About three dozen American Muslim leaders and activists assembled outside the headquarters of the New York Police Department on Monday morning to defend and commend the Police Department for its surveillance of Muslim communities.
“We are not here to criticize the N.Y.P.D., but rather to thank them for the monitoring of extremists that the Muslims should be doing,” said M. Zuhdi Jasser, who narrated the controversial film, “The Third Jihad” that was shown to New York police officers who received antiterrorism training.
Dr. Jasser, a former United States Navy physician from Arizona who is president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, said that the Muslim community had a responsibility “to root out radicalization.”
“In no way do we want to be spied on,” Dr. Jasser said. “But this is not about spying. This is about monitoring and public programs.”
He added: “The more we overblow the monitoring of Muslim communities, the more that will serve to radicalize Muslims.”
The 45-minute news conference concluded with Representative Peter T. King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, praising the “effective surveillance” of the Police Department in stopping potential terrorist attacks.
Several speakers condemned the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other civil rights groups that have criticized the Police Department’s surveillance on Muslim communities throughout the Northeast – from mosques to shops to universities — as an unfair violation.
The small protest on a crisp, sunny morning occurred two days after about 100 Muslim activists protested the surveillance activities outside a Fordham Law School gathering in the financial district where Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, gave a speech defending his department’s practices.
“As a Muslim, I have nothing to hide,” said Samir Abdelkhalek, 18, a high school senior at St. Peter’s Boys High School on Staten Island, who spoke on behalf of the Muslim Liberty Project, a group of young people affiliated with the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. “I have trust in the N.Y.P.D. for following people with reasonable belief.”
Mohammed Hai, 58, a small-business owner from Babylon on Long Island, said he came to the news conference on Monday because he believed that the police were protecting the community, and that only a radical minority was to blame. “We are the real Muslims and stand up for the real Islam,” he said.
Dr. Jasser defended “The Third Jihad” as essential in pointing out the radical elements within the faith.
Commissioner Kelly was interviewed in 2007 for the film. In January Mr. Kelly said, through the Police Department’s chief spokesman, that the video was “objectionable” and that he should not have agreed to the interview.
Dr. Jasser compared his film to another, patriotic film on Monday. “If you look at ‘Third Jihad,’ also look at movies like “Act of Valor,” he said. “Here’s a movie about Navy SEALs, the greatest heroes of the United States, that actually says the same thing — they went after Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. These are not racism; these are reality films.”