Updated at 5:40 p.m. ET: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, National Intelligence Director James Clapper and other top diplomatic and security officials will huddle this week with lawmakers for a closed-door meeting on growing anti-U.S. violence in the Middle East and northern Africa, officials told NBC News on Tuesday.

The classified briefing was put together for House members after al-Qaida in the Maghreb, the North African branch of the terrorist group, published a call for followers to launch attacks on U.S. embassies and to kill U.S. diplomats.

---

The statement appeared to have been published Saturday, but it didn't come to widespread Western attention until Tuesday, when the Middle East monitoring service IntelCenter alerted its clients to the threat's appearance on a militant website. It called for attacks on U.S. interests around the world, but especially in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania.

The statement called the assassination last week of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, a "gift" that would "bring the Americans to the path of salvation and stop their war against Muslims."

Stevens was killed in a raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, along with three consulate staff members.

Clinton didn't mention the briefing in remarks to reporters in Mexico City, where she is holding talks with Mexican leaders on drug-interdiction strategies, but she said: "We are taking aggressive steps to protect our people and our consulates and embassies around the world.

"We are reviewing our security posture at every post and working with host governments to be sure they know what our security needs are wherever necessary," she said. "I think that it is important at this moment for leaders to put themselves on the right side of this debate — to speak out clearly and unequivocally against violence, whoever incites it or conducts it "

Egypt issues arrest warrant for Terry Jones over video

The rise in violence has coincided with anger in the Muslim world after the publication on YouTube of a short trailer for an unreleased movie called "Innocence of Muslims," which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a gay, wife-beating child abuser. At least 28 deaths — including those of Stevens and the three other Americans last week — have been attributed to riots and violence in at least 20 countries in reaction to the video.

In Afghanistan, NATO forces enacted tighter security measures Tuesday after rioters attacked police on a road to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and a suicide bomber blew up a bus near the Kabul airport, killing 12 foreign workers in an attack that Islamist militants said was in retaliation for the blasphemous video.

Col. Thomas Collins, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, the NATO-led contingent overseeing security in Afghanistan, told NBC News that the measures would put a temporary halt to joint operations with Afghan forces unless they were approved by a regional commander at the level of a general.

"We did a very thorough assessment," Collins said. "We looked at where we are right now with this video being out and some heightened tensions.

"We just thought it would be smartest on a temporary basis to reduce the amount of exposure of our troops in certain areas," he said.

More than 50 international troops have been killed this year in so-called green-on-blue attacks carried out by Afghan forces or militants disguised in Afghan uniforms.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Democracy declined worldwide in 2011 with Arab Spring at risk, watchdog says
• 132 inmates tunnel out of Mexico prison near US border
• Fresh anti-Japan protests erupt in China
• Islamist militants attack Egypt security headquarters in Sinai
• NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin in Benghazi answers questions about attack
• In Niger, child marriage on rise due to hunger
• Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

WASHINGTON -- Democratic governance declined throughout the world in 2011, showing that gains made in the Middle East and North Africa during the Arab Spring are very fragile and in its chaotic aftermath leaders may slip back into authoritarian rule, a U.S. watchdog group said Monday.

Only Tunisia has improved markedly its overall governance score among the Middle East and North African countries that were surveyed in the latest "Countries at the Crossroads" report published by Freedom House. Bahrain slipped backward and Egypt edged up only slightly.

---

Across the world, declines in the quality of governance far exceeded improvements, led by a worsening of government accountability and the rule of law in civil and criminal matters, the U.S. research group said.

'Slip back' to authoritarianism?
The deterioration raises an alarm for pro-democracy advocates who had hoped that the overthrow of brutal authoritarian regimes in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt marked a dramatic breakthrough, said Vanessa Tucker, project director.

"It is unclear whether the popular dismissal of the old models of authoritarianism will translate into enduring public support for novice representative government and contentious institutional reforms," she said.

Complete coverage on Middle East & North Africa on NBCNews.com

"There are limits to citizens' patience with respect to political instability, economic disruption and physical insecurity, and the desire to return to a less chaotic environment may allow the leaders to slip back into the familiar habits of authoritarian rule," she said.

Tucker also said the recent unrest in many Muslim countries triggered by an anti-Islam video demonstrated the weakness of governments in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa.

