Protest against FBI entrapment of Muslims

Over 150 protesters marched and chanted alongside Albany, N.Y., rush-hour traffic on Aug. 4, waving signs and banners against the FBI campaign of entrapping innocent Muslims.

“Who did the crime? The FBI!”; “Keep justice alive, Free the Fort Dix 5”; “Free Aref and Hossain NOW” and other chants never wavered during the eight-block-long march from the Washington Avenue Armory to the Masjid As-Salam Mosque.

Representatives from the Fort Dix 5 Support Committee, Dr. Rafil Dhafir, Project SALAM, the Newburgh 4, Muslim Solidarity Committee, Peace and Justice Foundation, the International Action Center and other groups participated.

Hundreds of “preemptive prosecutions” against Muslims, mostly immigrants, have been carried out by the FBI since 9/11. Each case involves government surveillance, agent provocateurs and sensationalist headlines. Arrests are made before any crimes take place and trials run in ways that guarantee successful prosecutions and extreme penalties.

The FBI admits sending undercover agents into mosques and community centers all over the country. Critics charge that the agents themselves instigate and originate the supposed crimes–nothing less than entrapment. The trials not only destroy innocent individuals and families, but also terrorize Muslim communities.

The upstate New York demonstration, a month after a similar rally for justice on July 3 in Washington, D.C., which drew 100 participants, is evidence that that the movement against these miscarriages of justice is growing.

The latest FBI sting arrests took place July 27 in North Carolina against eight Muslim men, charging them with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks overseas. Most of the press treated this case—as they have others—as an individual situation, with no connection to the hundreds of cases involving over 500 Muslim brothers and sisters since Sept. 11, 2001.

Reflecting increased community support for wrongly convicted victims of government entrapment, many Albany TV stations, newspapers and radio stations reported on the demonstration. (Go to http:// tiny.cc/AhoGE and http://tiny.cc/JYvAY.)

The Albany protest stands as a clear example of how to fight back against the government frame-ups of Muslims.