Should the police spy on all Muslim mosques and groups?

Islamic Institute, mosque and school

Carol Forsloff---“Prudence dictates, and common sense frankly, that the department find out if violence would ricochet here,”Attorney Peter Farrell said in reference to the 9-11 counter-terrorism strategy of spying on Muslims in mosques and other public places.

At a recent hearing Farrell argued that it was fair to target Muslims in mosques, just because they are Muslims and that it is a matter of national security to do so. A struggle that has been going on concerning where spying is appropriate and where it is not was examined by the Associated Press in 2012 when the NYPD intelligence division was found to have eavesdropped on dossiers on dozens of mosques, businesses and student groups.

Peter Farrell, a New York City attorney, maintained at a hearing that Islamic terrorism is a worldwide phenomenon that requires information be gathered in a wide fashion. He said it is important to do so even if there is no prior evidence of extremism or a crime.

Those who are concerned about the police doing surveillance of Muslims in places of worship argue that this is religious profiling and unfairly so.

Legal experts maintain there have been more than 4000 surveillance actions in the past three years that have included mosques.

The argument that it is necessary to target Muslims for surveillance omits the fact that in places like Kenya during the recent mass shooting of hundreds of people in a shopping mall,  Muslims themselves are targets of the extreme groups like Al-Shabab and Al Qaeda, who having been criticized before for killing fellow Muslims, offered those who were identified as Muslims during the mall shootings a test which they had to pass or be shot with the other captives.

A forum on the Internet discusses the concerns about Muslim violence against Christians, as targeting Christians for violence is forbidden by the Prophet Muhammad. A reference is made to a segment on the television show “60 Minutes” which included the letter written by the Prophet that was sent to St. Catherine's Monastery, after a visit made to him in 628 by a delegation from the religious group at St. Catherine's. The following represents the contents of that letter: “The Promise to St. Catherine:

"This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation (Muslims) is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day (end of the world)."

The letter with the Prophet Muhammad's seal remains in the archives of St. Catherine's Monastery as a testimony to the fact that Muslims who follow the tenets of their faith in the simple, traditional ways that people do in other faiths are not violent and in fact do not violate the basic law of not committing acts of terror against Christians. This raises the question by Muslim adherents about whether or not it is right and just to target all Muslims for surveillance.