A search of islamicvalley.com, a reference for mosque and Islamic school locations, turned up a mosque at this location known as the Masjid al-Fatimah [423 Flintlock Drive, York, SC]. A geographic search of this location using Google Earth revealed a rural location, some four miles from the city boundaries. I then looked closer and noticed that Flintlock Drive intersected with another road interestingly named - Islamville Way. Bingo. (I'll get to maps later in the post).
I then checked whitepages.com (a useful site, by the way) and did a reverse address search on the "mosque" address. It turned up two names, but I haven't found any other information re: who they are. Then, I reverse searched Islamville Way. It turned up ten names and one business. Again, I don't know anything further about these individuals.
A business, Al-Oasis Tech Care, is listed as having the same address as a couple of the residents. An internet search revealed the company is listed as an appliance installation and repair contractor. Two other locations were found for this company as well. One in Rock Hill, SC and one in Charlotte, NC.
No address was given for Al-Oasis in Rock Hill, but I did try to search for the two names that shared the address in York and I matched one to a couple of businesses as well as the Islamic Cultural Center of Rock Hill.
Also, curiously, the address for Al-Oasis in Charlotte, NC is located at an apartment complex.
Now, back to York County. This community, known as "Holy Islamville" [www.holyislamville.org], is affiliated with Muslims of the Americas, founded by Sheikh Jilani and is operating as International Qur'anic Open University, also founded by Sheikh Jilani. Both organizations are known to be associated with Jamaat ul-Fuqra. A press release by the "university" lists several affiliated individuals including Mrs. Najah A. Rashid Qadria as "Deputy Director, South Carolina".
The group claims to have witnessed a miraculous manifestation of the names of Allah and Muhammad in light that took place in their shrine, the Shrine of the Sufi Qadris during Ramadan in 2002. A video has been produced about this occurrence and is being sold over the internet.
My guess would be that the businesses listed above and sales of the video are likely income sources for the community. Of course, that is purely speculation. They may have a number of other sources as well. I am not saying that any of this indicates illegal activity. I have just been trying to develop an idea of the support structure.
Now - maps. As I said, I first used Google Earth. This first image notes it's location in relation to York. Click on the image to enlarge.
Here is a closeup of the street layout, the image is fuzzy.
MSN Virtual Earth once again has a clearer image. Islamville Way looks to be just a little road, maybe dirt/gravel that turns off Flintlock. The area appears to be pretty wooded.
After looking at these, I stumbled on to a really good local website. York County has it's own GIS mapping system online and has coupled it with a property search function. It's really cool.
I had to splice the images together a bit, so this is a rough map for those who don't want to bother fiddling with the live version. The area shaded in gray is the primary Islamville community as far as I can tell. I haven't done property searches on all of the surrounding parcels (I may post some of those details later), but the three parcels highlighted are all owned by individuals who list 243 Flintlock as their address. According to the map system legend which I did not include here, the red quares indicate occupied residences. The grey boxes are building footprints. The brownish-orange rectangles are trailers. The green square with the orange triangle is a vacant mobile home. The long numbers are the parcel number and the short numbers are the address.
Click to enlarge
If you really want a close in aerial view, better than those linked above, check out the York County site I linked to. They have a close-in aerial layer on there. I don't have time to pull all those images separately right now, but if you see anything interesting, let us know.
13 comments:
This is outstanding! I've been marking each compound on my Google Earth as you find them and I'm currently digging through the Web for details on other compounds as well. I'm also preparing for a 'fact-finding trip' of my own to a suspected JF compound nearby. Keep up the great work!
Great groundwork...are you near enough to actually visit and look around or is it totally wooded and inaccessible and you'd look a bit strange?
If this is their showplace in the south, it's bound to have fewer blacks. #1, they'd be less interested in living so far south, and #2, I'm not sure they want it known how heavily they've pulled from the black American community.
Good work, though.
midnight crusader,
good insight. that's certainly important information. thanks for pointing that out.
Dymphna,
No, I'm not located near any of these places. But yes, I probably would look funny traipsing around with binoculars!
quark2 - found the link at lgc
Thanks.
I appreciate your doing this sort of homework.
I wish you would clarify the connection (by citing some report or document or official) you mentioned linking "Holy Islamville" [www.holyislamville.org], i with Muslims of the Americas. I have heard some reference previously to Sheikh Jilani and International Qur'anic Open University.
