WASHINGTON (Middle East Eye) - More than 80 Muslim organizations, including rights groups, mosques and charities, have sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice, calling on the administration to launch an investigation into whether an anti-Muslim group violated federal laws by allegedly spying on several Muslim groups in the U.S.
The groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), Muslim Advocates, and the Islamic Society of North America said that the “conspiracy to spy on American mosques and Muslim organizations was not surprising.
“Civil rights advocates have been targeted by infiltrators and saboteurs for decades. It is long past time for this behavior to come to an end.
“To protect the civil rights of American Muslims, we ask the Department of Justice to launch an investigation to determine whether Steve Emerson or IPT broke any federal civil rights statutes or criminal laws.”
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) has been labelled an anti-Muslim group by the Islamophobia Network, a project of the Center for American Progress that tracks anti-Muslim groups and donors. The IPT was founded by Steve Emerson, who has a “history of promoting falsified information and conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslims”, according to Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative.
In December, Cair claimed its organization’s chapter in the state of Ohio had a spy in its ranks.
Following an internal investigation, the group alleged that the chapter’s executive director Romin Iqbal had been recording meetings and conversations and then sending those materials to the IPT.
IPT denied that it was spying on Muslim communities but has previously told Middle East Eye it would not hesitate to report on groups it claims are conducting “radical Islamist activity”.
Cair subsequently claimed that there was a second spy. However, this person had been a member of Dar al-Hijrah, a prominent mosque in the suburbs of northern Virginia.
The individual, Tariq Nelson, allegedly confessed and claimed he was paid $3,000 a month by IPT over four years for a total of $100,000 to spy on the mosque and “record prominent Muslim leaders”.