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Altaf
Ali, executive director of CAIR in Florida, slammed the arrest of
three U.S. Muslims, of Middle Eastern descent
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MIAMI,
September 14 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Three men –
Middle Eastern looking - reportedly overheard talking about a
terrorist plot were pulled over and detained for 17 hours Friday,
September 13, before U.S. authorities said the men were apparently
kidding around and released them.
Fears
of a terrorist attack on the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, which
closed a key highway and led to the detention of three men of Middle
Eastern descent for several hours, proved unfounded, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
After
releasing them, the three drove to a rest stop, where they told
reporters they were medical students heading to Miami for training and
denied making any comments or jokes about terrorism. Police declined
to say what the men told them during questioning.
With
the United States on a "high" state of alert since the eve
of the one-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, remarks that
a diner patron in Georgia allegedly heard of a possible explosives
attack on Miami kicked a federal investigation into high gear, causing
major traffic chaos. It turned out to be "false alarm"
though.
"If
this was a hoax, they will be charged," Collier County Sheriff
Don Hunter said angrily after an all-day search of the men's two cars
turned up no sign of explosives.
It
was unclear what charges, if any, the men might face in Florida or
Georgia, where a woman told authorities she heard them plotting at a
restaurant Thursday morning.
At
the rest stop, Ayman Gheith, with a long beard and wore a skull cap,
said the woman may have been influenced by his appearance.
"She
saw obviously the way I was dressed and maybe she put a little salt
and pepper into her story," he said.
The
men later told CNN they were unaware of any problems in the
restaurant. "The words 9-11, the words September weren't even
mentioned in the conversation. Or September 13th. We were talking
about what we were going to do in Miami," Gheith said.
The
cars were stopped after the Georgia woman reported overhearing three
men who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent making
"alarming" comments during breakfast at the restaurant in
Calhoun, Ga., said Mickey Lloyd of the Georgia Department of Public
Safety.
According
to authorities, one of the men said Americans "mourned on 9/11
and they are going to mourn again on 9/13." They also said the
target of "possible terrorist activities" was in the Miami
area.
Georgia
officials issued an alert based on the woman's report and the cars
were stopped at 1 a.m. after one went through the Interstate 75 toll
booth east of Naples, authorities said. The men told CNN they paid the
toll, but that the attendant was confused about whether they
had.
The
men were detained in a van while authorities used dogs and a robot to
go through the cars.
"The
whole time I kept asking, 'Why are we being pulled over? Why is this
happening?'" Kambiz Butt said during the TV interview.
Police
did not tell them why they had been detained until shortly before
their release, Omar Chaudhary added.
The
men are of Jordanian, Iranian and Pakistani descent - one a U.S.
native, another a naturalized citizen and the third the holder of a
valid visa, authorities said.
Relatives
of the men criticized the investigation, suggesting they had been
singled out because of their heritage.
"I
don't know what the lady in the restaurant heard or assumed. She must
have had some kind of prejudice," father Javed Chaudhary, a
Pakistani immigrant, said from his home in Independence, Mo. He said
his son is 23 and was born in Detroit.
"I
feel like we don't have freedom here anymore. Anybody can call anybody
to make any kind of accusation. And the authorities treat you like you
are a criminal."
Hana
Gheith of suburban Chicago also said she didn't believe the report
about her brother, who she said is 27. She said he was driving to
Miami with friends to find an apartment before starting a training
program at a hospital.
"My
brother doesn't joke about these matters," she said, her voice at
times shaking with anger. "A lot of Muslims suffered in
9/11."
"After
17 hours, they are still in a police van," fumed Sabri Samriah,
head of the United Muslim Americans Foundation.
Samriah,
lamenting the racial abuse that Muslims have suffered since 9/11,
criticized the media for fueling anti-Muslim sentiment.
"We
should not start reporting Americans of Middle East descent. An
American is an American," he said.
A
spokesman for the Council for American Islamic Relations further
decried the rush to assume any incident involving someone appearing to
be of Muslim heritage to be a terrorist incident.
"The
tips are based more on a physical appearance," said Hodan Hassan.
The
woman who reported the comments is Eunice Stone of Cartersville, Ga.,
a 44-year-old nurse who told Fox News Network that she was eating at a
Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun when she heard the men talking. The
town in rural north Georgia has a population of 10,000.
"I
thought anybody that's laughing about 9-11, I know they have that
right, but there's something wrong with them," Stone told Fox.
She later told The Associated Press the incident was "kind of
scary."
There
have been a series of scares in airports, universities and city
centers in recent days, and credible threats of attacks on U.S.
targets abroad, but nothing in the United States.
"It
appears that there isn't a terrorist threat as it relates to any kind
of detonation devices or anything like that in the car," said
Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of U.S. President George W.
Bush.
"But
in this time of heightened vigilance, I think that it is important to
show that this system works."
Collier
County, Florida sheriff Don Hunter said the three men had not put up a
struggle but noted they were uncooperative in that they "wished
not to offer anything up." The men were not immediately
identified.
