Muslim journalist defends surveillance by NYPD, says some Muslims 'use religion as cover'

by Catherine Herridge

The New York Police Department has faced criticism for its surveillance of the Muslim community, but one prominent Muslim journalist defended the department in an interview with Fox News.

“We use religion as a cover,” said Asra Nomani, a 46-year-old journalist whose work has been published by the Wall Street Journal and The Daily Beast. Nomani, a native of India, says radical ideology is very real -- and damaging to all Muslims.

“We're saying that you can't go into our mosques, you can't look at our Muslim organizations, you can't even look at Muslims because that's to target us," she told Fox News during an interview in suburban Washington. "But the truth is, we do have a problem in our Muslim community.”

Nomani showed Fox News a Koran from a mosque in West Virginia. She says the Koran's Saudi publisher added negative language about Jews and Christians. This interpretation of Islam, Nomani says, is part of a larger problem.

“I think that there is a movement in America right now to claim this concept of Islamophobia, to say that people are hating on Islam," she said. "Let's be honest, there are people that do hate on Islam. But I think that (Police Commissioner) Ray Kelly and the New York Police Department have been targeted in this larger campaign to try to show that people are picking on Muslims.”

The New York Police Department's controversial surveillance program involved efforts to infiltrate mosques and Muslim communities on college campuses to gather intelligence on potential threat. News of the secret program has sparked strong reactions, both negative and positive.

Nomani said the Muslim community should take charge: “I think we would be better served by being more proactive rather than defensive.”

Nomani worked with Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and his throat slit by Islamic radicals in Pakistan in February 2002. Pearl's death was a personal turning point for Nomani in her thinking on religion.

“They did their prayer on the blood-soaked floor of the room where he was murdered. And so, that was when I knew that we needed to challenge how it is that people of supposed faith use religion to sanction their violence," she said.

Nomani , who is codirector of the Pearl Project, which investigated the facts surrounding his death, said the search for the killers was eye-opening.

“In our five weeks searching for Danny, what I discovered was that the Pakistani police had no place that was off-limits to them. There was no political correctness in their books about mosques that they couldn't enter," she said.

As for the Attorney General Eric Holder's confirmation last week to lawmakers that his department is reviewing complaints about the NYPD's surveillance, Nomani was unequivocal: If you draw the line, make it clear that the terrorists are on one side and everyone else is on the other.

“I think that Ray Kelly has a sophisticated understanding of what the problem is, that it's a reality," she said. "And I would tell him to just keep going for it, you know, and really help us clean up our mosques and our communities."

Nomani also has faced a personal cost for her activism, which was profiled in a PBS documentary called “The Mosque in Morgantown.”

“I've had death threats," she told Fox News. "I'm not going to be voted most popular at the local mosque. But I think that those are the calculations you have to make when you want to make a difference.”

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/13/muslim-journalist-defends-spying-by-nypd-says-some-muslims-use-religion-as/

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California

The West Sacramento Police Department has introduced a new communications service that allows residents to receive messages from the department via cell phone text message, email or online.

The Nixle Community Information Service is "a hub for all our social media," said Sgt. Nathan Steele. It builds on other services such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, but adds a security component.

The service allows the Police Department to create and publish messages to be delivered to subscribed residents via text message and/or email. Residents also can access the notifications online at Nixle's website, www.nixle.com.

Messages may include traffic alerts, at-risk missing persons and road hazards, as well as other safety and community event information, and surveys. Messages can be sent specifically to residents registered within a quarter-mile radius, giving them the opportunity to receive information relevant to only their neighborhood.

Residents decide from which local agencies they wish to receive information and how they wish to receive messages, whether by email, text message, or over the web.

Steele said residents also may use the app to communicate with police, noting that it includes a "tip" function that allows residents to attach a photograph.

He said the service will assist in the department's community policing efforts. "We see this as a new and innovative twist to that, and another way to reach out to the community," he said.

Residents of West Sacramento and neighboring communities can begin receiving information by registering at www.nixle.com

There is a critical distinction between community policing, the plan Port Huron police Chief Michael Reaves is putting into place, and anti-crime efforts that blur the line between police-community cooperation.

Neighborhood Watch programs, key components of Reaves' approach, rely on enhanced communication between residents and the police department. Neighborhood Watch groups are important police allies. They report suspicious activity to the police, but they don't act as law-enforcement officers.

The difference is important to Port Huron and Detroit.

The Detroit 300 is a grass-roots anti-crime movement born from growing frustration with violent crime in the Motor City. The organization's stand against criminal activity has been embraced by a growing number of Detroit residents outraged by the senseless loss of life — especially the February shooting deaths of a 6-year-old and a 9-month-old baby.

That frustration often is heard in the statements of Detroit 300 leaders. In appeals to the suspects in the murder of Delric Miller IV, the 9-month-old killed Feb. 23, Detroit 300 spokesmen offered to take them to police. They also warned that refusing the offer could have dire consequences.

“We have individuals that are running around and choose to shoot recklessly into a home … but don't feel enough remorse and sorrow to turn themselves in,” Detroit 300 Secretary Che Daniels said at a news conference.

“We're going to come looking for you.”

There is no sympathy to spare for a baby killer, but there also is no justification for superseding the role of the police. As well-meaning as the Detroit 300 might be, the group's rhetoric and practices can be disturbing — even with a violent crime rate that ranks Detroit among the nation's most dangerous cities.

Detroit TV station WDIV reported Saturday that police are investigating the Detroit 300 for allegations its members took improper steps regarding the Miller murder investigation. Two women said two Detroit 300 volunteers interviewed them at a Detroit police station about information they had. The women said officers led the Detroit 300 members and them into the station's garage that isn't open to the public.

The police department is conducting an internal investigation. If the allegations are true, they show what community anti-crime groups should not do.

Neighborhood Watch groups don't have the bluster of Detroit 300, but they help police by keeping an eye out for criminal activity. They don't try to investigate crimes or try to enforce laws on their own.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20120313/OPINION01/303130011/Crime-group-might-gone-too-far?odyssey=nav%7Chead

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