WASHINGTON: A pilot programme launched by the Obama administration to prevent radicalisation from taking root is creating suspicion that it’s a plot to profile American Muslims.
Law enforcement officials have been doing such outreach for years. But now that federal officials are putting their stamp on it, some Muslims and others fear it is profiling disguised as prevention and worry it could compromise civil liberties and religious freedom.
The effort divides Muslim leaders who, on one side, argue that more must be done to fight extremism in their community and that this programme is a historic opportunity for input. Others fear the programme, which could be rolled out nationwide after being being tested in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Boston, is just another veiled way for law enforcement to target their community.
Sceptics remember the New York police department’s surveillance of Muslims, uncovered in an investigation in 2011, and an FBI informant’s description of how he was taught to ingratiate himself to a southern California religious community in the mid-2000s to secretly gather contact information and record conversations.
The US government announced the “countering violent extremism programme” last fall, billing it as a community-driven initiative to tackle terrorism and militant recruitment by preventing radicalisation from taking root.
President Barack Obama later said Muslims needed to fight a misconception that groups like the self-styled Islamic State speak for them, even as senior administration officials insisted they were not focusing exclusively on that particular threat.
Some 20,000 fighters have joined the Islamic State group and other extremists in their campaigns in Iraq and Syria, including at least 3,400 from Western nations, according to US intelligence agencies.
As many as 150 are estimated to be American, though they did not succeed in reaching the war zone. Officials have long eyed the threat of home-grown extremists such as Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Oklahoma City federal building and killed 168 people 20 years ago.
But the rise of the IS group has taken front and centre in the past year. The countering violent extremism programme is led by attorneys’ offices, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, local law enforcement agencies and, critically, local faith and community groups.