(RNS) — Since the United States and Israel first attacked Iran over a month ago, federal law enforcement visits to Shiite Muslims living in the U.S. have increased, as have hate incidents targeting them online and in person, according to lawyers in California and New Jersey.
Muslim advocates who track hate incidents and legal cases say comments from the Trump administration about the Iran war have put a target on Muslim Americans, and especially Shiite communities as Iran is a majority-Shiite country.
In Los Angeles, several Iranian or Shiite Muslims have been visited by the FBI in the last month, said Dina Chehata, the civil rights managing attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Los Angeles chapter. She said the spike in visits aligns with the start of the Iran war and is consistent with what she described as a pattern of reactive crackdowns on diaspora Muslim communities whenever there is a geopolitical flashpoint.
Chehata said none of the visits led to charges or arrests, which she argued suggests the FBI is not investigating people based on credible evidence of criminal conduct.
“They are investigating certain people because of their protected identity, because they are Muslim or Arab or Palestinian, or now Iranian or Lebanese or Shia, which is so dangerous — and that’s always been the problem that American Muslims have had with our federal government,” Chehata said.
Chehata said she believes the goal of these visits is to “map out the community” …
