Mayor Bloomberg's duty to New York's Muslim community

Bryan Pace for the Daily News

Ray Lazier Lengend, the Queens firebomber.

On New Year?s Day, Ray Lazier Lengend allegedly went on a firebombing spree in Queens, hurling Molotov cocktails at five different sites. The Imam al-Khoei Islamic Center was one of his targets partly because, according to the Daily News? police sources, he had been denied the use of its bathroom.

Authorities have charged Lengend with multiple offenses, including a hate crime charge; prosecutors say the man aimed to take out ?as many Muslims and Arabs as possible.?

Two days after the attack, Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly visited the Islamic center to meet with community representatives. At the ensuing press conference, Bloomberg assured everyone that there would be ?no tolerance? for such violence, whatever its motive. Although he and Kelly deserve every New Yorker?s gratitude for their response to this possible hate crime, the larger context is equally deserving of their attention.

The latest incident did not occur in a vacuum. It forms part of a nationwide pattern of hate crimes directed at Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities in America after 9/11. The FBI reported a 50% jump from 2009 to 2010 alone, partly attributed by some to the hysterical conflict over the so-called ?Ground Zero Mosque? ? in which Bloomberg played an admirably calming role. The limited share of law enforcement resources dedicated to domestic hate groups and right-wing extremists since 9/11 doubtless contributed to the spike. This unfortunate reality persists despite the fact that, in 2009, the Department of Homeland Security reported that those groups were resurging, and that the FBI itself attributes the overwhelming majority of domestic terror acts to non-Islamic militants.

But the broader climate also matters: Hate crimes can be fueled by government rhetoric and policy casting suspicion on Muslim-American communities. In this sense, sadly, Bloomberg and Kelly are implicated. In its 2007 report titled ?Radicalization in the West,? the NYPD identified ?unremarkable? Muslim residents and citizens as a threat. With sweeping claims that the ?the city?s Muslim communities have been permeated by extremists,? it further stigmatized entire communities. Watchdog groups roundly condemned the report, because of its flawed methodology and the likelihood that it would lead to racial profiling and hate crimes.

Moreover, according to a series of recent reports by the Associated Press, the NYPD invested untold resources in a vast, covert program of warrantless and indiscriminate surveillance over every level of Muslim public life in New York City. Using informants, undercover agents and technology, the police infiltrated bookstores, restaurants, schools, student associations and mosques ? without suspicion of specific criminal activity, and based instead on ethnicity and religion. This was no secret to targeted communities across the city, but the confirmations were staggering.

Source: http://feeds.nydailynews.com/~r/nydnrss/gossip/gatecrasher/~3/oS5R2Ozgd_I/mayor-bloomberg-duty-york-muslim-community-article-1.1002058

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