Thanks To CAIR, Muslims Rant At FBI

[Annie]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/04/n...18548800&en=d5df5ab59c3213ee&ei=5070&emc=eta1

You Can't Talk to an F.B.I. Agent That Way, or Can You?
By ANDREA ELLIOTT
Dressed in a navy suit and red tie, his hair parted neatly on the side, Special Agent Charles E. Frahm sat with practiced calm as Muslims rose, one after another, to hurl raw complaints at him. Mr. Frahm, who heads the counterterrorism division of the F.B.I. in New York, was at a banquet hall in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on Thursday night to listen, he had told the hundreds of residents gathered there.

And they responded. They were tired of being held for hours at airports when their names resembled those of suspected terrorists, they said. They were tired of seeing Muslims arrested on immigration charges. They were tired of having their mosques watched, their businesses scrutinized.

"America is our land!" Faruq Wadud, a Bangledeshi man, hollered hoarsely into the microphone as the room broke into a thunderous applause. "We are not foreigners! Our children, this is their motherland!"

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the relationship between Muslims and law enforcement agents has been predictably fragile. The two groups have engaged in a delicate dance, balancing self-interest with political calculation.

People on both sides acknowledge a need for meaningful cooperation. But the relationship has frayed - and the voice of dissent among Muslims grown more audible - as a result of a series of criminal cases that have raised questions about the methods used by authorities in their fight against terrorism.

The government's focus on undercover sting operations and the recruitment of a network of Muslim informers has provoked the sharpest criticism. The most recent sting, which produced arrests last week in New York and Florida, has further stirred debate, although many details of the investigation, which led to charges that two American Muslim men conspired to aid Al Qaeda, remain unknown....