Council on American-Islamic Relations
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 3/20/2002
-- MEDIA ADVISORY --
MUSLIMS OUTRAGED BY GOVERNMENT RAIDS
WHAT: On Thursday, March 21, leaders of major national American Muslim
organizations will hold a news conference in Washington, D.C., to express
their outrage over law enforcement raids today on a number of Muslim
offices and homes in Virginia and Georgia that the groups say amounted to a
"violation" of their community. Targets of the raids included some of the
most respected leaders and organizations in the American Muslim community,
including the International Institute of Islamic Thought, the Graduate
School of Islamic Social Sciences, the Muslim World League and the Fiqh
Council of North America.
Media reports indicate that law enforcement agencies served 14 search
warrants in northern Virginia and one in Georgia. No one was arrested. The
raids involved 150 law enforcement officers from a group created by the
Treasury Department after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Agencies involved
in the raids included Customs, Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms, FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U.S.
Postal Service.
Groups sponsoring the noon news conference say harassment of respected
Islamic institutions and families sends a hostile and chilling message to
the American Muslim community and contradicts President Bush's repeated
assertions that the war against terrorism is not a conflict with Islam.
They also say the targets of these raids deserve the presumption of
innocence and have the right to learn what allegations, if any, the
government used as the basis for their search warrants.
WHEN: Thursday, March 21, Noon
WHERE: Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, 1st Floor, 453
New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C.
- END -
CONTACT: National Muslim Leadership Summit, Shaker El-Sayed, 703-628-4993
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