CAIR LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush on CNN offers reaction to the LAPD MAPS program targeting Southern California Muslims
LAPD’s Muslim project decried
Police say effort is to reach community; foes say proposal amounts to profiling.
By Rick Orlov, Staff Writer, Press-Telegram
Article Launched: 11/13/2007
Amid growing nationwide controversy, Islamic leaders called on the Los Angeles Police Department on Tuesday to abandon plans by its counterterrorism bureau to create a map detailing Muslim communities across the city.
The plan, revealed earlier this week, has drawn accusations of racial profiling and concern that it could be used with other communities, even as LAPD officials have said their efforts are being misinterpreted.
“As an African-American, we know what it is to be profiled,” said the Rev. Eric Lee, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles.
“We have been fighting profiling for years. We don’t see the LAPD mapping out skinheads. We don’t see the LAPD mapping out neo-Nazis. We don’t see the LAPD mapping out corporate criminals. This is an effort to profile people based on their race.” […]
Leaders of several Islamic groups are scheduled to meet Thursday with Downing, head of the Counter Terrorism Division, to discuss the plan and the concerns it has raised among the 500,000 Muslims who live in Los Angeles. […]
LAPD officials have said the move is not an effort to profile a community but an effort to thwart radicalization. [more]
Please click here to read the whole article.
Please click here to read the letter from the Muslim Leaders of the Los Angeles area to Commander Dowling of the Los Angeles Police Department.
SEE ALSO: Protest Greets Police Plan to Map Muslims (NY Times)
SEE ALSO: LAPD to Build Data on Muslim Areas (LA Times)
SEE ALSO: LAPD Mapping Plan Draws Ire from Muslims (USA Today
The Islamic Workplace 
Posted on November 14, 2007
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