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FBI Director: Rise of Islamophobia is a ‘concerning issue’
Arab American News ^ | 04.05.2016 | Samer Hijazi

Posted on 04/13/2016 3:35:44 PM PDT by Mr. Mojo

DETROIT – During a visit to Detroit, FBI Director James Comey said that the rise of Islamophobia has been a concerning issue to the government agency.

“It worries me,” Comey said. "What we tell folks is that if you think something is going on, then tell us. It’s a huge part of our responsibility that we take very seriously–to make sure people aren’t picked on, bullied, harmed, scared or intimidated by virtue of the way they look, where they worship, or how they act.”

This marks Comey’s second visit as the FBI Director to Detroit. He visited the city in April 2014 as part of his efforts to frequent all 56 FBI regional offices. Comey has seven years remaining in his tenure as the FBI Director.

His latest visit to the motor city was led by a busy itinerary that included meeting with community leaders on Tuesday morning. Among them were Osama Siblani, publisher of The Arab American News; Ali Jawed, founder of the LAHC; Chaldean leader Nabby Yono; Sueheila Amen and Dr. Hoda Amine.

Comey addressed numerous questions from the community leaders during the brief gathering. He said Congress is pressuring him to personally guarantee background checks on refugees who are settling in the U.S., an obstacle that he said was difficult.

Siblani raised concerns about local residents being wrongfully placed on terrorist watch lists and having little to no avenues in getting their names removed. Come said he would look into the issue with Homeland Security to find a resolution.

Comey noted that the FBI force lacks diversity, and that one of his priorities for the remainder of his tenure will be to hire minorities to work for the Bureau, in order to accurately reflect the country’s population. He said currently, the FBI's force is 83 percent White.

During a press conference at the FBI Detroit Field Office on Tuesday afternoon, leaders that included U.S. District Attorney Barbra McQuade, Detroit Police Chief James Craig, Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon and FBI Special Agent in Charge of Detroit Division David P. Gelios, were in attendance to signify a unified front between the FBI and local law enforcement.

Comey said he was astonished at the level of communication that has formed between the community and local law enforcement officials. He added that the relationship is a model that needs to be implemented in other regions.

“Their overwhelming message to me actually surprised me,” Comey said of the local leaders he had met earlier in the day. “They said ‘we believe that this area is a model for cooperation across a variety of relationships that are troubled elsewhere in the country.’ One of my hopes is that I can steal whatever that magic potion is that we’ve spread on all these good folks and in law enforcement, and sprinkle it other places across the country.”

Comey said the FBI’s top objective is to combat counter-terrorism, specifically relating to ISIS attempting to recruit lone Americans. The FBI said there are various methods in ISIS’ attempt to appeal to troubled individuals. The first involves swaying them to leave the country. “They come at us through social media in an effort to recruit Americans,” Comey said. “To travel to their so called caliphate to live a life off glory and participate in the final battle between good and evil on god’s side…it resonates with troubled souls in the United States. It has over the last couple of years.”

Comey said another element of ISIS’ operation involves encouraging Americans to carry out deadly attacks in the U.S.

He said this method is also primarily orchestrated through social media–mostly on Twitter.

“It’s the reason we have investigations all over the country,” Comey said. “We try to understand where people are on the path from consuming to acting. That is a very difficult thing for us to try and decipher.”

Comey said the FBI is constantly depending on local and state authorities to help them identify and servile suspected individuals. “It requires us to conduct surveillance of someone, to understand where they are going,” Comey said. “With the help of our state, local and federal partners, we try to keep track of people who may be headed towards a violent destination.”

The FBI Blitz comes 24 hours after the Michigan Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI) announced a lawsuit, challenging the FBI’s ‘terrorist watch list.’

CAIR-MI filed the suit on behalf of 18 American Muslims, including a four-year-old child, who were allegedly placed on the list without reason or notice.

Comey briefly addressed the lawsuit, stating that it wouldn’t make sense to inform suspected individuals who are being monitored.

“It’s hard to see how that would work operationally,” Comey said. “Even the biggest critics of our watch list would surely agree that there are some people out there who are really of concern to all of us. So how would it work if we would notify them that ‘we might know you are bad?’”

He added that there should be a system in place that would assist wrongfully suspected individuals in challenging their name being on the list.

“I think the best way for all of us is to find procedures that if someone believes they are being encountered in a way that doesn’t make sense, that they’d have the opportunity to raise that,” Comey said.

Comey said the FBI depends on community members—law enforcement officials, educators, and religious leaders, in helping them identify people who have been radicalized.

“We think our part is to build relationships so we are able to share information,” Comey said. “Having a good enough relationship so that people who don’t want to see violence--alert us when they see something that is concerning.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: islam
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To: Mr. Mojo

What worries me is another San Bernardino.


21 posted on 04/13/2016 3:52:45 PM PDT by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Glad Comey got his lips off of Obama’s butt long enough to tell us what his “concerns” are.


22 posted on 04/13/2016 3:57:56 PM PDT by TTFlyer
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To: Mr. Mojo

The idiotic policy Brussels has in place of doing no raids between 9pm and 5 am will be coming here, no doubt.


23 posted on 04/13/2016 3:59:15 PM PDT by cld51860 (Volo pro veritas)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Excellent comment.

The Left is never accused of having phobias or irrational fears; only the right is. We know the games that are being played and why.


24 posted on 04/13/2016 3:59:54 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: Mr. Mojo

25 posted on 04/13/2016 4:00:45 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: Mr. Mojo
During a visit to Detroit, FBI Director James Comey said that the rise of Islamophobia has been a concerning issue to the government agency.

