nazi Germany was not an enemy of the U.S., drew moral equivalence between Hitler and the Jewish victims of the Holocaust and spouted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about 9/11 and Pearl Harbor.

He wrote:

“There was no need for America to go to war against Hitler. Hitler was not the enemy of America or the American people. There was a mutual animosity between Hitler and the Jews. So, the American people paid a very heavy price for fighting someone else’s war.”

This article was then promoted by now-congressional candidate Tahirah Amatul-Wadud.

See below:

Jamaat ul-Fuqra/Muslims of America (MOA) received the most attention when its leader, Sheikh Gilani, was suspected of possibly killing Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was trying to interview him when he was abducted and beheaded on videotape by jihadists in 2002.

Gilani was never charged with involvement in the murder (some U.S. officials exonerated him), but suspicions remain due to the facts and circumstances surrounding Pearl’s death. Gilani claims Pearl was an Israeli agent sent to assassinate him as part of a Zionist conspiracy.

MOA has received significant media coverage since then due to the Clarion Project’s release of declassified documents as well as footage from around 2002 showing women at “Islamberg” receiving basic guerilla training and the publication of a book and documentary by activist Martin Mawyer.

The group’s 101-acre terrorist training camp in Colorado was raided in 1992. Its 400-acre compound in California was abandoned once it came under investigation for a massive charter school scam. It also showed signs of militant activity.

Over a dozen Muslim organizations in North America have called on the State Department to review whether Fuqra/MOA qualifies as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Other Fuqra Members in U.S. Politics

Amatul-Wadud isn’t the only MOA member seeking a political career.

Alaska-based MOA member Gregory Jones also recently launched a failed bid for political office, running as a Democrat for the Alaska State House. He was also a delegate for Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

MOA member Jamaal Johnston of Meherrin, Virginia ran a campaign for the Virginia House of Delegates this year and lost. Meherrin is the location of one of two MOA/Fuqra “villages” in the state of Virginia.

Declassified NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) documents obtained by the Clarion Project show that the U.S. government believes MOA is connected to a wide range of criminal activity, especially in Virginia.

Johnston owns White Hawk Security International Inc. MOA has long operated through such security companies, as acknowledged in declassified FBI documents from 2003 that warned that MOA’s use of such front businesses and ties to extremists in Pakistan. If he runs for office again, reporters are obliged to ask him about White Hawk’s offices, travels, activities and business contracts overseas in light of its connections to MOA.

Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

Amatul-Wadud is a board member of the Massachusetts wing of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR and MOA have gotten cozier and cozier in recent years.

The Justice Department designated CAIR as an unindicted co-conspirator during the trial of the Holy Land Foundation, an affiliated Muslim Brotherhood front that was prosecuted for financing Hamas. The Justice Department specifically listed CAIR as an “entity” of the Muslim Brotherhood’s “Palestine Committee” that was established to covertly aid Hamas in the public sphere.

The FBI’s wiretaps of a secret Muslim Brotherhood meeting in Philadelphia in 1993, which included two of CAIR’s founders, proved beyond any doubt that the group hides its radicalism using slick word games and omissions.

Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing:

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

CAIR, like MOA, tries to tar any of their critics as an “Islamophobic,” anti-Muslim bigots. They use this tactic to deflect attention away from their ties to Islamist movements and their own inflammatory rhetoric. Yet interestingly, a CAIR official’s offensive comments opposing Memorial Day sparked a backlash from other Muslims who appreciate the sacrifices of the U.S. military.

Amautul-Wadud’s Background

Amatul-Wadud was born in Queens, New York to parents who converted to Islam when she was about four years old. She grew up in Brooklyn. Her family moved to Massachusetts in 1984 when she was nine. She attended Elms College, graduating in 1998 and then graduated from Western New England University School of Law in 2005.

An old list of MOA mosques states that one existed in Springfield, Massachusetts.

Our sources within MOA and former MOA members do not directly link Amatul-Wadud to any criminal activity, but they do confirm her allegiance to Sheikh Gilani. In fact, Sheikh Gilani’s wife in Pakistan has even tweeted her admiration for Amatul-Wadud:

Old documents from the 1980s and early 1990s obtained through Clarion Project’s Fuqra Files project do not mention her full name (Tahir Amatul-Wadud), but others were found with just her last names on them.

For example, someone with the surname of Amatul-Wadud and the titles of “amir” and “Maulana” lived in Virginia as a “jamaat administrator” and applied for Sheikh Gilani’s secret militant force named “Soldiers of Allah.” His application boasted he was “very good with a shot gun” and “willing to hear and obey and [be] committed.”

At least one other person with the Amatul-Wadud surname applied to become a “Soldier of Allah” and lived in Pennsylvania. Another traveled to Abbotabad, Pakistan, years after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, supposedly on a humanitarian trip. She also has relatives in Egypt, one MOA-affiliated source says.

A former member of MOA responded to her candidacy by telling me:

“I know that the Jamaat helped pay for her schooling. They raised donations from members, basically. She was groomed from a child. I can remember Gilani specifically mentioning these younger members like her, commanding the parents to groom them for law enforcement, doctors and the political arena. Still the same old radical beliefs, that didn’t change.

“Gilani always gives the go-ahead for these kinds of decisions [her candidacy]. They do nothing this big without his approval.”

“Islamophobia” and Lawfare: A Strategy

From the first day of her campaign, Amatul-Wadud began depicting her expected critics in the worst of terms. She said:

“Doing strong work, as a woman, gives me some push-back. People are going to write some crazy things about me online. There’s going to be lots of fake news, elements of xenophobia, Islamophobia, there’s going to be elements of racism, it’s going to be sexist and elements of misogynistic.”

She reiterated that bigoted “fake news authors” will soon respond to her candidacy, an apparent reference to this author. She said:

“In the campaign I fully expect that I’ll be attacked in the media and I’ve already seen the playbook, I know what that’s going to look like: It will not talk about anything substantive, it will not speak on anything on the merits of who I am, but it will be soaked in the following values: misogyny/sexism, xenophobia and Islamophobia. The fake news authors will be all over this, they will try to drive a wedge between me and my neighbors and when they realize they cannot break our spirit, they will keep trying. I’m asking people to keep no separation between us, come to me.”

