FBI denies accusations of anti-Muslim bias

Muslim leaders have accused the FBI of conducting an "anti-Muslim witch hunt" following a raid on the Texas offices of a Middle East internet service provider.
An 80-strong US terrorism task force searched the Texas offices of Infocom Corporation on Wednesday and Thursday.

The company is host to a number of Arabic websites, including that of the Arab world's leading independent television news channel.

"American Muslims view the action as just one of a long list of attempts by the pro-Israel lobby to intimidate and silence all those who wish to see Palestinian Muslims and Christians free themselves of a brutal apartheid-like occupation," said a statement by a coalition of Muslim groups.

The FBI has denied any anti-Arab bias, saying the raid was "one aspect of a two-year investigation that is ongoing".

Websites shut down

Agents from the FBI and other federal agencies searched computer files at the company's headquarters, taking boxes out of the building.

Infocom said the raid resulted in a temporary shutdown of websites it hosted for about 500 customers, including that run by Al-Jazeera television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both based in the Gulf state of Qatar.

A lawyer for Infocom said the company had no links to terrorist groups and was co-operating with the FBI.

He said many of the sites were able to start up again on other servers, while the office remained sealed off by FBI agents.

"We have nothing to hide. We are co-operating 110 % with the FBI," said lawyer Mark Enoch.

'Pattern of bias'

Muslim leaders have rallied around Infocom. In a statement, several American Islamic groups condemned the search as "an anti-Muslim witch hunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America".

"We have deep concerns that this once again is an attempt to rush to judgement and to marginalise the American Muslim community," said Mahdi Bray, political adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

"There is a pattern of bias that often permeates all of these types of investigations."

The FBI denied the raid politically motivated. A spokeswoman said the investigation was not aimed at Infocom's clients, but did not say why the company had been targeted.

"This is a criminal investigation, not a political investigation," said spokeswoman Lori Bailey. "We're hoping to find evidence of criminal activity.

"It had nothing to do with anti-Islamic or anti-Palestinian or anti-Middle East issues or anything like that," said special agent Bailey.

Here is Daniel Pipes response to Cair's attack one him:

Response to www.DanielPipes.com
If you mistakenly went to DanielPipes.com, you no doubt noted that it automatically transfers you to an attack on me posted on the website of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Here is my response to that attack. It has two parts, one an analysis of CAIR and the other a defense against its attacks on me.
What is the Council on American-Islamic Relations?
CAIR is a particularly worrisome organization because it has succeeded in portraying itself as a public affairs organization promoting "interest and understanding among the general public with regards to Islam and Muslims in North America." In fact, this organization is radical to the core; it seeks nothing less than the imposition of Islamist mores on the United States.
CAIR's record includes the following unpleasantries:
Apologizing for such killers as Hamas (a group associated with the murder of 7 Americans) and Usama bin Ladin (charged with the Tanzania and Kenya embassy bombings a year ago).
Helping promote terrorism: In the words of Steve Pomerantz, a former Chief of Counterterrorism for the FBI, "CAIR, its leaders, and its activities, effectively give aid to international terrorist groups."
Intimidation of patriotic Muslims who disagree with CAIR's chauvinist agenda: In one case (Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani), the FBI is looking into charges that he received death threats after renouncing the chauvinists.
Permitting a potential unindicted co-conspirator in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993 to sit on its board. Defense of even the most archaic and barbaric of customs associated with Islam: When a prosecutor in Cleveland argued that the bail of two young men being held for an "honor killing" of their female cousin should be increased, CAIR replied by accusing him of "ethnic and religious stereotyping" and called for a formal investigation into the prosecutor's actions.
Sponsorship of blatant antisemitism: At a May 1998 rally at Brooklyn College co-sponsored by CAIR, one speaker referred to Jews as "descendants of the apes."
In short, CAIR represents not the great civilization of Islam but a radical utopian movement originating in the Middle East that seeks to impose its ways on the United States. Americans should consider themselves warned: a new danger exists in their midst.
CAIR also has a history of vituperation and aggressiveness against anyone who opposes its Islamist vision for the United States. In my case, it has been sending out tirades since July 1999; these have landed everywhere from the op-ed page of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune to the hands of street picketers in Washington, D.C. and Cornell University.
For more information on CAIR, see my article "How Dare You Defame Islam," Commentary, November 1999, at http://www.danielpipes.org/articles/199911.shtml.
Also see Steven Emerson's, Senate testimonies of February 1998 (at http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6453/emerson.html) and January 2000 (at http://www.house.gov/judiciary/emer0125.htm).
Defense of Daniel Pipes
In its attack on me, CAIR lists quotations by and about me going back to 1983, but it does so in so sly and selective a fashion that many things end up sounding like the opposite of what was intended.
I regret the complexity of what follows, but due to quotations within quotations, it requires careful reading.
Click here to read the rest of this long article.

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