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إِنَّا لِلَّٰهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُونَ
Imam Jamil Al-Amin was born Hubert Gerald Brown in Baton Rouge, Louisiana/USA, on October 4, 1943.
In 1967 Imam Jamil was elected Chairman of SNCC, succeeding Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture); guided the organization to focus on human rights issues. During this time the state and federal governments began their collusion, through the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program, COINTELPRO, of harassment and false charges against him as part of their campaign to disrupt and destroy the Black Liberation Movement.
In November 1976 Imam Jamil traveled to Saudi Arabia for his hajj and returned to Atlanta, Georgia to organize a Muslim community in the southwest part (West End) of Atlanta.
From the late ‘70s to 2000 the Imam organized and maintained a neighborhood clean up of drugs, prostitution and crime; worked with youth and street organizations; participated in initiating the establishment of the “National Jamaat,” (Al Ummah) comprised of approximately 40 masjids in various cities in the United States and the Caribbean.
In March of 2000 there was a shooting outside the Imam’s store in Atlanta. And on March 20, 2000 Imam Jamil was arrested in White Hall, Alabama, and subsequently charged with the murder of one deputy and the wounding of another. During the capture, the Imam was beaten and spat upon by an FBI agent who has a history of misconduct.
His trial in March of 2002 ultimately lasted for just three weeks, and despite contradictory factual and circumstantial evidence, the jury took less than 10 hours to reach a guilty verdict on all 13 counts. District Attorney Paul Howard called for the death penalty.
On March 11, 2002, twenty character witnesses, including Andrew Young, civic, academic, and religious leaders, and human rights activists, testified on his behalf to prevent imposition of the death penalty. On March 14, 2002, the jury announced a sentence of life without the possibility of parole on the two counts of murder and felony murder, while the judge imposed an additional 30 years to the sentence as punishment on the remaining 11 counts. Imam Jamil was moved immediately to Jackson, Georgia, and then to the Reidsville State Prison.
After being held in Georgia prisons for 6 years, on August 2, 2007 Imam Jamil was moved, without notice to his attorneys or family members, to Oklahoma City, and then to the infamous Supermax federal prison in Florence, Colorado. He will be held in a Federal Facility paid for by Georgia while maintaining his status as a Georgia State Prisoner.
Imam Al-Amin was initially held in state custody after his wrongful conviction, but in an unprecedented move, was transferred to federal custody under the guise of security concerns when in reality a major reason was that many inmates in Georgia prisons were embracing Islam as a result of interacting with him.