Amatul-Wadud knows a thing or two about the politics of personal destruction.

She was part of MOA’s attempt to use lawfare against activist Martin Mawyer, who published a book about MOA. The group, using its pro-bono lawyers, tried to destroy him with a $30 million lawsuit. He bravely fought back and won, with the judge throwing out MOA’s bizarre and illogical lawsuit.

MOA has listed this author as a member of the “American Taliban” and responded to my previous research piece regarding Amatul-Wadud by attacking me personally in a deception-filled article titled, “Ryan Mauro, a Discredited Islamophobe Attacks Muslim Woman Attorney in Blog.”

The article cites the highly-criticized work of the Southern Poverty Law Center, without mentioning that the Center hypocritically reported on Fuqra’s terrorism and extremism in 2002.

(Of course, real anti-Muslim bigotry and violence is a real threat—one Clarion has and will report to the relevant authorities. Plots like those by anti-Muslim, anti-government terrorist Robert Doggart—who sought to attack Islamberg as a means of sparking an American civil war—are not only morally reprehensible on every level, but serve as fuel for the very extremisms they claim to be fighting against.)

Champion of Progressivism?

Amatul-Wadud plans to challenge Rep. Neal from the left, identifying herself as “unapologetically progressive.”

All voters in Massachusetts considering her candidacy are obliged to review this long list of incendiary quotes from MOA’s own leaders and publications.

Progressive voters must think critically about her claims to be “unapologetically progressive” and ask: What is progressive about MOA’s ideology, none of which Amatul-Wadud has publicly rejected?

2018 Colorado News Report on Fuqra: Terror in the Rocky Mountains

Newly-released FBI documents obtained by Clarion Project confirm Clarion’s reports that Jamaat ul-Fuqra is training members in isolated communes across America and Canada.

The group’s “Islamberg” headquarters in upstate New York is its most well-known “Islamic village.”

Fuqra, which now goes by the name of the Muslims of the Americas (MOA) among other titles, is a cultish Islamist group with a history of crime and terrorism. The group is led by Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in Pakistan.

Gilani’s name appeared in headlines in 2002 when Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted and beheaded on his way to interview Gilani, though the radical cleric was never accused of an involvement in those crimes.

The first FBI document is dated November 27, 2009 and labels the Muslims of the Americas, Inc. as “armed and dangerous.” It begins by summarizing the group’s consistent history of extremism, terrorism and crime:

“Jamaat ul-Fuqra, aka Muslims of the Americas (MOA), have a history of violence and/or violent acts. Use extreme caution when dealing with confirmed members or individuals who are believed to be associated with this group” 

The report says that Sheikh Gilani is “thought to be supportive of al-Qaeda,” perhaps referring to the group’s links to al-Qaeda affiliates like Hizbul Mujahideen, to which Fuqra has a history of ties and publicly supports even today.

FBI documents from 2003 that Clarion released in December 2016 mentioned Fuqra’s links to al-Qaeda in Pakistan and use of fronts like security companies in America.

Another newly-released document from December 2010 explicitly refers to “the Muslims of the Americas [aka Fuqra] terrorist organization” and states:

“The MOA [Fuqra] is composed primarily of black American Muslim converts, many who converted to Islam while in prison. Many MOA members reside in rural communities (jamaats) to live and worship free from non-Muslim influence. 

The MOA jamaats are located on land that has been privately owned or rented by members. Each jamaat usually has numerous trailers where members reside, a mosque, and a guard post, some with armed guards, at the entrance to the properties. These communities, similar to commune type facilities, have women and children residing in them with the children being homeschooled.

Organized training is also conducted to include weapons training, tactics, hand-to-hand combat, rappelling, and live-fire exercises.”

We have posted these declassified reports  on FuqraFiles.com, Clarion Project’s comprehensive website about the group.

Fuqra has a documented history of conducting basic paramilitary training in America and elsewhere, including more advanced training in Pakistan and Kashmir.

Gilani appeared in a secret video in the early 1990s offering to use Fuqra offices to provide guerilla training to aspiring jihadists. Clarion Project also released a video from 2001-2002 showing women in military attire getting training at Islamberg.

One of Fuqra’s terrorist-training camps, a 101-acre tract of land in Colorado, was raided in 1992. It was subsequently abandoned by the group, as reported in this recent KRDO news report with Heather Skold. You can see pictures from the investigation into the Colorado Fuqra camp on the Fuqra Files website.

Fuqra fugitives from the training camp were even the subject of an episode of America’s Most Wanted in 1994.

Although these FBI documents from 2009-2011 state that Fuqra has about a dozen “jamaats” in America, the group itself claims to have 22 “Islamic villages” in America alone. The locations for these “Islamic villages” are identified as “Islamberg” in New York, as well as other villages in Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Michigan, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.

The group also has operations in Pakistan, Kashmir, Canada, Trinidad, Venezuela and elsewhere (Fuqra has a history of being secretive and deceptive about its locations).

FBI reports from a 2003-2007 investigation in Texas warned, “The MOA [Fuqra] is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S.”

That infrastructure can legally operate because Fuqra is not designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the State Department. The Treasury Department has not sanctioned the group’s overseas leaders and entities, either.

Over a dozen North American Muslim groups have joined Clarion Project in asking the U.S. State Department to look at designating Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

The Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms recently confirmed to Clarion Project that it still has Fuqra members under investigation. ATF has prosecuted Fuqra members on firearms-related charges, including illegal possession of guns.

Clarion Project also recently reported that Fuqra’s General Counsel, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, is running for Congress in Massachusetts.

Fuqra leader Pakistani Sheikh Gilani

A member of Muslims of the Americas (MOA), an Islamist hate group that cultishly follows a jihadist cleric in Pakistan, is running for Congress in Alaska. He is the second member of MOA to announce a congressional run this year, following Tahirah Amatul-Wadud in Massachusetts.

In 2016, Gregory “Shoaib” Jones was a delegate for Senator Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention and ran for the Alaska state House in District 8. His deep involvement with MOA was exposed by the Clarion Project at the time, triggering a statewide controversy.