Rights group blasts 'repressive' crackdown in Tunisia, birthplace of Arab Spring

"After decades of corrupt and repressive rule, citizens in these states are facing brutal and ineffective security forces, habitually divisive and confrontational politics, and a lack of productive avenues through which to lodge their grievances and assert their rights," she said in a statement.

The Freedom House measure of governance is used widely by development groups in helping them decide whether a government can use foreign assistance effectively. The report covers the period from April 2009 to December 2011.

Four criteria are used to assess the 72 countries surveyed in Countries at the Crossroads: accountability and public voice; civil liberties; rule of law; and anti-corruption and transparency. Half of the countries are updated each year, while Egypt and Tunisia were surveyed for both of the past two years.

Freedom House says a country score of five out of a total of seven is the minimum standard for effective democratic governance, which it views as essential to an open, just and prosperous society.

Tunisia sees gains
In the latest report, Tunisia improved in all categories led by a sharp rise in accountability and public voice, pushing its overall country ranking to 4.11 from around 2.36 before the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. One area of concern the report flagged was women's rights, saying Islamist political parties have stoked fears of a rollback in existing rights.

While it uses monitors and experts on the ground and an advisory board, such rankings can be controversial and there have been accusations of imposing subjective and Western viewpoints.

Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

Accountability and public voice also rose in Egypt after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, but other measures were flat leading to only a small rise to 2.25 from 1.98 the prior year, despite open elections.

Restrictions on the media, hostility to non-governmental organizations and efforts to restrain women's political activity through "virginity checks" by the military were cited as areas of concern.

Bahrain, once seen as one of the more developed countries in the region, saw its score decline across the board, pulling its country average down to 2.03, the level of pre-uprising Syria, from a recent peak of 3.27 in 2004.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

Other findings in the report were:

• Latin America saw increases in violence and organized crime hurting scoring in the countries surveyed there. The trend included high rates of violence against journalists in Mexico and Honduras, and growing interference by organized crime in the electoral process in Guatemala and Mexico.

• Asia suffered major setbacks in the face of power grabs by the executive branch and ruling parties, particularly in Sri Lanka and Vietnam. 
• Freedom of expression was also constricted as the Indonesian and Cambodian governments and others cracked down on the media.
• South Africa suffered score declines from the increasing dominance of the ruling African National Congress and the government's efforts to limit media freedom. 
• Electoral abuses in Malawi and Uganda, in addition to growing corruption in Tanzania, were also responsible for significant score drops in African countries assessed in the latest report.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Islamist militants attack Egypt security headquarters in Sinai
• NBC's Ayman Mohyeldin in Benghazi answers questions about attack
• In Niger, child marriage on rise due to hunger
• Ambassador Rice: Benghazi attack began spontaneously
• Pope tells Christians in Beirut: 'Be peacemakers'
• Four NATO soldiers killed in Afghan 'insider' attack
• Obama: US has 'profound respect for people of all faiths'
• Clashes after South Africa cops raid miners' hostels to seize weapons

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

An international rights group called Monday for Tunisian prosecutors to drop charges against two sculptors for artworks deemed harmful to public order and good morals, a legal action seen as part of a clampdown on free speech in the country where the Arab Spring began.

Human Rights Watch said that the prosecution of artists Nadia Jelassi and Mohamed Ben Salem in Tunisia, the country whose protests against its longtime dictator helped set off similar uprisings across the Arab world, violated the right to freedom of expression because the works did not incite or discriminate.

---

"Time and again, prosecutors are using criminal legislation to stifle critical or artistic expression," Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

"Bloggers, journalists and now artists are being prosecuted for exercising their right to free speech," he added.

Protests
The works by Jelassi and Ben Salem were exhibited in a show in La Marsa in June, according to Human Rights Watch. The two, whose mixed-media work provoked protests during the exhibition, face up to five years in prison if convicted, the rights group said.

La Marsa is a coastal town north of the capital Tunis.

Jelassi's contribution was a work titled "Celui qui n'a pas …" ("He who hasn't …"). It includes sculptures of veiled women amid a pile of stones. Ben Salem’s work showed ants coming out of a child's schoolbag to spell the word "Allah," or God, according to Human Rights Watch.

Mother of Tunisian fruit vendor who sparked Arab Spring is arrested

In addition to protests outside the center, several works of art in the exhibition reportedly were damaged.

