BY JOHN VOTAVA
CHICAGO - "The sentiment against this unprecedented action
is not just shared by Muslims but by anybody looking in an
unbiased way.... These people must be given a chance to defend
themselves." This was the statement by Ibrahim Elgindy of the
Muslim Americans for Civil Rights and Legal Defense just
before the beginning of a prayer meeting and protest organized
at the Federal Office building here August 14.
Elgindy was referring to moves by the FBI in June to confiscate the house and personal bank accounts of Mohammad Salah, a Palestinian who has lived in Chicago for more than 25 years, leaving him and his family without any means of support. FBI agents also seized assets of the Quranic Literacy Institute, whose primary endeavor is to produce a new English interpretation of the Quran. The confiscations were based on a complaint that government officials filed in federal court claiming "probable cause to believe that the defendant properties constitute funds or property traceable to funds... to be used in support of a conspiracy involving international terrorist activity."
To this day the FBI has failed to file any criminal charges against either Salah or the QLI. However, based upon a civil forfeiture provision of a law supposedly aimed at alleged drug dealers, they are expected to prove their innocence in order to get their assets back. Under the guise of investigating their allegations against Salah, FBI officials have visited more than 50 Muslim families in the area. Elgindy said that "people are now reluctant to support the Institute, and this will affect its work."
In response to this attack on democratic rights, 300 people, most of them Muslim, came to the Federal Plaza protest to show solidarity with the defendants and to oppose this attempt to intimidate Arabs and Muslims in Chicago.
Seema Iman, who spoke at the rally following the prayer meeting, gave much of her time to the theme: "I'm proud to be a Muslim." Kamron Memom, who chaired the event, declared, "We consider this our country, to be our home, and we are not going anywhere."
The Muslim Americans for Civil Rights and Legal Defense organized a rally in Westmont, Illinois, August 23 that about 500 people attended. Jonathan Rothstein, an attorney at the same law office as Matt Piers, who represents Mohammad Salah, gave one of the main presentations. This case "fits into a pattern," he said, noting that in earlier decades there were attacks and witch-hunts against anarchists, communists, civil rights activists, and those opposed to the Vietnam War. "This is another attack of that kind."
He also described how thoroughgoing the harassment of Mr. Salah is, "He cannot hold a job, go on a bus, or go to the store" without checking with the FBI. "He needs permission to see a doctor." Rothstein said the government's case against Salah is his alleged confession under duress to charges by the Israeli government of supporting the Palestinian organization Hamas, for which Salah spent five years in an Israeli jail. Also speaking at the rally was Rep. Paul Findley.
The next step in the case will be September 18, when Mohammad Salah and his lawyers will file motions before a federal judge outlining the steps they intend to take in the attempt to have his personal assets returned.