President Bush’s Patriot Act, which legalized the invasion of one’s privacy, had preceded this event. The Act claims that if the government believes that people are involved in illegal activities such as terrorism, it may listen to all their phone calls, Web conversations, and other forms of communication. The Act has particularly been put into practice by the FBI and has allowed them to search through people’s e-mail histories, as well as financial records, without the need of a court order. The Act also greatly impacts undocumented immigrants, putting them at a higher risk of deportation. The aforementioned are all results of U.S. tactics to “protect” the nation’s security, which may be appropriate in true examples of terrorism and other high crimes. Yet, they tend to cause more harm to innocent people than to bring about justice to those who actually do pose threats.

“I just talked to my family. They said there was some weird black SUV on our street and that it’s not leaving… I have to go home,” exclaimed Zahra before she picked up her books and left school. Zahra Mousavi, a recent graduate of the University of California at Riverside, hopes to one day become a physician assistant in order to help those in need. She is one of four siblings; two others are current UCLA students who, like her, are pursuing admirable careers. The abovementioned event took place in 2004 and was one of many other days when Zahra’s family was under surveillance by the FBI.

On June 29, 2006, the FBI raided the Mousavi family’s home in Diamond Bar at gunpoint. The family was awakened at 6 a.m. when “men with guns swarmed into our house and the surrounding neighborhood,” stated the family. They continue, “We were told to exit the house immediately…we were taken to our driveway and told to stand facing the wall. Then, our father was handcuffed. Next, they went to the youngest of us, who was only a sixteen-year-old boy at the time, and handcuffed him, as well.” Although on that morning the family was terrified and felt helpless, it had not been the first time they had come face to face with FBI agents. The family had been under surveillance for years and had even been approached by the same agents they would later see in the court at the airport on one occasion.

Who was the FBI after? The family soon realized that they were there for its patriarch, Mr. Seyed Mahmood Mousavi, an Iranian-American who had come to the United States in the 1980s seeking a better life for his family and to freely practice his faith. Since then, he had led a successful career, founded a mosque, and started two non-profit organizations. He was also a leader in the Iranian-American-Muslim community and a role model for its youth. A few years prior to the start of the FBI investigation, he had become a U.S. citizen while also keeping his Iranian citizenship in order to travel to Iran not only to visit family but also to ask chosen invitees to speak at his mosque in West Covina, California

“The civilian population of Iran was displaced during the Iran-Iraq war. How could he [Mousavi] have been there if he was a civilian?” asked an American attorney. Being at this particular trial and having been well educated in Iranian history, I was appalled by the inaccuracy of the statements made by the U.S. government’s representatives. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980 to 1988), civilians were bombed and wounded by chemical weapons; they fled to other Iranian cities or hid in bomb shelters. However, they certainly were not displaced out of Iran due to the war. How could Iran now have a population of over 65 million people if all had been displaced in the 1980s?

While in Iran this past summer, I heard stories of how terrified civilians had been during the bombings and saw many buildings that have not been rebuilt in the 25-plus years since the Iran-Iraq war ended. The U.S. representatives made many other shocking and/or incorrect statements during Mr. Mousavi’s trials, including about Iranian history. One of the allegations was that Mousavi had lied on his U.S. citizenship application and that he had served in the Iranian military during the war. The government lawyers relied mainly on one specific piece of “evidence”: a card that had been found at the Mousavi residence, which they believed to be a military card. The American-contracted Farsi-English translator who was questioned during the trials stated that the Iranian government had issued this card but that nothing identified the card as being a military ID of any sort. Mr. Mousavi’s attorney said that this card was given to his client after he suffered an injury as a civilian during the war.

On October 14, 2007, the federal court sentenced Mr. Mousavi to 33 months in prison on the following charges: filing false tax returns, omitting group membership on naturalization forms, and violating the U.S. economic embargo against Iran. The government had asked that he be jailed for 9 years, but after seeing the lack of evidence the judge decided to incarcerate him for only 33 months, including the time he had already served. Additionally, his sentence was reduced for good behavior. Nonetheless, his time in the Los Angeles County jail was not a pleasant one. He was not granted medical treatment for a chronic injury for almost a year, he was called discriminatory names by prison authorities on several occasions, and he was put in solitary confinement for excessive periods.

After many months of misery and uncertainty, the Mousavi family finally had something to look forward to: their father’s release in only a little over a year and the ability to visit him. However, the family’s newfound joy and excitement did not last long. On January 8, 2009, Mr. Mousavi was transferred to the Communication Management Unit in Terre-Haute, Indiana. CMU is an extremely strict prison with distinct demographics: 98 percent of the inmates are of either Middle Eastern or Muslim background. It is also referred to as “the terrorist jail.” Prison authorities have called Mousavi a terrorist, put him in solitary confinement, and restricted his life in many ways.  Mousavi had never been indicted on terrorism charges nor labeled a terrorist by the court. Nonetheless, he was taken from his family and transferred halfway across the United States to a high-security prison when he appears to have posed no actual threat.

In situations such as this one, we must ask ourselves where justice lies within the American judicial system. Since Barack Obama has taken office as President of the U.S., he has decided to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and has made many other promises to better the American lifestyle; these are all steps forward. However, we must continue to ask him to ensure the safety of all Americans, regardless of race, gender, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. We must educate ourselves while continuing to urge his team to investigate cases such as Mr. Mousavi’s. Over the years, many Americans have served jail time before being found innocent. This must change. Racial profiling must become a mere rumor of the past while we move into a just future where Americans are not put behind bars because of their birthplace or the religion they choose to practice.

For more information on Mr. Seyed Mahmood Mousavi’s case, please visit www.freeseyedmousavi.com

For more information on Muslim prisoners who have been unfairly treated, please visit www.projectsalam.org
 

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