Some Local News With National Implications (Updated)

I live in the country outside of a very small town in Illinois. On Sunday, FBI, Homeland Security, and local police officials raided a local meat packing plant which is operated by Muslim owners. The plant specializes in goat, sheep, and beef which is slaughtered in the customary way of Halal which is needed to follow Islamic customs. It has been around since before 9/11 and everyone who works there, who were not taken into custody, have no idea why the raid took place.

According to FBI spokeswoman Cynthia Yates, this was "part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation." No charges have been made and there have been no arrests. Local newspaper, The Joliet Herald News, begins the story by asking "Was an al-Qaeda cell lurking in the Grundy County village about 20 miles west of Morris, residents asked?" How about we ask this instead? Why was there a raid in a small town with no arrests or charges being filed with such secrecy?

While I admit, I do not know everything about this story, but neither does anyone else. All that is known are that federal, state, and local police raided the business, took people into custody and confiscated computers. So once again I ask, why the secrecy? Being a history teacher, I hate to pull back into history for a comparison, but the Gestapo pulled the same thing under Adolf Hitler. I refuse to accept the common talking point of "We will have more to comment later" from police officials.

Where I live is a very, how do I say this nicely, white area. Part of me cannot take out of this aspect of the story when trying to draw conclusions on why this raid happened. The Morris Daily Herald has a quote from a worker who used to work at the slaughterhouse stating “Who works there is a good question. Three or four Mexicans. The rest are Muslims. They pray together, 5 to 7 times a day (in a nearby building). They’re always saying, ‘I’ve got to go pray.’ When it’s a big holiday, they set it up in the meat locker and do their prayers there.” While some may view this as someones description, myself knowing the people who live in that community, there are usually undertones which cannot be expressed in text.

Part of me wonders why the race or nationality is even an aspect of the story. Could the story still have the same impact is they stated that men were taken into custody by a raid. Yes, but then people would be asking why only taken into custody? However, by stating all the details of the slaughterhouse as one done in the custom of Halal, operated by Middle Eastern men, who when arrested were wearing "Middle Eastern" garments, who pray 5 times a day. Was this done to silence the people in asking why? I think so. This is a rural, conservative area and by making mention of these details, is used to infer terrorism charges. For if it was not, they would have focused on the fact that there were "Mexican" workers, so must have to do with illegal immigration and labor.

This story has taken the idea of the destruction of the Constitution to my doorstep. What happened to due process of law? We have people living in this country being taken into custody without being charged with any crime because no charges have been filed. I honestly do not know what to do at this point to raise awareness about these events which occurred only yesterday. To me, spreading the news of this is necessary to make the public informed about what has happened, especially if this has been done under false pretenses or discrimination based on ethnicity. The more I learn, the more I will write, but for this moment what I see in my backyard is the "land of the free and the home of the brave" becoming the land of the imprisoned and enslaved through fear. I will keep this story updated as it progresses.

***UPDATE***

Turns out that the raid was in response to "immigration irregularities" according to the Chicago Tribune, not terrorism. I have sent letters to the editor for all local newspapers which covered the story to either apologize or retract what was said in regards to the idea that this was related to terrorism while alienating those of Middle Eastern origin.