Washington, D.C. February 29, 2012
KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights welcomes news that the U.S. Department of Justice has begun reviewing complaints about warrantless surveillance by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) of constitutionally protected activities by members of the American Muslim community. KARAMAH has filed several such complaints regarding NYPD misconduct on behalf of the American Muslim community.
Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, founder and chairperson of KARAMAH noted, “The Justice Department must continue to lead our country in establishing the proper constitutional balance between liberty and security. It should also provide adequate guidelines for doing so to be followed by law enforcement agencies around the country.”
At federal interagency meetings conducted at U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C., KARAMAH has repeatedly expressed serious concern regarding the NYPD’s discriminatory law enforcement techniques. Following last year’s AP news story about the NYPD’s mapping of religious and ethnic communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut without any credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing, KARAMAH requested a related federal investigation.
During another February interagency meeting conducted several weeks ago, KARAMAH reiterated this request in response to reports about the NYPD’s appearance in and use of the inflammatory anti-Muslim film, The Third Jihad, as well as its pervasive warrantless surveillance of Shiite mosques throughout the Tri-State area.
Most recently, in a complaint letter addressed to the U.S. Department of Justice last week, KARAMAH renewed its call for a federal investigation in response to additional media reports depicting the department’s widespread unwarranted surveillance of constitutionally protected activities by American Muslim students attending U.S. universities all along the Northeast corridor.
Engy Abdelkader, vice president of KARAMAH and a NY/NJ attorney who attends the federal interagency meetings, added, “KARAMAH will continue to monitor this alarming situation. We will continue our tireless civil rights advocacy on behalf of the American Muslim community and work to preserve the constitutional safeguards underpinning American law and society.”
KARAMAH encourages community members to contact us if they have been victimized by the NYPD’s religious and racial profiling tactics.
[Contact: Engy Abdelkader, 202.234.7302]
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