Author: Rick Leventhal
Publication: Fox News
Date: March 23, 2009
URL: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510218,00.html
If you didn't know where to look, you'd probably
never find Islamberg, a private Muslim community in the woods of the western
Catskills, 150 miles northwest of New York City.
The town, sitting on a quiet dirt road past
a gate marked with No Trespassing signs, is home to an estimated 100 residents.
There are small houses and other buildings visible from the outside, but it
is what can't be seen from beyond the gate that has some watchers worried.
Islamberg was founded in 1980 by Sheikh Syed
Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric who purchased a 70-acre plot and
invited followers, mostly Muslim converts living in New York City, to settle
there.
The town has its own mosque, grocery store
and schoolhouse. It also reportedly has a firing range where residents take
regular target practice. Gilani established similar rural enclaves across
the country - at least six, including the Red House community in southern
Virginia - though some believe there are dozens of them, all operating under
the umbrella of the "Muslims of the Americas" group founded by Gilani.
Federal authorities say Gilani was also one
of the founders of Jamaat al-Fuqra, a terrorist organization believed responsible
for dozens of bombings and murders across the U.S. and abroad. The group was
linked to the planning of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and 10 years
earlier a member was arrested and later convicted for bombing a hotel in Portland,
Ore.
Shoe bomber Richard Reid has been linked to
the group, along with convicted D.C. sniper John Allen Muhammad. But it is
Sheikh Gilani who creates the most controversy and concern.
Gilani has told his followers that "Zionist
plotters" plan to rule the world, and he encourates them to leave America's
cities and avoid the "decadence of a godless society." Gilani is
the man American reporter Daniel Pearl was trying to interview in Pakistan
when he was kidnapped and beheaded. The Sheikh was taken into custody and
later released by Pakistani authorities; he denies any involvement in Pearl's
murder.
Gilani also denies any connection to Jamaat
al-Fuqra, as do residents of the MOA compounds, who say the "terrorist"
group doesn't exist and was created by enemies of Islam hoping to destroy
their communities. Members also deny sending a portion of their earnings to
the Sheikh, but a former resident told FOX News that 10 to 30 percent of their
income is regularly delivered to Gilani in the form of cash donations.
FOX News attempted to visit Islamberg after
earlier efforts to set up on-camera interviews were rebuffed. A spokesman
said by phone that residents typically shy away from interviews since they
worry their words will be manipulated and turned against them. He accused
FOX News of misrepresenting the group and suggested covering an Islamic festival
in Binghamton later in the month to celebrate the birthday of the prophet
Muhammad. Then he hung up.
Some residents, collecting their mail outside
the compound or stopping for a short spell at its edge, spoke briefly of life
on the inside. One woman told FOX News she was happy to be "away from
the city and away from the drugs and crap that's going on," raising her
family safely in Islamberg.
Another resident drove out, dressed in a cap
and robe, video camera in hand, and moved so close to a female producer that
he actually made contact. The resident kept his camera rolling for the next
15 minutes without saying a word, but he finally began to answer questions.
The man said residents get along with their
neighbors and don't trust the media, which he said paints their town as a
guarded compound "where no one can enter and exit."
"It's a village," he insisted, "with
people of all backgrounds, cultures and races."
He said he was a 20-year veteran of the Air
Force, still active in the reserves, who grew up in Brooklyn and converted
to Islam while in the service.
"I got awards for 'bridging the gap'
between American and Saudi soldiers," he said, noting that he had helped
process the bodies when 19 U.S. servicemen were killed in a 1996 terror attack
in Saudi Arabia. He said there were many veterans in Islamberg, including
one with a Purple Heart citation from Vietnam.
The man denied the existence of Jamat al-Fuqra,
and at first denied giving a share of his earnings to Sheik Gilani, but he
later admitted that "all churches have tithes."
During the interview, two state police cars
roared up, as one of the residents had called the cops, a common occurrence
when reporters show up at the gate.
Local police told FOX News there has been
plenty of rumor and innuendo over the years but very little trouble. The FBI's
Albany Division said the agency has an open discourse with the residents of
Islamberg. They've visited the compound but won't discuss whether there are
any ongoing investigations.
That has not dispelled the worries of some
watchdogs. Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch, says the group is making
a concerted public relations effort to present a benign face and hide its
violent past.
"I think we need to be very much on guard
about every member of these compounds," he said. Though Spencer admits
there is nothing inherently wrong with living in isolation, he stressed that
"they're not at all open to visitors, they're not at all open to scrutiny
and there's an abundance of evidence of sinister goings-on."
Spencer offered no evidence to back his misgivings,
but suggested political correctness may be hampering investigations. He says
the group's connection to Sheikh Gilani is reason enough to be concerned that
they're planning for "something on a larger scale and longer term,"
to "further the causes of the global Islamic Jihad", something MOA
has repeatedly denied and scoffed at in the past.
Residents call it a peaceful place to raise
a family away from the pressures of the city, and maintain that the group
is woefully misunderstood.
"I used to work customs when I was overseas
and I come here and get harassed at the grocery store and the bank. A clerk
claimed my military ID was invalid because I'm Muslim," the resident
told FOX News.
Critics, lacking an eye into the cloistered
community, still wonder whether it's something more.
