Community

The Council on American-Islamic Relations Greater Los Angeles Area Chapter (CAIR-LA) hosted award-winning investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson for a local speaking tour to discuss his new book, “The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism.”

The tour started on Friday morning, June 7, at an interfaith gathering hosted by Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (ICUJP) in Los Angeles. It continued throughout Friday evening and Saturday, June 8, before packed mosque venues at the Islamic Institute of Orange County, the Islamic Community Center of Redlands and the Islamic Center of Hawthorne; more than 450 community members attended the tour.

“For the first time we have a religious minority that has been selectively targeted by the FBI for this high level of investigation,” said Aaronson. “Not because they believe those communities are doing something specifically illegal or that they [the FBI] have evidence to suggest that something is going on, but just based on the perception that terrorists are Muslims so there must be terrorists in Muslim communities.”

In reality, many more Americans lose their lives at the hands of lone shooters than terrorist attacks, which indicates that the FBI’s counterterrorism program is severely disproportionate to the level of threat (or lack thereof) stemming from American Muslim communities, Aaronson told community members.

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