Lawsuit filed to investigate FBI over Muslim surveillance practices

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Creative Commons photo by Flickr user :a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kalavinka/4644309240/">kalavinka.

A lawsuit was filed in a San Francisco federal court Tuesday against the Federal Bureau of Investigation by local civil rights groups and a weekly newspaper.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Asian Law Caucus joined with the San Francisco Bay Guardian in the suit, which aims to speed up the release of documents related to Muslim surveillance and investigations.

The groups want to see records of matters such as investigations of Bay Area mosques and Islamic community centers, how agents are being trained in Muslim culture and how the agency might use race, religion and country of origin to decide whom to investigate.

Local Muslim news magazine Illume reported that the suit was filed after the FBI failed to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed in March for the documents. By law, when such a request is filed, the documents requested must be turned over within 20 days unless there is a permitted reason to withhold them. 

CBS 5 reported that FBI spokesman Bill Carter said the agency receives thousands of public-information requests each year and processes the files as quickly as possible.

The Bay Guardian accused the FBI of engaging in dubious investigative practices against Muslims.

The Asian Law Caucus issued a public statement on the case.

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