Stop the Reckless Spying on Muslims

The New York Police Department is out of control, and it’s making Americans less safe.

On Feb. 20, Yale University President Richard Levin expressed his anger at the NYPD’s extensive surveillance of American Muslim students, which has included monitoring students’ emails and websites, events and speakers, and activities — not only at Yale, but at universities across the northeast. In one frequently cited incident, an undercover police officer accompanied students from the City College of New York on a white-water rafting trip, noting their topics of conversation and the frequency of their prayers. This type of surveillance, Levin wrote, “is antithetical to the values of Yale, the academic community, and the United States.”

In fact, a remarkably small number of Muslims actually “radicalize,” and subsequent research has demonstrated that the overwhelming majority of American Muslims reject terrorism. Gallup has also conducted polls finding that the more religious a Muslim is, the less likely he or she is to find violence attractive.

Targeting American Muslims for no other reason than their faith, across New York and the region, is worrying enough for Americans’ civil liberties. But the NYPD’s behavior also widens a worrying gap between law enforcement and the American Muslim community. “If you see something, say something,” the NYPD tells us. But what happens when you have good reason to fear that if you say something, you’ll be the object of suspicion instead?