Al-Fuqra, or Jamaat al-Fuqra, is a shadowy Muslim religious cult with bases in North America and ties to Pakistan.  The group was founded in 1980 by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Jilani Hashemi.  Even though Jilani lives in Lahore, Pakistan, he established al-Fuqra on a trip to the United States as a means for participants to reject the ills of modern society and strive to live in a pure Islamic community.  Translated, Jamaat al-Fuqra, means "community of the impoverished". <P><br />Since the early 1980s, members have been linked to numerous small attacks, including bombings, murders, and hate crimes in several regions of the United States. The organization is reported to have more than 1,000 members living in closed compounds in rural areas of New York, California, South Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, and Canada.  It is suspected that their headquarters is located in Hancock, New York.  Membership is primarily composed of African-American Muslim converts. Al-Fuqra members are known for reclusive behavior and secrecy -- including the use of forged identities for travel abroad to Pakistan for religious and terrorist training.  In fact, aspects of the group's behavior, particularly the use of remote compounds and extensive weapons training, is similar to that of right-wing U.S. survivalist groups.   <P><br />It is difficult to gauge the likelihood that al-Fuqra, as a group, supports and motivates its members to commit terrorist acts.  Since the group does not claim responsibility for attacks committed by its members, it is possible that the majority of al-Fuqra members reject such acts, and solely choose to join a closed community separated from the outside world -- albeit one that utilizes aliases and weapons training to maintain its separation. But if many of its activities are benign, at least some of its members have used violence to further the group's aims, which include "purifying" Islam and spreading Islamic extremism by attacking other religious institutions. <P><br />The first terrorist attack conclusively linked to al-Fuqra was the July 1983 fire-bombing of a hotel owned by an Indian guru in Portland, Oregon. Al-Fuqra member Stephen Paul Paster was eventually convicted of the attack. Paster, a suspect in several other bombings, served four years of twenty-year sentence, and, according to reports, is now living in Pakistan training militants in the use of explosives. <P><br />Like the Portland attack, other bombings attributed to al-Fuqra targeted religious institutions. Hare Krishna temples in Philadelphia and Denver were bombed in 1984. Sikh Vendanta Societies were targeted in Seattle and Kansas City that same summer. Other attacks have been carried out against Laotian temples, Hindu religious institutions, and individuals of South Asian descent. Several reported al-Fuqra attacks were conducted against other Muslims, such as the assassination of Ahmadiyya sect leader Dr. Mozaffar Ahmad in Michigan in 1983 and attacks on Islamic cultural centers in Tempe, Arizona (1982), Quincy, Massachusetts (1990), and San Diego, California (1991). Further hard evidence of links to terrorism were discovered when an al-Fuqra storage locker was raided in Colorado in 1989. Police found pipe bombs, explosives and other bomb components, forged documents, and various small arms. <P><br />The group's terrorist activities declined in the 1990s, though there were two high profile incidents. An al-Fuqra member, Clement Rodney Hampton-el, was convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York, though his co-conspirators were affiliated with other terrorist groups. Two other group members were convicted of conspiracy to murder in the killing of an Arizona cleric. <P><br />Al-Fuqra made headlines more recently when links were reported to both "shoe-bomber" Richard Reid and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan in 2002. Militants linked to al-Fuqra were initially suspected in Pearl's murder because he was trying to meet with Sheikh Jilani when he was abducted. Jilani was arrested soon after Pearl's disappearance and held as a prime suspect, but was released and never charged. Al-Fuqra was mentioned in the Richard Reid case because Reid allegedly visited either Jilani or his followers in Pakistan to receive spiritual guidance, despite not being an actual member.<P><br />