Post-9/11 Surveillance of South Asian and Muslim Communities in New York City

What was 9/11? 

On September 11th, 2001, four U.S. commercial planes heading for the West Coast were hijacked, crashing down in New York City, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania, killing 2,977 people. American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 hit the Twin Towers in Downtown Manhattan, New York City. 9/11 shocked the world at the turn of the millennium, instilling fear and uncertainty within both American and global citizens alike. Immediately after the fall of the towers, first responders rushed to the scene, titled Ground Zero, in search of survivors from the attacks. Policemen, firefighters, construction workers, and even volunteers scoured the area around the unsettling backdrop of the deteriorating towers. Tenants were displaced, hundreds of businesses were compromised, families were grieving, and first responders were exhausted. But the question on every Muslim, South Asian, and Arab American’s mind was whether this was an attack from Southwest Asia or North Africa. They knew what would happen if it were.

For months after, everyone felt devastated from this incident, constantly going through cycles of grief and fear. The wars brewing in the Middle East and the anti-Muslim ideologies created by the government were not what people in New York City wanted. It was already too difficult for many New Yorkers to go outside: “I walked to work. Like I couldn’t ride the subway. It was too scary. Um, because, you know, you just felt like a bomb could drop anywhere at any time.”  People wished for security from genuine threats of terrorism; they did not wish for a major crackdown on South Asian and Muslim communities within their own country.

 “It was just like this horrible.. It was just like a mass funeral. You were just in a mass funeral for every day for months after that. And meanwhile the government was beating the drumbeats of war. And I don't know, I feel like everybody I knew in New York City was like, ‘I am like so ready to secede from this country.’ Like, we do not want to go to war. We want to grieve and we want to heal.” 

Many volunteers and media outlets claim that there was a strong sense of American solidarity after 9/11, as seen in the mass volunteer efforts by Americans from all over the country who made the journey to Ground Zero. They traveled from regions ranging from California to New England. While this newfound connection between Americans could have been a step towards inclusivity in the country, it was quickly shut down by the intense anti-Muslim rhetoric of the government, exacerbated by the George Bush Administration. 

Alongside mass relief efforts, South Asian New Yorkers were quick to lend a hand despite the growing sense of animosity towards them that would escalate intensely. Advocacy groups such as South Asians Leading Together (SAALT) and the Sikh Coalition provided a space where New Yorkers could express their needs and concerns. These services ranged from medical clinics to legal aid. 

[Post 9/11 Disaster Assistance Clinic at LaGuardia Airport, 2002. Courtesy of SAADA]

We often use the term “Never Forget” when discussing the tragedy. This memory is held for the sacrifices made by the brave firefighters of the FDNY, the employees who worked in the towers, the grieving families across the country, and the uncertainty that many politicians and civilians felt about American national security. While it is indisputable that this tragedy affected so many lives, our “Never Forget” sentiment conversely ignores the erasure of a history that is vital to be addressed. After 9/11, the South Asian and Muslim communities across New York City were forever changed. The crackdown on these neighborhoods and families began almost immediately after the attacks. 

Immediate Government Response in 2001

On the national scale, the United States Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. This act, short for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001, gave law enforcement devastatingly more power to conduct unprecedented searches and surveillance on Americans whom they considered suspects of terrorism. This act was passed only 45 days after the events on September 11th, with barely any in-depth judicial or congressional review, changing the lives of millions for years to follow. Apart from authorizing unconstitutional surveillance, it further reduced the checks and balances on this power by weakening the judiciary's ability to challenge the constitutionality of the new surveillance power that was used.  There was so little specificity on what substantiated a “terrorist”, so this intentional vagueness led to severe racial profiling. For American agents, a terrorist was not someone who demonstrated reasonable suspicion to be affiliated with a terrorist group; it was simply someone who looked like the people who committed the acts on 9/11. So consequently, South Asian, Arab, and Muslim Americans were disproportionately affected by the act. Millions of citizens of these communities were searched and watched simply due to their appearance, instilling fear in South Asian and Muslim neighborhoods. Regardless of citizenship, there was a new wave of xenophobia and alienation of groups because politicians deemed them “not American enough” for their standards. Furthermore, at least 60% of Americans were in favor of racial profiling in these circumstances to “prevent terrorism”. 

