It’s as if the law says: the more Muslim you are, the more trouble you can be, so decrease your Islam. – Sari*, 19, Brooklyn College.
Since 2001, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has established a secret surveillance program that has mapped, monitored and analyzed American Muslim daily life throughout New York City and surrounding cities and states. Through extensive, in-depth interviews around the New York metropolitan area we found that surveillance of Muslims’ quotidian activities has created a pervasive climate of fear and suspicion that encroaches upon every aspect of individual and community life. Additionally, we have found that surveillance severs the essential relationship of trust that should exist between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are charged with protecting. Our interviews indicate that many American Muslims associate new faces at their mosque with potential undercover informants and avoid appearing overtly “Muslim”; that they avoid attending mosques that the NYPD is likely to monitor; and that they choose their classes by considering which subject matters would not arouse law enforcement attention. Many of our interviewees are scared to talk about politics, religion and world events. Social spaces are quieter as ethnic television programming is banned and political debate, discussion and even humor are suppressed. Students wonder if informants sit in their classrooms and visit their student organizations or whether they, in turn, will be targeted for recruitment as informants or questioned about their beliefs at every interaction with the NYPD. As American Muslims click through their smart phones and chat with friends, they do so knowing they are being watched, heard and recorded. Proponents of the sprawling surveillance enterprise have argued that, regardless of its inefficacy, mere spying on a community is harmless. Our findings, based on an unprecedented number of candid interviews with American Muslim community members, paint a radically different picture.
For more information, please contact: The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) Project CUNY School of Law 2 Court Square, Long Island City, NY 11101-4356 t: 718.340.4533 |f:.718.340.4478 The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund 99 Hudson Street, 12th FL, New York, NY 10013-2815 t: 212.966.5932 | f: 212.966.4303 © CLEAR Project, AALDEF, and MACLC