More FBI problems with Muslim community

IRVINE – Nearly a year after a top FBI official said the agency does not monitor students at UCI, police are investigating an incident in which a Muslim student says he was threatened by a federal agent.

The incident occurred Monday night in view of campus police and dozens of Muslim student spectators, who were helping to disassemble a large wooden representation of the wall that Israelis have built in occupied Palestine.

"There was a confrontation, if you will," said UCI Police Chief Paul Henisey, who is investigating the incident to determine if any crime was committed. The students "demanded to know why this person was following them, then the person left," he said.

In 2006, an FBI agent created an uproar in the Southern California Islamic community, when she told a group of influential businessmen and women at the Pacific Club that the FBI was fully aware of the high level of activism among Muslim students at USC and UCI.

Later, a spokeswoman for FBI Assistant Director J. Stephen Tidwell e-mailed the Register, saying, "The FBI does not monitor Muslim student groups at UC Irvine, USC or other educational institutions."