1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre

Hanafi murders
Location7700 16th Street NW, Washington, D.C., US
Coordinates38°59′00″N 77°02′11″W / 38.983372°N 77.036479°W / 38.983372; -77.036479
DateJanuary 18, 1973
TargetHome invasion
Attack type
Deaths7
Injured2
PerpetratorsBlack Mafia
Part of a series on the
Nation of Islam
Influencers
Leaders
Beliefs and theology
History
Publications
Subsidiaries
Offshoots and sects
Related organizations
Islam portal icon Politics portal

The 1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre took place on January 18, 1973.[1] Two men and a boy were shot to death. Four other children ranging in age from nine days to ten years old were drowned. Two others were severely injured.[2] The murders took place at 7700 16th Street NW, a Washington, D.C. house purchased for a group of Hanafi Muslims to use as the "Hanafi American Mussulman's Rifle and Pistol Club".[3] The property was purchased and donated by then Milwaukee Bucks basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.[4]

The target of the attack was Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, the son-in-law of Reginald Hawkins. Khaalis had written and sent fifty letters[5] calling Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad "guilty of 'fooling and deceiving people – robbing them of their money, and besides that dooming them to Hell.'" The letters were mailed to ministers of all fifty mosques of the Nation of Islam, a sect that Khaalis had infiltrated and in which he had been a leader in the 1950s.[5] The letters were also critical of Wallace D. Fard[6] and urged the ministers to leave the sect.[5]

The massacre was a direct cause of the 1973 Brooklyn hostage crisis that started the following day, as the four perpetrators, themselves Sunni Muslims, sought to acquire firearms for self-defense in the event they were targeted for a similar attack.[7][8][9][10]

  1. ^ Kiernan, Laura (October 19, 1977). "Amina Khaalis Relives Horror of Slayings, Court Is Told". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  2. ^ Griffin, S.P. (11 April 2006). "4". Philadelphia's Black Mafia: A Social and Political History. Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 35–37. ISBN 0-306-48132-4.
  3. ^ "Arrest Last Suspect in Murder". Stevens Point Daily Journal. March 28, 1974.
  4. ^ Meyer, Eugene; Edwards, Paul (March 10, 1977). "Barry 'A Very Lucky Man". Washington Post. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  5. ^ a b c Delaney, Paul (January 25, 1973). "Survivor Tells How 7 Moslems Died in Washington". New York Times. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
  6. ^ Jet (February 22, 1973). "Muslims Mum on Charge". jJohnson Publishing Company. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
  7. ^ "4 Muslims in Store Siege Are Convicted of Murder". The New York Times. June 22, 1974. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  8. ^ Reub, Emily (September 10, 2012). "A 1973 Hostage Situation, Revisited". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  9. ^ Lichtenstein, Grace (June 20, 1974). "TRIAL OF MUSLIMS GOES TO THE JURY". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  10. ^ Kraft, Brian Jones (2022-01-19). "Three Days in January: Revisiting The Broadway Hostage Crisis of 1973". Bushwick Daily. Retrieved August 18, 2023.