FBI Interrogates Muslim High School Student Over �PLO� Notebook Doodles

December 15, 2005

Source: KXTV10.com

http://www.kxtv10.com/storyfull2.aspx?storyid=14824

On December 15, 2005 KXTV10.com reported, "Area civil rights groups are angry after a Muslim Elk Grove high school student was taken out of class and questioned by FBI agents over three letters he scrawled on his binder two years ago.

Calvine High School student Munir Rashed, 16, said he was pulled out of class on September 27 and questioned by two men who identified themselves as FBI agents. Rashed said the men asked him about a 2003 incident, when a math teacher at another school reprimanded the teen for writing the letters 'PLO' on his binder... Rashed told the agents that while the letters did represent the controversial Palestinian Liberation Organization, the letters were merely the result of doodling... Representatives of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and the Sacramento Valley office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations are now asking why school officials allowed the questioning without notifying the teen's parents... According to a statement issued by FBI spokeswoman Karen Ernst, the agents interviewed the teen after receiving a complaint about the binder incident as well as reports Rashed had pictures of suicide bombers on his cell phone. When asked if he wanted a parent present, agents said the teen declined to answer questions. Ernst also said the issues about the incident raised by Rashed were resolved and no further action was taken.

Rashed said he believed his parents had already been notified of the interview."