T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, today issued the following statement after a report by The Associated Press revealed that the New York City Police Department, with the approval of a federal judge, had “secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing”:
“As an organization representing 1,800 rabbis from all streams of Judaism that acts on the Jewish imperative to respect and protect the human rights of all people, T’ruah is deeply disturbed to learn of these invasive tactics singling out mosques for unjustified scrutiny. It’s yet another example of the NYPD’s troubling pattern of mistreatment of our Muslim friends and neighbors based on their religion.
“Jews are also a religious minority in the United States and through past experience, understand what it is like to be targeted for discrimination because of the actions of a few or because our customs were misunderstood. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights protects the freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, which are also essential American values and Jewish values.
“T’ruah has long called for greater oversight of the NYPD since The Associated Press first reported that the police had engaged in widespread surveillance of NYC’s Muslim Community, despite the NYPD’s own admission that such surveillance did not yield one credible terrorism lead.”
“We call on Mayor Michael Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to stop violating the human rights of the city’s Muslim community and end its so-called TEL “terrorism enterprise investigations” on innocent mosques. We hope the creation of the office of an Inspector General, recently passed by the New York City Council, will help guarantee that the NYPD does not engage in discriminatory surveillance of Muslims or other communities without cause.”