The two artists were informed by the investigative judge of the First Degree Court of Tunis in August that they face charges, Human Rights Watch said.

Veiled female news anchor marks wane of secular Egypt

The article of the penal code under which the two artists were charged make it an offense to "distribute, offer for sale, publicly display, or possess, with the intent to distribute, sell, display for the purpose of propaganda, tracts, bulletins, and fliers, whether of foreign origin or not, that are liable to cause harm to the public order or public morals," according to Human Rights Watch.

"Many Tunisians expected that repressive laws ... would not long outlast the dictator who adopted [them]," Goldstein of Human Rights Watch said.

Voice of Tunisian spring calls for justice, equality

"We now see that as long as the transitional government does not make it a priority to get rid of these laws, the temptation to use them to silence those who dissent or think differently is irresistible," he added.

More coverage of the Middle East and North Africa on NBCNews.com

Clampdown on freedom of expression
Amnesty International has also contended that freedom of expression has increasingly been under threat in Tunisia in recent months. A number of journalists, cinemas and TV stations have been fined, shut down or arrested, according to Amnesty.

The Arab Spring is widely considered to have begun in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where a fruit seller's self-immolation triggered the popular uprisings against autocratic rule there and other countries in the region.

Complete World News coverage on NBCNews.com

The Tunisian uprising forced out dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. Elections that followed brought to power Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party that had been banned under Ben Ali’s rule.

NBC News' staff and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Sun Myung Moon, founder of Unification Church, dies at 92
• Girl accused of blasphemy in Pakistan may have been framed by Muslim cleric
• 'Big enough for all of us': Clinton says US can work with China in Pacific
• Assad stays cool amid reports of bread-line slaughter
• Ex-Marine on her journey from homelessness to the Paralympics

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

TUNIS, Tunisia -- The mother of the Tunisian peddler whose suicide sparked the Arab Spring was arrested after getting into a scuffle with a court official, a family member said on Friday.

Salem Bouazizi, brother of Mohammed Bouazizi, whose death made him a symbol for the frustrations of many, said their mother was arrested for allegedly attacking the official in Sidi Bouzid, the central town where Tunisia's revolution began.

---

Bouazizi said his mother, Manoubia Bouazizi, 60, returned an insult after the court employee insulted her, pushed her and slammed a door in her face, refusing to assist her application for documents.

According to the AFP news agency, Salem Bouazizi said the documents she was there to sign would have allowed her to receive compensation from the government given to "martyrs of the revolution."

Tunisia declares curfew after riots

"This is an insult to the mother of a martyr," he said, demanding her immediate release.

"My mother was humiliated. The authorities must learn to respect people. We're not going to let this go," Bouazizi told AFP.

The prosecutor opened an investigation and interviewed witnesses for hours following the incident, AFP reported. One witness said Manoubia Bouazizi had "threatened to set fire to the court," according to testimony obtained by AFP.

Tunisia Live, which describes itself as the first English-language Tunisian news website, reported that Manoubia Bouazizi could face a fine and up to a month in jail; this could not be independently verified.

There was no immediate comment from the justice ministry.

Self immolation
Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire on a street on December 17, 2010, infuriated after a policewoman confiscated his goods, and died the following month.

His act sparked a wave of protests that spread through Tunisia's neglected hinterlands to the capital, forcing veteran dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to flee on January 14, 2011.

Ben Ali's departure sent shockwaves around the Arab world and sparked uprisings that ultimately overthrew leaders in Egypt and Libya last year.

The families of those killed in the Tunisian revolution have complained that the government has done little compensate them or to improve the position of the country's worst off.

Msnbc.com staff and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Surfer presumed dead in Australia shark attack
• Suicide bomber kills at least 22 at Afghan wedding
• The ghosts that haunt China's economic landscape
• China reports slowest growth rate in 3 years
• US source: Syria is moving its chemical weapons
• Tight security, long lines and moans: A very British Olympics
• 3 Americans killed as private jet crashes in southern France
• Costa Concordia disaster spawns shipwreck tourism
• Ex-pats rush to aid Syrian students abroad

Follow World News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook

TRIPOLI - Tunisia has extradited former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's prime minister to Libya, a Libyan security official said on Sunday, making him the first senior official to be sent back for trial under the country's transitional leadership. 

