It is noteworthy that we have never, in ten years since 9/11, seen Muslims anywhere in the U.S. mount a demonstration of comparable size against Islamic jihad terrorism and the supposed “hijacking” of Islam by terrorists. Even worse, the protesters failed to explain how they would propose to stop Islamic jihad terrorism in the U.S. without this kind of vigilance.
“Muslims to NYPD: “˜Respect us, we will respect you,– from the Associated Press, November 18 (thanks to all who sent this in):
NEW YORK “” Hundreds of Muslims prayed in a lower Manhattan park and marched to New York Police headquarters Friday to protest a decade of police infiltrating mosques and spying on Muslim neighborhoods.
Bundled in winter clothes, men and women knelt as the call to prayer echoed off the cold stone of government buildings.
“Being Muslim does not negate our nationality,” Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid told the crowd of about 500 gathered in Foley Square, not far from City Hall and local courthouses. “We are unapologetically Muslim and uncompromisingly American.”
The demonstration was smaller and more subdued than the Occupy Wall Street protests that led to clashes with police and made headlines worldwide. Police wore windbreakers, not riot gear, and protesters called for improved relations with police.
“We want for you to respect us,” Abdur-Rashid said, “and we will respect you.”
It was the first organized opposition to the NYPD”s intelligence tactics since an Associated Press investigation revealed widespread spying programs that documented every aspect of Muslim life in New York. Police infiltrated mosques and student groups. Plainclothes officers catalogued Middle Eastern restaurants and their clientele. Analysts built databases on Arab cab drivers and monitored Muslims who changed their names.
“Had this been happening to any other religious group, all of America would be outraged,” said Daoud Ibraheem, 73, a retired graphic artist from Brooklyn.
That is probably true, since no other religious group has provided any cause for such surveillance. If any group did so, then it would be incumbent upon the NYPD and all other law enforcement bodies to do the same things they have done in reaction to Islamic jihad terrorism, while of course ending immediately any surveillance or other procedure that violates Constitutional protections.
For these protesters to have behaved as if the surveillance of their mosques and communities was motivated by simple “racism” and “Islamophobia” required them to ignore a particularly significant elephant in the room: the ongoing and increasingly common reality of jihad terror plots in the United States.
Following the prayer service, the Muslims “” joined by about 50 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators “” crowded the sidewalk for the short walk to the large police headquarters building known as One Police Plaza. They stayed only briefly, chanting for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly”s ouster, before returning to Foley Square.
Protesters carried signs that said “NYPD Watches Us. Who Watches NYPD?” A dozen or so uniformed police officers monitored the demonstration and followed the march, but there were no clashes between protesters and police…
“We”re peaceful people,” said Dalia Nazzal, 18, a freshman at the City University of New York, a target of police infiltration. “We don’t deserve to be under surveillance.”
I’m sure she doesn’t, but she could make a stronger case for that by working sincerely against Islamic supremacism and jihad in her own community rather than complaining about counterterror efforts.
Mohamed Mahmoud, 40, the owner of a Brooklyn printing shop, said he knew several people who had been approached by NYPD officers trying to recruit them as informants. Documents obtained by the AP also show that police monitored even those Muslims who decried terrorism and partnered with the government to prevent violence.
“They think that all Muslims are criminals, and it’s not right,” Mahmoud said.
No, they just want to find the ones who are.