Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on Feb. 7 called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division to investigate acts of “coercion and intimidation” allegedly used by the FBI’s Portland Field Office to pressure Muslim citizens into giving up their constitutional rights if they wish to return to the United States from overseas. On Feb. 6, CAIR sent a letter to division head Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez about the case of Mustafa Elogbi, an American citizen who was recently detained by British authorities at the behest of the FBI and prevented from returning to the United States following humanitarian work in Libya. It is the third such case involving agents from the FBI’s Portland Field Office reported to CAIR in the past six months.
In his letter to Perez, CAIR Staff Attorney Gadeir Abbas wrote in part: “I am concerned that the FBI Field Office in Portland has worked through foreign intermediaries to unlawfully detain American citizens and to place unlawful conditions on the right of citizens to return to the United States. …”
Last week, CAIR called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene in the case of an American citizen of Libyan origin who was barred from returning to the United States and interrogated by the FBI about his religious beliefs, including his belief in “Shariah” (Islamic principles).