My two accounts about Jamil Al-Amin ("The Curious Case of Jamil al-Amin" and "[Jamil Al-Amin:] A Muslim O.J.") were both written before the man better known as H. Rap Brown went on trial. He has now been tried; a jury found Al-Amin guilty of all 13 counts against him, including murder, felony murder, aggravated assault on a police officer, obstructing a law enforcement officer and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. (March 9, 2002)
Mar. 15, 2002 update: Al-Amin was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
May 24, 2004 update: The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously turned down Al-Amin's appeal, meaning that he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Sep. 15, 2006 update: My original article documented the bevy of Islamist organizations that turned out for Al-Amin, including CAIR, the Islamic Society of North America, and the Muslim American Society. Now, Steven Emerson reveals that the Muslim Public Affairs Council did as well, in the person of its president, Maher Hathout, who spoke on September 9, 2001, at a "Justice for Imam Jamil Al-Amin Benefit Dinner" at the University of California-Irvine campus. Emerson recounts:
No fewer than a half-dozen times in the speech Hathout referred to Al-Amin as "our brother." He said he would always take Al-Amin's word over that of supposedly untrustworthy police. And he veered off into generalized charges of racism against the United States, and even piggybacked on the Al-Amin case his standard charges of "apartheid racial slaughtering" of Palestinians by Israel. …
Speaking before the trial, Hathout had said, "There are two stories for this case. One story, told by our brother Imam Jamil Al-Amin; the other story is a different one, told by the police of Atlanta. It just happened that we believe the story of Imam Jamil Al-Amin, and we don't believe the story told by the police of Atlanta." The reason, he explained … was that "The track record of our brother is one of integrity and straight-forward speaking and a bold stance." The Atlanta police, on the other hand—like police "in so many other places" including New York and Chicago—have "not a very good track record," he charged. "Let us face it," Hathout continued. There are so many sugary talks about court, about justice, about legal system, etc. but we know and we can prove it, that in America , the legal system is not color blind and is not money blind."
Nor did the efforts on Jamil Al-Amin's behalf by MPAC and its senior adviser, Hathout, end with his conviction on the charges he faced. MPAC was a member—indeed, MPAC political advisor Mahdi Bray served as chairman—of a "Support Committee for Imam Jamil Al-Amin," which took issue with the trial outcome. In a statement issued March 9, 2002, after the largely African-American jury reached its verdict, the support committee said: "We do not believe the facts presented in court warranted a guilty verdict against Imam Jamil. His defense team offered credible evidence indicating that he was not the person who shot the deputies. We believe Imam Jamil will be exonerated on appeal."
"Because the death penalty has been disproportionately applied to minority defendants in America ," the committee statement added, "we oppose its use in this, or any other trial."
MPAC then cosponsored a Los Angeles "Rally for Justice" in support of the convicted killer on March 24, 2002. An advertisement for the rally declared that "Despite inconsistencies and lack of evidence, Imam Jamil was convicted of these crimes on March 9 …(and) is now faced with life in prison without parole." The ad urged readers to "Join us in support of Imam Jamil!" Hathout, for his own part, argued that the issues went beyond the Al-Amin case itself to "the situation in America in general and we have to be very aware about that."
"There is an organized system of injustice. It is intact. It is effective. It is viable, vibrant, and strong, and it depends on a triangle. That triangle, three-limb triangle, is racism, exploitation, blinding propaganda," Hathout continued. "You take that satanic triangle and you apply it to any case, and justice is sacrificed. To any case, to Imam Jamil Amin, to Malcolm X, to Martin Luther King, to anybody that can be subject to that malignant triangle and you can destroy that person, unless the voice of conscience within the people and within the public can object and can reject that," he said.
Jan. 25, 2007 update: His supporters have not given up getting Al-Amin out of jail. Today's e-mail brings a missive from "Br. Jamaaluddin, program director, Radio Raw Deen" titled "Imam Jmail Al-Amin's important Court Date":
As salaamu alaikum.
The on-going effort to free Imam Jamil al-Amin needs our financial support now more than ever. There is an upcoming court date in the month of February. These new court proceedings are crucial because they involve exculpatory evidence that was excluded from the original proceedings. Insha'Allah, upon viewing this evidence, the court may decide to exercise its authority to exonerate our brother and release him or grant him a new trial.
As many of you know, Imam Jamil's original lawyers have been replaced by a new legal team. Legal fees must be raised and paid in order to put on a vibrant defense. We want Imam Jamil home amongst his family and community. Let us please do our part by putting put our "twos and fews" together and sending it to Imam Jamil's legal defense fund. A link to the fund is on the Radio Raw Deen mainpage at www.rawdeen.com
May 25, 2007 update: Fourteen years after it was posted, I finally note this report, "Historic Muslim Rally," written by Abaidullah A. Choudry for Message International Magazine on a rally for Bosnia that took in Washington D.C. on May 15, 1993, at which Jamil Al-Amin delivered a speech.
Imam Jamil Al-Amin spoke of the need for Muslims to prepare themselves for everything. As a police helicopter ominously circled overhead, he declared to the massive crowd, "We come here today in peace, with banners and placards. But tomorrow we may come in full armament."
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