FBI's questioning surprises some Arab-Americans

The FBI is concerned that a terrorist attack will disrupt the presidential election.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
NEW YORK -- In the past three weeks, the FBI has been calling in Arab-Americans and other Muslims to ask them about their travels and whom they might know.
"People are calling us and saying, 'The FBI wants to talk to me,'" says Laila al-Qatami, communications director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington. "We're not saying not to cooperate, just to know your rights."
The FBI's increased interest coincides with worries that terrorists will try to disrupt or influence this fall's presidential election, the first since Sept. 11, 2001. Arab-Americans, who have worked hard to develop a relationship with the FBI and other agencies, say the questioning is emblematic of their vulnerability.
Last week, for example, the University of Michigan released a new survey of the Arab-American and Chaldean population in the Detroit area that found 15 percent have had a "bad experience" since Sept. 11 that they attribute to their ethnicity.
The FBI's inquiries, although low key, are something of a surprise to the community, which had formed an advisory council that meets with the FBI on a regular basis. "They didn't say it was going to happen," says al-Qatami.
Looking for clues
This month, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the FBI would be conducting some interviews to see whether it could identify any threats. An FBI spokeswoman, Donna Spiser, says those interviews are all "intelligence driven" -- that is, there is some specific information to cause the interview to take place. "We're hoping to identify any kind of valid threat if there is one," says Spiser, a supervisor special agent.
But to the lawyers of some of those questioned, it seems like more like an FBI "fishing trip." James Hacking, a lawyer and Muslim activist in St. Louis, did pro bono representation for four Muslim Arab-Americans recently when they were interrogated by the FBI. One of the people questioned was born in the United States to Iranian parents.
"The questions they asked him were about his family members -- do they keep contact with people at the Iranian mission, do they give money to the Iranian mission or other Iranian organizations? This man had no idea," says Hacking.
Identifying with America
The new questioning is indeed something of a setback for Arab-Americans, who have worked hard to become part of the political mainstream.
"I consider myself more American," says Kamal Ahmed, a Bangladeshi who lives in Brooklyn. "This is my true home, and I would never do anything to hurt this country."
But Ahmed cites a certain amount of prejudice he has encountered from Americans toward himself and his family -- prejudice that he is sure is invoked because they are Muslim. "People give us funny looks, like on the subway or walking down the street in Manhattan. But I don't carry any bad feelings towards these people. Their reaction is natural," he says.
Ali Ahmed, who moved to Brooklyn six years ago from Morocco, acknowledges not so much discrimination but rather unease from fellow Americans. Yet he stresses, "Most Americans have been so nice. You know, Sept. 11 scared Muslims here more than anything, because we were scared we would get kicked out or beaten. But Americans seem to know that Muslims, for the most part, are good people."