Las Vegas, USA - A national Muslim advocacy organization filed a complaint with police in a Las Vegas suburb, saying seven Muslim men from southern California were detained and told they were acting suspiciously while praying in a shopping center parking lot.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations said it filed the complaint last week against the Henderson Police Department. "Our main concern is the police department looking at praying and the way they looked as probable cause for investigating those men," said CAIR spokeswoman Munira Syeda. "They did nothing illegal."
Henderson police spokesman Todd Rasmussen said the complaint internal affairs would investigate, but would not discuss the case.
The Muslim group said the men were performing one of five required Muslim daily prayers in the lot while they stopped to buy gas and food Dec. 20 during a road trip.
Two police cars arrived as the men returned to their car and they were held for 40 minutes while three officers questioned them, checked their backgrounds and searched their car, Syeda said. Syeda said the men were not blocking traffic or preventing other cars from parking. Afterward, the men were let go.
CAIR attorney Ameena Qazi said in a letter to Henderson police that during the incident, one of the officers commented that the men hypothetically might have been saying "I hope that I kill a police officer today" during their prayer.