1,000 mourn Detroit Islamic leader

DETROIT, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- More than 1,000 people turned out in Detroit Saturday to mourn an Islamic leader killed last week in a gunfight with the FBI.

At the funeral for Luqman Ameen Abdullah, held at the Muslim Center in Detroit, Muslim leaders urged people not to seek revenge, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Abdullah, 53, refused to surrender and fired a gun when the FBI raided a Dearborn warehouse last week, authorities said, and was killed when agents returned fire.

"We are looking for justice," Imam Mohammad Elahi, head of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, told the crowd at the funeral. "We hope for a fair and just investigation in this case."

Imam Aly Lela of the Islamic Association of Greater Detroit in Rochester Hills said the large turnout Saturday is "testimony of the good character of" Abdullah.

"That makes a strong statement that he was a very good person who used to help other people…not only Muslims, but non-Muslims who needed the help," Lela said.

FBI officials said their agents acted appropriately in the deadly encounter.

Abdullah and 10 others were charged in a complaint with conspiracy to commit felonies, including illegal possession and sale of firearms and theft from interstate shipments. Authorities said they sought to to create an Islamic state within the United States and called for "offensive jihad."