Contested Space and “Being Muslim” in New York City
The topic I am interested in exploring is, put most broadly, Muslim American identity in New York City. I am particularly interested in the ways in which identity is manifest by individuals and communities, as well as the ways in which this identity has been used specifically by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to target and monitor Muslim communities.
In August 2011, the Associated Press first uncovered a secret NYPD surveillance program that has mapped, monitored and analyzed Muslim communities and Muslim daily life throughout the city. The vast religious profiling program is based on a problematic (and unconstitutional) premise: that Muslim religious belief and practices are “suspicious” and the basis for scrutiny by law enforcement. Involved in his process has been the designation of entire mosques or Muslim community centers as “terrorist enterprises,” allowing for extreme surveillance, largely through the use of informants. Police informants were sent into schools, businesses, organizations and mosques to determine religious sentiments. Some were instructed in a tactic named “create and capture,” during which they were asked to start conversations about terrorism or related topics and record and report responses to the NYPD. In June of 2012, Assistant Police Chief Thomas Galati admitted that in his six years in position, the counterterrorism investigations had never led to an investigation.
The documents detail specific instances of surveillance. In one instance, an informant joined a group of students in the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at the City College of New York on a rafting trip, reporting on conversation and the number of times the group prayed each day. In another, the NYPD conducted surveillance at a wedding, videotaping everyone who came and went, and noting, “We have nothing on the lucky bride at this time but hopefully will learn about her at the service.”
As these examples illustrate, the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims is based on the misguided conflation between religious practice and terrorism. I am interested in using some of these documents as a point of departure (and an initial “layer”) for my mapping project, which I hope will help to reveal the flawed premise of the program itself. Additionally, I am interested in exploring and mapping some of the ways that Muslim individuals and community self-express identity and make Muslim space in New York City—whether through devotional practices or political affiliations.
I am working on this mapping project in conjunction with another final project for my Participatory Research and Social Inquiry class with Professor Nitin Sawhney. In this related project, I plan to employ participatory research methods to engage some of the community organizations and student groups that were specifically named in the NYPD documents to explore what “being Muslim” means and “looks like” to individuals and communities.
Together, I hope both project will contribute in some small way to the important and vibrant efforts of community activists and advocates to fight back against NYPD surveillance in an effort to de-stigmatize what it means “to be Muslim” in New York City, and in a post-9/11 world.
Thanks, Ateqah!