Opinion Editorials, August 2007
|
|
NYPD Radicalization Report casts suspicion on all American Muslims
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
ccun.org, August 25, 2007
American Muslim community is alarmed by the New York Police Department (NYPD) report on "radicalization" that may result in all U.S. Muslims being viewed with suspicion.
The report - entitled, "Radicalization in the West and the Homegrown Threat" - warns of "radicalization" among otherwise unremarkable young Muslim men in the United States who grow disillusioned with life and sign on with jihadis.
The study contains sweeping generalizations which are likely to reinforce negative stereotypes and unwarranted suspicions about the seven-million strong American Muslim community. The report may also serve to further marginalize the community by labeling almost every American Muslim as a potential threat.
Consider the statement from the report that suggests “there is no useful profile to assist law enforcement or intelligence to predict who will follow this trajectory of radicalization.” It is followed by a detailed description of exactly who the NYPD considers suspicious: Muslim men, ages 15 to 35, of middle-class origin often with college degrees. The typical homegrown jihadists, the report continues, may “look, act, talk and walk like everyone around them” and “are often those who are at a crossroad in life.”
In releasing the report, Commissioner Ray Kelly insisted the NYPD was not targeting Muslims for being Muslim — just those who distort the faith. However, in its characterization of such rogues, the report uses a broad brush that threatens to cast a suspicious pall over entire Muslim communities.
Muslims in the U.S. are more resistant, but not immune to the radical message, the report said and added: “Despite the economic opportunities in the United States, the powerful gravitational pull of individuals’ religious roots and identity sometimes supersedes the assimilating nature of American society.”
The report lays the foundation for the blanket surveillance of the entire Muslim population. "While aggressive counter-terror policies are to be commended, this report appears to treat all young Muslims as suspects and to lay the groundwork for wholesale surveillance of Muslim communities without any sign of unlawful conduct," said Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Encouraging a policy that targets Muslims alone, as this report implies, is dangerous because it not only creates a perception of guilt, but risks prompting violence against the community from “outraged” fellow Americans. Arab and Muslim groups have expressed concern over the sweeping generalizations of the 90-page report.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) National Executive Director Kareem Shora called the findings faulty and inflammatory. He said the report is at odds with federal law enforcement findings, including those of the recently released National Intelligence Estimate, and uses unfortunate stereotyping of entire communities.
"The use of such language by NYPD is un-American and goes against everything for which we stand. We do not want to alienate any segment of any community, and by using that type of language, you are actually aiding the extremists in their recruiting efforts."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said the report purports to outline a four-step process of radicalization, but in fact describes ordinary activities, associations and behaviors as indicators of a potential terror threat.
The CAIR Chairman Dr. Parvez Ahmed pointed out that the report lists sites that are likely to be visited by any American Muslim as radicalization 'incubators.' The sites listed include mosques, cafes, cab driver hangouts, student associations, nongovernmental organizations, butcher shops, and book stores.
The report also claims that signs of radicalization include positive changes in personal behavior such as giving up smoking, drinking and gambling. It also makes similar claims about those who wear Islamic attire or a religiously-recommended beard.
Is Islamic attire or giving up bad habits, which is something recommended by leaders of all faiths, now to be regarded as suspicious behavior, Dr. Parvez Ahmed asked?
By promoting stereotypes and unwarranted suspicions, the report's authors encourage marginalization of and hostility toward the American Muslim community, he argued. President of the Islamic Center of Long Island, Habeeb Ahmed, called for the police department to prevent terrorism without "trampling" the civil rights of minorities through racial profiling and surveillance.
He is worried that Long Island residents traveling between Nassau and New York City could be singled out by the NYPD for racial profiling. Habeeb Ahmed faulted the report for relying heavily on news reports and not on the research of psychologists and sociologists. Of 133 report sources include more than 70 print and electronic media reports.
He said the report does not analyze terrorist acts carried out by non-Muslim groups, such as how Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols orchestrated the Oklahoma City bombing. "There is terrorism in other segments of the population. There is no mention of that," he said. "That is problematic. How is this 100 percent a Muslim problem?"
Mainstream media coverage of the NYPD report has reinforced the fear of the American Muslim community about the negative fallout.
Here are some headlines: Newsday: New York police report spotlights Muslim radicals; New York Times: Study Cites Danger of Homegrown Terrorism; Washington Post: NYPD Report Warns Of Homegrown Terrorists; Newsweek: How Homegrown Terrorists Are Made? Queens Chronicle: Monitoring The Threat Next Door and National Post, Canada: Why they blow up?
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective: www.amperspective.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
||||||
