Muslims, anarchists, and “peace activists” join together with the ACLU in denouncing the FBI and demanding access to their files. (Hat tip: unclebubba.)

They are Muslims, anarchists and peace activists. They may not have much in common, but two dozen groups and individuals in the St. Louis area united this month to denounce the FBI, claiming the agency is carrying out unwarranted investigations for religious or political reasons.

A series of FBI inquiries across the country shows that the agency has sunk back into the kind of political monitoring it did in the 1960s and 1970s, says the American Civil Liberties Union.

The conduct of the FBI is “eerily reminiscent of the days of J. Edgar Hoover,” its controversial first director, said Denise Lieberman, legal director for the ACLU affiliate in St. Louis.

“They are conducting investigations based on groups’ political activities and affiliations, or their religious affiliations,” she said. “Under our Constitution, government is supposed to have cause to believe that you are involved in criminal activity before they put you under investigation.”

The FBI vigorously rejects the complaints. “We investigate when we have a specific and credible threat, and we do not have the resources nor the time to monitor the activities of people just for the sake of monitoring their activities,” said Roland Corvington, special agent in charge of the FBI office in St. Louis.

Fourteen individuals and nine organizations, all represented by the ACLU branch in St. Louis, filed requests under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act on May 18, seeking any investigative files the FBI may have about them. The ACLU also filed one for itself.

The ACLU office in St. Louis was one of 10 ACLU affiliates that filed such requests for information from the FBI on May 18. Others included the ACLU offices in Rhode Island, Idaho and Kentucky, the ACLU said.

Lieberman says she believes that at least some of those who filed the requests have been investigated improperly and that obtaining the FBI’s files on them will reveal whether that is true of all.

One of the individuals is Muhammad Nur Abdullah, the imam of the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis, who said he believes FBI questioning of members in recent months is part of a pattern of bias against Muslims. He said he hopes to get documents to explain the tactics. “You don’t know what is there,” he said. “We don’t know what they have, whether it is right or wrong.”

Abdullah, a U.S. citizen, grew up in Sudan but has lived in this country 27 years. He says he is questioned for as long as 10 to 20 minutes every time he tries to board a plane.

Abdullah said the Islamic Foundation, a mosque in St. Louis County, had invited FBI agents to sensitivity training. “They come and visit us,” he said. “We have good relations.”

But he said it was the questioning of at least five members at their homes or workplaces just this year that caused concern. “As American citizens, we care about our country,” he said, adding that the 9/11 attacks were a “horrible tragedy” whose victims included many Muslims.