View source for Hamaas Abdul Khaalis

{{Short description|Islamic leader who led what became known as the 1977 Hanafi Siege}}
{{Redirect|Hanafi Movement||Hanafi (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Hamaas Abdul Khaalis
| birthname           = Ernest Timothy McGhee
| image               = 
| imagesize           = 
| caption             = 
| order               = Khalifi of Hanafi Madh-Hab Center in Washington D.C.
| term_start          = 1958
| term_end            = 2003
| predecessor         = Tasibur Uddein Rahman
| successor           = 
| birth_date          = 1921
| birth_place         = [[Gary, Indiana]], U.S.
| death_date          = {{death date and age|2003|11|13|1921}}
| death_place         = [[FCI Butner]], [[Butner, North Carolina]], U.S.
| occupation          = Khalifi of Hanafi Madh-Hab Center in Washington D.C.
| spouse              = 
| religion            = 
}}
{{Nation of Islam}}

'''Hamaas Abdul Khaalis''' (1921 – November 13, 2003), born '''Ernest Timothy McGhee''', was leader of the Hanafi Movement, a [[African-American Muslims|Black Muslim]] group based in [[Washington, D.C.]]

Khaalis founded the group following a split with the [[Nation of Islam]] in 1957. In 1971 he won the support of the basketball star [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]], but in 1973, [[1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre|his family was murdered]]. Enraged by the murders, he organized [[1977 Washington, D.C. attack and hostage taking|a 1977 siege of Washington, D.C.]] in which two of 149 hostages died.<ref name="Khaalis v. United States">{{cite web|title=Khaalis v. United States|url=http://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/1979/12748-2.html|website=Justia US LAW|access-date=March 11, 2017|archive-date=May 5, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170505174858/http://law.justia.com/cases/district-of-columbia/court-of-appeals/1979/12748-2.html|url-status=live}}</ref> He spent the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to commit kidnapping while armed, second-degree murder, two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, one count of assault with a dangerous weapon, and 24 counts of kidnapping while armed.<ref name="Khaalis v. United States"/>

== Early life ==

Khaalis was born to [[Seventh-day Adventist]]<ref name="Post377">{{cite news|last1=Meyer|first1=Eugene|last2=Whitaker|first2=James|last3=Colen|first3=B.D.|title=Tiny Hanafi Sect's Followers Devoted, U.S.-Born Converts|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/11/tiny-hanafi-sects-followers-devoted-us-born-converts/b91a8c84-3f42-45f5-a09f-f2088120cbfc/|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|access-date=March 10, 2017|date=March 11, 1977|archive-date=March 12, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312061133/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/11/tiny-hanafi-sects-followers-devoted-us-born-converts/b91a8c84-3f42-45f5-a09f-f2088120cbfc/|url-status=live}}</ref> parents in [[Gary, Indiana]]<ref name="Rival" /> as Ernest Timothy McGhee. He graduated 22nd in a class of 135 at Roosevelt High School, and he played percussion instruments and eventually converted to [[Roman Catholicism]].<ref name ="Rival">{{cite web|last1=Delaney|first1=Paul|title=Rival Leader Tells of Efforts to Convert Black Muslims|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/31/archives/rival-leader-tells-of-efforts-to-convert-black-muslim-s-an.html|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=March 10, 2017|date=January 31, 1973|archive-date=September 25, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170925042506/http://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/31/archives/rival-leader-tells-of-efforts-to-convert-black-muslim-s-an.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

