SAN FRANCISCO, March 18: FBI officials, apprehending a surge in hate crimes if the US goes to war with Iraq, assured Muslim community leaders in California that the FBI will promptly investigate any hate crimes against the American Muslim and Arab community.

Hate crimes in the past have included murders, attempted murders and assaults and arson attacks against mosques, Islamic centres and Muslim and Arab-American-owned businesses. Between Sept 11, 2001, and Feb. 14, 2003, the FBI initiated 414 hate crime investigations which has resulted in more than 140 prosecutions.

The American Muslim community is seven-million strong and California has one of the largest Muslim concentrations.

At meetings in San Diego and Anaheim with Muslim and Arab community leaders, FBI officials also sought help in the campaign against terrorism. The FBI’s meetings were intended to quell fears in the Iraqi-American community in southern California, where FBI agents are questioning people to identify possible terrorists or sympathisers of Saddam Hussein as the United States inches closer to war with Iraq.

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller began the outreach on Feb 28, when he met in Washington with national leaders of seven Arab American, Muslim and Sikh groups. At the meeting, Mr Mueller announced plans that every FBI field office in the nation would begin a dialogue with these communities before war breaks out with Iraq. Sikhs were also invited to the meeting because Sikh men wear turbans and are mistaken for Muslims by extremists.

So far, there is a mixed reaction in the community about the FBI outreach meetings. Many Muslim leaders have welcomed the move, but some still have sharp differences with the agency as it continues to knock on doors of Muslim families.

Salam Almarayati, spokesman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council, said his organization has been willing to work with the FBI, but members remain angry at “the FBI’s policy of targeting people because of their race and religion. That’s what they’ve been doing since the attacks, and we don’t know of any case that has resulted in the arrest, indictment or prosecution of a terrorist.”