For some local residents, feelings of persecution have resurfaced with the recent revelation that New York City Police Department surveillance operations have been targeting Muslims in Connecticut.
“I lived all my life away from my country because of our dictatorship regime,” Ibraheem Faraj said Friday of his native Syria. “We came here because of justice and peace … because of the democracy that we find here.
“When this country starts (acting) toward us as our country did toward us - there’s no difference.”
Faraj was one of about 100 men taking part in a mid-day service Friday at the Islamic Center of New London. After a service led by Imam Mahmoud Mansour, a few worshipers expressed their concerns about the NYPD’s actions.
The Associated Press reported that the department has monitored Muslim student groups throughout the Northeast and has sent an undercover agent on a rafting trip with college students. Yale University and the University of Connecticut reportedly were targeted in the surveillance probe.
The initial shock of the reported surveillance came from the fact that the operations were conducted by the NYPD - not the federal government, according to Mongi Dhaouadi, who works with the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Dhaouadi said the Muslim community and CAIR officials were aware of some surveillance methods used by the government but were shocked to learn the NYPD had launched its own operation.
“The problem is they are not following any specific leads,” Dhaouadi said. “They’re doing a blanket search. That puts us into the issue of profiling. That is clear profiling of the Muslim community.”
On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut announced that it and 10 other civil rights organizations have asked the state police and more than 100 municipalities across the state to investigate the NYPD’s “unlawful” racial profiling. It also asked Yale and UConn officials to do the same.
Sandra Staub, legal director of the ACLU in Connecticut, said Friday the ACLU initially sent freedom of information requests to Bridgeport, Stamford and Waterbury to learn of those towns’ dealings with the NYPD in the surveillance operations.
After not receiving specific information related to the request, Staub said Friday that she is in the process of writing appeals to the Freedom of Information Commission. She said the ACLU, as well as the civil rights organizations, want more transparency from local governments.
“The frustration on our part is trying to get information on what the extent of this surveillance is,” Staub said. “It’s frustrating because we don’t know (the extent), and we want to know if profiling is going on strictly based on religion.”
Dhaouadi said Muslims have been angered and disappointed by the lack of response from state and local officials. He also suggested the NYPD’s methods will alienate Muslims and potentially make it difficult to uncover leads in the event of future terrorist plots.
“Your first line of defense against any kind of radicalization or extremism is going to be the Muslim community itself,” Dhaouadi said. “If you put the whole community under suspicion - if everyone is now a suspect in your eyes - who is going to be coming forward to provide you with positive information?”
Avery Awwa, who also worshiped at the Islamic Center Friday, said the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims in the state is ironic because Muslims are already the most scrutinized people in the country. He cited Syria, saying the country is currently home to an ongoing uprising in which demonstrators are fighting for civil rights against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. More than 8,000 have died in the uprising, according to some reports.
Awwa said Friday that the will of the people in Syria opposed to Assad shows that many Muslims have embraced democracy.
“Now people of democracy have to open their hearts to Islam. There needs to be a middle road,” Awwa said. “There is no animosity between the ideals of democracy in the West and the ideals of Islam in the East. They can come together to meet halfway.”