(WASHINGTON, DC) –In a letter sent today to U.S.Attorney General Eric Holder, national civil rights organizations Muslim Advocates and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) expressed their shared concern over the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) use of lethal force in the October 28, 2009 shooting death of Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, its use of undisclosed informants, and recent inflammatory and misleading comments made by the head of the Detroit FBI office.

Read the press release and the joint letter to Attorney General Holder.

U.S. Department of Justice Continues to Cloak Public Access to Guidelines on FBI Surveillance

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) January 19, 2010–In an ongoing suit, Muslim Advocates filed an amended complaint against the Department of Justice today, asserting that critical passages of its Domestic Investigative Operational Guidelines (DIOGs) for FBI agents–which contain directives for gathering data on racial and religious communities and mosque infiltration–were redacted, and need to be made public.

While the Department of Justice has opened an official investigation into the raid by Detroit office FBI agents leading to the death of Imam Luqman, Muslim Advocates and the NAACP urge the Attorney General’s investigation to include “…a review of the FBI’s decision to use potentially lethal force during the raid, a review of whether the FBI followed its internal protocol with respect to a barricaded subject, and a complete analysis of the autopsy report, with careful scrutiny of Imam Luqman’s gunshot wounds and the injuries he sustained to his arms and face.”

The letter also requests that Holder direct investigators to “…look at the totality of the incident. This includes events leading up to the raid–such as the FBI’s decision to send informants into Imam Luqman’s mosque–and the FBI’s conduct since Imam Luqman was killed.” Just days before the public release of Imam Luqman’s autopsy report, the Detroit FBIoffice’s Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena suggested that Imam Luqman was involved in terrorism, even though the indictment makes no such claim.

To view the complete text of the joint Muslim Advocates-NAACP letter to the U.S. Attorney General, please visit: muslimadvocates.org.

Muslim Advocates (muslimadvocates.org) is a national legal advocacy and educational organization dedicated to promoting freedom, justice and equality for all, regardless of faith, by providing leadership through legal advocacy, policy engagement, and civic education, and by serving as a legal resource to promote the full and meaningful participation of Muslims in American public life.