On March 29, an indictment accusing nine individuals of planning attacks against police officers was unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Those named in the indictment had been arrested by a joint anti-terrorism task force consisting of the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and state and local police. Raids took place from March 27 to 29, with most of the arrests occurring in the Lenawee/Washtenaw County area in southeastern Michigan, near the border with Ohio. Other arrests took place in Ohio and Indiana. Photos and video of the raids showed special operations police staging outside targeted properties with armored personnel carriers, assault rifles and helicopter support — unusually overwhelming measures, likely taken because of suspicion that the group was plotting to kill police officers.
The individuals referred to themselves as "Hutarees," a name meaning "Christian Soldiers" according to the group's Web site, although it is unclear what language the word might come from. The federal indictment indicated that the apparent leader of the group, David Brian Stone, was known to make up names for tactical operations and maneuvers, so it is likely he coined the name of the group as well. The meaning given the term reflects the group's extremist Christian beliefs and its claims that it was preparing to defend itself and others in the name of Christianity. According to the Hutaree Web site:
Jesus wanted us to be ready to defend ourselves using the sword and stay alive using equipment … We, the Hutaree, are prepared to defend all those who belong to Christ and save those who aren't. We will still spread the word, and fight to keep it, up to the time of the great coming.
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Reminded me of America: Break the Silence on Islam by Amil Imani (March 23, 2010).
"Islam cannot be reformed," says Imani, "...Islam is a literal religion, taking unabrogated scripture as eternal and absolute."
Although Imani also says, "Unlike some peaceful religions such as Baha´i, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and Christianity which advocate universally understood principles of good within their Holy books, and perhaps other religious doctrines (with which I am not personally familiar), Islam cannot be reformed. An example, when the Christian Catholic church was reformed, it was the church that was found to be in violation of Biblical teachings. It had in many ways become anti-Christian," the existence of groups like Hutarees and the much older but still extant Ku Klux Klan, suggests that, in practice, Christianity cannot also be reformed.
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