A Muslim civil rights group is calling for an investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after nearly 40 American Muslims were detained, photographed or fingerprinted upon returning to the United States after attending a religious conference in Toronto last weekend.
The Council on American Islamic Relations said the group was singled out at Canadian border crossings Sunday night and Monday morning on their way back from the three-day Reviving Islamic Spirit conference at SkyDome.
"It is absolutely outrageous that American citizens are being forced to undergo such unwarranted inspection," Washington-based council spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper said yesterday.
Kristie Clemens, a spokesperson for Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, said 34 people were stopped at the Lewiston crossing and four others were checked at the nearby Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls. They were held for an average of 2 1/2 hours and offered coffee and tea. "We have ongoing credible information that conferences such as the one that these 34 individuals just left in Toronto may be used by terrorist organizations to promote terrorist activities, which includes travelling and fundraising," Clemens said.
"As the front-line border agency, it is our duty to verify the identity of individuals — including U.S. citizens — and one way of doing that is fingerprinting."
Hamza Yusuf, a keynote speaker at the conference attended by thousands of North American Muslims, had met with U.S. President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks. He was detained and interrogated for several hours by U.S. Customs officials at Pearson airport Tuesday afternoon before boarding his flight to San Francisco.
"They asked me about the religion of my family and wanted to make photocopies of my notebook and other material without being able to tell me what I was accused for.
"When I said I have rights as an American citizen, they said they don't apply at the border."
The California resident missed his flight but said he was treated politely and was allowed to call his wife. He was not fingerprinted.
"If anyone is to blame, it is those who are giving orders, not the people following them," he said after arriving in California.
Hussein Hamdani, co-founder of Toronto's Ihya Foundation, an organization that works to support the Canadian-Muslim identity, drove to the airport Tuesday to inquire about Yusuf.
"If Americans are getting harassed and seen as a possible security threat once they come to Canada, it could send the wrong message that Canada is an unsafe place to visit," Hamdani said.
Yusuf did not rule out coming back to Canada to speak about Islam, but said it is the first time he was detained and hewill think twice before accepting another invitation.