Muslims leaders boycott New York Interfaith Breakfast

By Rizwan Khatik - Sat Dec 31, 12:51 pm

NEW YORK: Some religious leaders boycotted an interfaith breakfast here on Friday after media reoprts indicated that New York City Police Department (NYPD) profiled city’s Muslim communities.

Several Imams and activists sent a letter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the host, on Thursday saying they are upset over his response to a series of reports by Associated Press, an American news agency, about the NYPD’s intelligence-gathering campaigns that monitored Muslim groups, businesses and houses of worship.

The absence of 15 Muslim clerics and civic leaders made little difference to the size of a breakfast roster that totaled more than 360, but it made their concerns about police infiltration of Muslim neighborhoods and mosques a topic of conversation for many.

Some worried aloud about what the surveillance meant for the privacy of their own congregations, while others dismissed the boycotters as agitators who were missing the point of an event meant to foster communication between religious communities and city officials.