NEW YORK

Rolla Abdeljawad, a Muslim American woman who was questioned by FBI agents over her pro-Palestine posts on Facebook, has expressed shock over the last week's incident, saying the agents should be pursuing actual criminals. 

In an interview with Anadolu, Abdeljawad, who resides in the US state of Oklahoma, maintained that none of her posts violated freedom of expression.

"Honestly, I'm very shocked. As a person that's traveled the world, what makes me unique in any country that I go to is that I'm an American. In America, we uphold freedom of speech. We can be individuals, we don't have thought policing. These are things that are very innately American," she said.

"What I thought, honestly, during the (...) action was what a misallocation of tax dollars that could be going to better use. What a waste of time for the FBI when there are actual criminals committing crimes, that they could be looking into people that post manifestos and they're aware of them," said Abdeljawad.

"It is something that is very concerning. Freedom of speech is one thing that is very uniquely American," she added.

She said such an interaction with FBI can make Americans feel unsafe, which she called "not okay in America".

"In America, we are individuals that are known for our bravery, we don't back down, especially when justice is on our side... It made me feel unsafe in my own home in my own community, and no one should ever get to the point where they feel unsafe in their home," Abdeljawad added.

Abdeljawad pointed out that she uses social media to be the "voice of the voiceless" and for educational purposes, referring to her posts about Gaza: "I do utilize my platform to speak up for the voiceless. I do use it as a means to educate individuals as to what is actually going on on the ground". 

Abdeljawad recalled that children and innocent people are being killed every few minutes in Gaza, adding that "this is just not right." 

She stressed that it is absolutely wrong for the FBI to use tax dollars for such monitoring, and said the funding could go to infrastructure, water systems, highways, and bridges.

"I had one thing to advise my fellow Americans is do not be intimidated. We have a constitution. We have free speech. You must be an advocate for yourself, and those who can't be advocates for themselves. That's all," she added. 

'Very concerning'

Abdeljawad's attorney, Hassan Shibly, said that according to the American legal system, "you have no obligation to answer questions of the FBI, just like you don't have an obligation to answer questions of any stranger that knocks on your door and wants to question you". 

Shibly said that freedom of expression is protected by the Constitution, stating: "If the FBI is targeting her because of her exercise of free speech, then they are curtailing on her rights, and on the US Constitution, which they swore to protect. So it is very concerning". 

"And I am very grateful to see that, as she knew her rights, she exercised her rights. She refused to speak to them, she refused to speak to them without a lawyer, she refused to allow them into her house without a warrant. We need more people to understand and stand up for the rights, otherwise, these rights are meaningless," he added. 

Shibly said the Muslim community in the US has statistically lower rates of crime and lower rates of violence, but the FBI spends too much efforts and resources targeting American Muslim community. 

"And frankly, I think it's just driven by the agency's own desire to appear to be doing something and by the individual agents' desires to get promotions," he added. 

"There isn't actually a threat from the Muslim community that would justify this targeting. So a lot of times what these agents do is they go, and they try to use these as opportunities to recruit informants from within the Muslim community," he added. 

He said when FBI recruit informants, they pressure them, either through legal threats, or even try to buy them out. 

"When they do that, they found that there isn't anything for them to inform on, there isn't any threats that they can report so that they actually pay these guys money to find mentally disturbed young kids in the community, and push them to talk about doing some horrible thing that they never would have wanted to do or thought of doing and certainly are not able to do," he said. 

"And then they arrest this mentally ill person and say, 'look, we caught another terrorist, so keep sending us billions, give me that promotion'. It's all about theatrics. It's about greed. It's about money. It's not about actually keeping America safe," Shibly added. 

Shibly contacted the FBI's Oklahoma office regarding Abdeljawad's case and is awaiting a response.

Kayla McCleery, FBI Oklahoma City field office spokesperson, said: "Every day, the FBI engages with members of the public in furtherance of our mission, which is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. 

"We can never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment protected activity. The FBI is committed to ensuring our activities are conducted with a valid law enforcement or national security purpose, while upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans," said McCleery in a statement provided to Anadolu.   

What happened?

Abdeljawad recorded her dialogue with three FBI agents who visited her residence under the pretext of discussing her social media posts.

The Muslim woman, declining to answer the agents' questions and telling them "talk to my lawyer," expressed her bewilderment, asking, "So we no longer live in a free country?". 

The agents then told Abdeljawad that she did not have to speak to them and that she should call the FBI office, and they left.

On Meta's website, it is stated that the official policy regarding sharing Facebook data is that relevant data is provided to US law enforcement in response to court orders and emergencies involving "imminent risk of harm to a child or death or serious physical injury to any person."

The site further notes that during the first six months of 2023, there were 73,956 requests from US law enforcement, with approximately 88% of the data being provided under these circumstances.

*Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul; Michael Hernandez contributed to the story