FBI Again Collecting Info On U.S. Muslims

by Lee T. Wang

(PNS) -- With less than a month to go until the elections, there is growing concern that a new initiative to thwart terrorism could silence political expression in the Arab and Muslim American communities.

Beginning this month, the FBI is accelerating efforts to clamp down on suspected terrorists, calling in Arab and Muslim Americans for "voluntary interviews" and revisiting mosques. The agency's new initiative, which critics call the "October Plan," is aimed at thwarting any terrorist attempts to target the election. Arab and Muslim American advocacy organizations and civil liberties groups are crying foul, saying that the plan amounts to a campaign of intimidation that could stifle free expression on the eve of the presidential elections.

Scaring Arab and Muslim Americans away from the ballot box could have serious political implications. Although Arab Americans account for only about one percent of the electorate, they constitute half a million votes in four key battleground states. In Michigan, where polls show George W. Bush and John Kerry in a tight race, Arab Americans make up 5 percent of the population.

FBI officials are downplaying the new dragnet as merely the continuation of counterterrorism efforts that began post-Sept. 11. Officials noted that the FBI has never stopped conducting interviews of Arab and Muslim Americans for information about potential terrorist attacks. But lawyers point to an up-tick in phone calls as evidence that a new initiative is afoot. At the ACLU, Dalia Hashad said panicked calls from Arab and Muslim Americans who had been contacted by the FBI started flooding in about a week and a half ago.

The most concrete evidence that the agency is ratcheting up its strategy to thwart a terrorist attack comes from CBS. An internal FBI email, obtained by the network, said that the agency would take "extraordinary measures" including the "aggressive -- even obvious -- surveillance" of suspected terrorist sympathizers.

Although civil liberties concerns have soared for the past three years, critics say the FBI's "October Plan" sends a particularly chilling message to a community with heavy stakes in the upcoming elections. Particularly disconcerting are questions the FBI is asking during interviews.

Hashad said she was shocked when an agent asked her Muslim American client about his opinion of President Bush.

"What is the point of asking a Muslim that question? He's entitled to his political opinion as much as anyone else."

Questions probing a person's political views have become standard practice in the FBI interviews, said lawyers from the ACLU, Council on American Islamic Relations and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee who have sat in on interviews. Feelings about the war in Iraq and regime change in other Middle Eastern countries are other common subjects, they said.

The FBI's national office would not confirm that such questions are being asked. However, a spokeswoman for the FBI's San Francisco branch said that if they are, it's a violation of the agency's practices.

Concerns are also growing about the effect of the new dragnet on religious expression. The Council on American Islamic Relations said Muslim leaders around the country told them they had been contacted by the FBI in what the agency described as a "community outreach" campaign. When FBI agents show up at mosques, it has a "religiously chilling effect," said Engy Abdelkader, director of the Council on American Islamic Relation's civil rights division. The timing of the plan has also upset religious leaders. Ramadan, the Muslim holy month, begins October 15th.

Arab and Muslim American advocacy organizations as well as civil liberties groups are now weighing their response. Last week, several groups held a national "strategizing session" in Washington, D.C. to respond to the FBI's pre-election dragnet. On the local level, groups are distributing "know your rights" information in several languages and recommending that people seek the advice of an attorney if the FBI contacts them for an interview.

In an environment charged with suspicion, critics of the FBI's plans say Arab and Muslim Americans will be turned off from voting. In communities where many hail from countries hostile to free expression, people are especially susceptible to intimidation. "People come from countries where having an unpopular political opinion comes with grave implications," said Abdelkader. The government's new plan only "stokes those fears."

Beyond the nation's elections, ultimately, critics say, it's the nation's security that stands to suffer the most.

"By being so aggressive they are sowing fear instead of building trust," said Shirin Sinnar, President of the Bay Area Association of Muslim Lawyers. "That will work against them."