The December 23, 2020 edition of Africa400 marked the approach of 20 years of imprisonment for Political Prisoner Imam Jamil Al-Amin, who was once known as H. Rap Brown. Mama Tomiko and Baba Ty welcomed their Special Guests Bro. Kairi Al-Amin, the son of the Imam, and Dr. Maulana Karenga, Creator of Kwanzaa and Professor & Chair, Department of Africana Studies, Cal State University-Long Beach. His Web sites are https://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org and https://www.maulanakarenga.org.
Listen to the audio of the show by clicking here:
Dr. Karenga wrote an April 25, 2019 commentary on Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s continuing fight for freedom, which can be read in its entirety at Achieving Justice for Imam Jamil: A Battleline For All of Us – Los Angeles Sentinel | Los Angeles Sentinel | Black News (lasentinel.net).
“Clearly, his trial was grossly flawed and his conviction was deeply wrongful. His targeting and imprisonment was political. His transfer from a prison in Georgia for a state conviction to federal prisons in Colorado and Arizona and being placed in solidarity confinement for 8 years is vindictive, vicious and designed to isolate him from family, community and legal counsel, and punish and break him. The refusal to allow journalists and academics to see and interview him is to muzzle him and eliminate the regular monitoring and checking on their savage treatment of him. And the denial of adequate and appropriate treatment for him is inhumane, a violation of his human rights and creating conditions for his death. Thus, we must see and engage this as a moral obligation to resist and reverse these unjust and evil actions.”
– Dr. Maulana Karenga, Achieving Justice for Imam Jamil: A Battleline For All of Us
The Web site Prisoner Solidarity (Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, Imam | prisonersolidarity.com) describes the events leading up to the Imam’s incarceration thus:
“On March 16th, 2000, Fulton County Deputy Sheriff Ricky Kinchen is shot and later dies, while another deputy Aldranon English is wounded after being shot by a man outside Imam Jamil’s store. English identified the shooter in the March 16 incident as Imam Jamil, yet testified that he shot the assailant—who “had grey eyes”—in the exchange of gunfire. Imam Al-Amin’s eyes are brown, and he had no gunshot injury when he was captured just four days later.”
An important support Web site that has been established by Imam Jamil Al-Amin’s son, Bro. Kairi Al-Amin, is https://whathappened2rap.com.
There is also a YouTube video featuring Bro. Kairi Al-Amin (https://m.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR3R1v4ZWUZf8IJ_JEt4w4wUaBJW-sNv60ozfp-L71wRP_SKzordVwjmazQ&v=0SELtMGzx0w&feature=youtu.be) which appears on the WhatHappened2Rap site.
A Change.org petition (Sponsor Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard : New Trial For Imam Jamil Al-Amin FKA H. Rap Brown (change.org)) currently seeks signatures and support for a new trial in the effort to exonerate and free Imam Jamil Al-Amin.
Africa400 can be listened to on the radio in the Glen Burnie and Baltimore, Maryland areas on 1590-AM WFBR. The show is also streamed over the Internet on a variety of platforms, most notably on WFBR 1590AM Baltimore, 1590 AM, Glen Burnie, MD | Free Internet Radio | TuneIn and Famous 1590 – WFBR – AM 1590 – Glen Burnie, MD – Streema Player. After the show airs, it will be recorded and featured in an update of this post as well as on our Media Page.
Pingback: “20 Years in Prison: H. Rap Brown aka Imam Jamil Al-Amin” on Africa400, December 23, 2020