[Excerpt from Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, passed on October 26, 2001.]

The surveillance tactics authorized by the PATRIOT Act were inherent infringements on the civil liberties and privacy of Americans. It issued over 100,000 National Security Letters (NSLs), which would infringe on the privacy of Americans and access their phones, computers, and banking histories. The needlessness to enforce judicial review or uphold basic constitutional rights paved the way for the repulsive tactics that the NYPD used to target Muslim and South Asian communities in New York City. They did not help find a single terrorist, contradicting government claims that the PATRIOT Act was effective. 

Reform of the INS

Before 9/11, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) – currently titled ICE– was an underfunded program and the “black sheep of the executive branch”. It was placed in the Department of Labor and then tossed to the Department of Justice. But after 9/11, a new branch of the executive government was created: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This department became in charge of all immigration issues within the country, so naturally, the INS became a part of it. With this new sense of stability within the government, the INS became much more prominent in neighborhoods across the country. Almost instantly, the INS began to target South Asian and Muslim communities, beginning mass surveillance and deportation efforts. Today, with the government’s extreme emphasis on the importance of ICE and its ignorance of the lives of millions of immigrants and peaceful protestors, it is vital to understand its problematic history.   Regardless of which group it is targeting, ICE resorts to violent, racist, and unconstitutional actions to enforce its agenda of xenophobia and white supremacy. Their deportation efforts undermine the vitality of immigrant communities in America, and they contradict the country's founding value as a diverse hub of culture.

Heightened Police Presence in New York City 

The anti-Muslim sentiment growing in America and intense South Asian discrimination prompted a heightened police presence in South Asian neighborhoods across New York City. In a letter to the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, advocacy group South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) described it as a hindrance to their vital communities: “It has frayed the social fabric of muslim communities by breeding anxiety, distrust, and fear.” Before September 11th, an estimated 120,000 Pakistanis lived in Brooklyn, mainly concentrated in Midwood and Brighton Beach.  By late 2003, around 40 to 50 percent were detained, deported, or left on their own.

Little Pakistan, a historically Pakistani enclave nestled along Coney Island Avenue in Midwood, and Jackson Heights, a culturally rich South Asian neighborhood in Queens, are some of the many New York City neighborhoods that were policed heavily. If a neighborhood had one too many mosques or halal delis, or if a community organization worked to help Muslim New Yorkers, the NYPD would mark it. Evidently, this policing was less out of a genuine fear for terrorism or from promising leads on terrorist organizations, and more to unlawfully target South Asians living independent lives in New York City. 

“It started since the September 11th. The surveillance just got so heavy, it just -- it just got so heavy. And actually, recently, a leaked NYPD document came out, listing our organization and [Linda], which is the main -- the boss, as terrorists, and potential terrorist group and organization, which was, like, terrible. How could they label such an organization that are helping people out? We're filling something that the government is not willing to fill up. There is a gap that our association is giving, and there is a lot of people that are just volunteering there, just giving their time up, just to help others, and then they would list it as a potential terrorist organization. Just for us being Arabs, or Muslims.” -Yasmin Nagi, fellow at the Arab American Association of New York and Brooklyn resident

In the words of Matt Apuzzo, the journalist who released the first mainstream story about the harsh surveillance on Muslim communities, “the NYPD had become one of the most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies.”. Their system became increasingly similar to other oppressive regimes we see across the globe. The CIA officer inside the NYPD, Larry Sanchez, wanted the department to surveil Muslim New York like Israel surveils the Palestinian West Bank—operations that were beginning to be recognized as Israel’s own apartheid. NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly was the lead orchestrator of these mass policing tactics, outlining the “ancestries of interest” and the Demographics Unit. The demographics unit was the primary unit in charge of “counterterrorism”, whose agents mapped and monitored Muslim communities.  It became normalized to stay inside for days due to fear of the FBI knocking on your door. Some would sleep in their cars. Many would simply leave if they could, immigrating north to Toronto, Canada, where there is now a large Pakistani community.

