Page 185 - Encyclopedia Of Terrorism

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162———Harakat ul-Mujahidin

Khaalis eventually fell out with the Nation of Islam is still in operation, teaching orthodox Hanafi Islam.
over the group’s refusal to adopt mainstream Islam. In The movie, Mohammed: Messenger of God, was never
1958, Khaalis left the Nation of Islam and moved to released.
Washington, D.C., where he opened his own Hanafi
See also HOSTAGE TAKING; MILITANT ISLAM
Madh-Hab Center. At its height, during the 1960s, the
center had more than 1,000 members and Khaalis led
several protests for Muslim causes. The most famous Further Reading
member of the center was basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem, and Peter Knobler. Giant Steps.
Abdul-Jabbar, whom Khaalis had helped convert to New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002.
Islam. White, Vibert. Inside the Nation of Islam: A Historical and
Khaalis continued to disagree with the teachings Personal Testimony by a Black Muslim. Gainesville:
of the Nation of Islam. In 1973, five members of the University Press of Florida, 2001.
Philadelphia Nation of Islam murdered Khaalis’s
wife, their four children, and two other Hanafi members.
Khaalis was angered by the police investigation, which HARAKAT UL-MUJAHIDIN
was, in his view, cursory; the police did not appear
interested in finding the killers.
A large militant Sunni Muslim group that through-
out the 1990s operated largely in the disputed states of
TAKING HOSTAGES
Jammu and Kashmir on the India-Pakistan border,
In 1977, Khaalis and a group of his followers seized Harakat ul-Mujahidin once reportedly had troops in
control of three Washington, D.C., buildings and took such far-flung locales as Bosnia, Tajikistan, Algeria,
124 people hostage. Khaalis was protesting what he the Middle East, Chechnya, and the Philippines. The
felt to be the lack of progress in the investigation of group, headquartered in Pakistan, has recently seen
his family’s murder, and the group was also protesting its operations curtailed because of a crackdown on
the planned release of a movie about the life of the militant groups by Pakistan’s government following
prophet Muhammad (many Islamic teachings forbid the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the
the display of images of Mohammed). United States. It has been speculated that Harakat
The hostages in the B’nai B’rith building, the City ul-Mujahidin may alter the focus of its attacks to the
Council chambers, and the Islamic Center were held for now-hostile Pakistani regime. Before September 11,
more than 30 hours. One hostage was killed during the Harakat ul-Mujahidin had several training camps in
initial takeover and several, including Marion Berry, Afghanistan, as well as close ties to the Taliban gov-
future mayor of Washington, D.C., were injured. ernment of that country and the Saudi radical Osama
The hostages were eventually released with the bin Laden. Indeed, links among the three were so well
help of ambassadors from Egypt, Iran, and Pakistan, established that the “American Taliban” John Walker
who talked Khaalis into giving himself up, at one Lindh, a U.S. citizen captured by U.S.-backed forces
point taking turns reading to him passages from the during the overthrow of the Taliban government in
Koran emphasizing God’s compassion and mercy. 2001, was briefly a member of Harakat ul-Mujahidin
Although the Jewish hostages were subjected to before moving to bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. Like Al Qaeda,
threats and anti-Semitic statements while being held, Harakat ul-Mujahidin is strongly anti-Western and has
the incident did temporarily help bring the area’s targeted U.S. and Western European tourists for kidnap
Jewish and Muslim communities closer. After his and murder.
release, the director of the Islamic Center told the Harakat ul-Mujahidin was founded as Harakat
leaders of B’nai B’rith, “Now we are one.” After the ul-Ansar in 1993 by Pakistani activist Fazlur Rheman
siege, a statement by the Hanafi Madh-hab Center Khalil and four veterans of the war against the Soviet
threatened “all Zionist Jews and their allies” with a occupation of Afghanistan. The organization, created
“bloodbath.” through the merger of two militias initially established
Khaalis and the other kidnappers were all arrested. to fight the Soviets, essentially inherited the training
Khaalis remains in prison in Washington, D.C., serving camps of a Sunni Muslim faction of the anti-Soviet
a sentence of 41 to 120 years. The Madh-hab Center mujahideen.