Global Courant
ISTANBUL
The largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States has expressed shock at the recent disclosure by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that it has been secretly monitoring and listing Muslims in the country since the September 11 attacks.
Gadeir Abbas, a senior attorney at the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), told Anadolu Agency the FBI monitoring report shows Muslims have been listed and followed for years, from the administration of former President George Bush to current Joe Biden. It refers to the 2019 version of the FBI’s watchlist, which was made public on June 13 by a Swiss hacker.
“We’ve known for years that Muslims are being watched, but it’s really shocking to see this list first hand,” said Abbas.
According to Abbas, “The United States is constantly spying on the Muslim community through electronic monitoring and people placed in Islamic communities.”
“Muslims in the United States lived peacefully until 9/11, but after that they were viewed as a constant threat and spied upon during the presidencies of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden.” , as security and intelligence agencies keep secret lists.
“They knew that Muslims were being profiled, but they could not hold the government legally accountable until the report came out.”
– Muslims still face insecurity
Saying that there are approximately 2,500 mosques in the USA, Abbas claimed that Muslims are being watched there and thousands of people are assigned for intelligence activities.
In the report titled “Twenty Years Too Much, The FBI’s Call to Stop the Watch List” prepared by CAIR, Abbas pointed out that the names “Muhammad” and “Ali” alone were mentioned in the FBI database more than 350 thousand times with different pronunciations.
The FBI’s filing practices affect the daily lives of Muslims because reports are shared with more than 60 countries, private companies, hospitals and universities, and impose restrictions on Muslims who are seen as “potential terrorists” in various contexts.
“The method used against Muslims is no different from a ‘witch hunt,’ and there is no guarantee that it will not happen to others in the future,” Abbas said.
“The United States will eventually target another group as a threat, which will lead to the use of secret lists. Therefore, it is critical for everyone to condemn and oppose anti-Muslim sentiments.”
Noting that there is no legal basis for profiling Muslims, Abbas stressed that “since the FBI has authorized the filings, there are no legal restrictions on filings and it allows agents to list individuals for any reason.”
Blaming the government’s lack of oversight, he said this was the reason behind accessing this secret list of millions of Muslim names.
People on the watch list face a range of challenges, including travel restrictions, immigration issues, encounters with the FBI, instances of police brutality, permit and license challenges, professional consequences, and limited access to government buildings.
*Written by Necva Taştan
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