Brussels attacks: Cruz’s comments chastised by Muslims, civil rights groups

DEARBORN, Mich. – Presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s call for increased surveillance in Muslim neighbourhoods following the deadly bombings in Brussels drew sharp rebukes from Muslim Americans and civil rights groups, which panned the Republican’s proposal as unconstitutional and counterproductive.

Cruz said Tuesday that law enforcement should be empowered to “patrol and secure Muslim neighbourhoods before they become radicalized.” Echoing earlier statements from rival Donald Trump, Cruz also said the U.S. should stop the flow of refugees from countries where the Islamic State militant group has a significant presence. The Islamic State took credit for the attacks at the Brussels airport and a subway station that killed dozens Tuesday and wounded many more.

Muslims across the county and groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Anti-Defamation League condemned Cruz’s statements, but many said such a reaction was nothing new. Advocacy groups have said for months that the Islamic-extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino and the intensifying rhetoric in the presidential campaign have ratcheted up animosity against American Muslims.

READ MORE: Brussels attack: Ted Cruz wants to ‘patrol and secure Muslim neighbourhoods’

“We believe we are part of the society. We have the same ideology as mainstream Americans,” said Osman Ahmed, a resident of a Somali neighbourhood in Minneapolis. “I don’t think the ideology of surveillance of a Muslim community neighbourhood is the right thing to do. That will send a message that Muslim Americans are not a part of American society … and that’s the message that terrorism groups are willing to hear.”

Trump, who has proposed a temporary ban on foreign Muslims entering the U.S, praised Cruz’s plan as a “good idea” that he supports “100 per cent” in an interview with CNN. The Republican front-runner also intensified his past calls for the U.S. to engage in harsher interrogation techniques, arguing that Belgium could have prevented the bombings had it tortured a suspect in last year’s Paris attacks who was arrested last week.

Speaking Tuesday afternoon in New York, Cruz praised the city’s police department’s former program of conducting surveillance in Muslim neighbourhoods, called for its reinstatement and said it could be a model for police departments nationwide.

“New Yorkers want a safe and secure America,” Cruz said. “New Yorkers saw firsthand the tragic consequences of radical Islamic terrorism.”

READ MORE: Brussels attacks: Two suspects identified in airport, subway bombings

After the 9-11 attacks, the New York Police Department used its intelligence division to cultivate informants and conduct surveillance in Muslim communities. In a series of articles, The Associated Press revealed the intelligence division had infiltrated dozens of mosques and Muslim student groups and investigated hundreds. The program was disbanded amid complaints of religious and racial profiling.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the call for surveillance, saying it sends “an alarming message to American-Muslims who increasingly fear for their future in this nation.”

The Anti-Defamation League, a U.S. group that battles anti-Semitism worldwide, said Cruz’s plan harkens back to the relocation of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during World War II.

Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, said she fears for armed groups “who are emboldened by the commentary from people like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.”

“What’s scaring me more is the kind of potential fueling of these vigilantes and people who might want to take up arms and go patrol Muslim neighbourhoods,” she said.

READ MORE: Donald Trump reiterates support for waterboarding following deadly explosions

Kebba Kah, 46, who was entering a mosque in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn for evening prayers Tuesday, said the bombings in Brussels were “a very terrible thing.” Such attacks are roundly rejected by all Muslims save for “a few radical groups,” said Kah, who came to the American Muslim Center after leaving work at Ford Motor Co.

Dearborn is widely known as the hometown of Henry Ford, who hired Arabs and Muslims in the automaker’s early days and helped create what is now one of the nation’s largest and most concentrated communities of residents who trace their roots to the Middle East.

In Orange County, California’s “Little Arabia” neighbourhood just miles from Disneyland, friends Omar Ghanim, 23, and Nas Juma, 22, took a break from a shopping trip Tuesday to eat Lebanese pizza at an eatery tucked into a suburban strip mall.

Flags from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and other majority Muslim nations fluttered over the mall in a stiff breeze – but a large American flag flying from the roof was taller than the rest, patrons were quick to point out.

READ MORE: Iconic Belgian cartoon Tintin sheds tears over Brussels attack

“We’re targeted even if it’s not our fault,” said Ghanim, adding that the Islamic State was not Islam as he understood it.

“They don’t follow the Islamic rules or anything Islam,” he said. “We’re a peaceful people – we’re not violent.”

4:33 Brussels attack: How it happened and who’s responsible

• Brussels attack: How it happened and who’s responsible
• Deadly bombings rock Brussels airport, subway as terrorist group claims responsibility
• Belgians hold vigil for victims in deadly Brussels attacks
• Manhunt underway for third suspect in deadly bombings in Brussels
• Empire State Building turns off its lights to honour Brussels victims

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Associated Press writers Gillian Flaccus in Anaheim, California; Vivian Salama, Jill Colvin, Steve Peoples, Ken Thomas, Lisa Lerer and Alan Fram in Washington; Jonathan Lemire and Deepti Hajela in New York; and Steve Karnowski and Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report.