Two news stories today captured the tension between an overzealous, even bigoted government and the American Muslim community. As reported in an AP article (which was included in Faith In Public Life's newsreel, to which you can easily subscribe for free):

Advocacy groups sued the FBI and the Department of Justice on Tuesday for failing to turn over records they requested on surveillance in the Muslim-American community.

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the Muslim groups, alleges that the FBI has turned over only four pages of documents to community leaders, despite a Freedom of Information Act request filed more than a year ago. The documents were not related to surveillance.

The request sought records that described FBI guidelines and policies for surveillance and investigation of Muslim religious organizations, as well as specific information about FBI inquiries targeting 11 groups or people.

The lawsuit states that all the plaintiffs — who include some of the most prominent Muslim leaders in California — have reason to believe they have been investigated by the FBI since January 2001.

This afternoon, Politico.com ran a story and a video of Congressman Peter King (R-NY) expressing concern that there were "too many mosques" in America, and that the NYPD should be commended rather than investigated for its controversial and possibly illegal tactics during the 2004 Republican Convention.

So, Muslim leaders must sue the government to obtain basic information about the guidelines by which the government investigates them while a non-Muslim member of the United States Congress says there are too many mosques, and that Muslims must be investigated more aggressively. Glad that's cleared up.