Hamaas Abdul Khaalis
Islamic leader who led what became known as the 1977 Hanafi Siege
Hamaas Abdul Khaalis (1921 – November 13, 2003), born Ernest Timothy McGhee, was leader of the Hanafi Movement, a 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, his family was murdered. Enraged by the murders, he organized a 1977 siege of Washington, D.C. in which two of 149 hostages died. 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.
Early life
Khaalis was born to Seventh-day Adventist parents in Gary, Indiana, as Ernest Timothy McGhee. He graduated 22nd in a class of 135 at Roosevelt High School, played percussion instruments, and eventually converted to Roman Catholicism.
He attended Purdue University and Mid-Western Conservatory. He was discharged from the U.S. Army on grounds of schizophrenia. 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. He was accepted to Columbia University, but his G.I. Bill funds expired after just one semester without the ability to finish his degree.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hamaas Abdul Khaalis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.