Page 19 - Pakistan Link - February 1, 2019

COMMUNITY FEBRUARY 1, 2019 – PAKISTAN LINK – P19
Secluded Muslim Community Draws out the Worst Online

Left: Hussein Adams, Sultan Jilani, Rashid Clark and Tahirah Clark, all residents of Islamberg, NY, spoke last week in Binghamton about arrests of people accused of conspiring to attack their seclud-
ed Muslim enclave. Right: Cassandra Greene, left, a resident of the Muslim enclave of Holy Islamberg, and Nancy Furdock, who lives in nearby Hancock, NY, at a news conference held by Muslims of
America after the arrests of three men and a minor in connection with a terror plot against the Muslim community, in Binghamton, NY, Jan 23 -Credit Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times
n By Rick Rojaz
with snow and ice making the community even to sneak into the community or to fly drones law enforcement in the United States because
Hancock, NY: Deep in the dense woods near harder to reach. Still, residents have a spread of over the property to conduct their own inves- of accusations of criminal activity beginning in
the Catskill Mountains, a settlement was start- land offering enough room to build homes and tigations. And a recurring ride of bikers has the 1980s.
ed decades ago by Muslim families, many of a mosque and raise livestock and crops. rumbled past Islamberg’s entrance in a caravan In 2002, after the gun-charge arrests of
them African-Americans from New York City, Islamberg was started around 1980 by a to alert the community to their vigilance. three people authorities said were part of Jamaat
who were seeking to distance themselves from group of mostly African-Americans who had “I don’t believe the people inside here are al-Fuqra, federal prosecutors described a “his-
neighborhoods they saw as dangerous and lad- converted to Islam in the 1960s and followed peaceful and are standing for the same thing tory of violence” involving the organization, in-
en with corrosive influences. Sheihk Mubarik Ali Shah Gilani, a Pakistani we stand for,” Joseph Glasgow, an organizer of cluding fire-bombings and murder. Islamberg’s
Holy Islamberg was intended to be a ref- cleric and founder of Muslims of America. the demonstration, called a “ride for national leaders have denied a connection to the group.
uge, a serene environment to pray and bring up He encouraged his followers to flee large security,” told the crowd that had assembled in And an analysis published in 2008 in
children. cities and build communes in rural areas where a parking lot before setting off for Islamberg in the CTC Sentinel, a journal published by the
In the years since, the enclave’s residents they could separate themselves from the crime 2017. Combating Terrorism Center at West Point,
have forged relationships with state and local and the violence they faced in their old neigh- The speculation about terrorism has in- concluded that there was no evidence proving
law enforcement, and made connections with borhoods and the decadence that, in his view, spired more than protests. In 2017, a Tennessee Islamberg was part of a covert training opera-
their white neighbors from nearby towns. They pervaded secular society. Over the years, his fol- man, Robert Doggart, was sentenced to nearly tion. Instead, the report said, “the presence of
work alongside each other in medical clinics lowers have set up about a dozen other villages 20 years in prison over a plot to recruit a militia weapons (or even arsenals), nor weapons train-
and offices. Their children are teammates in similar to Islamberg, including ones in Virginia, and storm the enclave. In a phone call recorded ing are particularly unusual phenomena in ru-
youth football and basketball games. Georgia and Tennessee. as part of a federal wiretap, Doggart said, “I ral America.”
But residents of Islamberg have found that The presence of a largely black community don’t want to have to kill children, but there’s The right-wing interest reflects “a certain
there is no such thing as a haven in the internet whose members wear Muslim garb has been always collateral damage.” amount of obsession that I don’t see how it’s
age. conspicuous in the nearby small towns like The most recent threat of violence came possibly justified,” William Rosenau, one of the
Conspiracy theorists and anti-Muslim Hancock that are populated with mostly white last week after investigators in Greece, outside authors of the Sentinel analysis, said last week.
groups have sketched a false portrayal of the residents. Their arrival more than 30 years ago Rochester, thwarted an apparent plan concoct- “I think the fact that the members are Muslim
community as a hidden-away den of Islamic ex- came with tension, but over time, the relation- ed by a group who, officials said, had stockpiled and almost all African-American is a source of a
tremism. Last week, police in Greece, New York, ship warmed as residents of Islamberg became 23 firearms and three homemade bombs. lot of the anxiety. I think it’s straight up religious
roughly 200 miles away, arrested four young enmeshed in the broader community. Three men — Vincent Vetromile, 19, Brian and racial fear.”
people who are accused of amassing a stockpile “We’ve never had a problem,” said Nancy Colaneri, 20, and Andrew Crysel, 18 — were ar- McEvoy, the State Police commander
of firearms and homemade bombs with plans to Furdock, who has lived in Hancock — “two rested and charged with criminal possession of in the region, said the story of Islamberg re-
target the community. mountains over” from Islamberg, she said — a weapon and conspiracy, and a fourth person, minded him of his own: His mother had moved
The plot was the second major one on Is- for nearly two decades and has become friendly whose identity was not released because he or their family from Brooklyn to Binghamton for
lamberg to be thwarted by authorities in recent with people who live in the enclave. she is a minor, was charged as an adolescent a change.
years. She corrected herself slightly, “We have a with the same offenses. “They believe in education,” McEvoy said.