Defense ministry official Mohammed al-Ahwal told Reuters that a helicopter transferred Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi to Tripoli on Sunday. 

---

"Mahmoudi is now in Tripoli and we are holding him in a prison," Ahwal said. 

Mahmoudi served as the Libyan dictator's prime minister from 2006 until he fled to neighboring Tunisia around the time that rebel fighters took the capital Tripoli in August. 

Libya begins battle to seize $20 billion in Gadhafi assets - starting with London mansion

His extradition could establish a precedent for other countries who have given refuge to or arrested members of Gadhafi's old entourage. 

Tripoli considers it a matter of national pride and a measure of the country's transformation that trials of people like Mahmoudi and Gadhafi's imprisoned son Saif al-Islam be held in Libya. 

But human rights groups question whether its justice system can meet the standards of international law and say he should be handed over to the ICC instead. 

A Tunisian court ruled as far back as November that Mahmoudi should be extradited. But Tunisian President Moncef al-Marzouki later said the handover would not happen until the situation in Libya had stabilized and Mahmoudi could be guaranteed a fair trial after Gadhafi himself was killed by rebels and his rotting corpse left on display. 

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Paraguay under pressure from neighbors after president Lugo ousted
• Greek PM cannot attend EU summit due to surgery
• Naked valkyries? Nudes open German opera season
• Turkey seeks NATO action over Syria military jet downing
• 14 mutilated corpses, threat message to drug cartel found in Mexican city
• Suu Kyi's journey to global icon: a heart-breaking tale of personal sacrifice
• Fourth Syrian Red Crescent worker shot dead

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

 

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

A Tunisian military court has sentenced ousted leader Zine Abidine Ben Ali to life in prison -- albeit in absentia, as Ben Ali and his wife fled to Saudi Arabia as protests swept the country. He was found guilty of for his role in the deaths of hundreds of protesters.

Another military court sentenced Ben Ali to 20 years for inciting violence and murder, BBC reported.

---

Ben Ali is unlikely to be extradited soon as Saudis have refused to send him back. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for Ben Ali, AFP reported.

Tunisia declares curfew after riots

The military court also sentenced Ben Ali's interior minister, Rafik Belhaj Kacem and seven security chiefs to up to 15 years for the deaths of more than 300 people in the January 2011 uprising. The uprising triggered the Arab Spring, launching revolutions across the Middle East.

"The verdict is unjust. The sentences are light, these sentences have been affected by political pressure," Chardedine Glail, the lawyer representing the families of the victims, told Reuters. "The court has fallen into a trap."

"How can Ben Ali get life when he is charged with a role in the deaths, whereas Kacem gets 12 years when he is charged with killing?" she said.

The sentences come as the capital Tunis is seeing some of the worst confrontations since last year's revolt ousted Ben Ali and launched uprisings across the Arab world. Tuesday, protesters hurled petrol bombs at officers, blocked streets and set tires alight in the capital's working class Ettadamen and Sidi Hussein districts.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• 'Maple Spring' student protests: Crackdown roils Quebec
• 'Forest boy' mystery: Stumped cops release photo
• Russia is sending gunships to Syria, Clinton says
• Cows, sheep to star in London's Olympic opening cermony

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

 

Tunisia declared a curfew in the capital and seven other regions following violent protests over an art exhibition.

The government has blamed ultra-conservative Salafi Islamists, who were angered by an art exhibition they say insults Muslims. Protesters clashed with police in Tunis on Tuesday, raising religious tensions in the home of the Arab Spring and piling pressure on the moderate Islamist government.

In some of the worst confrontations since last year's revolt ousted President Zine Abidine Ben Ali and launched uprisings across the Arab world, protesters hurled petrol bombs at officers, blocked streets and set tires alight in the working class Ettadamen and Sidi Hussein districts of the capital overnight.

---

Salafis, who follow a puritanical interpretation of Islam, denied being involved in the clashes, BBC reported.

The curfew will be in place in the suburbs of Ben Arouss, Ariana and Manouba as well as the cities of Sousse, Monastir, Jendouba and Ben Guerdane.

By morning, protests had spread to a number of residential districts. Stone-throwing youths stopped trams from passing through the capital's Intilaqa district, where demonstrators entered mosques and used the loudspeakers to call on Tunisians to defend Islam.