Now, Jones is running for Congress and styling himself as a progressive interfaith leader. If Jones wins the Democratic primary for the at-large congressional district, he will face Republican Rep. Don Young in the general election.

The group that Greg Jones belongs to is led by a terror-linked cleric in Pakistan named Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. It claims to have 22 “Islamic villages” in America, including its “Islamberg” headquarters.

The group has been continually under investigation because of its criminal and terrorist activity since the 1970s, including a raid on its guerilla training camp in Colorado in 1992.

In October 2017, a letter from the Justice Department to the Clarion Project confirmed that an investigation into Jones’ group is ongoing. And newly-declassified FBI reports from 2009 to 2011 show that FBI offices still view MOA as an extremist threat.

MOA’s extremist and anti-Semitic ideology is thoroughly documented, as is its history of paramilitary-type activity. Today, it is openly urging Muslims to support the Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist group in Kashmir and Pakistan.

The Clarion Project has an entire comprehensive website about the group and its state-by-state activity here.

Despite all of this documentation and Greg Jones’ admitted membership in MOA and trips to Pakistan, the media turned Anchorage Assemblywoman and radio host Amy Demboski into the state’s biggest villain when she merely mentioned the issue.

Demboski even had Jones on her radio show to tell his side of the story. On her show, he confirmed that he is a member of MOA. When asked whether he’s gone to Pakistan, he initially avoided answering and then admitted he had gone there and has met Sheikh Gilani. Jones further confirmed that Gilani continues to lead the group to which he belongs.

Jones said that Demboski had put him and his family in danger. He wrote an op-ed calling on her to “apologize or step down.” When Jones and his wife publicly confronted Demboski, they got a standing ovation in the assembly.

The Alaskan Democrats published a press release on December 7, 2016, titled, “Democrats Stand With Greg Jones.” State Party Chair Casey Steinau said she was “saddened and outraged” by the “anti-Muslim rhetoric” of Demboski.

The Alaska Democratic Party did not explain how MOA’s radical ideology is compatible with its progressive values.

Demobski, for merely mentioning a candidate’s admitted membership in a hate group, faced a pile-on in the media. Heavily biased and often inaccurate reporting making Demboski look like a nonsensical bigot appeared in KTUU, Anchorage Press, Alaska Commons, KTVA, Alaska Public Media, Talking Points Memo, Midnight Sun and Anchorage Daily News (in fairness, at least Anchorage Daily News published an op-ed by Demboski defending herself).

“I was the focus of a robust public campaign to vilify my character and intimidate me to back down; I received threats against my person and property, as well as harassing phone calls. But in the end, like many Alaskans, I don’t back down when truth is on my side,” Demboski told the Clarion Project.

Demboski provided us with just a sampling of the harassment she experienced, though she emphasized she doesn’t consider herself to be a victim. The vile messages included numerous wishes for her to die, expressions of hate and graphic insults that cannot be repeated here. One pledged to burn American flags in front of her home.

Now, the issue is resurfacing, but this time, Demboski is vindicated by the Clarion Project’s release of documents from a FBI counter-terrorism investigation into MOA in Alaska from 2009 to 2010, with additional FBI reports from 2011.

The documents indicate that MOA figures in the state—perhaps including Greg Jones himself—were placed under surveillance.

2009: MOA Announces its Expansion into Alaska

In June 2009, MOA’s Islamic Post newspaper announced that Gregory and Maleika Jones, using the names of “Shuaib and Malika Ahmed,” had arrived in Alaska “to establish an independent, self-sufficient, purely Islamic village.” It says this was “initiated” by their Pakistan-based leader, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani.

In other words, Sheikh Gilani dispatched Greg Jones and his wife to lead MOA’s expansion in Alaska.

Right from the start, MOA’s Alaska operation was tasked with emphasizing their interest in interfaith dialogue. A Facebook photo shows him and his wife manning a table for the United Muslim Christian Forum, the interfaith front group for MOA that supports prosecuting “hate speech” against Islam. The Forum’s website and activity were filled with anti-Semitism, including teaching that Jews orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.

MOA is often secretive and deceptive about its “villages” or “communities” (they use both terms). However, MOA has confirmed their intentions in Alaska, even though Jones does not mention MOA on his campaign website and MOA’s official outlets are not bringing attention to his candidacy.

In 2014, MOA’s chief executive Hussein Adams, the son of a convicted terrorist, mentioned in 2014 that MOA has a “community” near Anchorage. Adams stated that such a “community” like MOA’s other “Islamic villages” existed in Alaska but, two years later, Jones said it was still a work in progress.

In December 2016, Jones boasted about MOA’s “Holy Islamville” commune in South Carolina and expressed his desire to follow the model in Alaska.

“Jones does not dispute that his family’s dream is to buy land and establish a small enclave like the one in South Carolina, where they could establish a school and place of worship. They have not done so yet, and are currently living in an apartment in the Valley,” reported the Anchorage Daily News in an article heavily biased in favor of MOA.

FBI Files Reveal Counter-Terrorism Investigation into MOA in Alaska

According to newly-obtained FBI documents, the Anchorage field office’s investigation began in November 2009 after a FBI agent found a copy of MOA’s newspaper in a coffee shop in Anchorage. This is the same newspaper that announced that MOA was starting of a “purely Islamic village” in Alaska.

In a FBI report dated November 27, 2009, the bureau labeled MOA as “armed and dangerous.” It begins by summarizing the group’s consistent history of extremism, terrorism and crime:

“Jamaat ul-Fuqra, aka Muslims of the Americas (MOA), have a history of violence and/or violent acts. Use extreme caution when dealing with confirmed members or individuals who are believed to be associated with this group.”

Another FBI document from December 2010 explicitly refers to “the Muslims of the Americas terrorist organization” and states:

“The MOA is composed primarily of black American Muslim converts, many who converted to Islam while in prison. Many MOA members reside in rural communities (jamaats) to live and worship free from non-Muslim influence.

“The MOA jamaats are located on land that has been privately owned or rented by members. Each jamaat usually has numerous trailers where members reside, a mosque, and a guard post, some with armed guards, at the entrance to the properties. These communities, similar to commune type facilities, have women and children residing in them with the children being homeschooled.

