The latest question being put to Muslims
picked up at random by the FBI and other security agencies
and outfits here is: “Have you been to Waziristan?”
Yaser Alamoodi, a Muslim student at Arizona
State University, who was paid a surprise home visit by
a campus police officer with members of the local Joint
Terrorism Task Force, was asked, among other things, if
he knew anyone who had recently returned from Pakistan,
anyone who had shown interest in a government building
or agency or anyone who had shown extreme hostility toward
Americans.
Later, the 27-year old Yemeni told Washington
Post, “The questions were just ridiculous.”
He told his interrogators, “You guys really think
you’re going to get anywhere with these kind of
questions?” He was also asked if he went to the
mosque. His reply was that he did not go to the mosque
with any regularity, “unless they have free food”.
All visa applications made by Muslims,
no matter from where in the world, are now sent to Washington
for security clearance. Almost all Muslim visitors who
arrive at American ports of entry, be they airports, seaports
or land crossings, are asked a variety of questions, even
if they are American citizens. There are two folders with
all immigration officers, one blue, one red. It is not
clear what the colours signify. However, quite a few Muslims
have found their passport placed in one of these two folders
and escorted to a special room where they and their documents
are subjected to further scrutiny. They are also asked
a few or several questions and then either let go or detained
for more “thorough going”. This correspondent
has had his passport placed in a red folder and he was
escorted to that special room on two recent occasions
when he returned from abroad. In both cases, he was let
go but the wait after a long, tiring flight and the humiliation
resulting from the awareness that one has been singled
out because of one’s name, “Middle Eastern
looks” and religion do not enhance a person’s
sense of well-being.
A front-page story in Washington Post
Saturday said FBI agents have launched a series of interviews
of Muslims and Arab Americans in the Washington area and
across the country, hoping to glean information that could
prevent a major terrorist attack during this election
year. A few dozen voluntary interviews of community leaders,
students, business people and others have been conducted
so far, according to attorneys and Muslim activists. Authorities
said they do not know how many people will be contacted,
but the effort is expected to “expand significantly”
in the next week or so. The new round of questioning is
also far more targeted than an earlier programme of voluntary
interviews with men from Arab and Muslim countries after
the 9/11 attacks.
According to the newspaper, “The
questions being posed vary widely, according to attorneys,
activists and interviewees. Several people in California
and Arizona have been asked whether they knew anyone who
had recently been in the Pakistani border region of Waziristan,
regarded as a possible refuge for Al Qaeda figures. They
were also asked about Abu Nour, which agents identified
as a mosque and school in Syria that was popular with
American converts to Islam, the attorneys and activists
said. ‘We were told by the FBI agents that they’re
concerned there could be a coming threat from people who
are recent converts to Islam,’ said Stacy Tolchin,
a San Francisco lawyer who accompanied a Turkish Kurdish
immigrant to an interview this week. Law enforcement officials
decided to step up efforts to contact Muslims and Arab
Americans because of intelligence reports that Al Qaeda
is planning a large-scale attack in coming months in the
United States, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said
recently. Law enforcement officials appear to be using
different approaches in the interviews. In some cases,
they have asked prominent local Muslim figures to simply
pass on any helpful information, activists said. Asim
Ghafoor, a Muslim attorney in Washington who was visited
by two FBI agents about a week ago, said they noted that
he had represented various Muslim organisations and charities
and asked, ‘Is there anything we need to know?’
He said he assured them that there was not.”
