{"id":1980,"date":"2005-04-22T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?p=1980"},"modified":"2005-04-22T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-22T06:00:00","slug":"muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>\n\n\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
My spirit needs reviving<\/div>\n

<\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

When 34 American Muslims arrived back in the US following an Islamic conference in Canada, they found themselves detained for over six hours. After seeking answers<\/a> for months from Department of Homeland Security officials (and getting none), five of them have decided to sue<\/a> the agency (with a little help from the ACLU<\/a> and CAIR). \u201cNone of the citizens who were detained had done anything unlawful, nor were they charged with any unlawful act,\u201d said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York chapter. \u201cIt is very troubling that citizens who were exercising their First Amendment rights were singled out because of their faith and attending the conference.\u201d <\/p>\n

The conferencein question, entitled \u201cReviving the Islamic Spirit<\/a>,\u201d has been held in Canada since 2003 and featured such shady attendees as the Premier of Ottawa and the Mayor of Toronto. One of the detainees was Zaytuna\u2019s Hamza Yusuf<\/a>, who met with US President George W. Bush shortly after the September 11th attacks. The agents were \u201cvery polite and, I think, very bored,\u201d Yusuf said. \u201cI think they literally were doing what the computer told them.\u201d There were even reports that one border agent<\/a> was in tears over the detention. <\/p>\n

When the arrests took place in December, customs spokeswoman Kristi Clemens<\/a> said that agents were acting<\/a> on intelligence that those who attended the conference may have been bringing terrorists back in their cars. \u201cWe had ongoing, credible intelligence that conferences such as this one in Toronto had been used, are being used and will be used by terrorists to transmit fraudulent documents, to fund-raise and also to mask the travel of terrorists,\u201d Clemens said. \u201cBased on that information, we decided to have individuals verify they were who they said they were.\u201d <\/p>\n

Now that there is a lawsuit filed however, Daniel Sutherland, the Washington-based officer for civil rights and civil liberties, declined to say why the searches had taken place but said officials had made policy changes<\/a> to prevent a repeat of the situation (no word on the credible information). Meanwhile, the plaintiffs are determined to clear their names. \u201cI\u2019m totally against terrorism,\u201d said Galeb Rizek, 32, of Niagara Falls. \u201cI want to be protected. I\u2019m an American, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Zahed Amanullah is associate editor of altmuslim.com. He is based in London, England.\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-briefings"],"yoast_head":"\nHomeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"altmuslim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/20detain.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"zahedamanullah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/\",\"name\":\"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba\"},\"description\":\"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/\",\"name\":\"altmuslim\",\"description\":\"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba\",\"name\":\"zahedamanullah\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"zahedamanullah\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/zahedamanullah\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions","description":"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions","og_description":"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/","og_site_name":"altmuslim","article_published_time":"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.altmuslim.com\/ee_images\/20detain.jpg"}],"author":"zahedamanullah","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"zahedamanullah","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/","name":"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2005-04-22T06:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba"},"description":"After 4 months of evasion from Homeland Security officials on the reasons for their detention while crossing the border from Canada, a group of Muslims have filed suit against the agency.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/2005\/04\/muslim_americans_sue_for_answers_to_border_detentions\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Homeland Security: Muslim Americans sue for answers to border detentions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/","name":"altmuslim","description":"Global perspectives on Muslim life, politics & culture","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/871b6e097b0060bce500f444bd5940ba","name":"zahedamanullah","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/68e9dbf4389ab27835e68d36332be3f9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"zahedamanullah"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/author\/zahedamanullah\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/531"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1980\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/altmuslim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}