Court bars Muslim group access to FBI operating guidelines

A U.S. District Court judge in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Department of Justice does not have to release FBI investigative guidelines, even though it previously allowed a Muslim civil rights group to view the documents for a limited time.

Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ruled the Muslim Advocates' limited access to documents at FBI headquarters did not make them "permanent public record," which is necessary before an exemption under the federal Freedom of Information Act can be waived.

Muslim Advocates, a California-based group that seeks equality for Muslims, sued the DOJ for access to three chapters in the FBI's Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide, which was enacted in 2008 to "standardize policy so that criminal, national security and foreign intelligence investigative activities are accomplished in a consistent manner."

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Trust but Verify: NYPD spied on anti-terror Muslim leader as he dined with Bloomberg

In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, Sheikh Reda Shata stands in the men's prayer room at his mosque, The Islamic Center of Monmouth County, in Middletown, N.J.

The New York Police Department's intelligence squad secretly assigned an undercover officer to monitor a prominent Muslim leader even as he decried terrorism, cooperated with the police, dined with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and was the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by The New York Times about Muslims in America.

Sheikh Reda Shata was among those singled out for surveillance because of his "threat potential" and what the NYPD considered links to organizations associated with terrorism, despite having never been charged with any crime, according to secret police documents obtained by The Associated Press.

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During his time at the Islamic Center of Bay Ridge since 2002, he welcomed FBI agents to his mosque to speak to Muslims, invited NYPD officers for breakfast and threw parties for officers who were leaving the precinct.

As police secretly watched Shata in 2006, he had breakfast and dinner with Bloomberg at Gracie Mansion and was invited to meet with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Shata recalls.

msnbc

This video (h/t iowntheworld) says it all:

CAIR Seeks 'Swift' FBI Action on Revelations of Anti-Muslim Training

A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization today sent a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller calling for "swift action" to reform the agency's use of anti-Muslim instructors and Islamophobic materials during counterterrorism training.

The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says that recently-revealed FBI training materials teach counterterrorism agents that mainstream American Muslims are likely to be terrorist sympathizers, that the Prophet Mohammed was a "cult leader," and that Islamic charitable giving is a "funding mechanism for combat."

Lawsuit Can Affect Anti-Sharia Ammendments In 20 States

Voice of America

A U.S. federal appeals court began hearing a case Monday on an amendment to Oklahoma's state constitution that bans Sharia, or Islamic law, as well as international law from being considered in state courts. Legal scholars say the case could affect similar moves in more than 20 other U.S. states.


In a referendum last year, 70 percent of voters in southwestern state of Oklahoma approved an amendment to the state's constitution that forbids courts from citing international or Sharia law in their judgments.


Last November, a judge in Oklahoma blocked the amendment after the leader of a Muslim civil rights group filed a lawsuit. The judge said the so-called "Save Our State Amendment" probably violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which separates religion and state. The lawsuit is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals based in Denver, Colorado.