CAIR-NY Welcomes Federal Court Decision Advancing Broad Challenge to Terror Watchlist
CAIR-NY Welcomes Federal Court Decision Advancing Broad Challenge to Terror Watchlist
(NEW YORK, N.Y. 7/20/20) – The New York Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY), a chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed the federal court decision in El Ali v. Barr advancing the broadest challenge to the terror watchlist to date.
Filed in 2018, this lawsuit challenges the second-class citizenship that the federal government imposes on Muslim-Americans through its watchlisting enterprise. One of the plaintiffs is Imam Fadhel Al-Sahlani, a New Yorker and renowned Shia Imam. After several humiliating and anxiety-inducing experiences travelling domestically and abroad, including public searches in front of other travelers, invasive pat downs, and chemical testing, Imam Al-Sahlani has stopped or reduced his travel. As a result, Imam Al-Sahlani has not performed Hajj, a significant Islamic pilgrimage, for several years.
Today’s decision paves the way for CAIR’s legal team to depose agency officials and obtain documents throughout the federal government and highlights the role played by the shadowy, supra-agency body called the Watchlist Advisory Council, which oversees the federal government’s watchlisting system.
CAIR-NY is co-counsel in the suit.
In a statement, CAIR-NY Legal Director Ahmed Mohamed said:
“CAIR-NY welcomes today’s court decision advancing our challenge to the federal government’s watchlisting system. Today’s decision will allow for discovery into the government’s practice of illegally targeting Muslims for stigmatizing and painful second-class treatment. We look forward to a day when Muslims can travel freely like all Americans. Until then, courageous community leaders like Imam Al-Sahlani will continue to fight for their civil liberties in court.”
The court refused government efforts to dismiss most of the legal violations CAIR asserted, including violations of the Fourth Amendment, the Fifth Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act, and the Administrative Procedures Act.
In her decision, Judge Paula Xinis criticized the government’s watchlisting processes, finding that “existing procedural protections are inscrutable, opaque.” She noted that many people on the No Fly List who appeal to the government to be removed end up in an administrative “black hole.”
Judge Xinis also explained that “[p]robing interrogations about travel to Muslim-majority countries, religious pilgrimages, learning Arabic, attending mosques, affiliations with Muslim organizations, religious donations, and associations with other Muslims” raise an inference that decisions to target Muslims are tied “directly, and perhaps solely, to Plaintiffs’ race, alienage, religious, and national origin.”
Community members experiencing travel issues are encouraged to complete CAIR-NY’s complaint form at www.cair-ny.org/incident-report.
ABOUT CAIR
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: Ahmed Mohamed, CAIR-NY Litigation Director, 646-481-2103, ahmedmohamed@cair.com; Afaf Nasher, Esq. Executive Director, CAIR-NY, 917-669-4006, anasher@cair.com