IHRC is saddened to learn of the death of the veteran US civil rights campaigner Imam Jamil Al-Amin.

The outspoken campaigner for justice died yesterday in a federal jail after a long struggle with bad health.

Better known as H Rap Brown prior to his conversion to Islam, the Imam was renowned for his fiery oratory in his advocacy for racial equality at the high point of the American civil rights movement in the 1960’s.

In 2000, the Imam was arrested and later convicted of shooting two Fulton County deputies, despite someone else allegedly confessing to the crime to the FBI.

His conviction came amidst feverish surveillance of civil rights leaders post the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, at a time of soaring hatred and distrust of Muslims.

For many years IHRC, along with others, fought for his freedom, believing him to be innocent and his conviction a miscarriage of justice. We believe he was a prisoner of faith, targeted because of the threat that his tireless and fearless campaigning posed to the white supremacist US establishment.

Last year, we asked supporters to write to the US authorities urging them to allow Imam Jamil to receive urgent medical treatment for several serious health problems including strokes and cancer.

IHRC chairman Massoud Shadjareh said: “Imam Jamil’s death is a great loss. He was innocent but branded guilty. He was incarcerated but at last, in death he is free. They denied him justice in this world but there is no doubt that he will receive it in the court of the Most High. May Allah shower him with mercy and raise him in the ranks of the righteous.”