NEW YORK (Reuters) – More than a dozen Muslim community leaders boycotted an interfaith breakfast organized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday to protest reported police surveillance of Muslim areas since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In an open letter to Bloomberg, the leaders accused the mayor of ignoring concerns that the New York Police Department has been using racial profiling and violating civil rights in its anti-terrorism surveillance programs.
“We believe with heartfelt conviction that during times when a community’s rights are being flagrantly violated its leaders cannot in good conscience appear at a public gathering with the government official who is ultimately responsible and smile for the cameras as if all is well, when we know full well that it is not,” the letter said.
The letter cited a series of articles earlier this year by The Associated Press that alleged that police, at times in cooperation with the CIA, infiltrated New York mosques, Muslim bookshops and other Islamic businesses and institutions to gather intelligence without specific evidence of any criminal activity.
The letter was signed by 15 leaders of Muslim organizations based in New York City who said they were turning down their breakfast invitation, as well as the leaders of several dozen other faith organizations and civil rights groups.
