A blog has reported contacting an FBI Assistant Director who has denied a widely circulated claim that the FBI has decided to use the Islamic Society of North America as its official point of contact. According to the report:
Today the FBI strongly denied a claim made earlier this week…that there has been an, “official decision by FBIHQ to use ISNA as their official point of contact with the American Muslim community.”….Contacted by PipeLineNews.org, John Miller, FBI Assistant Director, Office of Public Affairs. TX., speaking for the Bureau, vigorously denied any new relationship, stressing that the “FBI official” named in the story, ” oversees the criminal and cyber programs and was in no way related to the meeting.”
1. The information as reported is factually inaccurate and generally misleading.
2. There has been no “official decision by the FBI to use ISNA,” or any other organization, “as the official point of contact with the American Muslim community.”
3. Imam Magid, who leads the ADAMS center in Herndon, Virginia, is a longstanding liaison contact of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, and a respected member of the national capital area religious community. He met with an FBI community relations official as part of that liaison relationship.
4. The FBI official identified in the story oversees the criminal and cyber programs and was in no way related to the meeting.
5. The FBI meets with contacts from many diverse groups as part of our mission to both understand and protect the communities we serve.”
As reported in an earlier post, a number of blogs and media outlets had reported on a letter said to be authored by a knowledgeable source who said that the FBI Executive Assistant Director was to meet with the Vice-President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) following the official decision by the FBI to use ISNA as ” their official point of contact with the American Muslim community”: