WASHINGTON, March 21 (IslamOnline) - Federal agents raided homes and businesses in Virginia and Georgia on Wednesday, March 20, many of them Muslim-owned, bearing search warrants with information regarding alleged fundraising for so-called "terrorist groups", witnesses said.

The International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), based in Herndon, Virginia, was raided at about 10 a.m., witnesses told IslamOnline. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other federal law enforcement agencies entered the building and told staff members to leave their desks without touching anything.

"We were told to step out of our cubicles and offices and we were taken to the library," said one staff member who wished to remain anonymous. "We were like prisoners… we were watched all the time," she added, explaining that staff members were escorted to and from bathrooms. For the noon prayer, which is required of Muslims, she said they were taken to the prayer room in groups of six to pray.

The staff member said that earlier that morning, agents from the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were also present, demanding documentation of the staff members' eligibility to work in the United States and writing down information from their driver's licenses and other documents.

One of the first Muslim organizations created in the United States, IIIT is an academic research institution with branch offices around the world. It has no political activities, and serves as an Islamic intellectual forum that promotes research, organizes meetings and publishes scholarly works.

In the afternoon, the agents prepared a camera to take pictures of staff members, who refused to comply, the IIIT staff member said.

At no time was the staff placed under arrest, but most were not allowed to leave until later in the day. The staff member said that when IIIT staff asked agents about calling an attorney, they were told that if they were placed under arrest, they would have the right to an attorney, but that they were not being arrested at the present time.

The IIIT staff remained in the library for most of the work day, and agents brushed aside repeated requests to see the search warrant, which the IIIT worker said was issued from the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia - the same court in which September 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui and American Taliban John Walker Lindh are being tried.

The agents filmed the books held in the library as well as the nameplates on the doors of offices in the building, she said.

Although most of the agents were respectful, the staff member said, one of them was exceptionally harsh, telling staff members to "shut up" when they asked repeatedly about the warrant or about contacting a lawyer.

This particular agent threatened to take staff members to the INS if they did not cooperate, the staff member said. However, "we are citizens," she told IslamOnline. "Most of us are citizens over there."

She said that the agents seemed confused as to what they were telling the IIIT staff; first, the staff was told that no one could leave without getting a picture taken first, but then some were allowed to leave. "They weren't communicating among themselves, each one was acting in a different way," she said. "I left at 2:30, I told them I had children to go to."

She also described how two staff members - a white American and an American-born Lebanese woman - were told they were free to go because they were citizens, but other staff members were not allowed to leave, despite their citizenship status. "They just considered us foreigners, citizenship didn't matter," she said.

The warrant was finally read to the staff, the IIIT employee said, in the afternoon, just before she was allowed to leave around 2:30 p.m. She said the warrant claimed the government was investigating IIIT and a number of other groups for "providing funds to terrorist organizations."

She said the warrant began by describing the IIIT building - down to the color of the bricks, the windows and the location - then listed the organizations being raided, finally giving the reason for investigation in the end.

Between 10 and 15 other organizations were listed on the warrant, the witness said; news agencies reported that 14 search warrants were issued for organizations in Northern Virginia and one in Georgia.

Of the other 150 or so law enforcement officers involved in the raids, aside from INS and FBI agents, others came from Customs, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the Secret Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Postal Service, as well as local police officers. News agencies were unable to obtain further information about the warrants.

A number of homes were also raided, according to witnesses. One man told a legal advisor with the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) that several officers invaded his home claiming that his family was "linked to Osama bin Laden and terrorism."

Attorney Nawar Shora, who spoke to the victim, said the man and his family were very disturbed and that his mother was still distraught over the incident. The man is a U.S.-born citizen and a Muslim, yet his home was raided by INS, IRS and SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) officers, as well as local police.

"We hope that this raid is not just another round up of Muslims," Shora said. "I would like to believe that the four homes that were hit today were not raided purely because they were Muslim homes."

ADC has contacted the Justice Department and is still waiting to hear back regarding the incidents.