WASHINGTON, 1 February 2003 — The FBI’s new directive instructing FBI field offices to count local mosques and establish whether they be subject to counter terrorism investigations and secret wiretaps has caused lawmakers and Muslim American leaders to protest the decision to Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Congressmen John Conyers, (D-Michigan) Jerrold Nadler, (D-New York) and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wisconsin) this week asked the Attorney General to “immediately terminate” the Justice Department’s new policy directing fifty-six FBI field offices to count the number of mosques and Muslims.
“We cannot sanction the targeting of Muslim populations and mosques, or any other community group or institution, to gather intelligence without any suspicion or cause that a specific individual or group of individuals, or a particular mosque or religious organization, is engaging in terrorist activities. We urge you to follow the constitutionally prescribed channels of investigation to ensure that the rights of American citizens are not violated...” said the lawmakers.
“We have written to you many times since September 11, 2001, regarding our concern that the department is practicing racial, ethnic and religious profiling in its attempts to fight the war on terrorism,” they said. “The new policy concerning local Muslim populations and mosques, as well as other local ethnic and religious groups, is just the latest episode in what seems to be an unconstitutional abuse of power.”
The lawmakers requested a response to their letter by Feb. 3, 2003, and also asked for a staff briefing “on your rationale for the program and its constitutionality.”
“This policy makes about as much sense as counting Catholic churches in America in order to initiate an investigation of the Mafia. It is religious profiling of the worst kind and must be rescinded if America is to maintain respect for religious freedom and for equal justice under the law,” said the Council of American Islamic Relations, CAIR, Executive Director Nihad Awad.
Dr. Ahmad Turkistani, director of the Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, IIASA, believes the uproar has caused the FBI to “retreat, for the time being, from this idea because of the pressure by some of the Islamic organizations and lawmakers.”
He said the idea should to be dropped because it will “cause a general suspicion of all Muslims in the United States.” Obviously, he said, all Muslims in the US are not related to terrorism.“We need to develop more trust, understanding, and cooperation to fight extremism.”
