As part of an ongoing outreach program, a few weeks ago New Jersey State Attorney General John Hoffman met with local Muslim leaders and discussed a controversial court ruling that angered many members of that community.
A federal district court judge in February had dismissed a civil rights lawsuit brought by eight Muslims over the New York Police Department’s secret surveillance of mosques and members of Islam in North Jersey, a case known as Hassan vs. City of New York.
Hoffman described some of the back and forth at the meeting on the court’s ruling when he addressed the American Muslim Union’s 17th Annual Brunch Sunday at Glenpointe Marriott in Teaneck.
“It was a very difficult discussion, a very emotional discussion, and a very charged discussion,” Hoffman said. “There were a lot of people angry over the decision.”
Nonetheless, the Attorney General’s Office – and its Muslim Outreach Committee — and New Jersey Islamic leaders weren’t sidestepping the tough issues, Hoffman said. They were having a direct dialog, were communicating and were building trust, Hoffman told the 400 attendees at the AMU event.
This year top federal, state, county and local law enforcement officials once again turned out in force for the brunch held by the AMU, a Paterson-based grass-roots organization led by President Mohamed Younes. Part of the AMU’s mission is to educate the public about the Islam faith and build bridges with government agencies and elected officials. Trust between law enforcement and Muslim Americans has been sorely tested since 9/11, with Islam groups objecting to what they consider illegal racial profiling.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker also addressed the gathering, whose goal during the past few years has been to encourage North Jersey Muslims to vote and get involved in politics, to put up and elect candidates that will represent their community.
This year’s Sunday activities were special because about six months ago Younes asked Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli to organize a private meeting before the brunch between North Jersey county prosecutors and local Muslim leaders.
There were about 30 people at that meeting, including not only Molinelli but Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes, Morris County Acting Prosecutor Fredric Knapp, Union County Acting Prosecutor Grace Park and Essex County First Assistant Prosecutor Robert Laurino, Molinelli said. Many of them brought their chiefs of detectives, he added, all to help lay the groundwork for a relationship with Muslims.
“It can’t be a reactive thing,” Molinelli said. “You can’t wait for a crisis.”
At the actual brunch one speaker, New Jersey Director of Homeland Security and Preparedness Edward Dickson, said that his office had formed its own outreach initiative, the Interfaith Advisory Council, to build bridges with Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Coptic Orthodox groups.
Based on talks with his Homeland Security counterparts in all the other states, Dickson said that New Jersey is leading the charge when it comes to building bridges to the Muslim community.
“This is not being done anywhere else in the country, and that’s unfortunate,” Dickson said. “I hear people say, ‘We need to do that,’ and I just shake my head and I say, ‘What are you guys waiting for?’ This is being done in New Jersey because we have to do it. This is required because of who we are, because of where we sit, the challenges that we see every day.”
Booker encouraged members of Islam to not just vote, saying, “There needs to be Muslim–American County Freeholders, Muslim-American county chair people, county executives, Congress people, senators.”
But he also said that Muslims have to actively engage and participate in the political system.
“If you are part of a democracy you must fundamentally understand that that democracy is not a spectator sport,” he said. “You can’t sit on the sidelines and watch what’s going on in the field and just hope it’s going to get better or worse, get caught in a course of what I call sedentary agitation, where you’re so upset about what’s going on, that you’re not realizing that you have an obligation to get up and do something about it.”
Before he addressed the group, Booker talked about why he was at the brunch.
“The Muslim community in New Jersey is such a strong part of our state, everywhere from its culture, business and community activism,” he said. “And it’s just critical to be here, especially on the theme here, which is to talk about the importance of engagement within the community.”
During his talk, Hoffman encouraged young Muslim Americans to consider careers in law enforcement, pointing out that the New Jersey State Police was recruiting and that Law Enforcement Career Days were being held in various cities.
At the brunch the AMU presented both Molinelli and Passaic County Superintendent of Elections Sherline El-Abd, the first Muslim to hold such a position, awards on behalf of the Muslim community.
As in past years, both Congressman Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan spoke at the brunch. Pascrell used the event as an opportunity to call for the United States to grant refuge to Syrian refugees. Pascrell also said that profiling of any kind “should be abandoned and abolished in the United States.”
Donovan lauded the AMU’s quest to fight “stereotypes and unfair criticism of your religion.” But she said Muslims must be involved in local politics.
“Government can’t advocate for you if it doesn’t understand the community,” Donovan said.