Jama'at al-Fuqara': A Domestic Threat to the United States?

Organized on communal compounds in the United States and Canada, surprisingly little is known about Jama`at al-Fuqara' (Community of the Impoverished)1 and its current operations. The secretive organization-it publicly operates under the name Muslims of the Americas (MOA)-has been known to law enforcement since the 1980s for dozens of violent and white collar crimes in North America. It has been described by prosecutors as advocating "the purification of the Islamic religion by means of force and violence." Yet, the group's nature and organization as a terrorist entity seems as unclear today as at any point in its history.

The current Jama`at al-Fuqara' is obscured by a vague public ideology, careful to avoid any reference to Islamist ambitions or armed struggle. MOA and its subsidiary, the International Qur'anic Open University (IQOU),2 carries out a number of public events and hosts videos and news of its activities online.3 Its Pakistan-based leader, Shaykh Mubarak Ali Gilani, and other U.S.-based leaders have done much to present a devout but always law abiding image, even organizing a Muslims Scouts wing for boys that helps the needy in their various communities. Fears persist, however, due to the group's origins as al-Fuqara', and whether the militancy present at some of its compounds could turn anti-American. Jama`at al-Fuqara' was designated a terrorist organization by the State Department in 1999 for its earlier offenses in the United States, including a range of firearms and explosives charges and a series of violent crimes.4 Yet its founder, Pakistani cleric Shaykh Gilani, continues to deny that such an organization called Jama`at al-Fuqara' has ever existed. Gilani expressed in interviews to the Pakistani press his fears that the U.S. government seeks to brand him as a terrorist and thus jeopardize the security of his thousands of followers in the United States, the majority of whom are African-Americans living in compounds largely isolated from the rest of American society.5 That fear may be true; the group's past ties to militancy and Gilani's own record are correctly a cause for concern for U.S. law enforcement and counter-terrorism officials.....