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Muslim and Arab Americans appearing at a Capitol Hill meeting said the Bush administration has oppressed and violated their civil rights and liberties. Civil and human rights leaders joined the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation Wednesday to discuss how the new terror fighting policies and the Patriot Act have affected them. Most said their civil rights were abused. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., who chaired the "citizens hearing," said that in 1997 he introduced "the hate crime bill" to stop crimes motivated by hate. He said the bill "ironically passed" the Senate 65 to 33 votes, but it failed in the House of Representatives. The bill would have extended the federal judiciary's authority, he said. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Conyers said, local police often stopped people to ask for identification simply for racial reasons. "It happened a lot," Conyers said. President Bush himself in his State the Union Speech condemned these practices and called for stronger hate-crime legislation, Conyers said. "We have not been able to get beyond the Department of Justice guidelines" - that is why we couldn't take steps on racial profiling, Conyers said. [more

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