South Asian communal spaces were also being electronically wiretapped by the FBI due to the 2002 Ashcroft Guidelines, which rewrote previous protections that aimed to prevent intensive surveillance of political groups. These protections arose in the 1970s after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, because it was partly a result of the government having too much power to spy on civil rights activists and groups. These protections only lasted so long; once they were altered after 9/11, mosques could be surveilled. There was no longer a requirement for “probable cause” or direct evidence of crime. As a result, mosques across New York City were wiretapped and spied on by the FBI, creating a sense of fear in spaces that should invoke a sense of community and religious understanding.

“In front of the MSA [Muslim Student Association], the prayer room door there was a sign that said, "Please, no political discussions in the prayer room." And you know, if you know Muslims and Arabs, that's like 75 percent of our conversation. So it's like what, what are we going to talk about?”  -Asad Dandia, Pakistani New Yorker and founder of Muslims Giving Back

Special Registration

One initiative facilitated by both the federal government and New York City law enforcement was the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), mainly referred to as the special registration program.  This initiative required all men of a designated 25 ancestries from South Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East to register their information with the government. It was used to keep an aggressive and unconstitutional tab on their whereabouts, making it substantially easier to profile, spy on, and detain these New Yorkers. Their freedom of speech, religion, and assembly was compromised.

[The 25 Ancestries of Interest for the Special Registration Initiative. Courtesy of the Associated Press]

They were forced into these registrations regardless of their immigration status. In a document created by the INS to supposedly answer questions, they stated, “The first phase of Special Registration, initiated September 11, 2002, required selected individuals to be fingerprinted, photographed, and interviewed under oath at United States ports-of-entry. This new procedure is the second phase, extending registration requirements to nationals and citizens of designated countries, who already have been admitted to the United States, to register at an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) district or sub-office.” So it did not matter if one had a student visa or a permanent residency. It did not even matter if one was a citizen born on U.S. soil. The Immigration and Naturalization Service would note their home addresses and workplaces to keep a tab on their whereabouts at all times. If a registered man was taken by the INS, they would be placed in detention centers with terrible conditions. Many would go without food or water for extensive periods of time, with little ability to understand their situation. 

[Call-in from the Department of Justice for the Special Registration Program. Courtesy of the Alliance of South Asians Taking Action.]

 One man residing in Little Pakistan was studying at a university in New York in the early 21st century and held a student visa. He registered with the INS after the attacks of 9/11 and was detained directly after. He recalls being threatened with deportation regardless 

of his visa, and he was not given any food. He was informed that he had to leave the country, and there was absolutely no precedent. Another registered man was taken by the INS days before his wedding, and he was threatened with deportation as well. Even if one registered and complied with the racial profiling, it was not a protection from being perceived as a threat. They were still being put into deportation proceedings.  Out of 83,000 individuals registered with the FBI and INS, not one of them was alleged to have any link to terrorism; still, 13,000 of them were placed into deportation proceedings. These proceedings would arise from minor issues, such as someone forgetting to notify the government that they moved from Brooklyn to Queens. There was no way to win in this situation.

[Excerpt from the Summer/Fall 2002 Issue of SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection. Courtesy of SAADA]

“When the reports come out, I become so paranoid. Like, who can I trust, who can't I trust? Because Brooklyn College was listed as one of the places where you had frequent informants and undercovers, and things like that. And the fact that, you know, members of our community -- you know, there were dossiers written about all of these people. Like, they had their pictures and their activities. And, like, all of these things had come out that I was just, you know, these people that are in this club that I am so close to, how many of them are actually working for the NYPD?”

The NYPD not only knocked on the doors of countless homes and wiretapped their religious institutions, but they also dispatched spies to infiltrate the everyday lives of South Asian New Yorkers. They were able to use citizens as spies due to the changes in judicial review regarding terrorism from the PATRIOT Act and the loosening of the Handshu agreement. Spies could infiltrate any place that was “suspect as terrorism”, and according to the NYPD, this was any predominantly South Asian or Muslim neighborhood. Spies worked through the demographic unit of the NYPD Intelligence Division, managed by David Cohen. Cohen, a former CIA agent, was notorious for his anti-Muslim initiatives in New York City. Appointed by Ray Kelly in 2002, he was called upon to make New York City’s own CIA. Their policing expanded into South Asian neighborhoods across the city, with the mentality that if the NYPD had its own eyes and ears in the ethnic communities of the five boroughs, maybe things could be different. 

