Stratfor on Jamaat Al-Fuqra

The U.S. government claims that al-Fuqra members were involved in 13 bombings and arsons during the 1980s and 1990s and were responsible for at least 17 homicides. Many of these attacks targeted Indian groups such as the Hare Krishnas, or heterodox Muslim groups such as the Ahmadiyya sect. In 1991, five al-Fuqra members were arrested at a border crossing in Niagara Falls, N.Y., after authorities found their plans to attack an Indian cinema and a Hindu temple in Toronto, Canada. Three of the five later were convicted on charges stemming from the plot.
According to sources, many al-Fuqra members have fought in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Lebanon, Bosnia and Chechnya. Several members also have been affiliated with the al-Kifah Refugee Center — popularly known as the Brooklyn Jihad Office. Group member Clement Hampton-el, for example, provided weapons training to several people associated with the Brooklyn Jihad Office. One of those men, El Sayyid Nosair later would use that training to assassinate the Rabbi Meir Kahane in Manhattan. Hampton-el was convicted along with several other men, including Nosair’s cousin, Ibrahim Elgabrowny and Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as The Blind Sheikh, in the 1993 New York Bomb Plot Case, and sentenced to serve 35 years.

More recently, police investigators working on the D.C. sniper case tied convicted killer John Allen Muhammed to al-Fuqra. Rumors also surfaced that “Shoe Bomber” Richard Reid was connected to the group. Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, in fact, was investigating the Reid/al-Fuqra connection and was in the process of attempting to interview Gilani when he was abducted and killed.

If Stratfor thinks they are bad news, they probably are.