Various media reports indicate that the Los Angeles Police Department, responding to companies by Muslim and civil liberties groups, has canceled plans to map Muslim communities in an effort to facilitate counter-terrorism efforts. According to the Associated Press:
A police plan to map out Muslim communities, a proposal that civil rights groups sharply criticized as racial and religious profiling, has been shelved, a police spokeswoman said Wednesday. The LAPD planned to have its counterterrorism bureau identify Muslim enclaves to determine which might be likely to become isolated and susceptible to “violent, ideologically based extremism.” Several Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California criticized the plan and sent a letter to Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing expressing their concerns. “There was a clear message from the Muslim community that they were not comfortable with it. So we listened,” said Mary Grady, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department. She couldn’t immediately say when the plan might resume. Grady said the remaining part of the initiative, which includes outreach efforts to strengthen ties with Muslim communities, would continue, and police planned to meet with Muslim leaders Thursday….Downing and other city officials had defended the plan, saying the idea was to deepen ties with Muslim communities. The plan would have had data assembled by the University of Southern California’s Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events.
One of the groups opposing the plan was the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) headquartered in Southern California and which was founded by individuals who were likely part of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt during the 1960’s.