Friday, August 7, 2015
Activists challenge terrorism program as unfair to Muslims
By The Associated Press
Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, 9:54 p.m.
Updated 11 hours ago
BOSTON — Muslim groups and civil rights
activists across the nation Thursday called for greater transparency in a
program by the Obama administration that's aimed at countering
home-grown terrorism.
Organizers, including representatives from
the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, spoke out at coordinated events in Boston, Los Angeles and
Minneapolis — the three cities where the Countering Violent Extremism
program is being piloted.
Among their concerns is that organizers
still refuse to share basic information about what the localized efforts
will actually look like. They also object to federal authorities
conducting invitation-only discussions about the program, referred to as
CVE, to the exclusion of dissenting groups.
Last week, more than 200 academics,
terrorism experts and government officials gathered for a conference in
Arlington, Va., sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security and the
Department of Justice. It was titled “Radicalization and Violent
Extremism: Lessons Learned from Canada, the UK and the US.”
Among the attendees and panelists were
leaders of the CVE efforts in the pilot cities, according to a copy of
the program provided to The Associated Press.
“This isn't a community-based process,”
Nadeem Mazen, a city councilor in Cambridge, Mass., and board member of
the local CAIR chapter, said during a small gathering in front of Boston
City Hall. “This is a whole different level of federally coordinated
assault on our civil liberties.”
The Homeland Security Department in
Washington said it was committed to participating in the CVE effort “at
all levels,” noting that Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has
personally taken part in meetings in communities across the country.
In Los Angeles, opponents announced
Thursday that they have filed public records requests of federal, state
and local authorities in an effort to obtain all available information
about the operation of the program in California. Boston opponents said
they, too, were crafting a similar request.
In Minnesota, opponents speaking at a Somali
marketplace delivered a message shared by their Boston and Los Angeles
counterparts — that Muslims are being unfairly targeted by the pilot
programs.
“We believe it is morally and democratically
repugnant to single out a community based solely on its religious
affiliation and ethnic makeup,” said Kassim Busuri, education director
at the Da'wah Institute in St. Paul, speaking at an event.
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