State surveillance of Muslims persists despite agents knowing complaints lack merit
Evidence
This experience captures what most Muslim Americans fear. They are afraid their fellow neighbors and citizens will report them to the FBI. This particular interaction highlights how racial privilege operates in society. Even though the FBI agents behaved in a way that indicated they understood there was no real terrorist threat, they stated they had to respond to a private citizen’s call. If Maham was a real threat, the FBI agents would have gone to the post office and seen what was in the package that Maham mailed earlier that day. If they were able to track her down from the license plate, surely they would have been able to find her package and see what was in it, especially if national security was at stake. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 469
Categorization
- XREF: Shows surveillance continuing even when agents themselves deem a citizen’s report baseless — connects to institutionalized suspicion claims elsewhere in the book. — connects to: Muslims cannot speak or act freely because state and passengers monitor them. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 327; State surveillance targets religious identity rather than class or political loyalty; A citizen can trigger state surveillance of a Muslim simply by reporting them — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 341 (+9 more)
Broader Connections
- Airport profiling of Muslims is systemic and state-institutionalized rather than random
#corroborates(0.70) — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 285 - Suspicion of Muslims is based on association rather than evidence
#corroborates(0.70) - State policies authorizing suspicion are the cornerstone of dialectical Islamophobia
#corroborates(0.65) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 136 - Surveillance justified by religious identity constitutes racialization of Muslims
#corroborates(0.60) - Even Muslims who cooperated with the FBI were placed under surveillance
#exemplifies(0.60) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 586 - Surveillance targets Muslims while ignoring white supremacist militias
#expands(0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 487