Muslims worship under watchful eye of FBI

By: AGNES DIGGS - Staff Writer | Monday, August 16, 2004 10:17 PM PDT ∞

The faithful who come to worship at the Masjid Al-Ittehad in Vista on Friday crowd the prayer hall and spill over into the courtyard.

At this masjid, or mosque (literally "place of prostration"), Nader Dehani serves as imam, conducting the service, which opens with a call to prayer. He stresses to the congregation the importance of adherence to the laws of Islam, the Shari'a. He offers words of encouragement to all in getting through the difficult times everyone is facing. He offers blessings.

And on some days, while others share a meal and fellowship, Dehani and other members of the mosque leadership sit in the building's small office and politely answer questions posed by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

No one protests. No one complains. No one mentions that the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits government interference with a person's right to practice their religion.

Faith v. politics

But what if your religion has been taken hostage by politics? What if the very name of your faith has come to be associated with terror and death? What if you had to submit to interrogation because your faith fit the profile of those who are sworn enemies of America and its way of life?

How do you cope? And how would you explain it to your children?

On Sundays, about 30 young people kindergarten age and up come to the mosque to learn Arabic and study the Koran ---- the Muslim book of faith. Hiam Ilaian of San Marcos teaches the language class. Knowledge of Arabic is important for studying the Koran and other Islamic writings.

Ilaian's daughter, Hadeel Jadallah, 14, teaches the alphabet in the beginners class. Hadeel, like her mother and many other women, wears the hijab ---- the traditional headcover worn for modesty ---- which sets them apart. People are always asking her questions, she said.

"In every country we're always out of (the mainstream)," she said. "We're different from who they are. They don't treat us the same."

Keeping faith

But she never tries to hide her religion, she said. "Each time people ask me something, I tell them my real religion. And I'm proud of it."

On Sunday morning, Hiam Ilaian leads the children through their lessons, rewarding them with stickers and sometimes calling them habbibi, the Arabic word for "my love."

"I need you to do more practicing," she tells her students. "You have to study at home. You have to know the letters."

Two rows of little faces look up at her as she quickly writes characters from right to left and asks them to pronounce the words she spells out.

The youngsters are casually dressed in jeans and sneakers. One has a Spiderman backpack and another a cell phone.

"When is it recess time?" one asks.

"Eleven," Ilaian answers without missing a beat.

They study Arabic in order to read and understand the Koran. This generation of children is learning the ancient tenets of Islam in the shadow of modern events that have demonized their religion in the eyes of much of the world and brought it under the close scrutiny of international law enforcement agencies.

Social politics

Problems can arise when religions coincide tightly with ethnicities and nationalities, said John Evans, professor of sociology at UC San Diego. For some, the place of worship is also a community and cultural center.

"Jews are like that, the black church is like that and so are Muslims," Evan said. "They treat the house of worship as the centerpiece of the community. It does everything they've traditionally been excluded from everyplace else in the community."

If the government feels the need to monitor immigrants from certain countries, there is no other place to find them in concentrated numbers, he said. It was the same situation during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, Evans said.

"If there was some other place that American Muslims show up every weekend, the FBI would show up there. But there is no other place," Evans said. "It was the same thing with the black church in the '60s."

There's an intimidation quality to it, Evans said, and if you're a recent immigrant, you might not have certain knowledge about your rights.

New strength

Estela Jebril, 42, brings her son to the Sunday classes at the mosque. She is a "revert," not a convert to Islam, she said. She was raised in a Catholic family and made the change 15 years ago.

The negative images of the Islam constantly projected in the media, and the suspicion cast over it by extremist acts, have served to strengthen Muslims in their faith, she said. The Jebrils have three children: Vanessa, 20, Mohammed, 9, and Amenah, 2. She and her husband teach them to be tolerant of the opinions of others.

"If we want to be accepted, we have to accept everybody else," she said.

The Jebrils explain to their son about terrorist acts such as the bombing of the World Trade Center with its many casualties, and other events dominating the media, by teaching him "that people that have a faith can misinterpret it and go to the extreme."

But not all Muslims should be blamed for the acts of some, just as all Christians should not be blamed for those who do violence because of their beliefs.

"People who are Christians were bombing abortion clinics and killing people," she said.

'Just the fanatics'

A family trip overseas last winter gave the Jebrils a chance to see many cultural differences among Muslims and get a more clear perspective of the majority of Muslim people.

"It's just the fanatics that are in the news," she said. "Not the everyday people."

Jebril said she finds it troubling when authorities come to the mosque to conduct their investigations.

"Going to a church or a synagogue to ask questions ---- that would not be tolerated," she said. "It's tolerated because of misunderstanding. People don't come to the masjid to plot .... we come to the mosque to worship."

