NYPD Surveillance And Response

[helpinghumanity]

FACEBOOK PAGE CREATED:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-NYPD-Surveillance-of-Muslims/115332515260468?sk=wall

Source: http://jawadspad.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-open-letter-to-nypd.html

Assalamo alaikum wa rahamtullah

Please read and inform of how you can help. Jazakumullah Khairun


From Brother Jawad Rasul:


I first received a call on Tuesday, February 14th, 2012 from an Associated Press reporter Chris Hawley in the afternoon informing me to my surprise that an NYPD report has been leaked in which I was named. He read to me a portion that talked about a trip I had made in 2008 with City College of New York-Muslim Students Organization friends to some place in upstate NY where we camped one night, rafted the next day and drove back that same night. The report mentioned that the undercover agent, who we shall call the "spy" from now on, was picked up by me in my car at Jackson Heights and driven to our meeting point at Masjid Nur-ul-Islam in Brooklyn. The reason this probably happened though I do not remember the "picking up at Jackson Heights" is because I normally offer pickup at a convenient point such as Jackson Heights to friends so they don't have to go all the way to the actual meeting point in the train.

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After reading to me the part of the report that was about the rafting trip, Chris Hawley asked me what I had to say about that. I told him that I was speechless though not surprised because this is not the first time I have found out that I was subject of NYPD surveillance. Chris then asked me whether I would be willing to do a video interview with one of his colleagues. I asked him to send me an email because I didn't really know who he was and wanted a paper/email trail of our conversation. He promptly sent me an email and on Thursday I met with Ted Shaffrey outside City College of New York to give a video interview.

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The print story and the video interview went public on Saturday and got calls, text messages, and emails from lots of friends and relatives saying that I was in the news on Yahoo's front page.

Yesterday (Sunday, February 19th, 2012), I received a call from a CBS Evening News producer who was wanted an video interview and quickly dispatched Tony Guida and his team to do a video interview with me. That went online in the evening and is available here.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7399346n&tag=mg;national

Even though I mentioned a lot of different things in my interviews, the most appealing bytes were picked and the rest was ignored by all the reports. Only Ted Shaffrey report was kind enough to include more than just one or two sound bytes.

The reason why I am writing this post is to get my point across as it didn't get through in the news stories. I didn't do these interviews just to get my face in the TV or on the internet, rather I want to register my objection to this type of surveillance and also mention what I think is a better solution to the problem of "home-grown terrorism."

Firstly, my objection to this surveillance is based on the clear reality that this creates more hatred and thus creates an environment which allows "bad actors" to recruit more easily. It also creates lots of negative feelings towards not only NYPD but all the law enforcement agencies as a whole and thus it is actually in the interest of the Federal Authorities to stop NYPD.

I mentioned this to Tony Guida of CBS that I am currently enrolled in a US Politics and Government class in which I am learning the essence of democracy and the conditions that make a system democratic. After hearing about this report, the regimes that came to mind are the exact opposite of the democratic country that the framers envisioned it to be. Soviet Union, Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, and other totalitarian regimes employed secret policing to keep tabs on the people and it seems that NYPD has taken a chapter from their books and completely ignored the document that they have taken an oath to protect.

I am sure that this post will be read by NYPD or its informants who keeps tabs on my activities and perhaps may even be sent in report to the commissioner just like the one that just got leaked. If that happens, and I hope it does, I would like the Commissioner and other policy makers to please think about what I am proposing with an open mind.

My Letter (Jawad Rasul):

Dear NYPD, FBI, and All to whom it may be concern,

Simple and common wisdom teaches us that reaction is hardly ever fruitful. Being proactive, on the other hand, is. This surveillance is clearly a reaction to all those plots that you catch. Think proactively. What is causing the people to have bad feelings about the country? Foreign policy and religious fervor is a very shallow problem. The real problem is the identity crisis that not only can radicalize muslim youth and but takes young Black, Latino, and other low-income neighborhood kids every day in to gangs, drugs, and crime.

Muslim kids who are born in America or are raised here from a very young age are having trouble fully assimilating in both the American identity and their own native identity. They look different so they are always looked at as foreigners in America. At the same time, they speak fluent English, dress American, eat American, and think American, often even question their parents about the sensibility of cultural practices and thus as a result are not accepted into the cultures of their parents.

This creates a big vacuum that can easily filled by any eloquent person whether he is Anwar Al-Awlaki, Osama Bin Laden, or simply the neighborhood leader of local gang who is willing to offer them acceptance as they are without any changes.

This is the problem that needs to be addressed and this is how "home-grown" terrorism can be fought without violating the civil liberties of people, without wasting vast amounts of resources that can be used to help the economy, and without leave a trail of hatred toward the law enforcement agencies and toward the US government as a whole.

I firmly believe that a simple proactive program, which employs the well-known and well-recognized muslim leaders and an honest partnership with the law enforcement, that educates the muslim youth in a proactive way and addresses the identity crises, can eradicate this problem. If my help is needed in creating this program, even though there are many more eligible people than me, I am willing to do my part.

Source: http://jawadspad.blogspot.com/2012/02/my-open-letter-to-nypd.html

 

[Min-Fadhli-Rabii]

:salam2:

Is just phase test you are going through, insha'Allah it will pass. Ask Allah for protection and swabr. I support Dr Zaik Naik his principle that he doesn't interview/s from mainstream media, they always twist.

May Allah gives us hidaya. Amin.

 

[MuslimShadow]

:salam2:

Muslims are being attacked everywhere.Just yesterday some police officers were picking innocent Muslim youths in my area.