According to Rahyafte(the missionaries and converts website):The group, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), released a report on Monday titled “Twenty Years Too Many, A Call to Stop the FBI’s Secret Watchlist”, which reveals the FBI’s use of the Terrorism Screening Database to discriminate against Muslims.
The report is based on a comprehensive analysis of over 1.5 million entries from a 2019 version of the FBI’s list, which was obtained by a Swiss hacker who found it online after a regional air carrier accidentally posted it.
“More than 350,000 entries alone include some transliteration of Mohamed or Ali or Mahmoud and the top 50 most frequently occurring names are all Muslim names,” said the report.
“Of the watchlist entries we’ve reviewed, we estimate that more than 1.47 million of those entries regard Muslims—over 98 percent of the total,” it added.
The report noted that the FBI’s secret list has caused hardship and fear for the Muslim community for 20 years, and warned that it could also be used against other Americans in the future.
“With the War on Terror fog lifting, the FBI’s secret list will one day find a new target. The next targets will be our fellow Americans, and this report is meant as a warning to them,” the report said.
The Muslim group also urged US President Joe Biden to take action to end the watchlist.
The watchlist affects individuals in various ways, such as travel restrictions, immigration issues, encounters with the FBI, police violence, difficulties obtaining permits and licenses, professional consequences, and limited access to government buildings.
One recent example of such an impact was when Mayor Mohamed Khairullah of Prospect Park, New Jersey was suddenly uninvited by the Secret Service from the White House’s Eid al-Fitr celebration. His watchlist status with the FBI was cited as the reason for his exclusion.
The bias against Muslims in the FBI reflects a broader trend of Islamophobia in the US, especially after 9/11, when hate crimes against Muslims rose 1617% from 2000 to 2001.
Source: Agencies
