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SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 3: The American Muslim Voice, a leading civil rights organization, has warned all Muslims, Arabs and South Asians to be vigilant when they are making any purchases on the internet because their innocent purchase may cause suspicion.
The AMV warning follows an incident in which a Pakistani American private pilot, Mohammad Ghazali, was recently visited by a FBI agent after he purchased technical manuals for Boeing 737 on eBay.
Mohammad Ghazali, in a statement, said that when the FBI agent first called at his business place in his absence he thought that this might be related to the latest round of interviews of Muslims the FBI had launched in recent months.
His family was very concerned so the next morning Mohammad contacted the American Muslim Voice that arranged an attorney, John Crew, from the National Lawyers Guild.
After speaking to the FBI agent, John Crew informed Mohammad that the agent wants to ask him a few questions about his recent purchase of technical manuals for Boeing on eBay. The attorney told the agent that Mohammad would answer all his questions in the presence of an attorney.
To Mohammad's surprise, the FBI agent stopped by at his place of business unexpectedly and despite his plea for the presence of an attorney the agent went ahead to ask about the manuals' purchase and about his place of birth. The agent asked him how often he visits Pakistan.
Coincidently, the same day Mr John Crew contacted the agent to make arrangement for an interview and was amazed that the FBI agent had already interviewed Mohammad. John Crew said he was led to believe that the FBI would not interview Mohammad without an attorney present.
He said that people had the right to have an attorney present when being interviewed by the FBI which says that it is having volunteer interviews of Muslims but such incidents discourage people to come forward.
Mohammad Ghazali said that this brief encounter with the FBI led him to think about his shrinking civil rights under the Patriot Act introduced after 9/11.
