State coercion pressured Muslims to become informants or face false charges

Evidence

The story of Foad Farahi illustrates this practice. Farahi, an imam of Iranian descent, came to the United States in 1994 with a student visa and later applied for political asylum. After 9/11, the FBI approached him numerous times, asking him to become an informant and to spy on his community. He consistently refused, not wanting to be an agent of the state within his community. At his asylum hearing, law enforcement agents met him in court and told him that they had evidence demonstrating that he had supported a terrorist group. They gave him a choice: drop his case and leave the United States voluntarily or be charged as a terrorist. Farahi first opted for voluntary departure, no doubt frightened at the prospects of being “disappeared” like so many other Muslim men. Later, when he realized that the state had no case against him, he decided to fight. Despite repeated requests, the state refused to share information about the terrorism allegations with Farahi or his lawyer so that they might mount a defense. Eventually, Farahi’s voluntary departure order was overturned and his asylum case was to be reopened. Others who were not as brave as Farahi—or, perhaps, who had more to lose—succumbed to state pressure. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 575

Categorization

• XREF: Farahi’s false-allegations-and-coerce-to-inform mechanism is the concrete pressure point the reader’s MOC gap on ‘fixes failing’ needs: the state manufactures the informant relation, converting community members into surveillance agents. — connects to: FBI coerced Muslim community members into informing using fabricated threats — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 563; FBI coerces Muslim community members to become informants under threat — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 563; The FBI coerced an imam to inform by threatening fabricated terrorist charges — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 575 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Counter-terrorism policy forced Muslim groups into complicity or exclusion. #exemplifies (0.90) — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 145
• State repression of religious dissident Muslims coerces other Muslims into political silence #expands (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 82
• Missionary conversion of Muslims required royal inquisition-backed coercion #exemplifies (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1183
• Native-informant Muslim figures preemptively delegitimize Muslim criticism of US policy #expands (0.80)