Speaking at a forum in Dearborn, the U.S. Attorney for eastern Michigan said that Muslims and Islam should not be stereotyped.
“Blaming all Muslims and Arabs for the acts of the hijackers of 9/11 is like blaming all Catholics for the acts of Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City,” U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Monday, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the 1995 bombing of a federal building. “There is so much ignorance and fear surrounding the Islamic religion. And so we’ve been trying ... to educate the public and to make sure that our Muslim and Arab residents here have the full protection of the law. And we are very strongly committed to doing that.”
McQuade was one of several law enforcement officials and community advocates who spoke at the forum, which was sponsored by student groups at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and titled Know Your Rights. Also speaking were Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit office, and Brian Moskowitz, special agent in charge of ICE/HSI, which deals with immigration investigations with the Department of Homeland Security.
Imad Hamad, regional director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said at the forum that “it seems like our civil rights and liberties have been put on trial” in recent years.
Arena said that FBI agents are sworn to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution.
“I’m not allowed to have informants in mosques unless I have predication something bad is going on,” Arena said. “If your imam ... preaches the true faith, we have no right to be there, and we’re not. If we are, I’m going to lose my job and somebody (from law enforcement) is going to jail.”
But if a religious leader is supporting terrorism, the FBI has a responsibility to investigate, Arena said.
“If a Catholic priest stands up in my church and says give money to the Irish Republican Army, which is a designated terrorist organization, to kill British soldiers and drive them out of Northern Ireland, I have a right, duty, and responsibility to be in that church to investigate it,” Arena said.