Leaders of Arab and Muslim communities in the United States have blamed what they call the pro-Israel industry for last week's raids on Muslim homes and businesses.

The accusations follow press reports that a celebrated US Nazi hunter and staunch pro-Israel lobbyist was behind a new round of interrogations of Arab and Muslim individuals announced by Attorney-General John Ashcroft.

The Washington Post reported on Sunday that John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor and current president of the St. Petersburg Holocaust Museum in Florida, filed a civil suit in Florida state court urging the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies to investigate Muslim institutions for possible links to terrorist groups.

The suit said that some Muslim organisations conspired with the Saudi government against the United States and funnelled money to terrorist groups under the guise of charity.

Muslims leaders here say the newspaper report echoes their views that self-styled Middle East experts like Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson were possibly behind the raids against some of the country's most respected Islamic institutions, including the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences, which trains Muslim imams for religious service.

Reports from those experts about possible terrorist support networks are sent to federal agencies, which use the information without considering ulterior motives or hidden agendas, the leaders said.

This really shows you how our government can be so easily driven by anti-Muslim individuals and organisations that have anti-Muslim agendas, said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director with The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a Washington-based Muslim advocacy group. We are surely disturbed by the news.

Federal agents with guns drawn raided Muslim-owned businesses and private homes in Virginia and Georgia states on Wednesday, seizing computers, financial records and boxes of documents. They made no arrests and search warrants showed they were looking for information about supposed fundraising for terrorists.

Routinely barred

Hooper pointed a finger at pro-Israel groups for anti-Muslim feelings sweeping the country.

It is not just one individual, Hooper said. There is an industry behind individuals like that who try to restrict Muslim outreach to the government and to exercise their rights.

He said that his group, one of the largest Muslim organisations, was routinely barred from attending civil rights meetings because of behind-the-scene efforts by the pro-Israel Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

It happened to us at least five times since Sept 11, Hooper said, adding that CAIR was preparing a response but he declined to give details.

An estimated 1,200 Muslims have been detained nation-wide after the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. Civil rights groups and Muslim organisations say those arrested have been held mostly on immigration charges, but treated as if they are terrorists. Dozens have reportedly been released.

More recently, sources told the Washington Post that they had to plan their raids in a hurry because of a telephone call from a lawyer in Florida, John Loftus.

Loftus, a former Nazi hunter for the Justice Department and a lawyer for US intelligence agency whistleblowers, reportedly contacted government officials March11, saying he was about to file a lawsuit in Florida against Sami Al-Arian, a Muslim professor at the University of South Florida. The suit would describe ties between Al-Arian and Saudi charity interests, said Loftus.

The powerful Jewish lobby in Washington has been anxious for the past few years over the increasing activism of the Arab and Muslim groups. Frictions between the lobbies have come into the open after Sept 11.

Late last year, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) released a report undermining figures from Muslim groups who say seven million Muslims live in the United States. The true figure, said the AJC, is 2.7 million, meaning that Jews were still America's largest minority group.

Many sucesses

But Arab groups say that they have achieved many successes in the face of competition from the more established Jewish lobby.

Muslim American groups have organised dozens of pro-Arab demonstrations trying to influence US foreign policy on issues in Palestine, Iraq and Kashmir.

Arabs have also launched major campaigns, including the anti-Israel boycott of The Walt Disney Company's international millennium exhibit two years ago, to protest Israel's claims that Jerusalem is its capital.

One of the groups' biggest achievements was meeting former president Bill Clinton, who became the first US president to address a gathering of Arab Americans.

In October, George W Bush held a closed meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan, most of whom went on to endorse him.

Fearing that the Muslim or Arab lobbies were reducing their influence, US Jewish leaders routinely warn American Jews not to drop their guard.

We dare not underestimate the Arab and Muslim lobbies or delude ourselves as to their ultimate objectives, wrote AJC Executive Director David A. Harris in the June issue of the Jerusalem Report .

The stakes are too high. The call for action by American Jewry, together with Israel, is clear. (IPS)