{"id":2194,"date":"2014-02-21T12:44:10","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T17:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?p=2194"},"modified":"2014-02-21T12:44:40","modified_gmt":"2014-02-21T17:44:40","slug":"nypds-illegal-spying-on-muslims-was-legal-says-legal-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2014\/02\/nypds-illegal-spying-on-muslims-was-legal-says-legal-system.html","title":{"rendered":"NYPD’s illegal spying on Muslims was legal, says legal system"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
I Always Feel Like.. Somebody's Watching Me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This<\/a> is profoundly disappointing but not entirely unexpected:<\/p>\n

In a decision filed Thursday in federal court in Newark, U.S. District Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2012 by eight Muslims who alleged that the NYPD’s surveillance programs were unconstitutional because they focused on religion, national origin and race. The suit accused the department of spying on ordinary people at mosques, restaurants and schools in New Jersey since 2002.<\/p>\n

Martini said he was not convinced that the plaintiffs were targeted solely because of their religion. “The more likely explanation for the surveillance was to locate budding terrorist conspiracies,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

The judge added: “The police could not have monitored New Jersey for Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The simple truth is that civil rights are not guaranteed by the Constitution, they exist solely as a function of society’s willingness to permit them. You have no inalienable rights, you only have the rights that the cultural majority (which itself has decided to assert those rights) permits you to share. The Constitution is just paper. <\/p>\n

The only way that muslim Americans can ever attain equality in civil rights is not via legal means but social ones. Increased integration and outreach and civic participation are what will ensure our civil rights. I am an optimist in that regard.<\/p>\n

Put our faith in Allah, not pieces of paper. <\/p>\n

Related: I’ve covered the NYPD spying case in detail – here’s a link to my previous posts<\/a> on the topic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is profoundly disappointing but not entirely unexpected: In a decision filed Thursday in federal court in Newark, U.S. District Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2012 by eight Muslims who alleged that the NYPD’s surveillance programs were unconstitutional because they focused on religion, national origin and race. The suit accused the department…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[159,24,33,28,410],"class_list":["post-2194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamerica","tag-civil-rights","tag-islam","tag-muslim-americans","tag-muslims","tag-nypd"],"yoast_head":"\nNYPD's illegal spying on Muslims was legal, says legal system - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NYPD's illegal spying on Muslims was legal, says legal system - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is profoundly disappointing but not entirely unexpected: In a decision filed Thursday in federal court in Newark, U.S. District Judge William Martini dismissed a lawsuit brought in 2012 by eight Muslims who alleged that the NYPD’s surveillance programs were unconstitutional because they focused on religion, national origin and race. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2194"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2194\/revisions\/2197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}