NJ Muslims on presidential candidate Bloomberg: 'He doesn't know the hurt he caused'

Even before he arrived at his job at Fort Dix one recent morning, Army Sgt. Syed Farhaj Hassan had already been bombarded by a Michael Bloomberg ad about gun control on television, and a radio piece about Bloomberg's tenure as mayor of New York City.

Bloomberg seems to be everywhere, as he invests heavily in advertising during his campaign for president. But for Hassan and other Muslim Americans, the former New York mayor's political resurgence is a painful reminder of a sweeping, yearslong surveillance program that Bloomberg supported and defended as mayor.

“Do I think Michael Bloomberg should apologize for causing terror for a group of people up and down the Northeast? Yes, I do,” said Hassan, a resident of Helmetta, in Middlesex County, and the lead plaintiff in a settled lawsuit against the New York City police over the secret surveillance program.

“His actions are still causing issues between Muslim communities and law enforcement," Hassan said in an interview with NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. "The chilling effect exists, and it exists because of Michael Bloomberg’s actions to go ahead and surveil peaceful Muslims in New Jersey and New York.”

During Bloomberg’s administration, the New York Police Department secretly mapped ethnic communities, placed informants at mosques and infiltrated schools, businesses and restaurants in New York and New Jersey in the name of counterterrorism. While Bloomberg has apologized for controversial stop-and-frisk policies targeting black and Hispanic New Yorkers, he has not done the same for the Muslim surveillance program that critics say was also rooted in profiling a minority group.

Bloomberg’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment, but the aspiring Democratic nominee for president has previously defended the programs as a necessary tool to keep New Yorkers safe.

Casting suspicion on Muslims

Around 2002, in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack, the NYPD began collecting information on Muslim life in cities, including Paterson, Jersey City and Newark, in addition to New York. Police officials said they wanted to know where terrorists might go to "lie low.”

Officers photographed worshipers and license plates outside mosques and used informants who were known as "mosque crawlers" to listen in on sermons and conversations, reported The Associated Press, which exposed the program in a series of stories.

Mosques in Englishtown, Manalapan and Somerset where Hassan prayed were among those targeted by police. He feared that their actions would hurt the security clearance he needed in his career as a sergeant in the Army Reserves. He worried he would be treated differently if fellow soldiers and supervisors knew he attended mosques under surveillance.

“Mr. Bloomberg’s and Mr. Trump’s actions are hand-in-glove the same thing, which is to cast suspicion against innocent Muslims in America,” said Hassan, a decorated Iraq War veteran.

For many Muslims, fear and mistrust of authorities remain. After an avowed white supremacist shot and killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, on March 15 last year, people at Hassan’s local mosque debated whether to call law enforcement for protection or seek private security.

They asked Hassan, “You want to get these people who were spying on us to make sure we’re safe?”

“Who do law-abiding, God-fearing Muslims trust for their security — a guy standing outside a mosque with a flashlight or the police department?" Hassan said. "You shouldn’t have to second-guess.”

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Hassan was among business owners, organizations and students from New Jersey who sued the New York Police Department in 2012. In a settlement reached two years ago, the city agreed to pay $75,000 in damages and nearly $1 million in legal fees while agreeing not to monitor people based on religion or ethnicity. It did not admit wrongdoing.

Two weeks after the settlement was announced, Hassan swore an oath of reenlistment in the Army Reserves at Fort Dix, where he serves in communications in the Military Intelligence Readiness Command unit. His motivation for the lawsuit and reenlistment was the same: his love of the United States and the rights afforded to Americans.

“We have equal protection under the law, and it’s drilled into soldiers that you’re supposed to treat people with respect,” he said.

Schools also were swept up in the NYPD surveillance, as undercover officers monitored Muslim student groups at 16 Northeast colleges and universities, including Yale, Columbia and Rutgers. They had a "safe house" in an apartment near Rutgers' New Brunswick campus, where they had been monitoring students, the AP reported.

Samir Hashmi of Paramus, who was active in the Muslim Student Association at Rutgers, was shaken by the reports. He still feels suspicion when he meets a government official or a new person at the Paterson mosque where he prays, fearing that the person could be an informant.

Hashmi said he is careful about expressing political opinions, worried they could be misconstrued and used against him. He was so concerned that when he went back to school for his master’s degree, he avoided joining any Muslim student organization.

“I didn’t want that sort of pressure,” said Hashmi, 31, who sued the NYPD in 2013 to obtain records he believed they had on him. The New York State Court of Appeals ruled in the city’s favor five years later.

Hashmi said Bloomberg’s lack of remorse is troubling.

“He doesn’t know the hurt he caused,” Hashmi said. “It makes people afraid. It makes them afraid to be open about being Muslims. It forces a whole community to self-police. You can’t speak about a certain issue because you may be under surveillance.”

The former mayor has apologized for stop-and-frisk policies that led police to detain thousands of innocent black and Hispanic New Yorkers.

"I defended it, looking back, for too long because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing to young black and brown families and their kids. I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it. I didn't, and for that I apologize," Bloomberg said at a campaign event Thursday in Houston.

But he did not address the sweeping Muslim surveillance program also decried by civil libertarians. The organization Muslim Advocates, which represented New Jersey plaintiffs in Hassan v. City of New York, has called for Bloomberg to disavow the program. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the law firm of Gibbons, P.C., later joined the case as co-counsel.

“The NYPD mapped out every mosque within 100 miles of New York and even posted cameras to record who was coming and going," Scott Simpson, director of public advocacy at Muslim Advocates, said in a statement. "Yet, these massive civil rights violations resulted in no credible leads. Despite court interventions and repeated public shaming, Bloomberg has failed to disavow or even apologize for treating countless innocent Muslims like criminals. His silence on such a massive civil rights failure is unacceptable.”

If Bloomberg is the nominee

Despite the fallout from surveillance, many Muslim Americans said they would still vote for Bloomberg for president if he became the Democratic nominee because they believe President Donald Trump has caused even greater harm to their communities.

Trump has imposed travel bans on Muslim-majority countries, appointed Islamophobes to his administration and falsely claimed that thousands of Muslims in Jersey City cheered on 9/11. He also praised Bloomberg’s mass surveillance of Muslims.

Imam W. Deen Shareef said he would consider voting for Bloomberg but wants him to be more forthright about his positions on matters important to Muslims, including immigration, the travel bans and foreign policy.

“I can’t say I have decided [about Bloomberg], but I do know one thing: We have to remove the individual who presently is in the office,” said Shareef, 68, who leads the Masjid Waarith ud Deen in Newark.

Shareef was one of the plaintiffs in Hassan v. City of New York. He said fewer people went to pray after the surveillance scandal broke. Today, when new people arrive at the mosque, he makes it a point to learn about them and their backgrounds, to allay any suspicions.

Under the settlement, NYPD and city officials were required to meet with those affected by the surveillance to hear about their experiences. Shareef and Hassan were there, in person, on Nov. 25 and met with the deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism and other officials.

Hassan said the New York officials "assured us that they are doing things the right way now." He said Bloomberg should also make a conciliatory step and promise he would not promote surveillance policies as president based on one's race, ethnicity or religion.

Ha also said he would cast a vote for Bloomberg if he had to.

“If it takes Bloomberg as a corporate Democrat to defeat Donald Trump in November, I will reluctantly pull the lever,” Hassan said.

Hannan Adely is an education and diversity reporter for NorthJersey.com. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: adely@northjersey.com Twitter: @adelyreporter