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From nattyreb@ix.netcom.com Tue Mar 21 11:55:07 2000
Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2000 22:30:57 -0600 (CST)
From: "Sis. Marpessa" <nattyreb@ix.netcom.com>
Subject: !*Info on Bro. Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)
Article: 91664
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 19:49:23 -0800
From: "A Uhuru" <uhuru@hotbot.com>


American Muslim organizations call for Justice Department investigation of Muslim leader's arrest

Council on American Islamic Relations, press release, 28 August 1995

WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 28, 1995) - On Monday, August 28, several national Islamic organizations held a news conference in Washington, DC, to call for an Justice Department investigation into the recent arrest of Imam Jamil Al-Amin. The groups represented at the news conference included The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), American Muslim Council (AMC), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Imam Al-Amin was also in attendance. The joint statement released at the news conference read as follows:

"We the undersigned American Muslim organizations wish to express our deep concern over the recent arrest of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, one of the Muslim community's leading figures. The manner of his arrest for aggravated assault and the events that have transpired since the arrest indicate that there is apparently much more to this incident than has been revealed so far. We have several questions about the handling of this case:

1) Why were agents of the FBI, the FBI's Domestic Counterterrorism Task Force and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms involved in a case that the police themselves described as a 'routine aggravated assault?'

2) Why was the victim in this case, as he himself has stated and The Atlanta Journal reported, threatened with legal charges if he failed to identify Imam Al-Amin as his assailant? And why did authorities refuse to accept the victim's repeated statements that he did not see who the assailant was?

3) Why would the authorities in Atlanta wish to implicate Imam Al-Amin in this case?

4) Why was Imam Al-Amin arrested weeks after the alleged incident, even though he is easily accessible to law enforcement officials at his public place of business? Why was he arrested in his car and not called in for questioning at police facilities?

These and other questions must be answered by those who in a position of authority over those involved in the incident. It is with this goal in mind that we call upon the Justice Department to initiate an immediate investigation into this matter and to report its findings to the American public."

On August 7, Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, was arrested in connection with a July shooting. At the time of the arrest, law-enforcement authorities, including the FBI's Joint Counterterrorism Task Force and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), claimed the shooting victim had identified Imam Al-Amin as the assailant.

The shooting victim, who attended the news conference, now says he does not know who wounded him and that the police pressured him into making the identification. News articles in both The Atlanta Journal and Constitution and The New York Times quote the shooting victim as saying he repeatedly insisted to the police that he did not see who shot him and that it was the police who first presented him with the name and photograph of Imam Al-Amin. The alleged complainant also said he was threatened with legal charges if he did not agree to identify the Imam as the person who shot him.

Imam Al-Amin became a Muslim in the 1970s and has lived in Atlanta for the past 19 years. He is the Imam, or leader, of the Community Mosque in that city. Imam Al-Amin is also recognized as one of several national leaders in the American Muslim community.