By Sean Delaney, Press & Guide Newspapers
Published: Wednesday, December 30, 2009

DEARBORN — A local police chief is defending his decision to withhold the release of an autopsy report on Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed Oct. 28 in a gunfight with the FBI at a Dearborn warehouse.

“While I understand the emotions surrounding the case and the sensitivity of the information, I’m standing by my decision,” Dearborn Police Chief Ronald Haddad said Monday.

Haddad told the Press & Guide he asked the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office to delay releasing the report until after the Dearborn Police Department has completed its investigation into the Islamic leader’s shooting, despite concerns from several civil rights groups about a possible cover-up of facts surrounding Abdullah’s death.

“If I thought there was something in the report that people didn’t already know, I’d release it,” he said. “We’re not hiding anything. We just want to make sure that there are no gaps in the information. Once the case is closed, we will disclose everything.”

He said the inquiry into Abdullah’s death could be concluded by Jan. 31.

But the department’s refusal to release the information immediately has several civil rights groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) concerned about a potential cover-up.

“If the autopsy is being suppressed to media and advocates, this would be very disturbing indeed and will raise even more suspicion in regards to the shooting of the imam,” said CAIR-MI Executive Director Dawud Walid. “Transparency would be the best measure for restoring public confidence in the process.”

Walid and other civil rights leaders have called for an independent investigation into the imam’s death, citing concerns about whether excessive force was used during the Oct. 28 raid at a warehouse in Dearborn, where agents attempted to arrest Abdullah on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods and illegal possession and sale of firearms.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold said Abdullah refused to surrender, fired a weapon and was killed by gunfire from agents. Authorities also conducted raids elsewhere to try to round up 10 followers named in a federal complaint.

The 43-page complaint described Abdullah as an extremist who believed the FBI bombed New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 and the Oklahoma City federal building two years later. Abdullah beat children with sticks at his Detroit mosque, the complaint claimed, and was trained with his followers in the use of firearms, martial arts and swords.

Yet many in the Islamic community did not see Abdullah in the same light. In a statement released Nov. 2, the National Lawyers Guild said, “All reports from local residents and community leaders indicate that Imam Abdullah and (members of his mosque) were dedicated to improving the community, feeding hungry neighborhood residents and helping young people in need, even letting many sleep in the mosque during inclement weather.”

But the FBI says Abdullah, also known as Christopher Thomas, was an imam, or prayer leader, of a radical group named Ummah whose primary mission is to establish an Islamic state within the United States.

That Islamic state, investigators said, would be ruled by Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, formerly known as H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for killing two Georgia police officers. Al-Amin, a veteran of the black power movement, started the group after he converted to Islam in prison.

The FBI penetrated the group with the help of confidential informants who recorded conversations with Abdullah. A year ago, the FBI hatched an undercover operation in which Abdullah and others believed they were selling stolen goods worth more than $5,000.

Abdullah received at least 20 percent of any profit and claimed the “Prophet Muhammad said that it is okay to participate in theft; as long as that person prays, they are in a good state,” FBI agent Gary Leone wrote in an affidavit filed with the complaint.

The affidavit also said bombs, guns and even the recipe for TNT were among Abdullah’s regular topics with his allies. Group members and former members said they were “willing to do anything Abdullah instructs and/or preaches, even including criminal conduct and acts of violence,” the FBI agent wrote.

But that description doesn’t match what Walid said he knew of Abdullah.

“He would open up the mosque to homeless people. He used to run a soup kitchen and feed indigent people,” Walid said. “I knew nothing of him that was related to any nefarious or criminal behavior.”

Walid said the county has yet to responded to a request from his organization requesting a copy of the autopsy report once it’s completed. He said the report could help answer some of the questions that have been on people’s minds since the shooting, including how many times Abdullah was shot, whether he suffered dog bites and whether he was handcuffed after he was shot.

“The unfortunate and perhaps unintended consequence is that the failure to release the autopsy report and the very exorbitant amount for the (autopsy photos) is raising in the minds of some people in the community that there’s a potential cover-up,” he said.

But Haddad continues to deny the allegations. He told the Press & Guide that the information could be released as early as Jan. 31.

“We’ve been assured that the investigation will be wrapped up by then,” he said. “I hope that’s the case.”