FIUSM Staff
A Miami New Times blog post by Kyle Swenson reported that on February 9, 2013, Islamic students at FIU found a listening device in Graham Center room 343 where they pray, prompting a response from the Muslim Student Association.
The MSA’s Facebook states that the organization feels “it is incumbent upon [them] to speak up against what is seemingly an unchecked polarization of the Muslim community at large,” given that a related incident occurred in New York, where the NYPD is said to have spied on MSA chapters in the area.
The post also states that “the discovery of a listening device does not only concern the Muslim student population at Florida International University but raises a matter of importance in regards to the very credibility of the organization.” It goes on further to state that the MSA is of the conviction that the device’s placement “evidently accounts for a form of espionage intended to take place in the room.”
Nazar Hamze, the regional operations director for the Council of American-Islamic Relations, confirmed with a local spy store employee that the device is indeed one used for listening purposes. The Miami New Times also mentions that several students have reported being questioned by the FBI due to a money-funneling incident involving the Flagler Mosque’s imam.
However, the MSA said that it did not wish to make any assumptions about who placed the device, claiming that it would “only lead to closed ends.” Instead, the organization said that it felt as though the rights of Islamic students have not been protected in this particular case.
Hamze and Swenson both claim that the FIU Police Department and the University’s president were not available to comment. The investigation is ongoing.
–news@fiusm.com
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