Democracy Now! summary

Carlos Bazante

Soc. Movements MW

Democracy Now! (April 16, 2014 ;April 24, 2014)

New York Drops Police Unit that Spied on Muslims, But Will It End Broader Profiling & Surveillance? and Muslim Americans who Claim FBI used No-Fly list to coerce the into becoming informants file lawsuit

The following two stories are on racial profiling and discrimination.  One of the stories on Democracy Now! was about the racial profiling of Muslims by the New York Police Department. The help of the CIA has made this operation effective.   According to Matt Apuzzo the police force is listening to phone conversation.  Spying on Muslim communities in New York were done to collect demographic data.  The information gathered through spying is categorized into ethnicity, ancestry, and so on.  The NYPD has used infiltrators to gain the trust of the locals in the Muslim community in order to gain inside information.   Matt claims that the NYPD is doing this to narrow a possible source accurately that is suspected of terrorist activity.  Linda Sarsour states that the Demographics Unit are creating psychological warfare in the Muslim community.  More people in Muslims communities now fear other people in their own community as a result of the large infiltration of informants.  Matt states that the demographics unit is racial profiling and wasting energy by finding out information about an ethnic community.   That information does not provide them with insights of where terrorists might be.  Linda informs viewers that a multi-step process will have to occur before the Muslim community can overcome their imposed fear. 

Another story on Democracy Now informs us about Muslims Americans who have been placed on the no-flying list after refusing to become informants.  Naveed Shinwari informs us how he was first interrogated in Dubai and in Washington D.C. after arriving back from traveling.  They suspected him to be either a terrorist or affiliated with terrorists and held him for hours.  A few months later he found out he was on the "no-flying" list and was escorted from the airport.  One cannot easily get off the "no-fly" list after placed on it and getting off might take several years to decades.  Naveed is frustrated and feels helpless after knowing he is a focus target of the government.  These two stories portray the social injustices that the Muslim community is experiencing in our society.