THE NATION - A Junior al-Qaeda...right here at home: Meet al-Fuqra.(militant Muslims in the United States)

There are a lot of Baptist churches along rural Virginia's Route 615, just south of Appomattox-"where America reunited," as the county welcome sign puts it-but there's only one Sheikh Gilani Lane. A gate and a guardhouse prevent the public from driving very far down it. What lies beyond, however, isn't a closed-off community of rich retirees. Instead, it's a trailer-park compound of black Muslims, or "The Muslims of America," according to a green billboard by the entrance, where an armed guard keeps a wary eye on the main road's traffic.

Until recently, this was the home of Vicente Rafael Pierre, a 44-year- old Brooklyn native with a shadowy past and a dim future. He may never see this home again. Shortly after September 11, federal agents snared him in their roundup of crime suspects who have links to terrorist outfits. Nobody has accused Pierre of any direct connection to the atrocities in New York or elsewhere-he and his wife, Traci Upshur, were taken in on unrelated gun charges and convicted of them on November 30. Yet authorities have detailed Pierre's extensive ties to al-Fuqra, a violent group of black Muslims whose members have been implicated in at least 17 bombings and 12 murders over the past twenty years. Pierre's Virginia compound, near the tiny crossroads hamlet of Red House, is believed to serve as an al-Fuqra base.

Pierre's story is compelling in its own right-anybody connected to al- Fuqra is also connected to killers, bombers, and arsonists. During Pierre's detention hearing in October, Thomas P. Gallagher of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms said he and his colleagues were worried about the possibility of "another Waco situation" developing in rural Virginia. More unsettling is the potential for al- Fuqra to wreak mayhem beyond its remote compound.

Pierre's case shows how militant groups organize and finance themselves-and also how federal law-enforcement authorities are responding to these known threats. Pierre, for instance, might still be free today but for 9/11. He was the subject of an ongoing gun probe when federal agents decided to accelerate his indictment. U.S. attorney John Brownlee explained the strategy: "Prevent first and prosecute second." Although Pierre has not been charged with any violence, he's close to those who have been, including at least one person involved in the 1998 embassy bombings and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Al-Fuqra-which means "the impoverished" in Arabic-was founded in 1980 when Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani traveled from Pakistan to an African- American mosque in Brooklyn. On this and subsequent trips, the charismatic sheikh helped create al-Fuqra, which is said to have between 1,000 and 3,000 members nationwide. It is not aligned with a more prominent and homegrown black Muslim group, the Nation of Islam, and in fact it has serious theological differences with Louis Farrakhan's flock. And it may pose a much greater threat to civil society.

About two dozen families live at the 44-acre compound near Red House, but al-Fuqra is headquartered in Hancock, N.Y., and maintains extensive ties to Gilani in Lahore. Members of the sect occasionally travel abroad for what Gallagher calls "paramilitary and survivalist training" under Gilani's supervision. Although Pierre has testified that he has not visited Pakistan, the BATF says at least one of the other Red House residents did go there, and Gallagher claims there is evidence of training in Afghanistan as well. Gilani recruited Americans to fight with the mujaheddin against the Soviets during the 1980s.

Al-Fuqra demonstrated its violent streak and national reach early on. A study written by Yehudit Barsky and published by the Anti-Defamation League catalogues the group's activities. From its first days more than two decades ago, members have attacked a virtual rainbow coalition of targets, including Hare Krishnas in San Diego, Hindus in Toronto, Sikhs in Seattle, and Buddhists in Illinois. Many ...