“Organized training is also conducted to include weapons training, tactics, hand-to-hand combat, rappelling, and live-fire exercises.”

The FBI investigation was focused on at least one male who is leading MOA in Alaska, whose name is redacted in the released files.

The investigation mentioned that FBI surveillance on the suspect revealed he had “established Alaska as his permanent residence” base in 2009.

The FBI said that the suspect holds a title and “this position is one which is typically appointed by Gilani himself.”

The documents indicate the Alaskan MOA has been involved with a MOA front in South Carolina named the Islamic Political Party of America. This entity is more openly extreme and inflammatory than MOA’s “moderate” presentation.

The MOA newspaper said that Jones was born in Washington, D.C. and spent most of his life in South Carolina. He also says he lived in North Carolina.

The FBI’s investigation into this leader of MOA in Alaska was closed in December 2010 because, “although captioned subject has several ties to the Muslims of the Americas terrorist organization, authorized investigative techniques did not show a definitive link to criminal or terrorist activity.”

In other words, the FBI is privately saying that MOA is an extremist group and is a threat to take seriously. However, specific evidence of illegal and/or violent activity by the individual suspect must be obtained to justify continuing the investigation, regardless of the extremist-but-legal activity that raises the concerns.

The FBI report clearly states that the investigation into this MOA figure in Alaska will be reopened if new evidence is obtained. For all we know, that may have already happened. After all, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed in October 2017 that its investigation into MOA is ongoing.

Only days after the closure of the investigation, the FBI in Alaska was in communication with colleagues across the country about a MOA suspect in the area of Clarksburg, West Virginia. The details are censored, but somehow it was connected to MOA in Alaska, as the documents refer to having a local ATF agent “obtain a copy of the subject’s application.”

The most recent declassified FBI document regarding MOA in Alaska is from April 2011. It is entirely redacted except for the reference to MOA and a certain subject’s contacts. Regardless of whether the investigation was technically reopened or not, it is apparent that the FBI in Alaska is significantly concerned about MOA’s operations in the state.

Meanwhile, Jones’ campaign boasts that he was a liaison with the Anchorage Police and Fire Chaplains Association in 2015 and graduated from the Anchorage Citizens Police Academy in 2016. During his last campaign, he said he recently worked as a Security and Investigations Professional with ADT Fire & Security.

Earlier MOA Investigation Involved Greg Jones’ Father

Other documents obtained by the Clarion Project show that Greg Jones’ father was also mentioned in the context of a national security investigation, one of many law enforcement investigations and prosecutions of MOA.

The documents show that the Maryland State Police Criminal Intelligence Division began an investigation of MOA in the state in January 1993 after the Colorado state government raided a MOA “village” being used as a guerilla training camp and hideout and prosecuted leaders of MOA’s terrorist and criminal plots.

The investigation in Colorado led to the Maryland State Police’s investigation of a MOA (also known as “Fuqra”) community at Walker’s Trailer Park in Marydel, located in Caroline County.

According to the report, MOA members from the trailer park were believed to have committed a robbery in Marydel on August 19, 1994. The police visited the MOA dwelling and, although they did not locate the stolen property, they did find a Uzi 9mm semi-automatic gun hidden inside an abandoned washing machine.

Key subjects of the investigation into MOA in Maryland, partially because of their connections to a Colorado-based MOA terrorist named James D. Williams, had the Jones surname.

One, Gregory I. Jones of Waldorf, Maryland and Washington D.C., is the presumed father of the Alaskan congressional candidate of the same name. In a radio interview, Jones refers to his father and uncle being long-time MOA members who converted to Islam in 1971 when he was five years old.

When MOA terrorist and Gilani-confidante James D. Williams was convicted, another MOA member named Herbert Ector pledged his home as collateral for Williams’ bail. Ector listed Gregory I. Jones as a personal reference on the application. This enabled Williams to fail to appear at his sentencing and to become a fugitive until 2000.

The investigators saw Gregory I. Jones’ car at the home of Ector, the MOA member who secured Williams’ bail.

When they went to Gregory I. Jones’ residence in Waldorf, they found that there were two men, three women and three children. They saw a vehicle there was registered to Jones using a Nashville address. The registration was expired, as was the Tennessee driver’s license associated with the vehicle. The report also mentioned that a fire broke out at Jones’ Waldorf residence in late April 1994.

No further information about the elder Jones was provided in the report except for an explicit mention of the FBI investigating him at the time.

                                            Links to MOA’s Massachusetts Congressional Candidate   

In December 2017, the Clarion Project exposed how a congressional candidate in Massachusetts, Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, had unadvertised links to MOA. She just qualified for the ballot, clearing a hurdle for her primary challenge to Democratic Rep. Richard Neal (voting is on September 4).

One of her concerning actions was promoting an anti-Semitic article by Sheikh Gilani that criticized the U.S. for fighting Hitler and drew moral equivalence between the Nazis and their Jewish victims.

Amatul-Wadud is also on the board of the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), another Islamist group hostile to progressive Muslims that oppose the Islamist ideology.

The U.S. Justice Department, as well as reams of publicly-available information, prove that CAIR was created as an entity of the Muslim Brotherhood as part of a pro-Hamas operation. CAIR was designated an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Hamas-fundraising trial of the Holy Land Foundation.

The connection between Greg Jones in Alaska and Tahirah Amatul-Wadud in Massachusetts is stronger than just having a long-term membership in the same fringe Islamist cult. They also arrange events together for MOA.

In 2016, the University of Alaska-Anchorage’s Multicultural Center had an event called “Debuking Myths of Islam” with Amatul-Wadud as the speaker. One advertisement for the event explicitly identified it as being done “in collaboration” with MOA and facilitated by Greg and Malika Jones of MOA.

Americans’ jaws should drop at the prospect of having a public figure with any ties to MOA and the hateful ideology of its beloved leader. Yet, now we have two congressional candidates who actually endorse Sheikh Gilani and MOA’s ideology and willingly belong to the subversive group.

