The New York police department’s methods of monitoring the Muslim student community are being questioned by many educational organizations after it was discovered that they utilized far more broard monitoring methods than previously thought. A number of universities, including Yale and Rutgers University, and Muslim leaders are demanding an investigation in to their methods.
Police detectives were instructed to search through a number of Muslim student websites and details were recorded even though no evidence of any crimes was discovered. They went as far as to send an undercover police officer to a Muslim student white water rafting trip to record names and how many times they prayed each day.
The detectives weren’t just monitoring Muslim students and professors in the immediate area. There were reports of police meetings about Muslim professors as far as 300 miles away.
The police argue that it was an essential part of the monitoring process. A spokesman from the New York Police Department, Paul Browne, said that he had seen 12 arrests of suspected terrorists that had been a result of monitoring the various Muslim student websites. Browne went on to explain; “Students who advertised events or sent emails about regular events should not be worried about a ‘terrorism file’ being kept on them. NYPD only investigated persons who we had reasonable suspicion to believe might be involved in unlawful activities.”
