CAIRO, February 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The U.S. army intelligence spied on a Texas University conference on Islam and then asked for a list of participants, a measure dismissed by organizers and civil rights groups as "unprecedented" intimidation.

Intelligence men "were definitely there, dressed in civvies and not revealing their identities," Sahar Aziz, a law student and one of the organizers, told IslamOnline.net on Saturday, February 14.

She underlined that the conference, titled "Islam and the Law: The Question of Sexism", was a purely academic event with limited scope that had nothing to do with politics or national security.

"It was just about women in Islam and other related issues as hijab, inheritance and honor killings. We invited the general public to know more about this," said the student.

A few days after the conference, held in the Law School Campus on February 4, two intelligence agents came to the building and asked for a list of the attendees and a video of the proceedings.

"They went to the dean's office and searched for the organizers in order to get the list, flashing their cards and asking students about the participants," Aziz said.

She dismissed the intelligence agents' claims that they were following up on reports from army lawyers who joined the conference and said they were approached by "suspicious" Middle Eastern men.

The conference was co-sponsored mainly by non-Muslim groups such as the Human Rights Center, the Center for Women's and Gender's Studies, the Freedom and Justice Foundation and the National Lawyers Guild.

Aziz called the investigation and spying "unprecedented" down the history of the Texas University.

"The intelligence agents created a frenzy and intimidated a lot of people. They want to send the message; if you join them, you will be watched," she stressed.

Asked about the reason behind such a fuss about an academic conference, Aziz referred to the word "Islam" dismissing the incident as a "racial profiling".

Confirming that the conference was "successful" in getting Muslims and non-Muslims together to know about women-related issues in Islam, Aziz said "students are very afraid" after the intelligence intimidation.

She voiced concerns that this is turning into a "general policy with new target probe" by the American authorities.

The student citied the same-styled investigations by the intelligence after an anti-war conference in Iowa in November.

The organizers’ accusations found support among university professors and many civil rights groups.

Jim Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, said the agents door-to-door tactics at the law school were meant to "intimidate and scare people from using
the First Amendment".

"We're going to make the Army back off - and all the other intelligence operations - in the name of the First Amendment," he told the Associated Press.

"Or we're going to see them in court," he added.

Bill Allison, a Texas University professor working independently to help the students, told the American agency that "it is reasonable that these students should be quite fearful that the military comes into this school to gather information".

According to AP, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command at Fort Belvoir, Va., refused to comment on the accusations, which she only said are under review.

The organizers said on the conference's website that they had invited speakers include highly qualified scholars of varying academic specialties to "interact in a collaborative, intellectual manner with their co-panelists as well as the audience".

Ultimately, the website reads, the conference should provide an opportunity for audiences with the subject matter to expose themselves to the complexities and differing schools of thoughts within the Islamic faith as well as the Islamic world.

This would allow people "to adequately interpret the ongoing inundation of news and information about that part of the world".