Fuqra leader Pakistani Sheikh Gilani

A new petition has been launched by Clarion Project, parent to Fuqra Files, and Martin Mawyer of Christian Action Network that calls on the Trump Administration to review the Jamaat ul-Fuqra jihadi cult for possible designation as a foreign terrorist organization or international criminal network.

Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which is led by a radical cleric in Pakistan but operates in North America under the name of Muslims of America (MOA), is known for claiming to have 22 “Islamic villages” in the U.S., such as its Islamberg headquarters. It also has headquarters in Canada, Trinidad, Venezuela, Pakistan and other countries.

The petition already has almost 13,000 signatures and can be signed by clicking here.

It specifically asks Secretary of State Pompeo to consider adding Fuqra to the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations after reviewing the research of Clarion Project’s Ryan Mauro and Martin Mawyer. Much of that research can be found at Clarion’s comprehensive website about the Islamist cult at FuqraFiles.com.Mauro and Mawyer are also asking the Treasury Department to accept a briefing and to review Fuqra for possible designation as a transnational criminal organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Approximately a dozen Muslim organizations in North America have joined the call for a review of Fuqra for possible designation.

Ties to Hizbul Mujahideen and Possibly Others

The case for designation is stronger now that the State Department finally designated Hizbul Mujahideen in August, a group with which MOA expresses solidarity. Sheikh Gilani and his group have long ties to the organization.

Gilani and his group have sometimes acted as an extension of Hizbul Mujahideen. In fact, Gilani was Hizbul Mujahideen’s representative at a massive summit of jihadists in Sudan in 1991, according to the detailed research of J. Millard Burr. Other terrorists in attendance included Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current chief of al-Qaeda; Imad Mughniyah of Hezbollah and Khaled Mashaal of Hamas.

Gilani also attended a summit in 1993, as shown here, and was seen with Pakistani intelligence figures.  These summits brought together virtually every Islamist extremist group and government from around the world to discuss cooperation across ideological boundaries.

Gilani is a cousin of a more prominent cleric in Pakistan and Kashmir with a nearly identical name, Syed Ali Shah Geelani (the last name has multiple spellings). Geelani is one of the top spiritual leaders for jihadists in Kashmir and is accused of supporting terrorist groups including Hizbul Mujahideen.

Former MOA members claim that Gilani’s relatives, including his Pakistani son named Shafaat, are known to meet with Syed Geelani.

Sheikh Gilani and Fuqra have always cultivated ties to other Islamist extremist groups, despite major ideological differences.

In the 1990s, Gilani emphasized his network could have the most impact by playing a supporting role for the broader jihadist cause. He even created a secret videotape offering to facilitate “Islamic guerilla warfare” training for aspiring jihadists who don’t share MOA’s beliefs.

This raises the question of where Sheikh Gilani and Fuqra’s money, including the revenue raised under the name of MOA and other titles in North America, is going.

Where is the Money Going?

This knife was one of the many weapons found in the Fuqra compound in Colorado (Photo Credit: Video Screenshot)

Gilani’s history of support for jihadist causes is especially concerning the many complaints from former and current MOA members about how the group has absolutely no transparency about how its money is spent in North America, how much is sent to Gilani in Pakistan and Kashmir, and how Gilani distributes it overseas.

Indeed, when MOA launched a frivolous lawsuit against Martin Mawyer to try to silence him from exposing the group, it refused to hand over practically any documents. MOA tried to hide all it could, even claiming there was no paper trail for anything—that it didn’t even know who was on Islamberg’s town council or who was paying its bills.

MOA-associated sources say that official members are required to pay a 10% tithe, while others have talked of paying 30%, and most of it is in cash. These sources say the revenue from tithing is just a drop in the bucket—it doesn’t include revenue from MOA front businesses, alleged criminal activity or fundraisers. The total revenue, these sources believe, amounts to millions per year.

The group has been caught sending revenue from criminal activity to Gilani throughout its history.

Safehouses in Colorado and Pennsylvania were raided in 1992 and a handful of its leaders were prosecuted for engaging in various kinds of complex fraud schemes. In 2001, MOA was found to be running a massive charter school scam in California that earned the group over $1.3 million of taxpayer money.

Declassified documents indicate that such schemes are continuing, but they can be very difficult to investigate and prosecute (especially when Fuqra is not designated). Files from a DEA investigation in New York from 2005-2007 stated:

“through a narcotics distribution network these individuals were generating fuds and then taking these funds back to the [Islamberg] compound” and these members were making money transfers to Pakistan.

Little is known how Gilani spends the money, aside from vague assurances that it is going to poor people in Pakistan and Kashmir and to help those suffering from “oppression” at the hands of the enemies of Islam, namely India and a broader “Satanic-Zionist conspiracy.” Some sources recall hearing Gilani saying the money goes to “mujahideen” in Kashmir. A portion of the funds are delivered in cash form by MOA members going to Pakistan as newspaper “correspondents,” humanitarian workers, students, teachers and businesspeople, these sources explain.

Meanwhile, MOA’s “Islamic villages” suffer in poverty with families crammed into trailers, scraping together every penny possible to make ends meet. Promised improvements to private properties often never arrive, even as MOA’s top leaders get home improvements and Sheikh Gilani and his family live in luxury overseas.

The U.S. and Canadian governments believe the evidence of Fuqra serving as a conduit to other jihadist groups to be strong enough to warrant significant concern, but it is much more difficult to act on those concerns because Fuqra is not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Sign the Petition Now

A review of declassified U.S. and Canadian government assessments shows significant concern about the flow of money and personnel from MOA to Sheikh Gilani’s circle in Pakistan and Kashmir. First-hand testimony, and even Gilani’s own words, indicates that Fuqra is a component of a multilayered jihadist network backed by Pakistani intelligence.

“Muslims of America is a domestic terrorist group suspected of using drug proceeds to finance terrorist activities in Southwest Asia,” states a DEA report from a 2005-2007 investigation into the group’s narcotics trafficking in Virginia.

A 2003 FBI report from an investigation into MOA’s activity in New York warned that MOA and its network of front businesses is part of a broader network linked to other terrorist organizations in Pakistan, including affiliates of al-Qaeda.