He attended [[Purdue University]] and Mid-Western Conservatory. He was discharged from the [[U.S. Army]] on grounds of [[schizophrenia]].<ref name="boundary_stones">{{cite web | url=http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2014/03/14/hanafi-siege-1977 | title=The Hanafi Siege of 1977 | publisher=[[WETA-TV|WETA]] | work=Boundary Stones | date=March 14, 2014 | access-date=August 10, 2019 | author=Jones, Mark | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140415044225/http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2014/03/14/hanafi-siege-1977 | archive-date=April 15, 2014 | url-status=live }}</ref> He was a talented jazz drummer and played with [[Bud Powell]], [[Charlie Parker]], [[Max Roach]], [[Billie Holiday]], and [[J.J. Johnson]] in New York City.<ref name="Evanzz"/><ref name="Post377"/> He was accepted to [[Columbia University]], but his [[G.I. Bill]] funds expired after just one semester without the ability to finish his degree. Further applications were denied, which was a typical experience for black men attempting to make use of the G.I. Bill. Although he remained high-functioning in everyday life and excelled at jazz and his undergraduate studies, he was unable to find stable employment because of his schizophrenia diagnosis.<ref name="ac">{{cite book |last1=Mufti |first1=Shahan |title=American caliph: the true story of a Muslim mystic, a Hollywood epic, and the 1977 siege of Washington, DC |date=2022 |location=New York |isbn=978-0374208585}}</ref>{{rp|27}}

==Hanafi Movement==
Influenced by the popularity of Islam in the New York jazz scene, Khaalis joined the Nation of Islam and, in accordance with the group's rejection of "slave surnames," changed his name to Ernest 2X (also going by Ernest X or Ernest XX McGee). In 1954, at the suggestion of [[Malcolm X]], [[Elijah Muhammad]] named Khaalis the National Secretary of the NOI, a position he held until 1957. Muhammad also sent him to Chicago to head the [[University of Islam]].<ref name="Evanzz">{{cite book|last1=Evanzz|first1=Karl|title=The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad|year=2001|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0679774068|page=164}}</ref> In an interview, Khaalis said, "Elijah once said that I was next in line to him, that it was me, not Malcolm X."<ref name="Rival" /> In 1959 he appeared on the television documentary ''[[The Hate That Hate Produced]]'' alongside Malcolm X, but by this time he had already left the Nation, denouncing the [[personality cult]] around [[Elijah Muhammad]].<ref name="ac"/>{{rp|39–43}}

At an unknown point following his departure, Khaalis met a [[Sunni Muslim]] mystic named Tasibur Uddein Rahman, an immigrant from [[Kolkata]]. Rahman was an active participant in the South Asian [[Barelvi movement]] and conveyed the movement's view of Islam to Khaalis. Instead of describing himself as Barelvi, Khaalis adopted the name "[[Hanafi school|Hanafi]]," the predominant school of religious jurisprudence (''[[madhhab]]'') within the movement, and opened a "Hanafi Madh-Hab Center" in [[Washington DC]]. It appears that Khaalis may have been drawn to the word "Hanafi," which means "rightly guided" and refers to the followers of Muhammad.<ref name="ac"/>{{rp|46}} In December 1960, Khaalis briefly returned to Chicago and personally appealed to Elijah Muhammad to take the ''[[shahada]]'' and convert to Sunni Islam. When this was denied, Khaalis founded a separate organization with the legal name American Social Federation for Mutual Improvement, Inc.<ref name="ac"/>{{rp|50}}

In 1968, he was arrested for attempted extortion but released on grounds of mental illness.<ref name="time-77">{{cite magazine | title=The 38 Hours: Trial by Terror | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946751,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930121922/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,946751,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2007 | date=March 21, 1977 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] magazine| access-date=March 12, 2007 <!--DASHBot-->}}</ref> The same year,  militant blacks at [[Howard University]] formed a group called the [[Kokayi family]]. When that group was disbanded, many of its members became members of Hamaas' [[7700 16th Street NW|Hanafi American Mussulman's Rifle and Pistol Club]], which was given a group membership charter by the [[National Rifle Association of America]].<ref name="Charlton77">{{cite news|last1=Charlton|first1=Linda|title=Gunmen Linked to a Moslem Sect Invade 3 Buildings in Washington, Kill 1 and Hold Scores Hostage |newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/10/archives/gunmen-linked-to-a-moslem-sect-invade-3-buildings-in-washington.html|access-date=March 11, 2017|date=March 10, 1977|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118164838/https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/10/archives/gunmen-linked-to-a-moslem-sect-invade-3-buildings-in-washington.html|archive-date=November 18, 2018|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

