FBI Defends Counting of Mosques Within U.S.

Jan. 29, 2003

WASHINGTON - (AP) -- The FBI on Tuesday defended its national tally of mosques as only one part of a much broader effort to apply scarce antiterrorism resources and identify vulnerable sites.

Critics called it a form of ethnic and religious profiling.

The number of mosques -- Muslim houses of worship -- was one of dozens of pieces of information FBI Director Robert Mueller directed the 56 FBI field offices to find. The survey is intended to establish a better picture of the demographics and possible terrorism targets in each region, FBI officials said.

That information, in turn, would be used to establish where to direct counterterrorism resources and set goals for each of the offices as part of a larger overhaul of the FBI.

FBI field offices were also asked in the same directive to list other vulnerable areas in their regions, such as dams, bridges and nuclear plants, officials said. They said the intent was not to single out mosques and Muslims for investigations or surveillance.

''The number of mosques in an area is not a measure of the terrorist threat, nor the basis for investigative goals or revenue allocation,'' said FBI spokesman Mike Kortan.

Civil liberties and Islamic groups, however, raised concerns. The move follows other controversial efforts by the FBI to question up to 50,000 Iraqis living in the United States and a Justice Department program to photograph and fingerprint thousands of mostly Muslim men living here temporarily.

''This policy makes about as much sense as counting Catholic churches in America in order to initiate an investigation of the Mafia,'' said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. ``It is religious profiling of the worst kind and must be rescinded.''

The American Civil Liberties Union said the program raises fundamental constitutional questions because it could lead to investigations of individual mosques with no evidence of any wrongdoing.

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