Jamaat ul-Fuqraa (alternatively Jamaat al-Fuqraa; ar, جماعة الفقراء, "Community of the Impoverished") is an
Islamic terrorist
Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists.
Incidents and fatalities fr ...
organization of mostly
African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
Muslims based in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
and the United States. Some of the approximately 3,000 members have planned various acts of violence, often directed at rival factions.
Two Al-Fuqra members were convicted of conspiring to murder
Rashad Khalifa in 1990, and others are alleged to have
assassinated
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
Ahmadiyya
Ahmadiyya (, ), officially the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community or the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at (AMJ, ar, الجماعة الإسلامية الأحمدية, al-Jamāʿah al-Islāmīyah al-Aḥmadīyah; ur, , translit=Jamā'at Aḥmadiyyah Musl ...
leader Mozaffar Ahmad in 1983.
It has been alleged that the groups Muslims of the Americas
and Quranic Open University
["Jamaat ul-Fuqra"]
South Asia Terrorism Portal are the same as Jamaat ul-Fuqra, but this has not been confirmed. These allegations are primarily made by far-right organizations, many who believe the organizations are operating terrorist training camps in the United States. Muslims of America denies any connection.
The group is
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
, and was described by the
National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism (MIPT) and a similar profile in the database of the South Asian Terror Portal as a
cult
In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal ...
.
Activities
Although various members have been suspected
of assassinations and other acts of terror perpetrated in the 1980s and later, and some members having been charged with conspiracy to commit first degree murder and other crimes, The Jamaat itself is not listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US or the EU. It was included in a list of terrorist organizations in ''Patterns of Global Terrorism'', a 1999 report by the
U.S. State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
.
The group has been banned in Pakistan. Jamaat ul-Fuqra was also involved in the planned
bombing of a Hindu temple in Toronto, Canada in 1991.
Hotel Rajneesh bombing
On July 29, 1983,
Stephen Paul Paster, a Jamaat member, set off a bomb at the Hotel Rajneesh, a hotel in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populou ...
, United States. The hotel was owned by the
Rajneesh
Rajneesh (born Chandra Mohan Jain; 11 December 193119 January 1990), also known as Acharya Rajneesh, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and later as Osho (), was an Indian godman, mystic, and founder of the Rajneesh movement. He was viewed as a controv ...
religious group and featured the Zorba the Buddha nightclub.
[ Paster had several bombs and homemade ]napalm
Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated alu ...
in his room, but one of the bombs went off in his hands while he was placing the bombs in the midst of the napalm.Englewood, Colorado
The City of Englewood is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 33,659 at the 2020 United States Census. Englewood is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Sta ...
. In November 1985, Paster was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Multnomah County
Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tho ...
circuit judge.
See also
* 1991 Toronto bomb plot
* '' United States v Burns''
References
External links
''Al-Fuqra Holy Warriors of Terrorism''
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
International Quranic Open University
{{IslamismSA
Terrorism in Pakistan
Islamic terrorism in the United States
Jihadist groups in Pakistan
Organizations established in 1980
Islamic terrorism in Canada