An Interior Ministry official on Tunisian state TV said 97 people had been detained during the unrest, including dozens of Salafis and some described as "criminals."

According to the BBC, Justice Minister Nourredine Bhiri said that those behind the violence would "pay a heavy price."

Exclusive: Tunisia licenses first Islamist Salafi party

"These are terrorist groups which have lost control, they are isolated in society," he told a Tunisian radio station, per the BBC.

Tuesday's clashes came a day after a group of Salafis forced their way into an art exhibition in the upscale La Marsa suburb and defaced works they deemed offensive.

The work that appears to have caused the most fury and polarized Tunisians spelled out the name of God using insects.

"These artists are attacking Islam, and this is not new. Islam is targeted," said a youth, who gave his name as Ali and had removed his shirt and was preparing to confront police in Ettadamen.

In a statement released before the protests, Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that now leads the government, condemned what it described as provocations and insults against religion but urged its own supporters to respond peacefully.

The violence puts Ennahda in a difficult position.

While Islamists did not play a major role in the revolution, the struggle over Islam's place in government and society has emerged as the most divisive issue in Tunisian politics, and several clashes have erupted in recent months.

Salafis want a broader role for religion in the new Tunisia, alarming secular elites who fear they will seek to impose their views and ultimately undermine the nascent democracy.

Some said the unrest started just two days after al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahiri called on Tunisians to demand the imposition of Muslim religious law, AFP reported.

Reuters contributed to this report.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Cows and sheep to star in London Olympic Games opening ceremony
• UN: Children tortured, used as human shields in Syria
• Twist in 32-year-old case as coroner rules dingo took baby
• Clash of the titans: Vatican takes on reforming US nuns
• NBC News: Egypt's ex-dictator Hosni Mubarak slips into coma
• Reports: UK PM David Cameron leaves 8-year-old daughter in pub
• Chinese activists: You can't 'suicide' us

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Sun worshippers are welcome on Tunisia's beaches even though an Islamist government now runs the Mediterranean country which relies heavily on tourism to fill its coffers, its prime minister said on Monday.

"We will respect the traditions of our visitors in their food, and clothing and lifestyle," Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said at a conference to promote tourism held on the island of Djerba, known for its white sandy beaches and luxury spas.

---

As if to reinforce his message, a wide selection of alcoholic beverages was on offer at the opening ceremony of the tourism conference on Sunday night.

That message is in stark contrast to neighboring Libya, which earlier this year told msnbc.com it does not intend to follow Tunisia and Morocco down the road of mass tourism and relatively widespread alcohol sales.

Jebali's moderate Islamist Ennahda party took power at the head of a coalition in an election after last year's revolution, which ousted veteran leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and sparked the Arab Spring.

Could sun-soaked Libya be the Mediterranean's next tourism hot spot?

Tunisia, which relies on tourism for almost 7 percent of its gross domestic product, saw visitor numbers and tourist revenues drop by more than a third after the revolution.

"Unfortunately, some want to paint Tunisia as a jungle and sow fear of the Ennahda government but this does not reflect reality and the proof is that these critics speak freely," Jebali told journalists on the sidelines of the conference.

About 5 million tourists visited the country last year, down from 7 million in 2010 as fears over security caused tourists to flee or to cancel bookings.

Tunisia has since made a relatively smooth transition to democracy and tourists are returning to its coastal resorts. But occasional protests and lingering fears that Ennahda will slowly seek to Islamise society have held back the recovery, as has the economic crisis in Europe.

Jebali said bookings had improved for 2012 and Tunisia hoped to regain its 7 million tourists and top that by encouraging visits to historical, cultural sites and the southern desert.

In an effort to allay fears that Tunisia would impose sharia, or Islamic law, as some conservative Islamists have demanded, Jebali said a constitution is being drafted that would protect the "civil" nature of the state.

"We want to reassure everyone and even our own people that there is nothing to fear from freedom and democracy," he said.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

TUNIS, Tunisia -- The head of a Tunisian newspaper and two of its editors were arrested Wednesday for violating public morals, the Justice Ministry said, after the publishing of a photo of a sports figure with a nude woman.

The daily printed a photograph of German-Tunisian football player Sami Khedira of Real Madrid dressed in a tuxedo with his hands covering the breasts of his otherwise naked German model girlfriend, Lena Gercke.

