Slain imam mourned; more arrests

DETROIT – Hundreds of people offered hushed prayers Saturday at the funeral for a slain Detroit mosque leader, while authorities across the border in Canada made the final two arrests in a criminal case that is stirring some anger in the Muslim community.

Luqman Ameen Abdullah was remembered as a caring man who followed the tenets of his Islam faith as an imam, or prayer leader, of a small mosque north of downtown. Fellow imams said he was generous and a good brother, and no one mentioned the FBI’s claim that he had a violent, anti-government ideology.

The FBI says Abdullah, 53, was fatally shot inside a suburban warehouse Wednesday after firing at agents and resisting arrest. Agents wanted him on charges of weapons violations and conspiracy to sell stolen goods.

“We ask Allah to reward him with the promised reward of those who are martyred,” Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid told mourners at the Muslim Center in Detroit.

According to the FBI, Abdullah was a leader of a national radical Sunni group that wants to create an Islamic state within the U.S.

The last of 11 defendants were arrested Saturday across the border from Detroit in Windsor, Ontario, where they live. Authorities said Mohammad Philistine, 33, and Yassir Ali Khan, 30, were taken into custody without incident.