http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2095786/Secret-NYPD-report-reveals-police-spied-Muslims-mosques-terrorists.html
Secret NYPD report reveals how police spied on Muslims and mosques due to fears of terrorist links
A secret police document shows that the New York City Police Department increased surveillance of thousands of mosques and Muslims.
The revelation contradicts the department's claim that it does not conduct religious profiling.
Titled U.S. Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City, the document, offers a rare glimpse into the thinking of NYPD intelligence officers and how, when looking for potential threats, they focused their spying efforts on mosques and Muslims.
Under surveillance: Imam Malik Sakhawat Hussain, left, leads prayers at the Al-Mahdi Foundation in New York, on Wednesday, following revelations the NYPD spied on thousands of mosques and Muslims for terrorist activity. Police analysts listed a dozen mosques from central Connecticut to the Philadelphia suburbs. None has been linked to terrorism, either in the document or publicly by federal agencies. Obtained by the Associated Press
The New York Police Department recommended increasing surveillance of thousands of Shiite Muslims and their mosques, based solely on their religion, as a way to sweep the Northeast for signs of Iranian terrorists, the secret police document obtained by Associated Press. The NYPD is prohibited under its own guidelines and city law from basing its investigations on religion.
Under FBI guidelines, which the NYPD says it follows, many of the recommendations in the police document would be prohibited. The Associated Press has reported for months that the NYPD infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and monitored Muslim neighbourhoods with plainclothes officers. Its spying operations were begun after the 2001 terror attacks with help from the CIA in a highly unusual partnership.
The May 2006 NYPD intelligence report, entitled "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City," made a series of recommendations, including: "Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi'a mosques.' The report, drawn largely from information available in newspapers or sites like Wikipedia, was prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. It was written at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Iran. That tension over Iran's nuclear ambition has increased again recently. Police estimated the New York area Shiite population to be about 35,000, with Iranians making up about 8,500. The document also calls for canvassing the Palestinian community because there might be terrorists there.
Tension: New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says the document as a 'contingency plan'. It was written at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Iran
'The Palestinian community, although not Shi'a, should also be assessed due to presence of Hamas members and sympathizers and the group's relationship with the Iranian government,' analysts wrote.
The secret document stands in contrast to statements by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said the NYPD never considers religion in its policing. Kelly has said police go only where investigative leads take them, but the document described no leads to justify expanded surveillance at Shiite mosques.
The document also renews debate over how the NYPD privately views Muslims. Kelly has faced calls for his resignation recently from some Muslim activists for participating in a video that says Muslims want to "infiltrate and dominate" the United States. The NYPD showed the video to nearly 1,500 officers during training.
Documents previously obtained by the AP show widespread NYPD infiltration of mosques. It's not clear, however, whether the May 2006 report prompted police to infiltrate the mosques on the list. One former police official who has seen the report said that, generally, the recommendations were followed but he could not say for sure whether these mosques were infiltrated.
(Targeted: Imam Malik Sakhawat Hussain, whose Al-Mahdi Foundation mosque in Brooklyn, was on the list prepares for prayers yesterday)
On Thursday, Kelly described the document as a 'contingency plan,' though that is not mentioned in the document and there is nothing indicating what would trigger such a contingency.
'This was a 2006 document that talked about what we would do if there were hostilities involving Iran,' he said. 'It seems to me that it would be prudent for us to have plans in that regard.'
The document is dated just weeks after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Congress: 'We may face no greater challenge from a single country than from Iran.'
Asad Sadiq, president of the Bait-ul-Qaim mosque in the Philadelphia suburb of Delran, N.J., said the NYPD was being unfairly broad.
'If you attack Cuba, are all the Catholics going to attack here? This is called guilt by association,' Sadiq, a dentist, said after seeing his mosque in the NYPD document. 'Just because we are the same religion doesn't mean we're going to stand up and harm the United States. It's really absurd.'
At the Al-Mahdi Foundation mosque in Brooklyn, worshippers intoned their prayers Wednesday while touching their foreheads to disks of clay on the floor, a Shiite tradition.
'After 1,400 years, the Shias are being targeted in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, everywhere,' Imam Malik Sakhawat Hussain said after being told that his mosque was in the NYPD document. 'If U.S. authorities become suspicious of the Shias, I would say we are a very oppressed community of the world.'
At the Masjid Al-Rahman, a prayer hall in the basement of a Brooklyn apartment building, manager Abo Maher was surprised to see his mosque on the NYPD's list of Shiite locations.'
'This isn't even Shia,' he said. 'Their information is wrong.'
This article is representing Muslims in a negative way, as they are being spied on, which means that they are seen as a ‘threat’ to society. They don’t have the same privacy as other people, they aren’t being treated the same as others. People are living in fear of more terrorist attacks, which is why Muslims are being spied on. It shows Muslims in a negative way, as people are seeing them as people that can’t be trusted, terrorist etc.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2013/aug/09/muslims-eid-al-fitr-ramadan-video
Muslims around the world mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan at Friday prayers and with other celebrations. The Eid al-Fitr festival is celebrated by approximately 1.6 billion Muslims across the globe, many of whom mark the holiday with a feast after a month of fasting.
This article is representing Muslims in a positive light. The guardian is showing the millions of Muslims that are celebrating the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This is showing that Muslims are people that are proud of their religion and take is seriously. The fact that there are 1.6 billion Muslims across the globe celebrating this occasion shows that Islam is a strong religion.