What isn't a concern is crimes by certain protected class citizens. Right Mr. Comey?

26 posted on 04/13/2016 4:06:59 PM PDT by teletech
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To: Mr. Mojo

How about Muslims tell each other not to blow stuff up? How about Muslims call the FBI when one of their family members wants to shoot a bunch of people? How about Muslims stop giving sensible people a reason to expect evil from them, and we will stop expecting evil from them?

There are two cures for “Islamophobia”. (1) Muslims stop giving people cause to be afraid, or (2) non-Muslims ignore reality and stick their heads in the sand. Liberals are calling for option (2).


27 posted on 04/13/2016 4:08:09 PM PDT by Pollster1 (Somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20% traitor. - Ronald Reagan)
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To: Mr. Mojo

It’s right up there with the totally unjustified and irrational naziphobia which the Jews complained of in the late 1930’s.


28 posted on 04/13/2016 4:09:40 PM PDT by Sirius Lee (Crump or Lose 2016)
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To: Mr. Mojo

But the musslimes bombing and stabbing and shooting people is of no concern, can’t be yelling about that because that’s hate speech.


29 posted on 04/13/2016 4:11:17 PM PDT by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: LucyT

The irony of this is that while the West is seeing more high ranking apologists, more Muslims are openly critical of their religious institutions creating terrorists.

Female Arab journalist asks, ‘What if Christians were suicide bombers?’
http://www.christianexaminer.com/article/bold-female-arab-journalist-asks-what-if-christians-were-suicide-bombers/50458.htm


30 posted on 04/13/2016 4:12:37 PM PDT by tbw2
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To: Mr. Mojo

Is there ANY question of a DOUBT that this Obama mouthpiece will FAIL to bring charges against Hillary??

We now belong to a dictatorship, a state whose absolute dictator directs the courts, the judges, the investigators, the media.


31 posted on 04/13/2016 4:12:41 PM PDT by ZULU (Trump is the answer. The Establishment is the problem.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

I don’t know if I’m the first or not, but Comey is an illiterate fuc&-nut. I’m tired of retards saying “concerning” when they mean “disconcerting.”


32 posted on 04/13/2016 4:13:16 PM PDT by Don Hernando de Las Casas
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To: Mr. Mojo

Wait a sec... Maybe it’s the “journalist” who is “concerning” like a little fruit cake.


33 posted on 04/13/2016 4:15:23 PM PDT by Don Hernando de Las Casas
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To: Mr. Mojo

“Islamaphobia” needs to rise even higher. This cult/religion is the religion of terror, not peace like we are constantly being told.


34 posted on 04/13/2016 4:17:20 PM PDT by castlegreyskull
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To: Mr. Mojo

The rise of the lawless FedMob is a bigger concern.


35 posted on 04/13/2016 4:17:52 PM PDT by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason and rule of law. Prepare!)
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To: Mr. Mojo

This, from the guy who’s supposedly investigating Hillary? Gimme a break!


36 posted on 04/13/2016 4:18:53 PM PDT by Salvey
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To: Mr. Mojo

Since it’s been shown that the US and Saudi Arabia are encouraging (if not fully supporting) ISIS, I think he’s going after the wrong people.

What are the odds he condemns his superiors in public?


37 posted on 04/13/2016 4:19:13 PM PDT by Vic S
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To: Mr. Mojo

The FBI Director should go to San Bernardino, CA. He can tell all the victims families of the terrorist who committed mass murder of their loved ones, to welcome the Muslim terrorist the government is now importing into our towns and cities.

He can report back and tell us how it went.


38 posted on 04/13/2016 4:26:23 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: TauntedTiger

Islam is generating all the antipathy directed at themselves. They do NOTHING to control the radical elements, nor do they isolate them in any way.

There is no visible effort under way to correct the obvious and deadly interpretations of “the words of the Prophet”, nor is there any promise of anything but more of the same that they have inflicted upon the world for nearly 1400 years.

To the objective scholar, there is clearly something WRONG with the diatribes and rantings of Mohammed Ali, particularly in his later years, as he transformed from a minor “holy man”, first teaching a doctrine of persuasion and conciliation to his fellow countrymen, many of whom worshiped a variety of deities. In 610, set upon by these same neighbors, he fled with some of his followers, from Mecca to Medina, and while in Medina, much of the darker parts of the Koran were written, calling for conversion of the “unbelievers” by force and threat of death, carrying out that threat when there was overly much resistance.

This has been the operating mode ever since. Islam has been spread by force of arms and conquest, maintaining control of the conquered lands by offering a choice of converting outright, or by subjugating self to the superiority of the Noble Islamic Gentlemen, essentially becoming their slaves and vassals, or by execution on the spot if neither Option A or Option B is exercised.

Muslims have no serious economic theories, maintaining themselves by piracy, or extracting a jizya tax upon the subjugated people, or by simple banditry in the desert. The discovery of easily extracted petroleum for the sands of the Middle East in the years during and after the Great War (the First World War) led to widespread colonization by the Western powers with the promise of great wealth, shared out with the local tribes, suddenly deluged in avarice beyond their wildest dreams.


39 posted on 04/13/2016 4:33:01 PM PDT by alloysteel (If I considered the consequences of my actions, I would rarely do anything.)
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To: Mr. Mojo

to make sure people aren’t picked on, bullied, harmed, scared or intimidated by virtue of the way they look, where they worship, or how they act.”

>>>does that include CHRISTIANS, AHOLE?


40 posted on 04/13/2016 4:50:49 PM PDT by TribalPrincess2U (0bama's agenda�Divide and conquer seems to be working.)
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