Policing Our Civil Liberties

If the United States is approaching an age of Orwellian surveillance, the New York City Police Department is certainly helping us get there.

A recently leaked report from the department’s intelligence division reveals the existence of a surveillance program targeting college-age Muslims throughout the Northeast, including students at Yale and the University of Pennsylvania.The NYPD has reportedly engaged in activities as remote as email monitoring to those as personal as accompanying a student group on a rafting trip. As an explanation, the NYPD has pointed to a statistically insignificant numberof isolated incidents whose common thread is religious affiliation.

This blatant abuse of power is not only antithetical to the mission of the NYPD, but also undermines the very civil liberties for which terrorists despise us; such unwarranted monitoring has a chilling effect on the intellectual discourse necessary for a college to thrive and the freedom of expression necessary for a nation to survive. The empty defense provided by the NYPD for these reprehensible acts only insults the public’s intelligence.

The fact that these actions go beyond the purview of even the FBI, whose rules the NYPD claims to follow, is especially troubling. That no other agency has the authority to do what the NYPD has done, on what appears to be little more than a whim, speaks volumes about the egregiousness of this “investigation.”

We understand the constraints of institutional security, but any ostensible act of discrimination as overt as this case demands a comprehensive explanation. The NYPD is obligated to provide what information it can, within reason, to show that it was operating with sufficient justification. Presently, the department’s defense for its actions holds no water, and in the absence of arrests or details, coupled with allegations from municipal figures of being misled, we can only take this program for what it appears to be—an indefensible case of religious profiling.

Of course, student organizations should not be off limits when there is just cause to investigate them. We do not ignore the reality that there exist groups dedicated to indoctrinating students to terrorist ideology, and that radicalization is a problem both in the United States and abroad. It goes without saying that the NYPD should be unburdened in their pursuit of credible leads generated by sufficient evidence.

However, being Muslim should never serve as sufficient evidence. If students are aware thatdemonstratinga specific religious affiliation will make them the target of undue surveillance, it casts undeserved aspersions on the legitimacy of Muslim student associations. Such is the nature of discrimination.

Unfortunately, this incident is only one of the several ugly incidents in a troubling post-9/11 trend of implicitly scapegoating the American Muslim community. The rhetoric of fringe pundits and the demagogic theatrics of politicians such as N.Y. Rep. Peter King only aggravate misconceptions and defame what is otherwise a peaceful community. The calls, whether overt or covert, for discriminatory religious profiling must stop; we fear the NYPD’s actions only undercut efforts to stop them.

Over ten years ago, a tragedy was visited on American soil. While its perpetrators shared a common faith, the victims came from all backgrounds, including the Muslim community. They deserve more than religious profiling from those with public trust. By singling out Islamic communities, the New York City Police Department, and those who encourage or defend their actions, do this nation a disservice.