Mapping or Mopping off Muslims

The Los Angeles Police Department seemingly has now taken up the task of cleaning bad Muslims off the streets of Los Angeles.

Their vague plan to map Muslim communities to identify potential hotbeds of terrorism is a severe infringement upon civil liberties.

The LAPD mapping plan makes a lot of assumptions about Muslims without any concrete evidence and promotes apprehensions about a people whose record as peaceful citizens of Los Angeles is transparent. With the lowest incidents of crimes in its ranks, the Muslim community is likely to become the number one suspect in the eyes of law enforcement agencies and through police actions in the eyes of the public once the plan comes into affect. Muslims will be religiously profiled. Those who already harbor ill feelings towards Islam and Muslims will use every possible opportunity to play with the sentiments of the people by spreading hatred and rumors and those among officials who want 15 minutes of fame on the media will exploit the situation to create panic and fear in the general public. Obviously, the LAPD plan makes lots of assumptions without spelling them out.

It assumes that Muslim communities harbor ill will towards the United States of America. It assumes that Muslims are anti-Americans. It assumes that Muslims are anti-national. It assumes that Islam promotes violence and extremism. It assumes that Muslims are a threat to the city and its residents. Seemingly, the plan, as it is, views the Muslim community as a hostile and enemy community. It views them with suspicion and considers them dangerous. The explanation as given by the LAPD police chief that the plan will help improve relations with the Muslim community is a total white wash. Obviously, as suggested by some experts on security issues, the plan must have been drawn by someone who has little to do with law enforcement procedures.

Most probably, as suggested by one expert, someone with deep hatred of Muslims and Islam must have authored it. There is no hard data that suggest that Muslim Americans or Muslims in Southern California were involved in any activity that can be termed as anti-national. Law enforcement agencies exist to protect citizens rather than harass or discriminate against them. If the LAPD had come up with a plan to map antisocial elements, criminals, drug addicts or gangsters, regardless of the communities they come from, it would have received the endorsement of Muslims and other communities.

The way Southern California communities have responded to the proposal clearly indicates that the LAPD has been over stepping its boundaries. We are not living in a police state. In democracies, measures like these fall in the preview of legislative bodies. As citizens, Muslim Americans have every right to question the validity of this measure from a national security perspective. This plan has the potential to damage the reputation of a dignified American community. It has the potential to sow the seeds of a greater conflict between the law enforcement agencies and Muslims. Moreover, it is a waste of precious national resources that could be used to providing much needed health care to our veterans, 20,000 of whom sleep on streets every day.

The police chief must not only withdraw this plan but apologize to the Muslim community for questioning their patriotism. Muslims and their organizations must prepare themselves for a long civil rights movement if this plan goes into effect. The Muslim leadership must come out with a citizen based campaign to protect the constitution, the national interest and the dignity of the community and do so fearlessly.

Dr. Aslam Abdullah is editor in chief of the Muslim Observer, director of the Islamic Society of Nevada and recently appointed director of programs at the Lahore based International Iqbal Institute of Research, Education and Dialogue. He can be reached at [email protected]