The NYPD, America’s largest police force, has allegedly been labeling entire mosques “terrorist organizations,” according to a report by the Associated Press.
The NYPD uses “terrorism enterprise investigations” (TEIs) that are carried out for multiple years and allow the police to plant informants in mosques and other community organizations. The informants not only record sermons but also document style and intensity of worship among individual Muslims to try and a match them with terror-suspected Islamist organizations.
“We follow leads wherever they take us, we aren’t intimidated as to where that lead takes us, and we’re doing that to protect the people of New York City,” New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. “We’ve had 16 plots against New York since September 11, none of them have succeeded. It’s been a combination of good work on the part of the federal government, good work on the part of the NYPD.”
Linda Sarsour is executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, which was allegedly targeted for surveillance by the NYPD. She joins The Takeaway to discuss the state of Muslim-NYPD relations and how they have changed over the years.
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Editor’s Note: The NYPD did not return our request for comment.
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