NYPD Rewords Report That Some Say Insulted Muslims

September 9, 2009

Author: Tom Hays

Source: Syracuse.com

Wire Service: AP

http://www.syracuse.com/religion/index.ssf?/base/national-58/1252541061276510.xml&storylist=religion

The New York Police Department has revised a highly touted report on the threat of homegrown terrorism in response to complaints that it was an insult to law-abiding, observant Muslims.

A coalition of Muslim groups on Wednesday applauded the two-page clarification tucked into "Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat"-a study first circulated in law enforcement circles and on the Internet in 2007. The new wording says the NYPD "understands that it is a tiny minority of Muslims who subscribe to al-Qaida's ideology of war and terror."

The clarification also calls the city's Muslim community "our ally," and "as such, the NYPD report should not be read to characterize Muslims as intrinsically dangerous or intrinsically linked to terrorism, and that it cannot be a license for racial, religious, or ethnic profiling."