SAN FRANCISCO, May 30: Alarmed by a report that mosques in Los Angeles and San Diego are under surveillance, Muslim civil rights groups have called for Congressional hearings on the matter.

The call for public hearings followed a San Diego newspaper report that a group of military reservists and law-enforcement officers at Camp Pendleton Marine base stole data from a federal surveillance programme that monitored mosques in Southern California.

In a joint letter sent to the Congressional Committees on the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform, the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, San Diego and Imperial Counties and the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California expressed concern over the civil rights violations posed by the alleged monitoring of US citizens on the basis of their religious affiliation.

Samina Faheem Sundas, executive director of the American Muslim Voice, said: “This confirms our fears that mosques and Muslim community organisations are a target of government surveillance that only encourages further unwarranted suspicion of the American Muslim community.”

Opinion

Editorial

More desecration
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

More desecration

Attacks on the Islamic faith are not motivated by an attachment to free speech but by raw hatred.
Worrying remarks
27 Sep, 2023

Worrying remarks

THESE are ominous words from Gwadar. Maulana Hidayatur Rehman, chairman of the Gwadar Haq Do Tehreek, has warned ...
Justice or vendetta?
Updated 27 Sep, 2023

Justice or vendetta?

ONE wonders whether all pretence of the state as a democracy has been whittled down to a point where it has simply...
Free and fair?
Updated 26 Sep, 2023

Free and fair?

It is disingenuous to suggest the fairness of any polling exercise should be considered without regard to all that has preceded it.
Unto darkness
26 Sep, 2023

Unto darkness

YET another case of medical malpractice has come to light in Punjab. The eyesight of several diabetic patients has...
Unions on campus
26 Sep, 2023

Unions on campus

DEPOLITICISED youth unfamiliar with democratic norms cannot be good for the future of representative rule in...