The NYPD had the authority to deploy undercover agents because they were allowed to spy on terrorist organizations, so they officially marked mosques as terrorist organizations to create a loophole. Investigating a mosque as a terrorist enterprise lets them put every person in the mosque as a potential suspect, and potential suspects of terrorism could be targeted for personal surveillance. This cycle allowed them to continue these surveillance efforts for years on people who were living regular lives in the city. There was absolutely no police precedent for these actions.

“It was very chilling because we didn't know who to trust and who to speak to, whether the guy praying next to me is an informant or a friend. And that really deteriorates the social cohesion of a community, right? And that's not something you can really measure tangibly.”

 The plainclothes agents were both policemen and regular New Yorkers who they would consider as seeming Muslim, Arab, or South Asian. Often, they would want people who spoke Urdu or Arabic. They could be found sitting in a café in Little Pakistan to eavesdrop on the locals’ conversations, they would fake prayers in a mosque to take note of who attended, or they would attend a Muslim student association meeting to overcalculate what they discussed. They would also be found in local YMCAs, restaurants, and travel agencies. Even if someone were using Al Jazeera as their primary news outlet, that would be noted as anti-American. Furthermore, peaceful protestors and community organizers were especially targeted. It was revealed in 2011 that 15,000 plain clothes officers were used to target Muslim communities in the tri-state area. These spies fueled the notion that 

Muslims and South Asians were an “un-American” group of people that could not be trusted. 

Spies in Student Organizations

“So we later learned that he was caught on drug possession charges or something like that. And they told him, either you face a certain number of years in jail, or you spy for us. Originally, they wanted him to spy on a narcotics group, but he said he'd -- [laughter] he said he didn't want to spy on his own people. So he spied on Muslims instead, which is funny because he grew up Muslim. And so that was what we wrote in his confession.” -Asad Dandia

In 2012, Dandia founded Muslims Giving Back, which was a youth-run Muslim community organization aimed at fostering their faith through action. Coming from a working-class Pakistani family, he aspired to give back to his community in a way that both uplifts their people and their religion. He worked with fellow students to serve families all over New York City. It started from Brighton Beach and then eventually extended to Queens and Manhattan, too. In March 2012, a Bangladeshi man based in Jackson Heights messaged Dandia, asking to get involved in the non-profit. So he would come to their local mosque in Brighton Beach every Friday and hang out. Eventually, he would come to every lecture, workshop, and training with them. It seemed as if he was helping his own people out, until October, when he came out to be an informant for the NYPD. He came late to events to take pictures of the attendance sheet and get the contact information of everyone at the meetings. In hindsight, some members claim that it was odd for someone you just met to ask for your number, and some of them were suspicious of him. But no one questioned it, and consequently, they were spied on for months. It was shocking to everyone that someone who seemed to just want to contribute to a noble cause was secretly an informant. Consequently, distrust persisted in these communities even over a decade after 9/11. This is only one of many stories of student organizations being infiltrated by spies, who were often Muslim themselves but with criminal records that they wanted to have wiped. The informants were sent into these student associations because the NYPD considered student university groups to pose significant dangers. Brooklyn College’s Muslim students were described as a “tier one” danger. Included in the next tier down was LaGuardia Community College, where the police claimed an organization aligned with al-Qaeda “wanted to revive the student group.”

“Mosque Crawlers”

Another common place for the NYPD to deploy spies was in mosques. Historically, mosques in New York City were sites of peaceful worship; they were where Muslim New Yorkers could foster a sense of community and common interest through their shared faith. It is vital that immigrants in America have these safe havens where they can speak freely with like-minded people who understand their unique accomplishments and struggles. These safe havens were compromised after 9/11, as they were invaded by undercover spies who marked their attendance sheets, prayers, contact information, and discussions. These were often called mosque crawlers by the NYPD. They used a tactic they called “create and capture”, where the informants must create conversations about politics or 9/11 to capture people who spoke even the slightest against the American government. Free speech and freedom of religion were completely stripped from these communities. 

