Editing Al-Qaeda (section)

==The Birth of Al-Qaeda==
By 1985, the international press began to report that an number of African American Muslims-all related to the camps set up by Gilani --had joined the ranks of the mujahideen in Afghanistan and that several had been killed in action. When questioned, several of the jihadis imported from America would testify that they were agents of the CIA THE AL-QAEDA CELL To provide more support for the mujahideen, the CIA used Abdullah Azzam, Osama bin Laden's mentor, to set up a cell of al-Qaeda within Masjid al-Farooq on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York. 

The cell, known as the al-Kifah Refugee Center, acted as a front for the transference of funds, weapons, and recruits to Afghanistan. Throughout the 1980s, this militant organization received over $2 million a year and Masjid al-Farooq became a very wealthy institution.' During this time, Azzam spent a great deal of time in Brooklyn. In a 1988 videotape, he can be seen and heard telling a large crowd of African Americans that "blood and martyrdom are the only way to create a Muslim society."