The Domestic Threat

Fuqra was once known as the deadliest, most violent Islamist group on American soil. In 1992, its terrorist training camp in Colorado was raided. And then the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which involved at least one person associated with Fuqra, resulted in a spotlight on the group.

The group prefers to avoid headlines, never taking credit for its attacks and always taking measures to have them attributed to others. Sheikh Gilani faced the possibility of his North American network being dismantled. He had to choose between accepting that risk and continuing acts of terrorism on American soil or scaling back and working pragmatically for the cause.

It is believed that Fuqra’s direct orchestration of terrorist attacks inside North America were suspended at this point, but the leadership, infrastructure and cultish, apocalyptic jihadist ideology remained.

Declassified documents point out MOA’s history of paramilitary training (including more advanced instruction in Pakistan and Kashmir), secrecy, use of security companies to acquire expertise and ongoing talk of confronting a global Zionist conspiracy that puppeteers the U.S. government, law enforcement, military and media.

“The MOA [Fuqra] is composed primarily of black American Muslim converts who converted to Islam while in prison. Many MOA members reside in rural communities (jamaats) to live and worship free from non-Muslim influence…Organized training is also conducted to include weapons training, tactics, hand-to-hand combat, rappelling, and live-fire exercises” a 2010 FBI report states.

Several members have been arrested for illegal gun trafficking and MOA-affiliated sources say the group continues to acquire and sell guns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms confirmed in October 2017 that its investigation into MOA is ongoing.

The intelligence reports warn of the consequences if Sheikh Gilani’s apocalyptic cult were to be activated, as its ideology teaches they one day will.

“The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the U.S,” warns an FBI file from an investigation into MOA in Texas from 2003 to 2007.

MOA believes Gilani’s successor will be the “7th Sultan” and will team up with the Mahdi and Jesus for a final apocalyptic jihad against the perceived enemies of Islam. The members’ belief in receiving instructions through dreams and visions raises the risk of Waco-type confrontations at the 22 “Islamic villages” MOA claims to have in the U.S. alone; a figure that doesn’t include the many MOA supporters who live outside of the camps.

The devotion of Gilani’s followers is not to be underestimated.

Khalid Khawaja, a known operative of Pakistani intelligence with extensive terror ties, was a close associate of Osama bin Laden. Khawaja was also Gilani’s right-hand man.

“I am telling you, Osama [Bin Laden] doesn’t have many people in America. I am telling you, I am sure of one thing, Osama does not have even one of his followers as committed as Sheikh Mubarak Gilani. Osama does not have even one as committed as the least of his people,” he said.

And he warned of the Catch-22 if the U.S. were to pressure Gilani too much:

“If you push him to that stage, that he has no option but to declare jihad on America…it will blow like a volcano,” Khawaja said.

The Standards for Designation

The State Department lists three criteria for Foreign Terrorist Organization designation:

It must be a foreign organization. Jamaat ul-Fuqra and its components overseas meet this qualification because they are led by a radical cleric in Pakistan and Kashmir. Gilani’s sons are in Canada and the U.S. now, leading each country’s respective MOA wing. Another top leader, Barry Adams, has been living in Trinidad and Venezuela since he was deported from Canada after serving his time for spearheading a bomb plot to kill thousands of people in Toronto in 1991.
The organization must engage in terrorist activity… or terrorism…or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorist activity or terrorism. The standard for designation is not carrying out acts of terrorism on U.S. soil, but as declassified FBI documents show, Fuqra does retain the capability and its ideology is rooted in an advocacy of violent jihad and solidarity with designated terrorist groups. In addition, there is strong reason to suspect Fuqra is engaging in terrorist activity by acting as a conduit for terrorist groups that Gilani finds common ground with, such as Hizbul Mujahideen.
The organization’s terrorist activity or terrorism must threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security (national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests) of the United States.” This standard is also clearly met. In addition, a strong case can be made that Jamaat ul-Fuqra and its leadership qualify for designation as a transnational criminal organization or Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Why Do We Need Designation?

The legal ramifications of designation would include prohibiting material support to Fuqra, barring non-citizen representatives of Fuqra from entering the U.S. and freezing the group’s assets. The measure would make it easier for law enforcement to investigate and prosecute the group.

In addition, it would pressure Pakistan and any other governments that have supported or hosted the group and encourage international cooperation regarding its activities.

The ideological damage from designating Fuqra as a Foreign Terrorist Organization would be so severe that the cult may come to an end. It would encourage defections from members who realize the truth about the group to which they belong.

Preparations should be made to care for those who leave the cult and need to rebuild their lives.

Former and current members have told us of members who fear leaving the group for multiple reasons. The fear is not rooted only in a concern for retaliation.

The bigger fear is from the daunting task of having to start over, possibly all alone. They fear being cut off from all their family members and friends, having to move and find new jobs; a task made especially difficult for those with criminal records. Several former members have expressed concern for children who have been banned from public school and were instead educated within MOA.

Designation of Fuqra by the State Department and/or Treasury Department would enhance national security and help those who have been victimized by Gilani and his Fuqra jihadi cult—including its own members.

Sign our petition

Sheikh Gilani (Photo of US Capitol: Stefan Zaklin/Getty Images)

UPDATE: Tahirah Amatul-Wadud lost the Democratic primary to the incumbent. Neal won with 71% of the vote (49,654 votes) .Amatul-Wadud still managed to win 29% (20,508 votes), a remarkable success given her background. There was only minor critical media coverage of her candidacy that mentioned her extremist links and donations from outside of the state, particularly from Hancock, NY, where MOA’s headquarters is located.

MOA’s newspaper argued that her loss was still somewhat of a political victory, as Rep. Neal’s campaign had 26 times as much money and he is a 30-year incumbent. MOA boasts that she won the backing  of “Massachusetts Peace Action, National Women’s Political Caucus, the Progressive Democrats of America, Pittsfield City Councilor Helen Moon, and a host of others.”

At least two members of the jihadi cult Jamaat ul-Fuqra, also known as Muslims of the Americas, ran for office for this year.

