1 10-30-88 03:37 pes Former cult member says collections go for personal use ATLANTA (U

   1  10-30-88  03:37  pes Former cult member says collections go
for personal use

   ATLANTA (UPI) _ The  bulk  of  the  money  collected  by  four
supposed  non-profit  organizations  from  travelers at Atlanta's
airport goes to the leader of a Muslim group for personal use,  a
former group member claims.

   Ameedah  Rachaman,  the  former  personal  secretary  of Silis
Muhammad, says Muhammad's solicitors turn in their  earnings  and
financial   statements   twice   weekly   to   him,  the  Atlanta
Journal-Constitution reported Sunday.

   She said Silis' workers claim the funds will buy clothes, food
and shelter  and  will  subsidize  a  day-care  center  for  poor
children.   Clothing and other donated items are thrown away, she
said.

   The four organizations that solicit  funds  do  so  under  the
names,  "Save  the  Black  Family," "Tender Loving Care," "Family
Service Center" and the "Senior  Citizens  Council."    They  are
represented  as non-profit organizations dedicated to eradicating
social ills in Atlanta to hordes of airport visitors but none  of
the  four  are  registered  with the Georgia secretary of state's
office.

   The  newspaper  said  Rachaman   and   other   disenfranchised
followers  of  Muhammad  _  who lives in a large east Cobb County
home _ reported that pitches by the airport solicitors  can  earn
up to $4,000 a day.

   "I  complained to Silis myself about helping people," Rachaman
said. "I said, `Savior, we've got all this money here.  We got to
do something here because we've got this money.

   "I questioned Silis the last time  I  saw  him  about  helping
needy families.    I said, `You are suppposed to be helping needy
families.' And he told me that as long  as  he  was  helping  one
needy black  family,  that's  all  that mattered.  The only needy
black family that was being helped was his."

   Muhammad, who has not been charged with  any  crime,  was  not
available for an interview.  His wife said he was recovering from
surgery.    His  wife,  Harriett  AbuBakr,  a  lawyer,  dismissed
criticism of the Lost-Found Nation _  Muhammed's  organization  _
arguing that  Mrs.    Rachaman  and  her  husband,  Hakim, are in
competition with Muhammad's solicitors at the airport.

   "They  are  two  people  that  have  more  or  less   declared
themselves  enemies, and they'll do anything they can try to hurt
what we're trying to do," she said. "And they  have  gone  around
the airport trying to create as many problems as they can."

   Hakim   Rachaman,   Ameedah   Rachaman's  husband  who  headed
Atlanta's mosque at one time and had a falling out with Muhammad,
ackowledged that he and his wife collect their own  donations  at
the  airport,  sending the proceeds to a church in South Carolina
run by his mother.

   Mrs.  AbuBakr declined to comment on  the  collection  figures
provided by  Mrs.   Rachaman, saying the amount raised is private
information.  She also refused to identify any needy family  that
had  been  helped  by the group and acknowledged that there is no
day-care center, although she said one is going to be built.

   Muhammad's group has attracted the attention of Fulton  County
police, who have conducted a five-year investigation into various
crimes involving  its  members.    Several  followers  have  been
convicted on charges ranging  from  beating  of  travelers  along
Interstate 75 to murder.

   Police  say  those  who  have questioned Muhammad's actions or
come into conflict with members of  his  group  sometimes  pay  a
steep price.

   Police  allege  that  after  Rachaman had his falling out with
Muhammad, an attempt was made to assassinate him.

   The Texas-born Muhammad, 50, moved to Louisiana in  1960,  and
from there he moved to California.

   Seven  years  ago,  he  persuaded  his followers to sell their
homes in Los Angeles and buy shares in what was to  be  a  black,
self-sufficient  community  in  south  Atlanta,  with  houses and
farms, according to former members who sold their homes.  The  20
acres he bought  remain  undeveloped  and  wooded.  Mrs.  AbuBakr
said progress has been halted by county red tape in getting sewer
permits.

   AbuBakr is a lawyer and a former daughter-in-law of Nation  of
Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

   The couple lived in Chicago until Elijah Muhammad's death.

   As  the Nation of Islam split in factions, Muhammad formed the
Lost-Found Nation of Islam and moved with his wife to Atlanta  in
the eary 1980s, bringing some of followers with them.