“We’re now feeling a sense of unity, because this is not an issue that affects only Muslims,” Abdullah said.
By VERENA DOBNIK
Associated Press
NEW YORK — At Columbia University, the fear among students that the New York Police Department might secretly be infiltrating their lives has spread beyond the Muslim student population to others who find the reported tactics “disgusting,” as one teenager put it.
The NYPD surveillance of Muslims on a dozen college campuses in the Northeast is a surprising and disappointing violation, Columbia students said Saturday in reaction to Associated Press reports that revealed the intelligence-gathering.
“If this is happening to innocent Muslim students, who’s next?” asked freshman Dina Morris, 18, of Amherst, Mass. “I’m the child of an immigrant, and I was just blown away by the news; it’s disgusting.”
Documents obtained by the AP show that the NYPD used undercover officers and informants to infiltrate Muslim student groups. An officer even went whitewater rafting with students and reported on how many times they prayed and what they discussed. Police also trawled college websites and blogs, compiling daily reports on the activities of Muslim students and academics.
It was all part of the NYPD’s efforts to keep tabs on Muslims throughout the region as part of the department’s anti-terrorism efforts. Police built databases of where Muslims lived and worked, where they prayed, even where they watched sports.
In the past week, Muslims and non-Muslims alike held a town hall meeting on the Manhattan campus of the Ivy League college to discuss the police surveillance. Concerned members of many school groups attended.
“Why is the number of times that we pray per day — whether or not I come in this space and put my forehead on the floor in worship of my Lord — why does that have anything to do with somebody trying to keep this country safe?” said Elizabeth Dann, 29, an NYU law student.
At first, when it was revealed last weekend that Muslim students were targets of police surveillance, “people were distressed and frazzled,” Mona Abdullah, a member of Columbia’s Muslim Students Association, told the AP.
But by Saturday, she said, a different mood descended on the campus.
“We’re now feeling a sense of unity, because this is not an issue that affects only Muslims,” Abdullah said.