NY Cops Spy on 'Religious Students'

The cops in New York interrogated local authorities even about professors in universities as far away as 300 miles - near Niagra Falls, and Buffalo, NY. They even sent undercover agents on a whitewater rafting trip, to get names, info and data from students for their secret intelligence files - to report on HOW MANY TIMES THEY DID SALAT!

(Hey, didn't Tunis and Egypt used to do that to Muslims there? - whoa!)

What is up with detectives spending all day, surfing and recording Muslim student websites every single day. Then even though the professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded and turned up in reports to be handed over to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

When these guys are questioned about this "monitoring", the police spokesman, Paul Browne gave a list of 12 people who had been arrested or convicted regarding some type of terrorism charges in the United States or other countries and who had at least once been members or associated with members of a Muslim student association. The New York Police Department referred to the gropus as MSAs.

Jesse Morton (who just recently pleaded guilty to posting online threats against the creators of the cartoon show called "South Park") had once tried to recruit followers while at Stony Brook University on Long Island, according to what Browne said.

So, according to Browne, this is why NYPD determined it to be so important as to get a better handle on what was going on at these MSAs.

He also admited the police were monitoring student websites and collecting other information, starting back in 2006.

Muslim students are astounded and question these infringments of basic constitutional rights.

"I see a violation of civil rights here," said Tanweer Haq, chaplain of the Muslim Student Association at Syracuse. "Nobody wants to be on the list of the FBI or the NYPD or whatever. Muslim students want to have their own lives, their own privacy and enjoy the same freedoms and opportunities that everybody else has."

Recently, the Associated Press release informaiton about secret programs the NYPD (with help from the CIA), built up so they could monitor Muslims at the places where they might eat, shop and (especially) worship.

Associated Press also published details dealing with how police put undercover officers within Muslim student organizations in colleges. This finding really outraged the faculties and student groups.

But did these guys stop or limit such "investigations" to comply with the constitution? (keep reading) . .

Though the NYPD says it follows the same rules as the FBI, some of the NYPD's activities go beyond what the FBI is allowed to do.

And what of the response from Police Chief Kelly and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg?

Well, they keep repeatedly saying the police are only following legitimate leads regarding any suspected criminal activities. (hmmm . .)

But the fact is - all the latest documents, detailed as they are, covering everything from halal sandwiches to checking prayer times on www.IslamicFinder.org - DO NOT MENTION a single word of any wrongdoing by any students.

Yet, the surveillance continues . .

Check this out:

On undercover police officer reported going along with about 18 Muslim students from City College in New York, on a rafting trip. This was in April of 2008. He even details the names of each one, including who might have held positions within the MSA.

Now read this from his report - "In addition to the regularly scheduled events, the group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature"
Huh? 4 times a day? What happened here? Maybe he slept in and didn't know they got up, made wudu, called adhan, and prayed (out loud) every morning too!

And they talked about "ISLAM" and held discussions of a religious nature? -- OK, well, there's enough proof right there! You've got your evidence -  Arrest them! TERRORISTS! EXTREMISTS! - THEY PRAYED - OMG! LOCK THEM UP - ALL OF THEM!

 

NOTE: Five times a day - all Muslims are required to do 'salat', which means a 'connection' in prayer to Almighty God. Standing, bowing, prostrating in prayer to the same God that Jews and Christians pray to, even in the same way as some Jews and the Pope himself with heads on the ground.

One student who was on that trip, Jawad Rasul talks about how shocked he was, when he found out his name got included in the secret police report.

"It forces me to look around wherever I am now," he says.

At least one student, Ali Ahmed (described in the report as 'In Charge' of the trip) says he does not blame undercover police for doing their jobs. "Lots of Muslims do some bad things and it gives a bad name to all of us"

But City College is not so agreeable as Mr. Ahmed. In fact, look at their official statement . .

City College criticized such surveillance and said they was unaware of NYPD keeping Muslim students under surveillance.

"The City College of New York does not accept or condone any investigation of any student organization based on the political or religious content of its ideas," the college said in a written statement. "Absent specific evidence linking a member of the City College community to criminal activity, we do not condone this kind of investigation."

Office Browne says undercover cops go wherever the people they're investigating might go.

NOTE THIS . .

Until now, there is no indication whatsoever, over all these years since the surveillance and reporting began, that NYPD has brought any evidence or charges connecting any of the students investigated from City College to anything even remotely connected to "terrorism".
(Except of course, the acts of praying and worshipping only One God) . .

The NYPD focused on these student groups because, according to them, these groups seem to attract young Muslim men, the same demographics used by recruiters for suspected terrorist groups

Muslim scholars are also "people of interest" (a term used to politely indicate when someone is a suspect and under surveillance) . .

Agents worry about Muslim scholars who might influence students and fear any activities other than just basic course studies (like paintball outings or whiteriver rafting?) might be used as terrorist training grounds.

Back in October, Associated Press revealed New York Police placed undercover agents, officers and "informants" the Muslim Student groups at City College, Brooklyn College, Hunter College, City College of New York, Queens College, La Guardia Community College and even St. John's University, all are within New York City limits.

Student informats were also identified in the report, according to insider informat who insists on anonymity because (he or she) is not authorized to talk about it.