The threatened violence reflects how Is- problem with outsiders.” It is unclear how the individuals were con- “They believe in hard work. They believe in rais-
lamberg has become fodder for a pernicious “Why don’t they come talk to us?” she add- nected, but three of them had been Boy Scouts. ing their children with those goals in mind.”
part of the internet, one steeped in virulent hate ed, referring to those who circulate conspiracy In the days before the plot was uncovered, at A day after the most recent plot emerged,
and misinformation spread by websites like theories about Islamberg online. “We’ll tell you least one of them, Vetromile shared far-right nudging Islamberg back under the glare of out-
4chan and Infowars, alongside subjects like Piz- what’s going on, which is nothing.” memes and conspiracy theories about border side attention, community officials organized a
zagate and QAnon. In recent years, far-right Facebook groups security and a government scheme to seize news conference in a hotel ballroom in Bing-
“These kids in Greece, they’ve never been have warned of an encampment governed by weapons. Authorities also said that the defen- hamton. There, its leaders once again had to
to Islamberg,” said Hussein Adams, chief execu- an oppressive form of Shariah law, which they dants had corresponded using Discord, a group challenge falsehoods about them.
tive of the Muslims of America and a resident claimed would encroach into broader society. chat app created for video gamers that became “Beautiful place to live, beautiful people
whose family has lived in the community for Documentary-style videos portrayed Is- popular with far-right activists. to live with,” said Cassandra Greene, who was
three generations. “They go on the internet and lamberg as a Jihadi training camp and terrorist Vetromile and Colaneri remain in custody, among the earliest arrivals to Islamberg more
they’re fed all this fake news and all this misin- sleeper cell, and people who present themselves according to jail records. than 30 years ago.
formation, and they come up with a plan.” as national security experts have published “Just imagine having to wake up and tell After the news conference, Adams of Mus-
Adams and other residents said they sub- reports online alleging a culture of “militant your children of such a plot, tell your children lims of America marveled at his community’s
scribe to a faith based on love and respect. brainwashing,” forced marriages and doling out that their life was in danger,” said Rashid Clark, resilience. He said he believed that the alarm
And local authorities said the swirl of on- lashes and other forms of draconian abuse for Islamberg’s mayor. and cynicism that has surrounded Islamberg
line conspiracy theories about Islamberg were violating its rules. Much of the scrutiny directed at Islamberg had not seeped inside the community.
unfounded. The community’s critics seized upon an ar- centers on the community’s ties to Gilani, an Indeed, he said, Islamberg has remained
“They are law-abiding,” said Maj. William rest, in 2017, of a 64-year-old man accused of elusive figure who became more widely known very much the same place his parents had
F. McEvoy, the State Police commander in the stealing ammunition in nearby Johnson City, after the 2002 murder of Wall Street Journal sought, with tranquility among residents and
region. “They are positive, solid members of the which led authorities to find a storage locker reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan. Pearl, who the latitude to live out their faith. To him, that
community.” stocked with powerful weapons. was reporting on a story about the so-called was most evident in the mornings. The commu-
Islamberg has about 200 residents, some Officials said at the time they had found shoe bomber, Richard C. Reid, was seeking nity rises well before sunrise. People wash their
from families who have lived here for two or “no indications there was a plan in place to an interview with the sheikh when he was ab- bodies, put on clean clothes and perfume. They
more generations, and covers some 60 acres commit an act of violence.” Still, the case served ducted. (The sheikh is not believed to have been step outside, on the land where they hunt and
outside Binghamton, near the Pennsylvania as fodder for purveyors of disinformation, who involved in the plot, counterterrorism analysts raise much of their own food.
state line and about 150 miles from New York peddled false stories claiming the weapons were said.) “We say our prayers to God almighty,” Ad-
City. It is set back off a bumpy road on private bound for Islamberg, that President Donald Suspicion has also sprung from the com- ams said. “That starts our day, and that’s every-
property, up steep slopes, past pastures and Trump had ordered a raid and that investigators munity’s purported association with an obscure thing.”
alongside a creek. had uncovered “America’s WORST Nightmare.” Muslim group called Jamaat al-Fuqra, which is This article originally appeared in The New
The winter conditions can be punishing, Trespassers have been found attempting tied to the sheikh and has drawn the notice of York Times.
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