Discrimination 

“‘I tried to tell them that it’s not a dirty curtain, it’s a turban,’ Rajinder Singh told us. ‘But another guy came and said, “Go back to your country.” I said, ‘But we are American, where should we go?’ He thought that we were Iranian. So I told him, ‘We are not Iranian. We are not Muslim. We are Sikhs from India.’ He said, ‘Then go back to India.’” 

Following 9/11, the false sense of American solidarity quickly transformed into an ideology of Muslims and other South Asians as “non-American”. The government released intense xenophobic rhetoric, which fueled Americans to follow suit. The people began to discriminate against not only Muslims but also Sikhs and Hindus. Many New Yorkers could not recognize the differences, and government officials did not care to learn them. New York quickly became a site of intense racial profiling by both the government and the people. Since the first week of September 11th, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported a 1600% increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes.

[Poem written by an NYU undergraduate student for AFTAB, the Muslim Student Publication. 2005.]

One collective significantly affected by the post-9/11 discrimination was yellow taxi drivers. Arguably, the backbone of New York City culture, taxi drivers have acted as knowledgeable and swift guides for all New Yorkers. Before 9/11, they were treasured; after, they were targeted. The Taxi Workers’ Alliance, a union of over 20,000 New York City taxi workers, recognized the rise in prejudice against their drivers. The Alliance conducted a series of surveys to gain further insight into their struggles. Reports included how many times they were searched by the NYPD or Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) per week, instances of hate speech by their passengers, and their comfort level with their job after 9/11. It was evident that South Asian, Muslim, and Sikh taxi workers were in a constant state of fear during their shifts. A route too close to Ground Zero could instantly lead to reasonable suspicion for terrorism. 

[Taxi Worker Alliance Survey filled out by a Pakistani Muslim driver, who had been driving for 6 years. Filled out May 9, 2002.]

Consequently, many South Asian taxi drivers wished to leave their jobs and move out of New York City. They were due to both the fear of crime and the lack of economic stability.   

The rising stigma around South Asian Americans was inherently racist; New Yorkers were especially ignorant towards the contributions of South Asians to their neighborhoods and their complete uninvolvement with terrorist organizations on the other side of the globe. These stereotypes of placing Muslims as equivalent to “terrorists” or “un-American” have continued to harm their communities. It is extremely difficult to pull a community out of its expectations, for racist and Islamophobic ideologies continue to spread.

[New York Times Article published on September 24, 2001.]

In response to these stereotypes, South Asian New Yorkers became increasingly aware of how their faith or complexion could lead to outright harassment. American flags popped up in storefronts, taxis, homes, and organizations. It felt obligatory to show a devotion to America when a harmless remark about the government could be twisted into evidence of treason.

 [Excerpt from New York Times issue on 9/18/2001]

[Cover of New Yorker Magazine titled “What So Proudly We Hailed”.]

The Sikh Coalition, founded in 2001, has devoted its resources to uplifting Sikh New Yorkers since its inception. The discrimination of Sikhs was one rooted in ignorance; no one cared to differentiate or understand the variety of South Asian faiths, and they cared not to differentiate these faiths from terrorism. 

One crucial case managed by the Sikh Coalition was Harrington v. MTA. Sat Hari Singh was a Sikh MTA train operator. He bravely led a busy subway train to safety during the 9/11 attacks. He was conducting a 4 train on September 11th, 2001, and as he was driving it towards the World Trade Center, he quickly reversed it into the opposite direction. His awareness and quick thinking saved the lives of countless train passengers, and he should have been considered a hero for years to come. 

However, three years after 9/11, Singh was instructed to remove his turban or face losing his job as a train operator. They asked if he could wear an official MTA hat instead of putting a logo on his turban, even though 2 of the 3 MTA hats did not even contain a logo. It was unreasonable to demand a corporate logo on a religious garment; before 9/11, the MTA had no problem with the turbans. They simply did not want to be associated with Muslim or Sikh workers for fear of their image; they argued that passengers might not recognize Singh as an employee during an emergency. Even though he was a hero on 9/11, not a perpetrator, they could not see past their prejudice. 