The member running for Congress in Alaska recently ended his campaign after Clarion Project’s expose on him was published, but Fuqra’s congressional candidate in Massachusetts is still fighting to win the Democratic primary on September 4. She has garnered fawning media coverage that fails to mention the documented extremism of Fuqra, the ongoing federal investigation into the group or legitimate concerns about her ideology.

Alaskan Congressional Candidacy Ends

The Must Read Alaska website reports that Gregory Jones, an admitted member of Fuqra/Muslims of the Americas (MOA), has ended his campaign for the Democratic primary. The Alaska Division of Elections website now lists him as a withdrawn candidate.

The author of Must Read Alaska confirmed to the Clarion Project that Jones ended his candidacy after we published our expose, though there is no way to confirm a causal relationship.

Our expose included included newly-declassified FBI documents showing deep concern about MOA activity in Alaska and that a counter-terrorism investigation was launched from 2009 to 2011 and may have been revived since.

In 2016, Clarion Project broke the story that Jones, an admitted MOA member who has met with their radical leader in Pakistan, was a delegate for Bernie Sanders at the Democratic National Convention. He also ran for the state House in District 8 and, although he lost, received 18 percent of the vote.

During that campaign, Assemblywoman Amy Demboski mentioned our research and was depicted as a state-wide villain by the Alaskan media. The Alaskan Democratic Party upheld Jones as a near martyr, victimized by Demboski’s anti-Muslim bigotry.

Our article with these documents vindicated her, but to date, not a single media outlet has reported on the revelations. Nor has anyone apologized to her.

Jones himself said that the author of Clarion’s expose, Ryan Mauro, should be prosecuted for “hate speech and harassment.” He also called Mauro “a bigot and racist.”

A FBI spokesperson responded to the controversy by saying it was not aware of a militant Islamist compound in Alaska, which was interpreted as a clearing of Jones’ name. In actuality, MOA itself said it was setting up an “Islamic village” in Alaska. At any rate, the status of that project had no bearing on whether the public should be concerned about Jones’ membership in MOA.

Now we know from newly-declassified FBI documents that there was a counter-terrorism investigation into MOA from 2009 to 2011 and that it may have been revived since. FBI documents made it clear that the bureau views MOA as an extremist threat, even if it could not find evidence of illegal activity to justify continuing the investigation at that time.

MOA/CAIR Congressional Candidacy in Massachusetts Marches Forward

In Massachusetts, the MOA candidacy of Tahirah Amatul-Wadud has made the ballot by collecting over 2,300 signatures for the 1^st Congressional District’s Democratic Party primary on September 4. She is challenging the incumbent, Rep. Richard Neal.

Amatul-Wadud is challenging Neal from the left as a progressive, despite the extremely un-progressive ideology of MOA and her spiritual leader in Pakistan, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. Rep. Neal has held the seat since 1988, enabling Amatul-Wadud to benefit from the anti-establishment political environment.

Her campaign website boasts that she’s the first African-American Muslim woman to run for Congress, but makes no mention of the Islamist groups she chooses to belong to.

In November 2015, Amatul-Wadud posted an article on Facebook by Sheikh Gilani that was filled with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and even drew moral equivalence between Hitler and his Jewish victims, suggesting that the U.S. was misled into going to war with Nazi Germany.

The article reads:

“There was no need for America to go to war against Hitler. Hitler was not the enemy of America or the American people. There was a mutual animosity between Hitler and the Jews. So, the American people paid a very heavy price for fighting someone else’s war.”

Her leader’s article then suggests that a Zionist conspiracy orchestrated the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Al-Qaeda’s attack on 9/11 to get the U.S. to attack Muslim countries, a common theme in MOA materials.

“Many government agencies want the world to believe that Osama Bin Laden destroyed the World Trade Center…it was the job of insiders,” it says.

Amatul-Wadud is also a board member of the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which the U.S. Justice Department has identified as an “entity” of the Muslim Brotherhood with links to Hamas.

Despite ideological differences, CAIR and MOA have been getting closer and closer.

Federal prosecutors said in a 2008 court filing:

“From its founding by Muslim Brotherhood leaders, CAIR conspired with other affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood to support terrorists … the conspirators agreed to use deception to conceal from the American public their connections to terrorists.”

MOA responded to Clarion’s original article about Amatul-Wadud’s candidacy with an article attacking the author as an “anti-Muslim extremist.”

The local media coverage of Amatul-Wadud has been wholly positive, without ever once pressing her about why she remains loyal to Sheikh Gilani and MOA.

Voters make their choices based on an array of issues and preferences. Links to an Islamist group like MOA should be a factor in a primary voter’s mind.

In addition, a progressive voter in the primary must ask the question, “What is progressive about MOA and Sheikh Gilani?”

Listen to Clarion Project’s Ryan Mauro talk about Fuqra and the candidates on The Glenn Beck Program (Mauro comes on the show at 14:55 minutes):

 video

McGregor, whose “mental warfare” against opponents is so strong that UFC President Dana White sayshe rivals Muhammad Ali, bashed his upcoming opponent and his manager for their ties to Islamist extremists at last week’s wild news conference.

McGregor confronted the UFC’s biggest manager, Ali Abdelaziz, who manages his Dagestani rival Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Abdelaziz used to be a member of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, as explained in detail at FuqraFiles.com, Clarion’s comprehensive website about the group.

Abdelaziz’s involvement with Fuqra and the U.S. government was first revealed by author and activist Martin Mawyer, who was approached by Abdelaziz in September 2010 about telling his story. That account first appeared in Mawyer’s 2012 book.

Additional details were then discovered by Ryan Mauro of Clarion Project and FuqraFiles.com, authors Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman and independent Mixed Martial Arts journalist Mike Russell.

Pictures from Mawyer’s book, “Twilight in America,” showing Ali Abdelaziz at a Fuqra / Muslims of America (MOA) event that included interfaith outreach with FBI personnel. Abdelaziz told Mawyer that Fuqra “bullsh**s” the U.S. government at such events. Used with permission.

According to Abdelaziz’s own words to Mawyer and our sources who are/were in Fuqra, Abdelaziz trained Fuqra members in martial arts and Arabic and participated in various criminal activities including passport fraud.

