>LA
Times, July 20, 2002
>FBI
Targets Black Muslims in Anti-Terrorist Watch
>
>By
PATRICK J. MCDONNELL, Times Staff Writer
>
>
>SEATTLE
-- The brawny man in the Muslim skullcap gestured toward a brick
>apartment
building across the street from where he was standing guard at
>a
shelter for homeless families.
>
>"See
that window over there?" said the man, Abdul-Hakim, pointing to an
>upper
floor. "The FBI watches me from that window."
>
>The
FBI will not comment. But a federal investigation of a possible
>terrorist
cell in the Pacific Northwest is focusing on a group of
>African
American converts to Islam, possibly opening a new chapter in
>the
domestic war on terrorism.
>
>Across
the nation, court papers suggest that FBI anxiety about radical
>African
American Muslims has reemerged in the last decade as the bureau
>has
concentrated on Islamic terrorism.
>
>Federal
investigations into the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and a
>related
plot to blow up New York landmarks discovered the names of black
>Americans
associated with the "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, now
>serving
a life term for his part in the bombing conspiracy. Among those
>convicted
in the same plot was U.S.-born Rodney Hampton-el, a former New
>York
clinic worker and ex-moujahedeen volunteer in Afghanistan.
>
>"FBI
scrutiny of African American Muslims has clearly increased since
>the
[1993] World Trade Center bombing," said Ihsan Bagby, a professor at
>Shaw
University in North Carolina who has studied the nation's Muslims.
>"A
lot of this is a combination of a focus on terrorism and an agenda
>about
black 'radicals' and Muslims--all lumped together."
>