But I would be more comfortable with this exercise if you showed more explicitly the source of the links that make you describe both organizations as "known to be associated with Jemaat ul-Fuqra.[sic]"
Otherwise I could imagine a lot of pesky liberals criticising your work as xenophobic anti-islamic etc.
Meanwhile, I suggest all of us reading this do our own research and fact-checking.
Gates of Vienna provided the link I followed to get here, and they've had several excellent posts on Jamaat Al Fuqra in the last month.
I purchased my own copy of the Koran in an 18th century British translation some years ago. I've gone back to plow through it so I have some independent confirmation, refutation, or explanation of some of the distressing Islamic principles I've seen described. There is besides the text of the Koran ("Quran") also a body of quotes, stories, etc., called the "Hadith" drawn from the life of the Prophet, that is studied and argued and applied to every day situations.
Hadith Defined on the Web:
hadith (hädēth') , a tradition or the collection of the traditions of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, including his sayings and deeds, and his tacit approval of what was said or done in his presence.
(there's a bit more...)
I would like to think that somewhere in those documents — the foundations of faith of such a vast population, — there is something to help us see God in each other. But I can't dismiss all the behavior of Muslims around the world who have been emphatically showing their contempt and intolerance for anyone outside their faith.
mad fiddler,
The report that was done by the National White Collar Crime Center that I have mentioned and linked previously has a table listing organizations associated with Fuqra. It is on page 27 of the PDF. That was my source.
I AM NEW TO THIS BLOG THING BUT I CANNOT KEEP QUIET ABOUT THIS..I HAVE SOME VERY INTERESTING INFO ABOUT THIS "HOLY ISLAMVILLE" THAT NEEDS TO BE SHARED.. THEY CLAIM THAT THEY LIVE "HOLY" LIVES AND DETEST VIOLENCE..DO THEY KNOW THAT THEY HAVE A REGISTERED 3RD DEGREE CRIMINAL SEX OFFENDER WHO WAS FOUND GUILTY OF 2 COUNTS, LIVING IN THEIR COMPOUND!!!IF YOU LOOK ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS WEBSITE AND DO A SEARCH BY YORK CITY OR YOU CAN USE HIS NAME "NATHAN SCOTT KENNEDY"AND CAN GET ALL HIS INFO AND PICTURE..(PRETTY SCARY LOOKING)I SURE HOPE SOMEONE IS KEEPING AN EYE ON THESE PEOPLE.IT IS AMAZING TO ME THAT THEY CAN BE ALLOWED TO FUNCTION AS A SOCIETY WITHOUT HEAVY SURVELLIANCE...
Salaamz fellow bros & sis,
Plz understand that nothing to do with Al-Fuqra...plz, watch this clip and the other two that follow it, Inshallah(if Allah wills) , He will change your hearts and you will know that we have nothing to do with Al-Fuqra! Our Jama'at(community) is named MOA(Muslims of America). here is the clip:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=EaMHV3YKF6k
Dont know if anyone still checks this blog, but I live in this area and you CANNOT go into this community. If you drive down there, there are men standing at the community entrance. It looks like they have guns but I'm not sure...didn't want to find out. Yes our nuclear power plant is close...very close. As well as Charlotte, NC. It is wooded and you cant see much from the road bc they "guardsmen" wont let you go down there.
It seems that no one that commented on this blog has actually visited the place. I have a friend that lives on Flintlock drive and he comes in contact with these people every day. He says other than driving too fast and ending up in the ditch, he has no problems with them - they are very nice. Another neighbor has used his tractor on several occasions to remove their cars from the ditch. When he took his washing machine to be repaired at their shop they fixed it free of charge because he had been good to them. None of the neighbors have ever seen "armed" men blocking the road. Anyone is welcome to visit. Instead of trying to creat suspicion, why don't you jsut drive up and talk to them and ask for a tour. That's exactly what WBTV of Charlotte did and here is a link to their story:
http://www.wbtv.com/home/11219071.html
There has been a new development since my November 2007 post. In the past several months my friend that lives on Flintlock drive has heard someone doing target shooting in the woods in the direction of Islamville (he lives less than half a mile away). He says someone has been using a small fortune in ammunition.
He has not talked to any of the residents in that community since we last talked about them but it seems as though things have changed since.
At the time of my last post my friend had no issues with these people and thought they were OK. He is having some concerns now. Nothing really sinister just not a lot of contact with them lately and of course all the gunfire.
I sent an email to the tv station that did the original story and asked them if they had any plans on a follow-up.
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