In 1971, Khaalis converted basketball player [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar|Lew Alcindor]] to Islam; after his conversion, Alcindor adopted the name [[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/why-i-converted-to-islam.html |title=Why I converted to Islam |first=Kareem |last=Abdul-Jabbar |authorlink=Kareem Abdul-Jabbar |date=March 29, 2015 |work=[[Al Jazeera America]] |access-date=November 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150401005652/http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/why-i-converted-to-islam.html |archive-date=April 1, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Abdul-Jabbar donated a fieldstone mansion, [[7700 16th Street NW]], to serve as the headquarters of Khaalis' organization in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/10/barry-a-very-lucky-man/731a3052-68d1-4412-8252-dcc1d630c61b/ |title=Barry 'A Very Lucky Man' |first1=Eugene |last1=Meyer |first2=Paul |last2=Edwards |date=March 10, 1977 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=November 21, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312060515/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/03/10/barry-a-very-lucky-man/731a3052-68d1-4412-8252-dcc1d630c61b/ |archive-date=March 12, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Feud with Nation of Islam==

In 1972, Khaalis circulated an open letter that referred to [[Elijah Muhammad]] as a "lying deceiver" and asserted that he lured "former dope addicts and prostitutes to monk-like lives of sacrifice" that would "lead them to hell."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gardell|first1=Mattias|title=In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam|date=1996|publisher=Duke University Press|page=189|isbn=0822318458|access-date=March 12, 2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z9ufS6aXctQC&pg=PA189}}</ref>

Khaalis claimed credit for Malcolm X's leaving the Nation of Islam.<ref name="Post377"/> In a 1973 interview, Khaalis said he was teaching Malcolm X about [[Sunni Islam]].<ref name="Rival"/> "He used to come to my house on Long Island and we would sit in his car for hours. He would meet me after he left the temple. Never in public because he knew they were after him. He was saying the wrong things."<ref name="Rival"/>

===Murder of his family===
{{Main|1973 Hanafi Muslim massacre}}
On January 18, 1973, Khaalis' family was murdered inside their Washington D.C home, in retaliation for letters that Khaalis had written against the Nation of Islam. Two members of his family survived: his daughter Amina was shot six times and sustained permanent brain damage, and his wife Bibi entered a vegetative state from which she never recovered. Khaalis would care for Bibi at home despite her constant moaning. Following the shooting, the Nation of Islam mocked Khaalis in their newspaper.<ref name="ac"/>{{rp|103}}

===Hanafi Siege===
{{Main|1977 Washington, D.C., attack and hostage taking}}
In protest of the depiction of [[Muhammad]] in film and to bring attention to his family's murderers. Khaalis planned and led the 1977 Hanafi Siege, leading to the deaths of two hostages.<ref name="time-77"/> He was tried and convicted, receiving a sentence of 21 to 120 years in prison.

== Death ==

Khaalis died at the [[Federal Correctional Complex, Butner|Federal Correctional Complex Prison]] in [[Butner, North Carolina]], on November 13, 2003.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Al-Ahari|first=Muhammed A.|title=Hamaas Abdul Khaalis and the Hanafi Madh-Hab|url=https://www.academia.edu/10810403|language=en|access-date=2021-12-03|archive-date=2021-12-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203202059/https://www.academia.edu/10810403|url-status=live}}</ref> The Hanafi Madh-Hab Center is still operating today but is mostly used by Khaalis' descendants.<ref name="ac"/>{{rp|317}}

== See also ==
* [[1973 Brooklyn hostage crisis]]
* [[Wallace Fard Muhammad]]
* [[Dawud Salahuddin]]

== Published works ==

{{Refbegin}}
<!-- First editions -->
* "Look and See The Key to Knowing and Understanding – Self-Identity, Self-Culture and Self-Heritage" A.S.F.M.I., 1972.{{ISBN?}}
{{Refend}}

== References ==

{{reflist|30em}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Khaalis, Hamaas Abdul}}
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