Sheikh Mubarak Gilani is not a household name. But he is well known by the media, law enforcement officials and counterterrorism experts. His terrorist organization, called Jamaat al-Fuqra (Community of the Poor) has been linked to 17 fire bombings and 10 assassinations in the United States alone.

Terrorist Compounds in America

Sheikh Mubarak Gilani Forms

Terrorist Compounds Inside United States

Get Rid of "Sheikh Gilani Lane" Now!

Martin Mawyer, president

Christian Action Network

In one of the most callous displays of indecency toward the victims of 9/11, Charlotte County, Virginia has a road sign named after an international terrorist, called “Sheikh Gilani Lane.”

Charlotte County is a rural farming community in Central Virginia near the North Carolina border. It is peppered with hills, trees and farmland and populated by some of the most patriotic citizens in the country.

Furthermore, Charlotte County can proudly say that it is the home of one of America’s most beloved founding fathers, Patrick Henry, who is best remembered for his “Give me liberty or give me death” speech.

Now, regrettably, Charlotte County is also known for being the only community in the United States that has a road sign named after an international terrorist.

Sheikh Mubarak Gilani is not a household name. But he is well known by the media, law enforcement officials and counterterrorism experts. His terrorist organization, called Jamaat al-Fuqra (Community of the Poor) has been linked to 17 fire bombings and 10 assassinations in the United States alone.

Most famously, Sheikh Gilani rose to national attention in January 2002, when Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and then beheaded while attempting to arrange an interview with the Pakistani cleric.

Daniel Pearl was following up on a lead that Richard Reid, the so-called “shoe bomber” who attempted to blow up American Airlines Flight 63, was an al-Fuqra operative who was trained by Sheikh Gilani.

Sheikh Gilani dismissed Daniel Pearl’s claims and countered Pearl was really a US intelligence operative who wanted to find him and then have him assassinated. “Obviously, Daniel Pearl was to target me and then an assassination team would be sent to kill me,” Sheikh Gilani stated his “Pillar of Lies” autobiography.

Sheikh Gilani formed his al-Fuqra terror network in the early 80s after a visit to Brooklyn, New York. The goal of his organization, according to the US State Department, was to “purify Islam through violence.”

Almost immediately upon his arrival, the Sheikh began recruiting African-American Muslims into his terrorist network. Some were recruited off the streets, some out of mosques, while others were recruited from American prisons. Most disturbingly, however, Sheikh Gilani recruited some of his followers out the United States military.

In a recruitment video, Sheikh Gilani made clear his goals:

“We have reached out and prepared [recruits] to defend themselves in a highly specialized training of guerrilla warfare...We are at present establishing training camps.”

The enemy included America.

“We are not fighting so that the enemy recognizes us and offers something. We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots and its roots are America.”

Sheikh Gilani even wrote poems to help inspire his troops to violent Jihad. One poem was called, “We dhikr [pray] to the beat of a submachine gun.” Another poem exhorted: “Come join my troops and army / says our Sheikh Gilani / Prepare to sacrifice your head / A true believer is never dead / Say ‘Victory is in the air’ / The kafir’s [infidel’s] blood will not be spared.”

With recruits in hand, Sheikh Gilani established two terror organizations in the United States. One was called, “Muslims of America.” The other, “International Open Quranic University.”

Through these two groups, Sheikh Gilani began purchasing property in mostly rural, wooded and mountainous communities in America. According to a study funded by the Department of Justice, al-Fuqra has nearly two-dozen terrorist compounds inside the United States.

Sheikh Gilani, himself, claims to have between 10,000 and 15,000 followers in America with a presence in 22 states.

One of those compounds was called Trout Creek Pass and was located near Buena Vista, Colorado. In 1989, Colorado police raided a storage locker rented by the disciples of Sheikh Gilani’s. What they found was shocking.

Here is a partial list of the items:

Ten handguns and silencers

40 pounds of explosives

Target-practice silhouettes pierced with bullet holes

3 large pipe bombs, fused and ready to explode

A manual on “Guerilla Warfare”

AK 47s

6,000 rounds of ammo

Bomb-making instructions

Blank birth certificates and Social Security cards

Perhaps most alarming, Colorado law enforcement officials also found “Targeting Packets,” which were described as assassination papers on selected individuals. One of those targeted individuals was a rival Muslim cleric in Tucson, Arizona, named Rashad Khalifa.

Days after discovering the four-page plan to murder the cleric, Khalifa was lying in a pool of blood, dead after being stabbed 17 times. The assassination was a “carbon copy” of the handwritten plan found in the Colorado storage locker.

Two individuals would later be convicted in his murder, James D. Williams and Nicholas Edward Flinton.

Both were arrested years after the crime, in 1996. Williams was arrested in Lynchburg, Va. Flinton was arrested in South Carolina after hiding out for five years in a al-Fuqra camp in Meherrin, VA. The Meherrin terrorist compound sits just 35 miles from the al-Fuqra camp in Red House, VA.

Al-Fuqra members recruited by Sheikh Gilani are trained in the nearly two-dozen terrorist compounds in America. Those who are selected to live on the compounds agree to “abide by the law and discipline of Jamaat al-Fuqra.”

Recruits also agree to sign an oath stating: “I shall always hear and obey, and whenever given the command, I shall readily fight for Allah’s sake.”

The most loyal and faithful followers are then sent to Pakistan to more extensive training in guerilla warfare.

At a 2001 bond hearing for a Red House convict named Vicente Rafael Pierre, ATF Special Agent Thomas Gallagher told the court: “Individuals from the organization are trained in Hancock, N.Y., and if they pass the training in Hancock they are then sent to Pakistan for training in paramilitary and survivalist training by Mr. Gilani...We have information from an informant that one individual from Red House did further his training by going to Afghanistan.”

In a 2006 “Threat Assessment” report conducted by Canadian officials, the scope of recruitment by Sheikh Gilani is chilling:

“The Fuqra believe criminally oriented converts are ideal recruits as they are susceptible to rejecting Western values and adopting militant interpretations of Islam. With this philosophy in mind, the Fuqra targets Afro-American converts with criminal backgrounds for recruitment.”

The current danger of Sheikh Gilani and his al-Fuqra camps have not gone unnoticed by American law enforcement officials either.

In a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report called the “Integrated Planning Guidance Report,” Homeland Security warned, “Other predicted possible sponsors of attacks include Jamaat al-Fuqra, a Pakistani-based group that has been linked to Muslims of America.”

In Charlotte County a Red House terrorist camp boldly boasts in a large, green entrance sign that it is a part of “Muslims of America.” The very same organization the Department of Homeland Security has “predicted” will sponsor a terrorist attack upon America.

Near that audacious sign sits another sign...a road sign named “Sheikh Gilani Lane”...a known international terrorist...a road sign that can be found on the maps of Charlotte County and even on a vehicle’s GPS system.

This is not only an embarrassment to the citizens of Charlotte County it is a disgrace to the entire country and an insult to the victims of 9/11 and those fighting overseas in the war against terrorism.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me Liberty or Give me Death.” The motto of Sheikh Gilani and his terror compounds is only, “Give me Death.”

This road sign must be removed. Get involved. Here are the addresses and phone numbers to the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors, the only political authorities who currently have the power to take this disgraceful sign down.

Write them. Call them. Email them.

One email address for entire Board of Supervisors:

supervisors@co.charlotte.va.us