US advocacy group files anti-govt. lawsuit over blacklisting pro-Palestinians
An American Muslim advocacy group has filed a lawsuit against the US government agencies after two Palestinian-American men were blacklisted due to their pro-Palestine activism.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) filed the lawsuit in response to a discriminatory and racist placement of the two.
Aside from the FBI, other defendants named in the lawsuit are the leaders of government agencies, including the State Department and the Homeland Security Department.
Filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Monday, the lawsuit stated that “CAIR is challenging the mistreatment of these activists on constitutional grounds”.
It asserts that their blacklisting is based on discrimination and racism rather than actual criminal or national security concerns.
The duo put on a watch list by US federal authorities were identified as Osama Abu Irshaid and the California-based Mustafa Zeidan.
According to the lawsuit, Irshaid, the executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, traveled to Qatar from the US in late May and returned in early June.
Upon his return, federal agents forced him to undergo extra screening and questioning while seizing his phone, which has not yet been returned.
The agents reportedly kept focusing on his activism against Israel’s campaign of death and destruction in Gaza.
Zeidan, who often visits his ailing mother in Jordan, was not allowed to board a flight on his way to the country earlier this year. The authorities later informed him that he was placed on the no-fly list.
“Neither Dr. Abu Irshaid nor Mr. Zeidan have ever been charged or convicted of a violent crime,” CAIR said.
CAIR said in July that discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians in the US had increased by about 70% in the first half of 2024, amid Washington’s support for Israel's genocidal war.
Human rights advocates have reported a global rise in Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bias since October 2023.
The report also pointed to numerous protests in the United States against the war in Gaza since October, but highlighted the crackdown by US police and university authorities on pro-Gaza protests and encampments on campuses in particular.
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