The NYPD surveilled Muslim communities across a one-hundred-mile radius

Evidence

In 2007, the NYPD produced a document titled Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat, in which it argues that there are four stages of radicalization: pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination, and jihadization. According to this model, all young Muslim males from middle-class and immigrant families fall into the pre-radicalization stage. In short, simply being a member of this group places one on a conveyor belt aimed toward “radicalization.” Now if, by some chance, a member of this group should give up smoking, drinking, and gambling and start to grow a beard and wear traditional Islamic clothing, he is on the fast track toward acquiring “Jihadi-Salafist ideology,” which puts him squarely in the next stage: “self-identification.” Another characteristic of “self-identification” is political awareness and community activism. By the third stage, “indoctrination,” the NYPD tells us, the person has withdrawn from the mosque and has become politicized around a set of new beliefs leading to the fourth stage, “jihadization,” which is when he becomes ready to plan a terrorist attack. Signs of reaching this fourth stage include conducting research on the Internet, performing reconnaissance activity, and acquiring materials. While the report states that there is no profile for a potential terrorist, the thrust of its analysis is precisely about creating such a profile and predicting the activity of potential terrorists. Based on data from a grand total of ten cases, the report states that there is “remarkable consistency in the behaviors and trajectory of each of the plots across the stages” and that “this consistency provides a tool for predictability.” — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 486 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The NYPD surveillance program produced no criminal leads during its existence. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 578; The NYPD surveilled ordinary Muslim community spaces designated as radicalization incubators. — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 575; NYPD’s anti-Muslim surveillance produced zero terrorism leads over six years — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 32 (+5 more)

Related

• NYPD’s radicalization model makes Muslim identity itself a predictor of terrorism (similarity 0.92)
• The NYPD surveilled ordinary Muslim community spaces designated as radicalization incubators. (similarity 0.91)
• NYPD’s anti-Muslim surveillance produced zero terrorism leads over six years (similarity 0.89)
• The NYPD radicalization theory equated growing piety with growing terrorist risk. (similarity 0.89)
• The NYPD surveillance program produced no criminal leads during its existence. (similarity 0.86)
• The CIA-trained NYPD ran a human mapping surveillance program of Muslim communities (similarity 0.85)
• Radicalization theory treats Islam as inherently violent like eugenics treated races (similarity 0.84)
• The NYPD ran CIA-trained surveillance of Muslim communities without suspicion grounds (similarity 0.83)
• NYPD simultaneously courts and surveils the same mosques it publicly honors (similarity 0.83)
• The NYPD surveilled Muslims without reasonable suspicion through a dedicated Demographics Unit (similarity 0.83)
• The NYPD ran a secret blanket surveillance program targeting Muslim communities (similarity 0.83)
• Surveillance targets Muslims while ignoring white supremacist militias (similarity 0.82)
• The NYPD treated ordinary Muslim community spaces as terrorism incubators (similarity 0.82)
• Radicalization theory targets Muslims who have committed no crime (similarity 0.80)
• Surveillance derives from country-of-origin priority lists that racialize Muslim identity (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• NYPD’s radicalization model makes Muslim identity itself a predictor of terrorism #expands (0.85) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 486
• FBI surveillance drives Muslim congregations to self-police and Americanize #complicates (0.60)