NewsweekJan. 24 issue - Muslim advocates are concerned that thousands of American Muslims now in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, for the annual hajj pilgrimage may be subjected to what they consider unfair scrutiny upon return. Their worry stems from a December incident in which 40 American Muslims coming back from an Islamic conference in Canada were held at the U.S. border. They were asked to submit to fingerprinting because the U.S. Customs and Border Protection says it has information that terrorists may try to use such events as cover for travel, transporting fraudulent documents or fund-raising.
The CBP has "credible information that these conferences have [been] and will be used" for such activities, says spokeswoman Kristi Clemens. (She says the conference attendees coming home from Canada weren't detained, but were subjected to a "secondary screening.") There are no plans to have additional CBP agents in place for the end of the pilgrimage, which comes Friday, but Clemens says large groups could be delayed. Says Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations: "You can look at the hajj as the ultimate Islamic conference."
—Daren Briscoe
© 2005 Newsweek, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment