ANAHEIM, Calif. — A Muslim advocacy organization said Friday that American
Muslims are feeling "anger, disillusionment and mistrust" toward the FBI in the
aftermath of reports that it used an informant to infiltrate Southland
mosques.

"The American Muslim community
has never wavered from its commitment to keeping America safe, nor has it
hesitated from cooperating with various law enforcement agencies, including the
FBI, in ensuring the security of all U.S. citizens," the Greater Los Angeles
Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement.

But, it said, reports that informants have
been paid "to monitor and provoke law-abiding Muslims in houses of worship" and
the recruitment by the FBI of Muslims "to become informants" have left American
Muslims with "deeply troubling concerns."

One of them is that "these coercive and intimidating methods
highlight the fact that the FBI continues to view the entire American Muslim
community as suspect and treat it as such," the statement said.

"Infiltrating mainstream mosques the way FBI
informants infiltrate white supremacist groups illustrates the FBI's perception
of American Muslims as a community that must be constantly monitored, instead of
being treated as an equal partner in fighting crime and terrorism," according to
the statement.

An Irvine man who claims
he worked as an FBI informant to infiltrate mosques and gather information about
a man now accused of lying about ties to al-Qaida said this week that he spent
four to five hours a day with the suspect, and he now fears his life may be in
danger from extremist groups.

Craig
Monteilh, 46, says he recorded Ahmadullah Sais Niazi discussing jihad, weapons
and plans to blow up abandoned buildings.

Monteilh filed court documents Wednesday saying he served as a
confidential informant for the FBI from July 2006 to October 2007 to identify
and thwart terrorist operations in the Orange County Islamic community.

The CAIR statement said Monteilh's story
coupled with an FBI agent's court testimony this week in Niazi's trial regarding
the use of an informant "to infiltrate" Southland mosques "have re-ignited
feelings of anger, disillusionment and mistrust among American Muslims toward
the FBI."

"…The FBI's
counter-productive actions damage the trust between Muslims and law enforcement
and trample our constitutionally mandated civil liberties," it said.