Monitoring student groups

While terrorist attacks have been carried out by individuals in the name of Islam, we cannot and should not assume that all Muslim organizations or people harbor extremist sympathies. The actions of the NYPD were unjustified and constitute a serious affront to both Muslim students and the entire American Muslim community.

Both New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Paul J. Browne, the police department’s chief spokesman, defended the actions of the NYPD with two justifications. First, they cited the public nature of the information they monitored; they monitored blogs available on the Internet such as MSA websites available to the public. That the information was public does not excuse the NYPD’s use of religious profiling.

Additionally, there are preliminary reports that implied an undercover NYPD officer participated in an excursion of Muslim students from the City College of New York. If a police officer did, in fact, take part in this outing, then the actions of the NYPD constitute a flagrant betrayal of the trust of Muslim students. This has been confirmed.

Their second justification — the fact that certain Western al-Qaeda members had been involved in Muslim student groups — is also unsettling. The particular historical affiliations of a few al-Qaeda operatives do not warrant the general monitoring of Muslim Student Associations. Indeed, in the absence of evidence suggesting a systematized effort by Muslim groups to radicalize students, such surveillance is unfounded and unethical.

Ultimately, in attempting to forestall extremism and violence, these methods may only contribute to the radicalization of Muslim students. By suggesting to Muslim students that the nation views them as not only a perennial “other,” but as a threat, we work to legitimize the radical discourse of groups such as al-Qaeda. This inhibits American ideals of pluralism and democracy. Embracing Muslim student groups, rather than alienating them, will contribute to the national security of the United States.

America is confronting a real challenge to its security in the form of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam. But to meet that challenge by indiscriminately monitoring Muslim students from across the nation is to contribute to the legitimization of the al-Qaeda narrative while failing to secure the safety of our country.