The Council on American-Islamic Relations sparked renewed controversy this week after CAIR eulogizes convicted cop-killer Jamil Abdullah al-Amin, who died over the weekend while serving a life sentence in federal prison. CAIR executive director Nihad Awad praised the former Black Panther in a statement, saying, “To God we belong and to Him we return. Imam Jamil Al-Amin was a hero of the civil rights movement and a victim of injustice who passed away in a prison, jailed for a crime he did not commit.”
Al-Amin—born Hubert Gerold Brown and widely known as H. Rap Brown—rose to prominence during the violent unrest of the 1960s. As the New York Times noted, he said violence is “as American as cherry pie,” once threatened to “burn America down,” and told rioters, “If you’re going to loot, loot yourself a gun store.” After disappearing in 1970 and landing on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, he resurfaced, was convicted of robbery and assault, and served five years in prison, where he converted to Islam.
In 2002, al-Amin again made headlines when a majority-Black jury convicted him of murdering Fulton County deputy sheriff Ricky Kinchen. Though al-Amin claimed the FBI feared “a character coming up among African Americans who could galvanize support,” Kinchen’s partner identified him as the shooter. CAIR nevertheless insisted he was “wrongly convicted.”
The latest statement comes as CAIR faces escalating legal and political pressure. Texas governor Greg Abbott designated the group a foreign terrorist organization, calling it a “direct subsidiary” of the Muslim Brotherhood and citing FBI warnings that the organization acts as a “front group” for Hamas. Abbott vowed, “We will target threats of violence, intimidation, and harassment of our citizens.”
Awad himself remains under scrutiny for saying he was “happy to see” Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of more than 1,200 Israeli civilians.
