Lawsuits brought against NYC for forcing arrested Muslim women remove hijabs spark debates about religious freedom

Lawsuits brought against New York City by several Muslim women in the last few months, which claim their constitutional rights were violated when they were forced to remove their hijabs while in police custody, have raised debates about measures to protect religious freedom in public and private institutions.

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NYPD surveillance of political activism questioned

May 27, 2014 Several groups plan to file a formal complaint on Tuesday seeking an audit of the New York Police Department’s intelligence gathering operations, after recent revelations that the department had been monitoring political activists, sending undercover officers to their meetings and filing reports on their plans. The groups said the complaint would be…

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Muslims and the N.Y.P.D.

May 25, 2014 New York City’s police commissioner, William Bratton, made the right decision last month when he said he would disband a unit used by his predecessor, Raymond Kelly, to spy on law-abiding Muslims as they worshiped or patronized businesses in their communities. Beyond proving useless for intelligence purposes, the Demographics Unit undermined the…

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NYPD’s new spying outrage: Innocent Muslims treated worse than guilty bankers

When “Arabic-sounding” names are automatically suspicious — but financial crimes are ignored — here’s the result Stop your car to help a woman who appears to be lost — and get pressured, while in police custody, to become an informant. That’s what happened to one of the men profiled in a recent New York Times report on…

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NYC defends use of Muslim police informants

NEW YORK — The New York Police Department disbanded a unit that tracked the everyday lives of Muslims, but it has taken a tough stance in a heated legal battle over its continuing use of Muslim informants in terror threat investigations. Muslim groups filed a civil rights lawsuit last year asking a federal judge to…

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