Author: PTI
Publication: The Times of India
Date: February 11, 2002
URL: http://www.timesofindia.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=690578
A radical Muslim sect with ties
to international terrorism is seeking to create a patchwork of hideouts
in rural southern Virginia for would-be terrorists and other extremists,
law enforcement authorities were quoted on Monday as saying.
These sanctuaries, which are communes
located throughout the sparsely populated hilly countryside have been established
to follow the teachings of Sheik Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani cleric
who founded the tax-exempt Muslims of the Americas sect in 1980, the Washington
Times quoted the law enforcement officials in Farmville, Virginia, as saying.
Gilani's sect is linked to Jamaat-al-Fuqra,
a terrorsist group with a stated commitment in bringing jehad or holy war
against the US.
Gilani is believed to have left
the US in 1993, shortly after the first attack by Muslim terrorists on
the World Trade Center.
In addition to providing safe harbour
for an unkown number of Black American Muslims faithful to Sheik Gilani,
said the paper, authorities believe that members of al-Fuqra are involved
in laundering money bound for Pakistan.