Ministry spokesman Chokri Nafti said the prosecutor of the republic ordered the detention of Attounisia newspaper's publisher, Nasreddine Ben Said, the editor in chief, Hbib Guizani, and the editor of the world section, Hedi Hidhri, pending the investigation. They were charged with an assault on public morality.

---

A journalist at the paper said it has also received phone calls threatening to burn the premises down. The building is now guarded by police.

She spoke on condition of anonymity because she feared retaliation from religious extremists.

Though Tunisia is not as as conservative as its neighbors, it is an unusual move for a newspaper here to run such a photo.

Since the downfall last year of Tunisia's secular dictator, there has been a newly visible ultraconservative Islamist movement that has clashed with the more aggressively secular elements in society.

Tunisia's top appellate court, meanwhile, delayed until Feb. 24 an appeal of a lower court's ruling to block pornographic websites.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Iran claims steps toward nuclear self-sufficiency
• Officials: Hundreds die in Honduras prison fire
• Uganda minister shuts down gay rights conference
• Syria's Assad sets referendum date  

Updated at 6 p.m. ET: The Federal Bureau of Investigations returned calls to msnbc.com after we published our story about Jamal Tarhuni, an American citizen who was barred from flying back to the United States on Jan. 17 at the end of an aid mission to Libya.

“At this point we have no comment,” said Beth Ann Steele, with media relations at the FBI office in Portland, which dispatched an agent to Tarhuni’s questioning at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.

An FBI counterterrorism official in Washington who asked not to be named confirmed that the government does not disclose the no-fly list.

---

“There are legitimate security reasons for the government’s policy not to disclose who is on the no-fly list,” which is maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center. The official said: “Terrorists could change their identities or use individuals who are unknown to the U.S. intelligence community to carry out terror attacks.”

Questions about Tarhuni’s allegation that an FBI agent had attempted to get him to sign a waiver of his Miranda rights were referred to a different part of the FBI. 

The nonprofit civil rights organization Council on American Islamic Relations called on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to intervene in Tarhuni’s case.

“Whatever questions American officials have for Mr. Tarhuni, no one should be barred from his or her country of citizenship without so much as a court hearing. It is immoral and unlawful for the United States to separate an American citizen from his children, his family and his country,” CAIR said in a letter to Clinton on Friday.

“This incident raises broader concerns that the anti-Muslim training given to FBI agents and other law enforcement personnel in recent years is having an effect on the actions agents are taking in the field. It is counterproductive and unconstitutional for FBI agents to equate belief in Islam with a propensity to commit acts of violence -- as they seem to have done with Mr. Tarhuni."

Original post: The ouster of Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi was life-changing for Jamal Tarhuni, an American citizen from the North African country who was granted U.S. asylum in the 1970s. Over the past year as Libyans fought to destroy the vestiges of the four-decade long dictatorship, Tarhuni threw himself into aid work for his native country.

Now the Portland businessman is fighting for his right to fly home to the United States. Sometime during his most recent aid mission to Libya, it appears, Tarhuni landed on the government's no-fly list — a secret roster of thousands of people, including hundreds of Americans, whom the Department of Homeland Security has identified as terror suspects.

"(The United States) is a country that has given me a lot," Tarhuni said, speaking to msnbc.com from Tripoli. "All of the sudden this country I love very much has given me a slap in the face … Here we are, we just got rid of this regime (Gadhafi)… and this happens to me in the United States of America. It was really mind-boggling."

Tarhuni, 55, a naturalized U.S. citizen educated as an engineer, was preparing to return home on Jan. 17 when the run-in occurred. He had been working in Libya since October — overseeing delivery of medical supplies and food to hospitals and Libyan refugees — and was eager to get back to his wife and three children in their home in Portland, Ore. The trip had been drawn out, he said, because the aid shipments were delayed by snags at the port and at the border with Libya, which had been closed periodically.

"Based on our experience with (Tarhuni), we believe there must be some misunderstanding," said Bill Essig, the vice president of Medical Teams International, the Portland-based Christian nonprofit for which Tarhuni was working in Libya. He confirmed that this was the third Libya mission Tarhuni had worked on with Medical Teams International in the last year.

