Detroit-area Muslims unnerved by FBI surveillance plane circling above

The FBI repeatedly flew a spy plane in the last week over Dearborn

 

The FBI repeatedly flew a spy plane in the last week over Dearborn, Michigan, a city with one of the highest populations of Muslims in the U.S.

First reported by the Detroit News, the plane flew in a tight circle Saturday and Sunday nights around the Detroit suburb, which has the highest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country, according to data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24.

It is part of an FBI fleet of more than 50 small planes that are equipped with high-powered video cameras and, sometimes, cell phone tracking devices. The program, which was revealed by the Associated Press in June, has raised questions from civil rights advocates.

Local leaders say it’s only the latest example in a long record of religious profiling of Detroit’s Muslim community by government officials.