Lingua Islamica: Los Angeles Times: Tensions rise again at UC Irvine

Here is an excerpt from a Los Angeles Times article about the incident at UC Irvine last week where an unidentified FBI agent assaulted a Muslim student by pushing him with his car.

Senior Yasser Ahmed said a silver Ford Taurus followed him as he drove a 24-foot moving van from a nearby parking lot to UC Irvine’s Free Speech Zone to pick up an exhibit sponsored by the Muslim Student Union. The group had sponsored a weeklong presentation, “Israel: Apartheid Resurrected,” to protest that country’s policies against the Palestinians.

Ahmed, 21, said he got out of the truck, walked to the car and asked the driver why he was following him. The driver did not respond, Ahmed said, and he tried to snap a photo of the license plate with his cellphone camera. At that point, Ahmed said, the car nudged him with its front bumper and he got out of the way. He was not injured.

The man behind the wheel drove off but was stopped almost immediately by a campus police officer, who had responded to cries for help from Ahmed and other students. The driver identified himself as an FBI agent “who was doing surveillance,” Henisey said.

On Friday, Ahmed, an economics major and lifelong Orange County resident, said he was still reeling.

“He didn’t open his window and didn’t let me know who he was. He never said anything,” Ahmed said. “All he had to say was that he was FBI or law enforcement and this wouldn’t have happened. I was frightened. He pushed me with the car, which had tinted windows and then tried to drive away. What’s one supposed to think?”

Henisey said campus officers were interviewing witnesses.

“There are potential criminal allegations, and we’re still not certain what happened,” he said. “We’re trying to determine if there was an assault and if the vehicle was used.”