[news] Mass arrest of Muslims in LA

[Pat S]

Mass arrests of Muslims in LA
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2589317.stm


US immigration officials in Southern California have detained hundreds of 
Iranians and other Muslim men who turned up to register under residence laws 
brought in as part of the anti-terror drive.

Reports say between 500 and 700 men were arrested in and around Los Angeles 
after they complied with an order to register by 16 December.


The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is refusing to say how many 
people were arrested but said detainees were being held for suspected visa 
violations and other offences.

The arrests sparked angry protests in Los Angeles by thousands of 
Iranian-Americans waving banners which read "What's next? Concentration 
camps?" and "Free our fathers, brothers, husbands and sons".

Official radio in Iran also reported the arrests and the protests, which it 
said were mounted by families of the detainees who converged on Los Angeles.

Deadline

Under the new US immigration rules, all male immigrants aged 16 and over 
from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria had to register with authorities by 
Monday unless they had been naturalised as citizens.

Immigrants from other mainly Muslim states have been set later deadlines for 
registration.

Community groups said men had been arrested in Los Angeles and nearby Orange 
County as well as San Diego.

California is home to about 600,000 Iranians who have been living in exile 
since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

One of the Iranian-American demonstrators in Los Angeles, Ali Bozorgmehr, 
told the French news agency AFP that his community was being targeted 
unjustly.

"All Iranians that live in America are hard-working people... They love this 
country and all... are against terrorism," he said.

'Shocking'

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the Southern California chapter of the 
American Civil Liberties Union, said the arrests were reminiscent of the 
internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"I think it is shocking what is happening," she said.

"We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that 
people went down wanting to co-operate and then they were detained."

Islamic community leaders said many detainees had been living, working and 
paying taxes in the US for up to a decade and had families there.

"Terrorists most likely wouldn't come to the INS to register," said Sabiha 
Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic 
Relations.

She said the detainees were "being treated as criminals, and that really 
goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy".




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