Cleric's Upstate Followers Seen As Threat

Cleric's Upstate Followers Seen As Threat

by Adam Miller
The New York Post
February 1, 2002

A secluded Muslim settlement in upstate New York is an outpost for a terrorist group founded by Sheik Mubarak Ali Shah Gilani, the radical Islamic cleric Daniel Pearl was trying to interview when he disappeared, according to a published report.

Since its beginning in Brooklyn about 20 years ago, the national Jamaat ul-Fuqra group has been linked to more than two dozen murders and firebombings across the United States, the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin reported in December.

But the 300 Muslims who live in Islamberg, nestled in the western Catskills town of Tompkins, deny they are members of ul-Fuqra. They insist they are followers of a different organization, Muslims of the Americas, which was also founded by Gilani.

That group preaches Islamic study and urges its members to live in rural enclaves "free from the decadence of a godless society," members say.

The FBI has said it has investigated Muslims of the Americas and come up with nothing.

None of the residents of the Tompkins enclave has been arrested or charged with terrorist activities.

But critics say the group is dangerous.

A federal agent testified last year that members of ul-Fuqra who engaged in violent acts in the United States were trained at the Tompkins settlement, the newspaper reported.

Muhammad Hasib Abdul-Haqq, a spokesman for the Muslims in Tompkins, declined comment when reached last night by The Post.

The entrance to the 70-acre enclave, located 45 miles southwest of Binghamton, includes a small gate and guard shack. A sign welcomes you to Islamberg.

A cluster of trailers serves as a Muslim parochial school, and an old hunting lodge has been turned into a school.

Many of the residents work as toll collectors at New York City's bridges and tunnels. Others work at one of the area's largest firms, Deposit Computer Services, in nearby Deposit.

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