PHILADELPHIA American Muslims rally for rights post -Sept. 11

Hundreds of Muslims read the Bill of Rights at Independence Hall.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- More than a year after her husband was handcuffed and taken away, Carma Said still does not know why he was arrested and later deported.
Akram Said, who was sent back to Egypt in October, is one of thousands of men, many of them Muslim like him, who were detained by the federal government after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"This is a law-abiding citizen, married to an American, with children, a business. I'm thinking, 'This is a big mistake. This is America. This doesn't happen.' I found out the hard way it does happen," said Carma Said of Bethlehem, Pa., who told her story in Philadelphia, where about 15,000 American Muslims attended a three-day conference that concluded Sunday.
Rallying power
The conference was co-sponsored by the Islamic Circle of North America, based in Jamaica, N.Y., and the Virginia-based Muslim American Society. Their leaders hope to rally the political power of the nation's estimated 7 million to 8 million Muslims to oppose restrictions on their freedom after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, such as the USA Patriot Act and the recent government order that recent immigrant men from mostly Muslim countries register with federal authorities.
On Friday, hundreds of their members stood outside the Liberty Bell on Independence Hall and read aloud the Bill of Rights, to rally support and remind passers-by that Muslims also have rights in America.
"Immigrants really tend to believe in the American dream, and it's deeply disappointing to them," said Adem Carroll, Islamic Circle program coordinator, who has worked with about 400 of the detainees in the New York-New Jersey area.
"I grew up here," Carroll said Sunday. "I was disappointed that the government has lost its commitment to the Constitution, apparently, and I'm concerned about the lack of outrage."
Pakistanis targeted
About 60 percent of his caseload has involved Pakistani men, who he said are easily targeted because their names are more obviously Muslim than those from some other countries. According to conference leaders, about 40,000 Pakistanis have left the New York area since the terrorist attacks, many of them since the registration process began earlier this year.
About 144,000 men living in or arriving in the United States from the targeted countries have registered so far, according to the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Enforcement, formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service. More than 13,000 of them have had deportation procedures begun against them, the agency said.
"It's all a fishing expedition," Carroll said.
Said met her husband when they worked together in an Allentown restaurant in 1996, a few years after he came to the United States with what she called legal working papers. Shortly after he was deported, she gave birth to their second daughter. She has had to abandon the cleaning business they had started and now works part time at a fast-food restaurant to support their daughters and her teenage son.
"The biggest effect I see is on the families, because, of course, detention breaks families. It's a huge burden -- financially, emotionally," Carroll said.
Said communicates daily with her husband by e-mail, and is working to have him allowed back into the United States.
In some cases, Carroll said, the families have left with the men, only to find their children strangers in a land in which they might never have lived.
Interviews
Ibrahim Quadri, a 31-year-old computer consultant, has lived in New Jersey since he was three months old, when his family arrived from Pakistan. Nonetheless, FBI agents have twice visited his home in Hillsboro since the attacks. They said someone applying to the FBI academy had listed him as a reference -- but they never identified the person, and ventured into questions about his own life, such as the mosque he attends, Quadri said.
"I think my whole family has been interviewed," said Quadri, whose brother is in the U.S. military.
"I think there has to be a civil rights movement for immigrants," he said. "It's an invasion of privacy. The Patriot Act is almost quashing that [right]."
XOn the Net: Islamic Circle of North America: http://www.icna.org