“He told me that because I wore a turban, I wasn’t allowed to work where the public could see me. I had to work in the yard. Or else I had to wear a MTA patch on my turban, if I didn’t want to be fired. But to me, I felt that my turban was being used as a billboard.” -Sat Hari Singh

On July 15, 2005, five more Sikh station agents announced their intention to file discrimination charges against the MTA. The Sikh workers charged that a post-9/11 policy requiring them to brand their turbans with an MTA logo amounts to religious discrimination. With the help of their co-counsels, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Bhalla & Cho LLC, they won the case in 2012. It was a historic victory for religious freedom in the workplace and in New York City. 

[The Sikh Coalition speaking out against the MTA turban branding policy.]

Legal Counsels and Funds

One of the first responses by South Asian Americans to the intense discrimination was the creation of hotlines. These were created to report bias incidents so legal action could be taken against the perpetrators. In a city that had just faced a terrorist attack, racist and Islamophobic New Yorkers began to feel alarmingly comfortable with inciting hate speech and biased crimes. As mentioned, South Asian taxi drivers, Sikh MTA operators, Muslim student organizers, and ordinary mosque attendees feared for their safety. These hotlines acted as a way to resist the increased normalization of anti-Muslim and anti-Asian hate within New York City. If they could receive adequate legal assistance against bias crimes, it would discourage them from continuing to happen as frequently.  While some organizations, such as the Sikh Coalition and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, made genuine efforts to provide aid, other sectors, such as the NYPD Bias Crime Unit, were not as eager to help. It has become apparent that during this time, the NYPD was under an extremely anti-Muslim commissioner and contained unashamedly anti-South Asian units, as seen in the Demographics Unit, which is now dissolved. The hotlines served to account for the absence of NYPD and state-commissioned aid.

Acts of Resistance

“The positive is, like, the beauty of New York City is, like, so diverse, and I feel like people are very open-minded and willing to understand new ideas. So, sometimes when we are doing rallies and whatnot, I witnessed people just coming up to us and ask, ‘Oh, what is this about?’ And then we explain it to them, and they'd be like, ‘OK, we are up with it. We are with you guys, we believe in this.’ And they are standing with us, totally strangers that we just see in the streets.” -Yasmin Nagi, a Yemeni New Yorker, describing her work with the Arab American Association of New York

New York City-based South Asian organizations also hosted demonstrations, community forums, cross-religious prayers, and performing arts collectives to raise awareness about the discrimination and surveillance of South Asian New Yorkers. They raised money to give to legal workers combating anti-South Asian crimes, and their community meetings were open for all New Yorkers, regardless of race, religion, class, or gender. This created a new environment of cultural understanding between South Asians and other New Yorkers that was not present before 9/11. 

[Flyer for a South Asian performing arts collective in collaboration with organizations such as DRUM, YSS, and the Taxi Workers Alliance]

Who was Mohammad Razvi?

Rebuilding Little Pakistan in Post-9/11 America | The New Yorker

Mohammad Razvi is a Pakistani New Yorker who immigrated to Sheepshead Bay in the 1970s. In early adulthood, he started several businesses in Little Pakistan before 9/11. After, he created the Council of Pakistan Organization to provide guidance to Pakistani New Yorkers facing fears of surveillance and deportation. Razvi’s organization provided a space for his neighbors and community members to go through the unfair but prominent processes of INS questioning and registration call-ins. Additionally, he changed protocols regarding the treatment of Muslim women by law enforcement.  When completing the FBI Citizens Academy, he emphasized to the FBI that when women would tell agents to wait outside the door when it's being knocked on, it's not because they’re hiding something, but because they need to put a scarf or hijab on. It was vital to note this, and that led to a change in protocol. They started to leave their cards and info when picking up someone. This could be perceived as progress, but in reality, it should have already been considered by law enforcement. They immediately jumped to the conclusion that these women were liars when they just needed to uphold their faith. It was the absolute minimum they could’ve done to be respectful. Assumptions were made due to the names they held, too. To even gain status when communicating with the government, Razvi called the offices or detention centers with the name Moe Razvi instead of Mohammed.

