Privacy SOS

One year later, no explanation about secret listening device in student prayer room

Image credit: Ridz Design

In Feburary 2013, students at the Florida International University found a listening device in their campus prayer room. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that the students are Muslim, and that the prayer room was used daily by the Muslim Student Association.

After they discovered the device hidden in the rug, the students contacted the local branch of the Center for American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization. CAIR attorneys brought it to a local gadget store, where they were told that the bug was an expensive device similar to the type the US government uses.

Over a year later, neither the Department of Justice nor the FIU administration has provided CAIR or the students with an explanation about the presence of the bug.

Imagine the outrage and national outcry that would ensue if students in a gay rights group found a bug in their meeting room, and the government never explained why. It appears as if the Muslim exemption to the First Amendment is now so well-worn in the United States that even outrageous violations like this barely register a response from the national media.

Shame.

© 2024 ACLU of Massachusetts.