He has a lot of, you know - but one of the things that stands out, especially for people who remember him from his childhood, is his musical talent but also his personality. He's an African American man born in the Midwest, in Gary, Ind., in 1922. He's the one who led the attack on Washington, D.C. Hamaas Abdul Khaalis is the central character of the book. So let's talk about the man who is at the heart of this story, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. We won't dwell on it at length or include graphic details, but it is part of the story that unfolds here. Our conversation today will include a description of harm to children. It's great to be on the show.ĭAVIES: Before we get started, I just want to offer this note to our listeners. Well, Shahan Mufti, welcome to FRESH AIR. His new book is "American Caliph: The True Story Of A Muslim Mystic, A Hollywood Epic, And The 1977 Siege Of Washington, D.C." He's currently chair of the Department of Journalism at the University of Richmond. and overseas and is the author of "The Faithful Scribe," a book that's both a personal memoir and a history of modern Pakistan. Shahan Mufti is a veteran journalist who was born in the United States and raised both in the U.S. Mufti spent seven years researching the events, and he describes them in riveting detail. The attack also grew out of a bitter and violent dispute between Khaalis' group and the Nation of Islam, which Khaalis had once been a leading member of. Among other things, he was outraged by a movie about the life of the Prophet Muhammad, financed by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi that was premiering that day in New York. The assault that led to a two-day standoff was orchestrated by a Hanafi Muslim leader named Hamaas Abdul Khaalis. In March 1977, nearly 150 people were taken hostage in Washington, D.C., by a group of gunmen who stormed three different locations - the headquarters of a prominent Jewish group, the Islamic Center of Washington and the offices of the District of Columbia city government, where a councilman named Marion Barry took a shotgun pellet in his chest and had to be hospitalized. When I first looked at the new book by our guest, journalist Shahan Mufti, I was amazed I had no memory of the events he describes, which occurred when I was in my 20s.
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