NYPD Spying on American Muslims ‘Harmful’: Report
New York police’s extensive surveillance program targeting American Muslims in recent years has led to a pervasive climate of fear and suspicion within the community.
Civil liberties groups headed by the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition published a report on Monday detailing the devastating effects of spying on Muslims across the Northeast US in mosques, restaurants, cafes, and other public places over more than a decade.
“The program has stifled speech, communal life and religious practice and criminalized a broad segment of American Muslims. The isolationism that comes with being a 'spied on' community means that American Muslims are getting a fundamentally inferior opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights,” said attorney Nermeen Arastu.
The 57 Muslims interviewed for the study said that trust and privacy were virtually impossible and that their lives were severely harmed by the spying.
The effects of the spying have, according to the study, resulted in suppression of religious spaces, such as congregants becoming suspicious of one another, imams hesitating when advising their congregations as well as individuals refraining from appearing visibly ‘Muslim.’
The report is "a powerful rebuttal to all who seek to minimize the impact of NYPD surveillance of Muslims as a faith group," said Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid.
It also disclosed that the Commanding Officer of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Intelligence Division, Thomas Galati, has admitted "during sworn testimony that in the six years of his tenure, the unit tasked with monitoring American Muslim life had not yielded a single criminal lead."
Abdur-Rashid, who delivered a copy of the report to the NYPD, said that the report “is the authentic voice of real people impacted by unjust policies and procedures, for which Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly remain both defensive and un-apologetic."
In addition, Abdur-Rashid said, “This report is critically important reading for all Americans concerned with freedom, justice, and equality in 21st century America.”
Source: Press TV
“The program has stifled speech, communal life and religious practice and criminalized a broad segment of American Muslims. The isolationism that comes with being a 'spied on' community means that American Muslims are getting a fundamentally inferior opportunity to exercise their constitutional rights,” said attorney Nermeen Arastu.
The 57 Muslims interviewed for the study said that trust and privacy were virtually impossible and that their lives were severely harmed by the spying.
The effects of the spying have, according to the study, resulted in suppression of religious spaces, such as congregants becoming suspicious of one another, imams hesitating when advising their congregations as well as individuals refraining from appearing visibly ‘Muslim.’
The report is "a powerful rebuttal to all who seek to minimize the impact of NYPD surveillance of Muslims as a faith group," said Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid.
It also disclosed that the Commanding Officer of the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Intelligence Division, Thomas Galati, has admitted "during sworn testimony that in the six years of his tenure, the unit tasked with monitoring American Muslim life had not yielded a single criminal lead."
Abdur-Rashid, who delivered a copy of the report to the NYPD, said that the report “is the authentic voice of real people impacted by unjust policies and procedures, for which Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly remain both defensive and un-apologetic."
In addition, Abdur-Rashid said, “This report is critically important reading for all Americans concerned with freedom, justice, and equality in 21st century America.”
Source: Press TV
