By Lorenzo Vidino
Various CT Blog experts have posted in the past about homegrown terrorism in the United States (most notably Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland and the NEFA Foundation’s Target America series). I have published a long article on the subject in the latest issue of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, attempting to outline the history of homegrown terrorism of jihadist inspiration in America and analyze the U.S. government’s response to it.
On March 9, 1977, a group of 12 armed men, all African American converts to Islam who called themselves Hanafi Muslims, brought havoc to the central area of Washington, D.C. Divided in three groups, the men stormed into the city’s Islamic Center, City Council chambers, and the headquarters of B’nai B’rith, America’s oldest Jewish organization. Wielding rifles, shotguns and machetes, the men took about 150 people hostage. They were led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, an African American convert who had served as secretary to Malcolm X at Harlem’s Temple #7 under the name of Ernest 2X McGhee before leaving the Nation of Islam to form his own sect, which referred to a more traditional form of Sunni Islam. After seizing the buildings, Khaalis issued a series of demands. First he wanted authorities to hand over to him the five Nation of Islam members who had been arrested for brutally murdering several members of his family, including some infants, four years earlier. Then he demanded that authorities ban the showing of the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God, which he deemed offensive to Islam. This second request was granted and theaters nationwide stopped showing the controversial movie. The siege ended two days later, after extensive negotiations led by the Egyptian, Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors to the U.S., who read the men passages from the Quran about compassion and mercy. A security guard and a journalist were killed during the siege, and several others, including Washington mayor-to-be Marion Barry, were injured. Read more ...
Various CT Blog experts have posted in the past about homegrown terrorism in the United States (most notably Madeleine Gruen and Frank Hyland and the NEFA Foundation’s Target America series). I have published a long article on the subject in the latest issue of Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, attempting to outline the history of homegrown terrorism of jihadist inspiration in America and analyze the U.S. government’s response to it.
On March 9, 1977, a group of 12 armed men, all African American converts to Islam who called themselves Hanafi Muslims, brought havoc to the central area of Washington, D.C. Divided in three groups, the men stormed into the city’s Islamic Center, City Council chambers, and the headquarters of B’nai B’rith, America’s oldest Jewish organization. Wielding rifles, shotguns and machetes, the men took about 150 people hostage. They were led by Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, an African American convert who had served as secretary to Malcolm X at Harlem’s Temple #7 under the name of Ernest 2X McGhee before leaving the Nation of Islam to form his own sect, which referred to a more traditional form of Sunni Islam. After seizing the buildings, Khaalis issued a series of demands. First he wanted authorities to hand over to him the five Nation of Islam members who had been arrested for brutally murdering several members of his family, including some infants, four years earlier. Then he demanded that authorities ban the showing of the movie Mohammad, Messenger of God, which he deemed offensive to Islam. This second request was granted and theaters nationwide stopped showing the controversial movie. The siege ended two days later, after extensive negotiations led by the Egyptian, Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors to the U.S., who read the men passages from the Quran about compassion and mercy. A security guard and a journalist were killed during the siege, and several others, including Washington mayor-to-be Marion Barry, were injured. Read more ...
Source: Counterterrorism Blog
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