She said misunderstandings can be easily cleared up by seeking accurate knowledge of Islam ---- on the Internet, for instance.

"It will make sense to you once you get the knowledge," she said.

It gets awkward

The FBI visits to the mosque are uncomfortable for some, coming at a time of prayer. Praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of the faith.

Some people are now staying away from the mosque, afraid to misspeak or otherwise create trouble for themselves.

"It seems to be cause to be fearful if you speak up and express your faith," Jebril said. "Worshipping God should be what brings you the most peace."

She understands that the investigators must do their jobs, but there is a fine line to be walked.

"This is a powerful country," she said. "But there's a lot of responsibility with power."

FBI agents have made several visits to the Vista mosque, but always after calling first, said Jan Caldwell, FBI media coordinator. They can ask agents not to come, she said.

"They have no reason to be afraid of us," Caldwell said. "If they say no, that's not an issue. That's part of democracy."

Visits to mosques actually began before the Iraq war when agents reached out to Muslim communities not only to gain information but also to remind them that the FBI was there to help them should they become victims of hate crimes, Caldwell said.

"I believe the root of the problem is that they don't understand democracy and they expect law enforcement to be more draconian than we really are," she said. A lot of the people weren't born and raised here and they're just beginning to understand this, she said.

"We hope that as time goes on they will begin to trust us and believe that we really mean what we say," Caldwell said.

Efforts to communicate and understand one another continue as the agency and members of the Muslim community try to bridge sometimes troubled cultural waters.

Without addressing the specifics of the situation, a representative of the American Civil Liberties Union offered support to those who request it.

"We do know that the Department of Justice has recently announced that the FBI would launch a new round of nationwide interviews in Muslim communities," said Marisela Chevez, public affairs assistant.

"In response to that, we put together a panel of attorneys that will be available to represent people during those interviews. For information, people should call our office at (619) 232-2121."

The tragedy and the reality

These are challenging times, said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who has served as associate dean of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center since its establishment in 1977. The center is an international human rights organization which, among other things, fosters tolerance and understanding.

"It's always difficult to know where you draw the line between the freedoms that we have and the threat of terror," Cooper said. It's a tragedy that people feel uncomfortable going to their own house of worship, he said. But the reality is that the worldwide scourge of terrorism is being fueled by Islamic extremists who invoke God's name before and after their attacks to defend their violent activities, he said.

"Americans get it ---- from the president on down ---- that you have to separate between Islamists who are terrorists and the millions and millions of Muslims that take their faith seriously," he said.

While racial or religious profiling in terms of criminal activity is not good policing, it's different when it comes to terrorism, Cooper said,

"All Americans, of whatever their faith may be, support whatever steps may be necessary to forestall another terrorist attack on our territory," he said.

"The reality is that the investigation, when it comes to trying to forestall terrorist attacks, cannot stop at the doorstep of any mosque, synagogue or church," he added.

The world has changed, he said. It's not a nicer place and unfortunately it's not safer. People might say it's not fair that people should have to justify their own faith.

"Do I like it? No. Do I understand it? Yes," Cooper said. "That's part of the reality we live with."

Meeting of minds

Long-time Escondido resident Mirza Beg, who represents Masjid Al-Ittehad in the San Dieguito Ministerial Association, an interfaith alliance of congregations,was among those who attended a recent Monday with Dan Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI office in San Diego in response to an invitation to mosque members by the agency.

Also in attendance were members of the sheriff's and police departments and representatives of other mosques ---- about a dozen in San Diego County, although only one in North County ---- where some people expressed their concerns.

The meeting went very well, Beg said. Dzwilewski told them if they had any apprehensions about the situation that has developed since the Sept. 11 tragedy that the FBI is there to listen to them and protect them.

"They are just doing their job," Beg said. "Their intention is not to harass us, but just probing to find out if anything is happening they just want to know about it. We would like to satisfy them. If things are happening, it affects us as well as the country because we are part of the country.

"The Muslims living here in the United States have not come here to create trouble for the United States," he said. "We want to live like any other Americans."

Contact staff writer Agnes Diggs at (760) 740-3511 or adiggs@nctimes.com.

Mosques Demographics

Mosques in the United States ---- 1,209, including 227 in California

American Muslims associated with a mosque ---- 2 million

Increase in number of mosques since 1994 ---- 25 percent

Average number of Muslims associated with each mosque in the United States ---- 1,625

U.S. mosque participants who are converts ---- 30 percent

U.S. mosques that have some Asian, African-American and Arab members ----

nearly 90 percent. Other ethnic origins of regular participants include

European, Turkish, Iranian, Caribbean and White American.

Information from the Web site of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. State Department.