August 17, 2007	Friday	Sha’aban 3, 1428

NEW YORK: Organisations of American Muslim are protesting against US Justice Department's effort to smear the entire Muslim community by naming some of its largest organisations as unindexed co-conspirators in a Texas terrorism trial.

A report in the New York Times on Thursday said that the National Association of Muslim Lawyers had sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales objecting to the list which, it said breached the department’s own guidelines against releasing the names of unindicted co-conspirators and did not serve any clear law-enforcement purpose.

The letter, also signed by the National Association of Criminal Defence Attorneys, said the “overreaching list” of more than 300 organisations and individuals would further cripple charitable donations to Muslim organisations and could ratchet up the discrimination faced by American Muslims since the Sept 11 attacks.

In addition, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the premier Muslim advocacy group which is on the list, announced that it would file a brief asking Judge A. Joe Fish of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas to remove its name and those of others from the list.

The brief, a copy of which was released on Wednesday, says the list furthers a pattern of the “demonisation of all things Muslim” that has unrolled in the United States since 2001.

CAIR’s brief alleges that the listing of the organizations and individuals violates Justice Department guidelines and violates the uncharged parties’ First and Fifth Amendment rights.