Why 'mapping' of Muslims was a bad idea

Why 'mapping' of Muslims was a bad idea
By HUSSAM AYLOUSH, Guest Writer

What a relief it was for me and about 20 other southern California
Muslim leaders to meet with Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton
along with Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing and Los Angeles Deputy Mayor
Arif Alikhan last month and be assured that the ill-conceived "mapping"
program had been abandoned.

The LAPD is now moving forward and wishes to fully engage Los Angeles
Muslims, creating a community forum to seek their input. That is the
right path to reaching out to Muslims and helping ensure the safety and
security of all Americans.

What was wrong with "mapping" of Muslims? On the surface, the proposal
may have seemed well-intentioned. However, if given the green light,
"mapping" would have effectively jeopardized the civil rights of all
Americans, along with creating a host of other problems.

First, the '"mapping" program was based on the faulty and offensive
premise that the local Muslim community is more prone to committing acts
of violence than people of other faiths or ethnicities. It sought to map
out Muslims according to factors such as which Web sites they visited,
what mosques they attended, which Islamic schools of thought they
followed, who they interacted with and their income levels.

The proposed project would have inevitably infringed on the First
Amendment rights of law-abiding, peaceful citizens, by holding them
suspect based on legitimate religious and political views.

Secondly, "mapping" would have been impractical. Deputy Chief Downing
said in his recent Senate testimony, "While this project will lay out
the geographic locations of the many different Muslim population groups
around Los Angeles, we also intend to take a deeper look at their
history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown,
socioeconomic status and social interactions.

"It is also our hope to identify communities, within the larger Muslim
community, which may be susceptible to violent, ideologically-based
extremism, and then use a full-spectrum approach guided by an
intelligence-led strategy."

How did the LAPD exactly envision mapping out Muslims? Muslims are
widely dispersed throughout southern California. They are not a
monolithic group deriving their identity from various cultures and
heritages. Some are immigrants. Many were born and raised in Greater Los
Angeles.

Additionally, it would have been impossible to map out Muslims because
the Census Bureau does not track data by religion. Not only that, Los
Angeles is home to Persian Jews and Arab Christians. Would they have
been mapped as well?

The "mapping" program, therefore, was morally, legally, and practically
wrong. I am sure the LAPD recognized and considered those factors in
addition to the strong opposition from the Muslim community when it
decided to withdraw the plan.

However, the good fight must continue. Americans must oppose future
attempts to map or profile any community. When one group loses its
rights, America loses.

Let us remind ourselves of the treatment of Japanese Americans during
World War II, when more than 110,000 men, women and children were
interned based solely on their heritage. In the end, not one Japanese
American internee was charged with espionage.

The struggles of African Americans continue. They were first humiliated
and degraded as slaves. Then, decades later, they were segregated and
ordered which restaurants to eat in, which parks to let their children
play in and where to sit in buses.

To this day, African Americans are profiled and singled out in cities
and neighborhoods around the country.

And who can forget the prejudice and discrimination against Jews? They
were grossly mistreated in Europe and the United States, which
eventually culminated in one of the biggest tragedies in history - the
Holocaust.

Now is the time to stand up for the civil liberties of all Americans.
Let us not be overtaken by fear and suspicion of the "other" and
disregard the Constitution, which guarantees rights to every American,
including the rights to free expression and free practice of religion.

National security is a concern for us all. But there is a way to
strengthen national security while respectfully upholding the rights of
Americans, whether they are Muslim or another faith or ethnicity.

Muslims, too, consider southern California home and proudly work with
local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to keep America safe.
They are doctors, teachers, business owners, soldiers, FBI agents,
police officers and others who serve in all walks of life.

Muslims stand with other Americans in seeking to ensure the security of
our nation and of all Americans.

But we refuse to be treated as less than equal citizens. We reject
"mapping" or profiling under any name, in Los Angeles or in any other
city in America.

Hussam Ayloush is the executive director of the Greater Los Angeles area
office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.