WASHINGTON, April 13, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Federal Bureau of Investigation will hold on Thursday, April 13, its first nationally televised townhall meeting for Muslim and Arab Americans in an effort to overcome misconceptions and enlist their help in fighting terrorism.

"What we want to do is let the public know that the FBI has changed its mission after Sept. 11, that our number one priority is the detection and prevention of another terrorist act," Paul Moskal, chief division counsel for the FBI in Buffalo, New York, told Reuters.

"If someone in the public can help us accomplish that, that's our purpose," added Moskal, who will lead the meeting and field questions.

He said one of the main reasons for the meeting was recruiting.

"We need more Arab Americans, we need more Muslim Americans as FBI agents and as FBI employees."

Moskal said the FBI had long conducted local townhall meetings, at which agents make contact with citizens and answer questions about their work, in a broad range of ethnic, religious and other communities throughout the United States.

But he said Thursday's session was the first nationally televised event targeting Muslim and Arab Americans.

The meeting will be broadcast on Bridges TV, an independent, commercial US television network broadcasting lifestyle and culture programs around the clock for a primarily Muslim American audience.

While there is no scientific count of Muslims in the US, six to seven million is the most commonly cited figure.

"It's important to keep the lines of communication open," said Hooper.

Moskal asserted that the FBI and the Arab and Muslim American communities needed to overcome misconceptions about each other and foster closer cooperation.

He said the televised meeting is also part of efforts to encourage Muslim and Arab Americans to report intimidation, racism or harassment following the 9/11 attacks so the FBI can enforce their civil rights.

Thousands of Muslim and Arabic men were rounded up and questioned in the weeks and months following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Some of the detainees have sued the US government after their release for inhumane and degrading treatment and a total blackout of communications in detention centers on the US soil.

The administration agreed in February to pay $300,000 to settle an illegal detention lawsuit brought by an Egyptian man who was rounded up after the attacks.

Amnesty International also repeatedly said that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies had grown dramatically in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.

The television program is moderated by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group.

"It's important to keep the lines of communication open, for the FBI to understand the Muslim community better and for American Muslims to better understand law enforcement agencies," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations which is moderating the television program.

US officials acknowledge they must do more to involve Muslim Americans in counterterrorism efforts.

Muslim American groups have long accused the Bush administration of neglect in the fight against terrorism.

They say the government must visibly engage their community to undermine militants' charges that Muslims are left out of American society, and to ensure that Muslims do not feel alienated.