By STEPHON JOHNSON Amsterdam News Staff | Thursday, February 2, 2012
 
Muslim organizations are still calling for the job of New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly after revelations of police officers being shown an anti-Islam video.
 

It was recently revealed that the New York City Police Department showed almost 1,500 of its officers a right-wing documentary titled “The Third Jihad,” which portrays Muslims in America as devising strategies and infiltrating the country’s culture to eventually dominate. The documentary was shown during police training sessions and its production was funded by the Clarion Fund, a nonprofit group with connections to Aish HaTorah, an Israeli organization that opposes territorial concessions of the West Bank of any kind.
According to one Muslim organization, it’s another strike against the NYPD and New York City when it comes to profiling Muslim Americans. They’re now asking for Kelly to step down.
“We call on Mayor Bloomberg to either fire Commissioner Kelly or ask for his resignation,” said Zahid H. Bukhari of the Islamic Circle of North America in an emailed statement. “The NYPD under Kelly’s leadership has allowed a blatantly racist, Islamophobic film to be used to train over 1,489 police officers. This film was also produced by individuals and groups with ties to anti-Muslim hate groups.
“This type of clandestine behavior by the NYPD not only violates the civil liberties and civil rights of Muslim Americans, but calls into question the integrity of a police force that is sworn to protect thousands of law-abiding Muslim Americans and other ethnic communities who live in New York City.”
According to recently released documents, as requested under the Freedom of Information Law by the New York Times, “The Third Jihad” documentary includes an interview with Kelly himself and was shown on a constant loop during a period of three months to one year of police training.
As reported by the AmNews at the beginning of the New year, Muslim groups who were invited to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual interfaith breakfast wrote a sternly worded letter protesting the mayor and refused to attend the event. According to a letter signed by members of groups like Brooklyn Congregations United, the Muslim Consultative Network, the Muslim American Society and the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, they refused to participate because of a series of Associated Press reports that suggested that the NYPD was intentionally profiling New York City’s Muslim population.
“Mayor Bloomberg, the extent of these civil rights violations is astonishing, yet instead of calling for accountability and the rule of law, you have thus far defended the NYPD’s misconduct,” read the letter. “We, on the other hand, believe that such measures threaten the rights of all Americans and deepen mistrust between our communities and law enforcement.
“We are not alone in our belief. Many New Yorkers continue to express a variety of concerns centered on a lack of law enforcement accountability in our city, from stop and frisk procedures in African-American and Spanish-speaking communities, to the tactics used in the evacuation of Zuccotti Park.”
However, a CIA inspector general said an independent investigation didn’t find any evidence of profiling.
New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams said that Bloomberg remained disappointingly silent on the issue of Muslim profiling and police work during his high-production State of the City speech several weeks ago.
“There was nothing on stop, question and frisk, nothing on surveillance of Muslim communities, nothing on anything of real substance to the crucial conversation,” said Williams in a statement. “Make no mistake, this is a slap in the face to over half of New York City and its council. The police accountability issue is not going away, Mr. Mayor.”
The NYPD did not respond to requests for comment.
Article Courtesy: Amsterdam News

5 Responses

  1. Please get the FBI and civl rights orginizations to conduct a thorough investigation. File a class action suit against the NYPD. This will get their attention. MONEY TALKS.

  2. Muslims are very respectable and very professional part of american society,they certainly don’t deserve to be a victim of small retired vetran barrick mentality,unfortunately happen to be commissioner of police racisim.Unless like jews Anti semitic law,we are not united to introduced Anti-islamitic law,any tom,dick and harry will be acting patritoic and labelling other unpatritic and criminal.

  3. All it proves is that we have a long ways to go, as human beings, to understand and accept each other regardless of our cultures and faiths. We are one human race, and yet so much divided over our differences due to nothing but our own ‘selfish reasons’…Yes, i said it right ‘selfish reasons’…if u really look at them closely!!

  4. Islam is a religion of Peace. One who follows Islam is a Muslim ( or Moslem). This is a thread from Adam to Abraham to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad (Peace be upon all of them). Islam defines a total way of life beginning from home to surroundings. It teaches & a Muslim has to adhere to it: Honesty, truthfulness, fellow feelings, respect, tolerance and respect for other cultures & beliefs. Few bad apples in all cultures do not represent totality and so is in Islam. Frankly, quite a few media figures know little about Islam but ready to give unjust verdicts in any incident to fill in their columns and/or talk shows.

  5. Islam is a religion of Peace. One who follows Islam is a Muslim ( or Moslem). This is a thread from Adam to Abraham to Moses to Jesus to Muhammad (Peace be upon all of them). Islam defines a total way of life beginning from home to surroundings. It teaches & a Muslim has to adhere to it: Honesty, truthfulness, fellow feelings, respect, tolerance and respect for other cultures & beliefs. Few bad apples in all cultures do not represent totality and so is in Islam. Frankly, quite a few media figures know little about Islam but ready to give unjust verdicts in any incident to fill in their columns and/or talk shows.

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