Excerpt:
The New York Police Department's years-long surveillance of Muslim businesses and mosques throughout the Northeast denigrated the Islamic faith and violated the constitutional rights of countless Muslim-Americans, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Newark today.
The suit, which is the first legal challenge of the NYPD's spy operations, could mark the beginning of a historical movement, said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, the civil rights group filing the suit on behalf of several New Jersey residents.
"This lawsuit is perhaps the most important legal challenge brought to date by American Muslims," Khera said.