Police Commissioner Kelly visits Jamaica Muslim Center

At a meeting that began with a prayer from the Holy Q'uran, New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Raymond Kelly spoke with the leaders and residents of southeast Queens about community concerns of racial and religious profiling.
Kelly got right down to business, at the Jamaica Muslim Center on 168th Street and 85th Avenue, responding to rumors of undercover police officers &#8220spying” amongst the Muslim community. Stating that it is not true, he added &#8220undercover police officers are used sparingly and not without an in-depth review to justify its use.”
As for rumors of the NYPD as an immigration office, he asserts, &#8220our job is only to prevent crime,” he says, &#8220We do not ask inappropriate questions.”
Members in the audience related incidents of alleged racial and religious profiling. A man spoke of being stopped and questioned on the George Washington Bridge due what he believed was his Muslim attire.
Another case of alleged religious profiling was given by an elderly man, who only gave his first name as Ahmed.
Believing that he and his son were the victims of police surveillance, he described to Kelly and the audience an incident that occurred 2-and-a-half months ago. According to Ahmed, the NYPD and FBI entered his home and took his computer without a warrant. &#8220We were scared,” he said. Ahmed implored the Commissioner, &#8220What do I do? I try to be good.”
Kelly informed the audience of NYPD's initiatives to address the needs of the Muslim community included training police officers in cultural sensitivity, hiring a Muslim community coordinator, and the existence of its telephone language service.
A number of people in the audience admitted to not reporting crimes because of the language barrier. Since New York is one of the most culturally diverse cities in the country, NYPD has established services to reach out to these communities.
Kelly informed the group of the NYPD's &#8220comprehensive linguistic program,” which features a telephone service available in any NYPD precinct where victims and/or witnesses of crimes can speak with someone in Arabic, Farsi, Hindu and well over 100 other languages, 24-hours-a-day.
Kelly invited young Muslim men in the audience to consider joining the NYPD, so that police department will better reflect the city it serves.
An audience member implored the Commissioner to get the media to stop referring to terrorists as Muslims.
&#8220Anyone who is involved in a terrorist act is no longer Muslim,” he said.