After being convicted, he became an informant inside Fuqra in exchange for being let out of jail and not being deported back to Egypt. Abdelaziz lived at Fuqra’s 70-acre headquarters in upstate New York, Islamberg. He even married the daughter of a prominent member of Islamberg and they had a son.

Fuqra has used security companies as fronts for acquiring training in militant-related skills, equipment, transfers of money and material and various criminal activities. In keeping with this pattern, Abdelaziz was part of a select group of Fuqra members to get advanced training as part of a covert “military squad.”

Abdelaziz passed the information about this training, as well as Fuqra’s human rights abuses, trafficking of firearms and guns, and overseas operation to the FBI and NYPD.

Ryan Mauro and Martin Mawyer acquired documents, including a picture of Abdelaziz, from one of those training sessions and released the photo exclusively this week:

Above: Ali Abelaziz (using the name Alaa Abdelaziz) provided intelligence to the U.S. government on his colleagues in Fuqra. Here, two of the chosen “military squad” members are at the firing range as part of the training they received in security-related duties, including instruction in counter-terrorism.

Abdelaziz’s relationship with the U.S. government started falling apart in 2008 after a trip he made overseas (this is mentioned briefly mentioned in The Enemies Within). The FBI began distrusting him, especially after he reportedly failed a lie detector test, indicating he did not intend to be truthful with the U.S. government and had told someone in Egypt about his work as a spy.

To make a very long story short, there were even suspicions that Abdelaziz may be acting as a double-agent (which he strongly denied to Mawyer). His relationship with the FBI ended and, some time later, so did his relationship with the NYPD. The U.S. government sought to deport him back to Egypt, whereupon Abdelaziz approached Mawyer for help.

This is the story that Conor McGregor was referring to when he screamed that Abdelaziz is a “mad terrorist” and a “terrorist snitch,” shocking the Mixed Martial Arts world and sparking massive interest in what he was referring to.

Before that, McGregor’s trash-talk brought attention to a controversy over ties between the UFC and dictators including Islamist extremists and the Russian government.

He mocked his Dagestani rival, Khabib Nurmagomedov, over his father’s ties to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, a Putin-backed Islamist extremist known for his vast human rights abuses, including the purgingof homosexuals.

Kadyrov said he would “condone” honor killings of homosexuals by their Muslim relatives and would not enforce laws prohibiting it. In a jaw-dropping claim reminiscent of former Iranian President Ahmadinejad, Kadyrov said there are no gays in Chechnya and, if there were, he’d deport them to Canada.

Due to his major influence in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), Kadyrov has been referred to as “the most dangerous man in MMA.”

Khabib’s father, Abdulmanap, has been unable to get a visa in time for Saturday’s matchup, a problem he also had last year. As one Mixed Martial Arts reporter put it, “Abdulmanap is a hard man to bring overseas.”

Here, McGregor wasn’t explicitly bringing attention to Islamist extremism, but it was nonetheless a byproduct of what he said and probably something he foresaw.

McGregor insulted Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov as a “quivering coward” for posting pictures of himself with Kadyrov at his mosque, in what McGregor described as a betrayal of his people out of fear.

The attack elicited a threat to McGregor from a Chechen fighter, Khusein Khaliev, who belongs to Kadyrov’s own Mixed Martial Arts fight club. Khaliev warned McGregor, “We will never forgive for attacking the honor of our family” and “you will have to answer for your words, inside a cage or outside of it.”

The Chechen press minister called McGregor a “Mexican c**k” and “outrageous clown.”

Ali Abdelaziz’s own embrace of Kadyrov has come under scrutiny, as well as Nurmagomedov’s other controversial links.

McGregor’s insults stepped over the line into mocking Nurmagomedov’s faith, calling him “backwards” for not drinking alcohol. (Obviously, we are giving a very censored version of McGregor’s quotes).

The hype about the fight between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 on Saturday feels like it’s building by the minute. And, with it, an opportunity to bring attention to Islamist extremists like Fuqra and Kadyrov from a direction that few anticipated.

Matthew T. Ryan as mayor of Binghamton, NY (center, trench coat) (Photo: Chuck Haupt/Getty Images)

Is a candidate for sheriff in New York State a stooge for Muslims of America, a Jihadi cult also known as Jamaat ul-Fuqra?

Former Binghamton, NY mayor, Matthew T. Ryan, is running for sheriff in a locale known as a Muslims of America (MOA) area. Ryan represented MOA member Ramadan Abdullah, who was charged and sentenced after a major weapons bust last May.

Following the verdict, Ryan contended Abdullah was unfairly treated, stating, “This would not have gone where this went if his name was not Ramadan Abdullah and what that portrayed to police at the time.”

Abdullah was found with 16 weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition when Johnson City police became involved after he was found shoplifting more ammunition.

As mayor of Binghamton, Ryan spoke at MOA’s interfaith front United Muslim Christian Forum. Its now-defunct website spouted blatant anti-Semitism and its interfaith efforts were based on using anti-Semitism to sway Christians to its side.

According to an article published by the Islamic Post, Ryan’s office has a had an extensive history to the MOA community. “The Mayor’s office has a long history of service to the community that has included enthusiastic support for interfaith organizations such as the United Muslim Christian Forum, and has supported UMCF events for over four years.”

Other past speakers at the forum included radical imam Dr. Ali Mazrui, director of Binghamton University’s Institute of Global Cultural Studies, who previously preached that the U.S. “empire” is a threat to Islam and Muslims must retaliate politically, economically and violently.

(When Mazrui died in 2014, he was mourned by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), two organizations that purport themselves as “moderates” but were identified by the U.S. Justice Department as Muslim Brotherhood entities. Their statements at the time pointed to Mazrui’s deep involvement in both organizations.)

In 2011, Ryan Mauro, Director of the Clarion Intelligence Network and founder of Fuqra Files, attended a United Muslim Christian Forum event and wrote about the experience.

Muslims of America has received major media attention recently, as UFC superstar Conor McGregor called out his opponent Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, both for having been a member of MOA and being a U.S. government informant inside of it.

Ryan, who has no law enforcement experience, previously worked in the Broome County public defender’s Office for 15 years. He was not able to seek re-election as mayor due to term limits.