American Muslims Fingerprinted By U.S. at Canadian Border; CAIR Calls for 'Profiling' Probe

US Newswire via Yahoo! ^ | December 29, 2004 | CAIR

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

Says Incident Chills Religious Freedom WASHINGTON, Dec. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called for a formal investigation by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into an incident at the Canadian border in which American Muslim citizens were apparently singled out for special security checks based on their attendance at an Islamic conference and then held until they agreed to be fingerprinted.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the incident was a disturbing example of religious profiling that would have a chilling effect on the constitutional rights of American Muslims, particularly the right to the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and the right to be "secure in their personsagainst unreasonable searches."

A number of the up to 40 Muslims who were singled out for questioning and fingerprinting told CAIR that they were returning from a weekend Islamic conference of more than 10,000 in Toronto when they were stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials at the Lewiston Bridge crossing near Niagara Falls, N.Y. (CBP is part of the Department of Homeland Security. For conference details, see: http://www.revivingtheislamicspirit.com/)

Several of the Muslim citizens held at the border for up to six hours on Sunday night and Monday morning told CAIR they objected strenuously to being fingerprinted, but were informed by CBP representatives that "you have no rights" and that they would be held until they agreed to the fingerprinting procedure. One person was allegedly threatened with arrest if she attempted to leave the detention area without being fingerprinted.

CBP officials on the scene cited "orders from above" to justify their actions. One CBP official reportedly agreed with a Muslim traveler that "it would not look good" if the news media saw the detention area filled exclusively with Muslims in Islamic attire. CAIR is investigating similar reports of demands for fingerprinting of conference attendees at other border crossings.

When contacted by CAIR, a CBP spokesman in Washington, D.C., initially said fingerprinting of American citizens would be a "violation of policy." He later said fingerprinting would be allowed "if there was a law enforcement reason for doing so," but would not state what that reason might be.

Media reports on the incident quote CBP officials as saying some of the Muslim citizens who were fingerprinted had names similar to those on watch lists. But that claim does not explain why everyone in the group of conference attendees, even Muslim converts, were fingerprinted.

SEE: "Muslim-Americans Say Border Inspections Were Unwarranted" http://www.wkbw.com/morenews/morenews.asp#8

Local DHS officials now say they will hold a community meeting next week to address the concerns of those who were forced to be fingerprinted.

"The image of a room full of American Muslim citizens apparently being held solely because of their faith and the fact that they attended an Islamic conference is one that should be disturbing to all Americans who value religious freedom," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "This incident must be investigated to determine what the policy on fingerprinting Muslim citizens is and who is behind it."

Awad also urged anyone treated in a similar manner to contact CAIR's Civil Rights Department by calling 202-488-8787 or e- mailing Civilrights@cair-net.org.

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

NOTE: CAIR offers an e-mail list designed to be a journalist's window to the American Muslim community. Subscribers to the list, called ISLAM-INFONET, receive news releases and other materials dealing with American Muslim positions on issues of importance to our society.

To SUBSCRIBE to ISLAM-INFONET, go to: http://cair.biglist.com/islam-infonet/

Contact: Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, or Ihooper@cair-net.org; or Rabiah Ahmed, 202-488-8787 or 202-439-1441, or Rahmed@cair-net.org, both of Council on American-Islamic Relations

[LurkedLongEnough]

Investigations into profiling are for peacetime.

[bert]

Profiling is good.Profiling is a rational procedure to find bad guys. CAIR's emotional response is bad for America.

[mercy]

You know ..... it's getting close to that time when somebody needs to do the right thing by CAIR .... and the ACLU for that matter.

[steve8714]

To CAIR; here's my butt; here are your lips; put together.

[jb6]

When the muslims stop butchering tens of thousands each and every day, we'll act like we give a damn, otherwise, go back to your hellhole you came from.

[My2Cents]

I call for an investigation into CAIR's possible links to radical Islam and terror.

[kingu]

Western civilization is rotten from within and nearing collapse, thundered the speaker. All that is required to hasten this process, he said, was an “attack from the outside.” It could easily have passed as fiery rhetoric from an Osama bin Laden audiotape, but it came from Tareq Suwaidan, a leading member of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood, who was speaking to young Canadian Muslims in Toronto in January 2003. I was struck by the way Suwaidan’s message resonated. Did those in the audience not think of themselves as part of Western civilization? If they did, why were they cheering its imminent collapse, and who were they expecting to carry out the “attack from outside”?

A quote from one of the Canadian newspapers about Dr Tareq Suwaidan, the headliner 'moderate' of the conference. A shame they didn't gather DNA samples as well.

[MarineDad]

Sounds an awful lot like the way muzzies 'worship'.

When they're not too busy cutting innocent people's heads off, that is.

Stinking ragheads.

[Beckwith]

“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”

This was the sentiment of Omar M. Ahmad, the Chairman of the Board of the Council on American-Islamic Relations or CAIR, as told at an Islamic conference held in Freemont, California, in July of 1998.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

In other news, filthy cockroaches inhabiting a dwelling protested the homeowner's efforts to seal cracks....

[MarineDad]

DITTO (squared)!

[rocksblues]

"The image of a room full of American Muslim citizens apparently being held solely because of their faith and the fact that they attended an Islamic conference is one that should be disturbing to all Americans who value religious freedom,"

The image of other religions people being killed in Muslim countries just because they are not Muslims is disturbing to all Americans!

[Land_of_Lincoln_John]

It is a shame this is even a news story.

It's not really one yet. Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR e-mailed this to US Newswire, hoping AP, CNN, Reuters, CBS etc picks it up and runs with it. The bad news for Ibrahim is that it ended up here first.

[mrsmith]

CAIR's goal must be to make every Moslem look silly.

[SALChamps03]

We need to profile. We can stop profiling when Muslims aren't involved in 99% of the world's terrorism and 99% of the world's wars. If they don't like it, they can stay the hell out of the US. I don't trust them.

[Ignatz]

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 30 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

Horse puckey!

[Moonman62]

This raises a very important question.

Has everyone at CAIR been fingerprinted yet?