Questioned about religion
Tarhuni flew from Tripoli to Tunis, but was halted by ticket agents before he could board his flight to the United States. Air France staff had received a directive by email from their Paris headquarters, they said. The mail said to instruct Tarhuni to check in as soon as possible at the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.

At the embassy, an official looked into his case, and told Tarhuni that an unspecified federal agency wanted to interview him.

The official, Mike Sweeney, consul at the embassy, returned a call to msnbc.com to say that he could not discuss the case because of "Privacy Act concerns ... I do not have any Privacy Act waiver to give you any information about (the) case, so unfortunately I cannot give you any information."

So on Jan. 23, according to Tarhuni, he returned for his meeting — held in a bare vault-like room with two FBI agents, one called "Horse" who was said to be from the regional office and another agent, Brian Zinn, from Portland, Ore., and an English-speaking Libyan attorney.

Feds' secret no-fly list more than doubles in a year

After initial questioning about the scope and nature of Tarhuni’s work they began to move into uncomfortable territory, according to Tarhuni’s daughter, Lina, 23, who spoke to msnbc.com from Portland.

"The FBI officials went on questioning my father about religion,” she wrote, in a detailed account provided to msnbc.com. "They asked him where he practiced his religion (place of worship)? Was he a Salafi (a sect of Islam)? Did he interact or communicate with Salafis? Did he interact with mujahideen? Did he practice Shariah law?"

How suspects reach the no-fly list

The question about Shariah law was especially tricky. To Tarhuni, an observant Muslim, Shariah means a set of rules for praying, marrying, parenting and generally conducting a good life, which would be a subject for discussion at any mosque, but not — as some people interpret it — as a set of rigid and punitive rules that Muslims are obliged to impose on others.

Tarhuni said he was cooperative, even though he thought the questions seemed designed to intimidate him or suggest he had some connection with terrorists simply because of his faith.

He even agreed to take a lie-detector test, which was presented as the final step before he was allowed to fly home.  

Muslims often put on no-fly list without explanation

But Tarhuni said that when a third agent, a woman from New York, requested that he sign a document — which turned out to be a waiver of his Miranda rights — he balked.

"When my dad read the paper he realized it was a document to waive his constitutional right, his Miranda rights … he immediately stood up, unhooked the cords attached to him, and claimed he was not going to take the lie detector test and was not going to waive his rights," his daughter said.

Multiple calls to the FBI media section and terrorism screening center that keeps the no-fly list, have have not yet yielded any information about the Tarhuni case.

Boats, trains and cars?
To the extent that he and his lawyers can guess, they believe Tarhuni’s name is on a secret no-fly list administered by the Department of Homeland Security.

Though no one will say if his name is on the list, Tarhuni said he was told by U.S. embassy officials that he can fly home after filing a request in the electronic TRIP system — or Traveler Redress Inquiry Program.

According to its website, the TRIP system is designed for people "who have been denied or delayed airline boarding; have been denied or delayed entry into or exit from the U.S. at a port of entry or border crossing; or have been repeatedly referred to additional (secondary) screening can file an inquiry to seek redress."

However, Portland attorney Tom Nelson, who is advising Tarhuni and has two other clients on the no-fly list, advises against filing in the TRIP system.

"Once you trigger the TRIP process, you affect your legal rights to challenge the actions of the FBI in court," said Nelson.

Alternatively, Tarhuni has been informed that he can make the 5,000-mile return trip by other means of transportation — boats, trains, cars.

He is scheduled to fly out of Tunis, accompanied by Nelson, on Feb. 13. He is not planning to file for a redress number through the TRIP system.

"I don’t know what the FBI reaction will be,” said Tarhuni. "They could try to detain me or arrest me at the airport. I am ready for them. I have a constitutional right that I will protect and demand … The FBI was absolutely wrong, and they caused a lot of pain and inconvenience to me and my family."

Msnbc.com is pursuing more information from the the FBI and the State Department, as well as from members of Jamal Tarhuni’s Portland community. We will be updating his story as information emerges.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

• Too crazy to kill? Supreme Court asked to decide
• American Muslims say they still carry 9/11 baggage
• Feds' secret no-fly list more than doubles in a year
• Police: Ex-Marine charged in homeless killing linked to more deaths
• Controversial Georgia bishop crowned 'king' at church
• Mistakenly deported teen: 'I made a lot of horrible mistakes'

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook