WASHINGTON, 17 December 2005 — Here’s a story that will make you shake your head in wonder. A 16-year old boy, a fourth generation American, was yanked from his school class and questioned over a three letter doodle he had written on his note binder two years ago.
That’s right — two years ago. And, although a minor, neither the school nor the FBI notified his parents over the grilling of their son. It was their son who told them of what happened.
Here’s the problem: The boy, Munir Rashid, is fourth generation Palestinian American. And the three letters? The “PLO.” Rashid, a high school student in Sacramento, California, says he was pulled out of class on Sept. 27 and questioned by two men who identified themselves as FBI agents. Rashid said the men asked him about a 2003 incident, when a math teacher at another school chastised the teenager for writing the letters “PLO” on his binder.
“Basically, the teacher said he saw the PLO and said it was a terrorist organization and that the people who run it are all terrorists,” Rashid said.
Rashid told the FBI agents that he defended the PLO as a legitimate political group that supported Palestinian rights.
The FBI then allegedly continued with the questioning, asking Rashid how he knew about the PLO, whether he had ever traveled to Palestine (he had, once, to visit his grandmother), and whether he had pictures of terrorists on his cell phone. Rashid only had a picture of the Dome of the Rock as his phone’s background display.
“I was shocked,” Rashid said. “I was born in California. I’m an American citizen.” Representatives of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR, want to know why school officials allowed the questioning without notifying the teen’s parents.
CAIR’s Basim Elkarra, told Arab News both the FBI and school administrators went too far.
“The district violated their own policy by not informing Munir’s parents. It’s outrageous that the FBI dragged this student out of class to interrogate him about a two-year-old doodle on a notebook,” said Shirin Sinnar, an attorney at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights.
“The FBI should not be interviewing kids about their political views, and schools should not be short-circuiting the involvement of parents in such a frightening situation.”
“The practice of interrogating minors, without their parents present, is totally unacceptable and stresses the importance of better training for agents,” said Elkarra. “Unfortunately, this disturbing incident will only serve to undermine efforts to build better relations between law enforcement agencies and the Muslim community.”
Elkarra said Munir’s parents are “outraged.”
“The teacher at that school humiliated and intimidated Munir in front of the entire class,” said Elkarra. “Kid’s are supposed to feel safe in their schools, and for kids not to be allowed to voice their opinion without the fear of someone setting the FBI on you.”
Elkarra said he has spoken to the FBI agent briefly regarding the case.
“The concern here is more with the school district, which allowed this interrogation to happen without notifying his parents.”
As a result of this incident, Rashid says he’s decided he wants to go to law school to help others who might have a similar situation happen to them.