From acting as a translator between Urdu-speaking New Yorkers and FBI Agents to intervening in deportation proceedings to ensure South Asian New Yorkers can stay in their city, Razvi was a guiding light for countless New Yorkers. In an oral history with the Center for Brooklyn History, he recalls, “His name is Tauqir Zafar. He was about to have a wedding, and he went to visit his family and come back, and they started putting him into deportation proceedings. We intervened, I intervened, and helped and assisted them. And you know, lo and behold -- it took some time, but then they finally released him. Until today, he comes and visits me, and tells me, ‘Now I have kids, and living my American dream, thank you so much.’ Those are the things that I live for.”  Razvi’s frameworks of uplifting the community and ensuring safety helped the neighborhood of Little Pakistan to persevere through the early 21st century, a form of resistance in itself to the country’s efforts to eliminate them. 

[Razvi greets both neighbors and NYPD officers on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn.]

He was helping those who were directly affected by the cruel tactics of the NYPD and INS to survey, detain, and deport South Asians; however, his view on these systems was not that of complete disdain. Instead, he believed that to counteract these prejudices within the system, Muslims and South Asians should integrate into it. 

“When the 9/11 attacks had happened, many Muslim youth saw law enforcement arrest their friends, loved ones, parents' friends, cousins, and when they seen that, it gave a bad impression. Yes, law enforcement was trying to do its duty at that moment, however, because the children, it stays in their memory, that's what they did. This is what they were seeing. It gives a very negative perspective. We are changing that. We're building that understanding. More importantly, we're explaining to the youth that they can also be part of the system. They can also be a hero. Be an NYPD police officer. Be a fire department personnel. Be an FBI agent. Be a Homeland Security agent. Be a Secret Service person. You can also be part of the system. Building that bridge, and eliminating that gap.” -Mohammad Razvi

Inspired by this idea of integration, he helped create the first Muslim Leaders Council with the FBI in 2015 and subsequently the first Muslim Advisory group for the NYPD. Is this an act of resistance and change, or is it an act of acceptance that these entities will never be held accountable for their wrongdoings?

Who was Bobby Khan? 

“I feel like America lied to me about what it was. After 9/11, it opened my eyes. I had been hearing back home, in prison, that America is an ideal—freedom of speech, real democracy. 9/11 opened my eyes that all that was fake.” 

Bobby Khan grew up in Lahore, Pakistan, where he was exposed to oppressive forces and political extremism. A student organizer who stood against Pakistan’s military regime in the 1970s, he was in and out of prison in Pakistan for 8 years, where he says he was tortured. After moving to New York City, he was suspected of being a part of the same organizations that he was imprisoned for standing up against.

 “‘I was a person of interest! Osama bin Laden was a person of interest!’ he said over breakfast at the restaurant.’But I was the one who opposed them—not just here, but back there, too!’”

After 9/11, Khan established the Coney Island Avenue Project, an initiative based in Little Pakistan that, similar to COPO, aimed to help South Asians and Arabs who were facing detainment threats by the INS. In 2005, he was named a “person of interest” by the Department of Homeland Security, a marker that lasted for eight years.

In 2004, around 200 detainees were being held in a private Queens immigration jail, and they were denied due process and basic humane treatment by the guards. Many were thrown into solitary confinement. 175 of the inmates began a hunger strike that lasted 4 days. Khan discussed this incident, as he was fighting for these immigrants to not be unjustly deported. He spoke up about the incident, “You can bet, though, that they were not designed to help the more than 200 imprisoned immigrants – mostly from India, Pakistan, Cameroon, Nigeria and China – regain their freedom or, at the very least, some of their most basic rights. The authorities at the drab warehouse building with no windows in Springfield Gardens had responded to the strike with a swiftness and harshness better suited to dangerous criminals.” 

While Razvi’s perspective was on integrating with the system, Khan was more skeptical. Some described him as a little unconventional, “But we met in the offices of this guy, Bobby…  So he was this Pakistani immigrant. Who just became like the organizer at that time. And some of his stuff, in retrospect, was a little bit dubious. Like he would be encouraging people to go register. 'cause he was like, you know, that's what's gonna allow you to get status.”

