In Ahmed’s presentation, he discussed how the NYPD were abusing their power by engaging in unlawful policy. They practiced religious profiling and unconstitutional surveillance of New York City Muslims without any suspicion of wrongdoing. Despite these efforts, NYPD’s “Muslim Surveillance Program” was ineffective: the commanding officer of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division, admitted its mapping activities of Muslim communities didn’t even generate a single lead, nor lead to a single terrorism investigation.

The two cases in our reading, Raza v. City of New York and Handschu v. Special Services Division, challenged these practices mentioned, stating that they were unlawful as they were targeting the Muslim communities in New York City based off of only religion. In response to this, the NYPD justified their unconstitutional practices on the premise that Muslim religious belief and practices are a basis for law enforcement scrutiny. This reasoning was of course a red flag to the court: the NYPD was abusing their power. As a result of these cases, reforms were made to protect all individuals from discriminatory and unjustified surveillance.

These changes include prohibiting investigations based solely off of race, religion or ethnicity and requiring that factual information behind the investigation be presented before it is launched. Limiting the NYPD’s use of undercovers and confidential informants. Stopping open-ended investigations by imposing presumptive time limits and requiring reviews of ongoing investigations every six months. Having a civilian representative within the NYPD with the power and obligation to ensure all safeguards are followed and to serve as a check on investigations. The civilian representative will report to the police commissioner first, and if need be the judge in the Handschu case. I believe these reforms are very fair and the NYPD should have no objection with them, unless of course they have something to hide and are scared about the public finding out.

The majority of the class agreed that the NYPD’s practice was wrong and that there is no need to single out Muslims, or for that matter any religion. Furthermore, the class as a whole agreed that these practices are ineffective and instead different measures should be taken, such as stricter gun laws which would be more effective in reducing terrorism. Also, we felt time is being wasted by spying on Muslims, rather time could be spent more wisely by focusing on more important matters that cause more deaths and affect everyday people like healthcare.

Ever since 9/11, Islamophobia has continued to grow in New York City. Besides the practices of the New York City law enforcement, it can be seen through the advertisement campaigns of groups such as AFDI, the numerous hate crimes against the Muslim community, and the Muslim ban. It is important for us to acknowledge that Islamophobia is a reality. We have to be aware of not only Islamophobia, but discrimination in general and the impact it is having on us. We must unite and protect the civil liberties of every member in every part of the United States, not just New York City.