http://www.startribune.com/484/story/879383.html FBI reaches out to Muslims The agency is trying to regain the trust of the nation's Muslim and Arab communities after its post-9/11 tactics. But mistrust and skepticism persist. By Marisa Taylor, McClatchy News Service Last update: December 15, 2006 - 10:47 PM When Abdulkadir Addow received an invitation to meet with the FBI, he viewed the prospect with skepticism. Agents assured him and other Somali community leaders that they wanted to improve relations with the Muslim community in the Twin Cities. But Addow, who lives in Blaine, believed they had another agenda. "When they step up their outreach, they also step up interrogations," said Addow, a Social Security Administration employee. "After they overturn every stone, they lose interest." For many Muslim and Arab-Americans these days, meeting an FBI agent can be an unsettling, even terrifying experience. Almost immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the FBI began to root out suspected terrorists, and Arab and Muslim communities became the bureau's top targets. Agents rounded up hundreds of people for questioning. They raided Muslim charities, monitored mosques for radiation and held refugees for months because of security checks. To regain the trust of Muslim and Arab-Americans, the FBI has embarked on an aggressive national outreach program. The bureau's efforts, which include mosque visits and one-on-one meetings, have become so pervasive in certain cities that some young Muslim-Americans refer to the agency as the "Friendly Brotherhood of Islam." Yet across the country, many participants wonder what the interactions achieve when mistrust remains the biggest obstacle. Some community activists compare the tone of the current encounters to those during the Red Scare of the 1950s, when U.S. citizens were singled out as suspected Communists and expected to prove their loyalty to the United States. "You never hear the FBI say that part of the reason there has not been another terrorist attack in this country is because radical extremists have not found a home in American mosques," said Rebecca Abou-Chedid, director of government relations for the Arab American Institute in Washington. "It's as if they believe that we know about terrorist cells and we're not telling them." The situation in Minnesota In Minnesota, home to 25,000 to 50,000 Somalis, meetings can become heated because of disagreements over terrorism-related investigations. Some leaders assert the bureau has targeted the wrong people in its effort to root out extremists. "To do this, you have to have thick skin," said Paul McCabe, spokesman for the FBI's Minneapolis field office. "We get beat up a lot." Agents aren't apologizing for their tactics and say they have a duty to pursue any possible U.S. ties to terrorists. More than 260 defendants have been convicted of terrorism-related charges in the United States and trials are pending for 150 more, according to the Justice Department's latest estimates released in June. But agents also recognize that the alienation that Muslims and Arabs feel could undermine the bureau's hunt for domestic terrorists. If the fear subsided, more citizens might come forward with tips, agents believe, at a time when the bureau is under mounting pressure to collect better intelligence. Addow said he initially attended the outreach meetings to see what they were like. However, he stopped going because he felt FBI agents were more interested in scrutinizing Somalis for terrorist ties. He vowed not to attend another meeting until the FBI stops treating his community like "suspects."I would say a majority of the community is not interacting with them for this reason," Addow said. But Saeed Fahia, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minneapolis, said the outreach has improved relations between Somalis and the bureau. FBI agents appear to know more about Somali culture and are more open with community leaders, he said. "At least they're trying to work with the community," Fahia said. "I would say the relationship is better than it was after the September 11 terrorist attacks." Diverse communities Consensus can be difficult to reach because Muslim and Arab communities in the United States are diverse, ranging from Iraqi Christians to African-Americans to third-generation Lebanese-Americans. Immigrants can be especially terrified of the federal agents because they recall abusive secret-police practices of repressive regimes back home. "This business of outreach is an oxymoron for many people," said Ali Galaydh, a former prime minister of Somalia and professor of public policy at the University of Minnesota. "Law enforcement wanting to reach you means they want to get you." In Richmond, Va., an agent alarmed many in the Muslim community because he knocked on the doors of individual Muslims during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Community leaders said they wouldn't have objected to the interviews had they been warned about them. FBI officials later confirmed the agent wasn't investigating any of the men. Instead, the agent was assigned to make contacts with the Muslim community as part of the FBI's local outreach. FBI officials in other cities said they try to inform local Muslim leaders first, to avoid alienating the community. Minneapolis agents, for example, called leaders when they needed to interview members of the city's large Somali population. Agents can't always give Somali leaders a heads-up, McCabe said, because it could jeopardize an investigation. Marisa Taylor is a correspondent in the McClatchy Washington Bureau. She is at [EMAIL PROTECTED] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 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