Political Prisoner Jamil Al-Amin In Need of Urgent Medical Care, Family and Comrades Say

In the weeks since a photo of a malformed Imam Jamil Al-Amin surfaced online, family, comrades and all those in between have coalesced around a demand that the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) provide medical care to the globally revered political and religious figure.  

Al-Amin’s son, Kairi Al-Amin recently took to Instagram where he revealed that he spoke with his father, who received a biopsy for the massive lump growing  on the left side of his face. As the younger Al-Amin awaits more information about his father’s condition, he continues to acknowledge the severity of the situation, all while encouraging supporters to keep up the fight.  

“He’s definitely deteriorating so I’m not going to do the whole ‘He’s okay, alhamdulillah’ sugar coating that we usually do. We need to keep making noise. He needs treatment,” Al-Amin, an attorney and rapper known as Shaykh Ri, said on his Jan. 30 Instagram post. “This doesn’t have to kill him, but it can….don’t stop mentioning the Imam. Keep his name alive, and make these people understand that people care about him.”

Family and friends are demanding that Al-Amin, 81, be transferred from U.S. Penitentiary Tucson to Federal Medical Center Butner. 

In 2002, a state jury convicted Al-Amin for the murder of a Fulton County, Georgia sheriff’s deputy. Deemed a security risk by Georgia officials, he has served the majority of his time in federal facilities, often without adequate medical care and, until 2021, when FBOP reversed its policy under threat of lawsuit, the privilege of receiving visits from journalists and biographers. 

Al-Amin, formally known as H. Rap Brown garnered a reputation during the civil rights era for speeches repudiating the U.S. government and endorsing destruction of property. He gained his organizing chops in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), where he served as chairman amid the radicalization of the student-led movement. 

By the late 1960s, Al-Amin had the attention of the U.S. intelligence community, which was eager about stopping the rise of a “Black messiah.” During his first prison stint in the 1970s, he  converted to Islam. Upon his release, he moved to Atlanta where he developed a thriving religious community in the city’s west end. 

To this day, supporters, and even authors, maintain that post-9/11, anti-Muslim sentiments and Al-Amin’s controversial history increased prosecutors’ fervor for a conviction. Despite questions around Al-Amin’s guilt, Georgia’s appellate circuit and Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision, while the U.S. Supreme Court, in 2020, refused to even look at Al-Amin’s case.  Supporters, however, continue to fight with the Innocence Project, as recently as last year, securing hundreds of pages of court documents from the 2002 murder trial. 

Al-Amin, 81, suffers from multiple myeloma. The photo that hit social media platforms — and caused an uproar among nationalists, leftists, and Muslim activists in late 2024– shows him seated while wearing a blue prison uniform and jacket. He has an outgrowth covering the left side of his face, and an FBOP resident sporting a durag stands with his hand over the Imam’s shoulder.  

It’s one of the more recent photos of the figure who’s spent most of the 21st century behind bars. “This has gone beyond wrong,” the younger Al-Amin said. “This is a human rights violation.” 

Dozens Gather in D.C. to Advocate for Al-Amin MLK Weekend 

In recent weeks, Al-Amin has found support from those who rallied in front of FBOP headquarters in Northwest during Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend. 

Dozens of activists from the District and other parts of the U.S. braved the wintry cold with signs, banners, and bullhorns in hand to demand immediate medical care for Al-Amin. 

Shafeah M’Balia, one of the protesters, said this act of resistance further amplified the human rights struggle at a crucial time. 

“Regardless of how we feel about this government, we have a right to demand respect for human and civil rights,” M’Balia, a Long Island, New York resident, told The Informer one day before the protest. “People are not going to sit idly while this institution conducts cruel and inhumane punishment.” 

M’Balia, the union organizer and member of the Imam Jamil Action Network, an organization fighting for Al-Amin’s release, recounted her first brief meeting with Al-Amin, who she said she long considered legendary. Decades later, after fully embracing Islam, M’Balia continued her involvement in a global movement for self-determination. 

She said that, with this latest endeavor, she’s leaning on lessons learned as a member of the African People’s Party and, later, Black Workers for Justice — institutions borne out of long organizing campaigns can advance prisoners’ rights as well as that for other marginalized groups.  

“Our tactic is giving folks a way to pressure a system to do what it’s theoretically supposed to do,” M’Balia told The Informer. “ FBOP is responsible for the health and medical treatment of inmates in their custody. We’re building an organization to help people fight for our rights and back against injustice. This is part of something longer and [similar to] Queen Mother Audley Moore and Marcus Garvey fighting against the execution of Black men in Louisiana.” 

FBOP declined to comment on Al-Amin’s status, citing “privacy, safety and security reasons.” 

Committing to the Cause: Freeing Black Political Prisoners, ‘Bringing Change’ 

Al-Amin counts among a bevy of Black political prisoners in the U.S., including: one-time president of the Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists Mumia Abu-Jamal; former Black Panther Veronza Bowers, Jr.; Black Liberation Army member Kojo Bomani Sababu;  and Kamau Sadiki, a Black Panther Party member who’s serving a life sentence for, in part, his refusal to aid authorities in their recapture of Assata Shakur. 

In years past, activists and lawyers have collaborated to secure the release of other Black political prisoners, including Mutulu Shakur, Sekou Odinga and Sundiata Acoli. While Odinga enjoyed nearly a decade of freedom before his death in 2024, Shakur succumbed to a longtime ailment during the summer of 2023, just months after his prison release. 

Acupuncturist and organizer Dr. Kokayi Patterson remains among some of the more consistent advocates for Black political prisoners, many of whom he worked with throughout the 1960s and 1970s. As it relates to Al-Amin, Patterson told The Informer that it’s time, now more than ever, for Black people to organize for the Imam’s wellbeing and that of other Black people. 

“Ever since Africa was invaded, we had to come out and demonstrate our need for self-determination and stand against odds that were insurmountable,” Patterson said. “We’re going out in below-freezing weather, but we’re committed to our brother who’s dealing with worse conditions. This is an opportunity to close ranks even more, meet more people and expose what we are doing as people committed to bringing change in America.”