Bobby Khan witnessed firsthand his clients, many of whom were neighbors, get harshly treated by the systems upheld by the Department of Justice and the INS. It was not a question of joining them, but exposing their unconstitutional actions to incentivize change. Instead of establishing career days with law enforcement, Khan could be found protesting outside the Metropolitan Defense Center to draw attention to the frequent roundups of Muslims and South Asians at that facility. To this day, he continues to reflect on how the Muslim communities in New York City could have been helped to a higher degree. 

“What wasn’t in the community was the strength that could have come from non-Muslim neighbors across the city standing beside them. We expected some voice to support us. We did not see solidarity here. That impacted the community.”

Solidarity has been the guiding force for so many movements, but it was lacking in this case, and that matters. The Muslim and South Asian communities in New York City, from Little Pakistan to Jackson Heights, did not receive meaningful help from their neighbors. It was up to their internal communities alone to devise coalitions and plans to challenge both government surveillance and intensifying discrimination. Since these did not affect other New Yorkers who weren’t Muslim or South Asian, they turned a blind eye, allowing the initiatives to continue for years. 

‘It [surveillance] becomes, like, such a normal part of our existence as Muslims in New York, that, like, for example, I teach at a high school. And when I talk about surveillance to non-Muslims, my colleagues, or if I talk about surveillance to even my students, it's, like, shocking to them. Like, "Wow, this thing can happen? Like, people do that? Like, you guys are being targeted like this?" It's -- they're genuinely curious, you know? But for my age group and maybe a little bit younger than myself, and definitely older than me, for them, it's like, ‘No, no, this happens. This is a normal part of the experience of being Muslim in New York City post-9/11.’ And that's really disturbing to me.”

The overt surveillance of South Asian and Muslim communities in New York City has become too under-the-radar in history curricula. Students should be given the full scope of the effects of 9/11 that go beyond the immediate response and into long-term cycles. Recognizing the cycles of systemic racism embedded in our law enforcement and government systems offers a distinct insight into how America has prospered on the oppression of communities of color. We can draw these important connections between the INS’ treatment of South Asians and Muslims in New York City and modern-day ICE’s treatment of immigrant communities across the country, which has now led to the violent treatment of anyone who stands in solidarity with those affected by ICE’s tactics. 

In a New York City that has just elected its first Muslim mayor, we must reflect on the treatment of Muslims throughout our city’s history and not simply erase them under the guise of progress. While it is undeniable that the election of Zohran Mamdani was revolutionary, there are still improvements needed to acknowledge the past treatment of South Asians and Muslims in New York City and hold these institutions accountable.  Through curricula that highlight the misconduct of law enforcement and encourage students to analyze the short-term and long-term effects critically, an incentive for these institutions to do better in the future would be formed. Furthermore, stronger legislative frameworks that protect minorities and ethnic neighborhoods from unconstitutional or racist conduct must be enforced, with stricter consequences should an officer or a branch of government, on any level, violate these frameworks. 

Discussing the different types of community efforts that highlight resilience in times of public and private scrutiny challenges established narratives about South Asians or Muslims. One stereotype is that they cannot act against exploitation. The reason these tactics happened in the first place was that the government assumed these communities would simply submit. This history of forced compliance in America has given institutions the notion that communities of color cannot stand up for themselves. This notion is entirely unprecedented, as these communities have struggled and persevered more than anyone. As we have seen through the efforts made by immigrants to drive our country to greatness, it should be asserted that submission is not an option. Oppressive campaigns can and will be met with resistance. 

Lastly, another stereotype South Asian and Muslim youth still grapple with is the presumption of them as terrorists. Even if one does not truly believe so, the stereotype is alluded to in hate speech. The effects still linger, and it is imperative to understand them so we can progress in a direction that opposes xenophobia, islamophobia, and generalizations over the diverse AAPI communities within New York City. 

Bibliography

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Razvi and Khan

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Outro

Ahsin, Rabia. Interview by Zaheer Ali. September 1, 2018. Muslims in Brooklyn oral histories. Center for Brooklyn History. https://oralhistory.brooklynhistory.org/interviews/ahsin-rabia-20180901/.