Talib Abdur Rashid and Samir Hashmi say police denied them access to their own files, claiming the documents are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information law. In separate actions filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, the men said the department’s denial was illegal because it did not provide a detailed, specific justification for the refusal.
Samir Hashmi of Paramus, who was a member of the Muslim Student Association at Rutgers University, is one of the Muslim leaders who are seeking the NYPD’s surveillance files on them.
Two Muslim leaders have taken the NYPD to court to get files on the department’s surveillance of them and their organizations.
Talib Abdur Rashid, imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, and Samir Hashmi, a former student leader of a Rutgers University Muslim group, said police denied them access to their own files, claiming the documents are exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law.
In separate actions, both filed Nov. 26 in Manhattan Supreme Court, the men said the NYPD’s denial was illegal because it did not provide a more detailed, specific justification for the refusal.
They asked the court to order the department to release the records.
Citing a recent Associated Press series of reports on the NYPD’s Muslim surveillance activity after 9/11, the men said the police have steadily monitored mosques, including Rashid’s in Harlem, and student organizations like the Muslim Student Association at Rutgers, of which Hashmi was treasurer for four years.