Now check this out . .

Other Muslim student groups "of interest" include Rutgers, New Brunswick, N.J. The undercover agents set up a so-called "safe-house" for informants, undercover officers and agents to meet close to the campus. But their cover was blown when a building employee came across what he thought was "suspicious activity" or maybe a "terrorist cell" and he called emergency 911.

The cops came and busted the undercover cops?

That's right . . The FBI came charging in and determined that monitoring Rutgers students was one of the operation's objectives, current and former federal officials said.

The Rutgers police chief at the time, Rhonda Harris, would not discuss the fallout. In a written statement, university spokesman E.J. Miranda said: "The university was not aware of this at the time and we have nothing to add on this matter."

And More? . .

The sheriff's department official noted "that there are some Somali Professors and students at SUNY-Buffalo and it would be worthwhile to further analyze that population," the report says.

Browne said the NYPD did not follow that recommendation. A spokesman for the university, John DellaContrada, said the NYPD never contacted the administration. Sheriff's Departments spokeswoman Mary Murray could not immediately confirm the meeting or say whether the proposal went any further.

Another report, entitled "Weekly MSA Report" explained officers from the NYPD's Cyber Intelligence unit had visited websites, blogs and forums of Muslim student associations as a "daily routine."

More universities "under surveillance" include:

Yale; Columbia; the University of Pennsylvania; Syracuse; New York University; Clarkson University; the Newark and New Brunswick campuses of Rutgers; and the State University of New York campuses in Buffalo, Albany, Stony Brook and Potsdam, N.Y.; Queens College, Baruch College, Brooklyn College and La Guardia Community College.

What about average students who might help promote or just attend any of these meetings or events on campus?

Well, according to your local friendly policeman, officer Browne, "Students who advertised events or sent emails about regular events should not be worried about a `terrorism file' being kept on them. NYPD only investigated persons who we had reasonable suspicion to believe might be involved in unlawful activities".

However, these assurances coming from him do not offer much comfort for most of the former students.

One University at Buffalo student, Adeela Khan, did end up in a police report after she received an email, announcing an upcoming Islamic conference in Toronto. The email said "highly respected scholars" would be attending, but did not say who or give any details of the program. Khan says she clicked "forward," sent it to a Yahoo chat group of fellow Muslims and just forgot about it.

"A couple people had gone the year prior and they said they had a really nice time, so I was just passing the information on forward. That's really all it was," said Khan, who has since graduated.

Khan was a member of the board for the Muslim Student Association at the University at Buffalo at the time. She says she never went to the conference, was not affiliated with it and had no idea who was speaking at it.

The other two are Hamza Yusuf and Zaid Shakir, two of the nation's most prominent Muslim scholars. Both have lectured at top universities in the U.S.. Yusuf met with President George W. Bush at the White House following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The post about the academic event was enough to get Khan's name mentioned in the weekly MSA report, which was stamped "SECRET" in red letters and sent to Kelly's office.

There is no indication that the investigation went any further, or that Khan was ever implicated in anything. But she worries about being associated with the police report.

"It's just a waste of resources, if you ask me," she said. ".. I'm not the one doing anything wrong."

 

(Maybe she should have said "Highly DIS-respected scholars"??)

The university said it was unaware its students were being monitored.

"UB does not conduct this kind of surveillance and if asked, UB would not voluntarily cooperate with such a request," the university said in a written statement. "As a public university, UB strongly supports the values of freedom of speech and assembly, freedom of religion, and a reasonable expectation of privacy."

Still More? (oh yeah) . .

The same report also noted seminars announced on the websites of the Muslim student associations at New York University and Rutgers University's campus in Newark, N.J.

Browne, the police department spokesman, said intelligence analysts were interested in recruiting by the Islamic Thinkers Society, a New York-based group that wants to see the United States governed under Islamic law (shari'ah). Morton was a leader of the group and went to Stony Brook University's MSA to recruit students that same month.

"One thing that our open source searches were interested in determining at the time was, where do Islamic Thinkers Society go - in terms of MSAs for recruiting," Browne said.

Yale University has declined any comment and the University of Pennsylvania did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Other colleges on the list said they worried the monitoring infringed on students' freedom of speech.

"Like New York City itself, American universities are admired across the globe as places that welcome a diversity of people and viewpoints. So we would obviously be concerned about anything that could chill our essential values of academic freedom or intrude on student privacy," Columbia University spokesman Robert Hornsby said in a written statement.

Danish Munir, an alumnus adviser for the University of Pennsylvania's Muslim Student Association, said he believes police are wasting their time by watching college students.

"What do they expect to find here?" Munir said. "These are all kids coming from rich families or good families, and they're just trying to make a living, have a good career, have a good college experience. It's a futile allocation of resources."

Well, maybe not anymore . .

After all, if any of these kids parents think about the ramifications of spending thousands and thousands of dollars on their children's future, only for them to wind up as "someone of interest" in secret, undercover operations - then what?
What if they can't find a job because their records show them to be "potential security risks"?
Maybe parents will seek education for their kids in other countries that are not so, shall we say, "IslamOphobic"?

Is this issue important to you?
Do you have something to say?
Or will you just sit there?

SHARE COMMENTS - (Now Please)
You Type it - We Print it
(after review)