Film and Panel Discussion Bring Up New Perspective On Race and Authority

Jack Rodzik

Feb. 17 2011

“The Death of An Imam”

248-974-8926

rodzikja@msu.edu

Film and Panel Discussion Bring Up New Perspective On Race and Authority

            EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State students and guests gathered in Snyder Phillips Hall on Friday, Feb. 11 to take part in a panel discussion after watching MSU Assistant Professor Geri Zeldes’ “The Death of an Imam”.

            This film exploits controversy behind the media coverage and police report of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah’s death, in which the actual story still remains quite unclear.The film features one-sided news clips of the incident, in which Abdullah is considered a “radical terrorist”, with no solid evidence to back the allegations.

            The police report states that four Federal Bureau of Investigation agents killed Abdullah, shooting him 21 times in self-defense after he shot at a police dog sent on him for robbing a Dearborn, Mich. warehouse.

            The panel held after the film screening was set up to feature a variety or professional opinions, allowing each board member to dive into the matter with their own personal perspectives. The panel featured Salah Hassan, Associate Professor of the Department of English at MSU, Catherine Grosso, Assistant Professor of Law at MSU, Saeed Khan, visiting professor at James Madison and Dawud Walid, from the Council on American-Islamic Studies.

             One of the main points of panel discussion, brought up by Catherine Grosso, was about the disputable police report on the night of Abdullah’s death, Oct. 28, 2009. Records state Abdullah shot a canine unit that was sent on him and in defense the FBI agents fired back, whereas the untold news stories, which mainstream media failed to pick up, show records of the canine unit that was sent on him arriving at a veterinarian hospital at the same time that it was shot. The gun that shot the dog was also tested for fingerprints and DNA, nothing was ever found that traced back to Abdullah.

            This sheds light on the fact that even the some of the highest credible organizations, the FBI, fails to keep accurate records at times. Erica Shekell, who transcribed the footage for “The Death of an Imam”, told me about how the mainstream media made the mistake of reporting the incident poorly.

            “It was interesting, when I was looking at clips online about FBI sending informants into Mosques, it’s a form of religious profiling. It was interesting to see that it wasn’t just this one event, it’s a problem,” Shekell said. “They swallowed the FBI’s side of the story.”

            I also spoke with Saeed Khan, who has consulted with British Broadcasting Company World and Time Magazine, who said the police report was “Interesting because it’s not just a series of facts, but also an editorial”.