Halt unconstitutional NYPD spying of Muslims

 
—FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
 
NEW YORK, NY (August 28, 2013) – The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) condemns in the strongest possible terms the New York Police Department’s designation of mosques and Islamic Centers as terrorist enterprises to justify illegally putting law-abiding Muslims in a hyper-zealous, unconstitutional police dragnet.

In a press statement today ICNA’s Secretary General Tariqur Rahman said “we call upon US Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to publicly condemn and halt the un-American, unconstitutional targeting of Muslims by law enforcement agencies in this country.”

“The recent revelation in the media that the NYPD surveillance of area Muslims included designating entire mosques as “terrorist enterprises” is only the latest exposure of the extreme, patently unconstitutional measures used against Muslims by the NYPD.

“This deprives this community of its right to privacy, freedom of assembly and worship. Under the guise of stopping actual and potential terrorist activities in New York City, the NYPD is violating the Constitutional rights of innocent Muslim men, women, and children by placing them, their places of worship, businesses, and recreation under Terrorist Enterprise Investigation (TEI) without any evidence of wrongdoing or a single conviction.

“This unprecedented abuse of law enforcement authority has not been seen in this nation since the days when the Nixon Administration used the FBI to unconstitutionally spy on anti-war and civil rights protestors.

In a press conference today, the Muslim American Civil Liberties Coalition (MACLC) along with other organizations also called on the DOJ to investigate the issue. ICNA-NY is a member of MACLC, a New York-based coalition of citizens, community members, spiritual leaders, organizers, advocates, attorneys, and groups whose mission is to organize around and give voice to absent perspectives on issues of national security, counter terrorism, law enforcement, and civil rights.

View the Original article