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NEW YORK - Muslim groups are calling for New York's police commissioner to step down because of his appearance in a film they say puts their religion and its adherents in a bad light.
About 20 activists held a news conference on the steps of City Hall on Thursday and criticized Ray Kelly for giving an interview to the producers of the movie "The Third Jihad."
The movie uses dramatic footage to warn against the dangers of radical Islam and shariah, or Islamic law. Muslim groups say it encourages Americans to be suspicious of all Muslims.
"Terrorism is an evil that must be eliminated, but one cannot fight wrong with wrong," said Talib Abdur-Rashid, a Muslim cleric.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday he stood by Kelly and the commissioner's spokesman, Paul Browne. Activists had also demanded Browne's resignation.
However, the mayor said Kelly would have to redouble his outreach efforts to Muslims.
"Anything like this doesn't help credibility, so Ray's got to work at establishing, re-establishing or reinforcing the credibility that he does have," Bloomberg said.
Kelly appears for about 30 seconds of the 72-minute movie, which was made by the conservative Clarion Fund. He originally said he was not involved but on Wednesday acknowledged he had given a 90-minute interview to the filmmakers in 2007.
Browne he had initially forgotten details of Kelly's involvement in the film until asked about it again this week.
"This goes back five years," he said. "There's some suggestion that, `Gee, I suddenly remembered.' I didn't suddenly remember -- I went through five years of emails to try and figure out did I get request by this guy who's connected with the foundation."
The movie was later shown to police trainees. The police department said it was played in a continuous loop in the sign-in area of counterterrorism training sessions between October and December 2010. As many as 1,489 trainees may have seen the movie, according to documents released under New York's public records law.
Kelly apologized Wednesday for his appearance and for the playing of the movie.
The Clarion Fund and its supporters say "The Third Jihad" is balanced.
"I don't see why they're so upset by people seeing it," said Stuart Kaufman of The United West, a group that opposes shariah. "Shariah law is a danger to western civilization and it's up to police to understand the nature of Shariah law so they can prevent this."
The Muslim leaders said they are worried that the police department is teaching officers to treat all Muslims as suspects. They demanded the resignation of Kelly and Browne, and a U.S. Department of Justice inquiry into the showing of the film.
The activists also want retraining of all 1,489 officers "that are walking this city with poison in their brains," said Cyrus McGoldrick, civil rights director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations-New York. CAIR is one of the organizations that "The Third Jihad" accuses of being soft on terrorist groups.
Bloomberg said he doubted the movie had swayed any of the trainees and said he saw no need for retraining.
"I think any retraining is probably being done by the press right now," Bloomberg said.
Kelly has said the department does surveillance only when it is following leads. But an investigation by The Associated Press has revealed a secret intelligence program, set up with the aid of the Central Intelligence Agency, aimed at infiltrating religious groups and monitoring neighborhoods even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
The CIA has since decided to pull its officer from the NYPD after an internal investigation criticized poor oversight of the collaboration.
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Associated Press reporters Samantha Gross and Tom Hays contributed to this report.
January 27, 2012 @ 10:05 am
It is a fact that Islamic piety is intolerance. The religion is intolerant of “infidels” to the point of glorifying their killing to ascendency to heaven. Let us stop being politically correct and dig our own graves. If the muslims don’t think our society as founded is just, please move to the Middle East. We don’t want sharia or any other cave-dweller’s justice. I think majority of those that constantly whine and protest are paid by the Middle East oil money. It is all the more reason that we must and can become energy independent and pull all pur troops from the hell-holes of the wrold.
January 27, 2012 @ 11:22 am
When they come out and speak against “Honor Killings”, this might be the point of allowing some trust! Seems like the police in the USA are dealing with more and more of these killings each year. The USA is NO PLACE for Sharia Law !
January 27, 2012 @ 11:50 am
They say Ray Kelly’s appearance in the movie ‘puts their religion and its adherents in a bad light.’
Perhaps they could say that the movie puts their religion in a bad light, but Kelly’s appearance is not what makes it so.
Their religion appears ‘in a bad light’ because members of their religion have ‘shown that light to the world by killing innocent people’.
January 27, 2012 @ 12:18 pm
Muslims (CAIR and one other Muslim group) have inundated a local town’s leaders with emails protesting a speaker who will attend and speak at an unofficial prayer breakfast that has been held for ~ 20 years as the “Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast”. So far, none have caved. The Muslims are quick to protest anything they don’t like, but are totally silent when Muslims commit atrocities around the world, which they do regularly. There has been no suggestion the speaker, a recently retired general, will say anything at all about Muslims.
Muslims richly deserve to be portrayed in a bad light if you look at what they’ve done over the years. No other religion on earth supports jihad or any of the other hateful stuff they stand for and say regularly.
January 27, 2012 @ 12:32 pm
Is that where Obama gets his thin skin?
January 27, 2012 @ 12:33 pm
“Muslim groups say it encourages Americans to be suspicious of all Muslims.”
I don’t need a movie to be suspicious.
January 27, 2012 @ 1:50 pm
Me neither. Juan Williams is a liberal and even he has to admit to suspicion. Of course that admission lost him his NPR job.
January 27, 2012 @ 4:29 pm
I’m not suspicious I KNOW what they’re up to!
January 27, 2012 @ 3:24 pm
All of you took the words right out of my mouth, Spiritof76, MadeInAmerica33, vietnamvet, cgretired, JimW and txgoatlady! When I saw the article, I thought ‘resign, hell!’ It is their own muslim’s that make Americans and the world suspicious! Wake up and smell the camel dung! This is the United States of America, got that everybody, we have our own rules! If you do not like it here, you are FREE to buy a ticket back to your own country!
January 27, 2012 @ 11:46 pm
Tell those Muslims to take a hike, they are lucky that we don’t throw them out of the country. Most of the ones that moved here was trying to get away from all the bad things that were happening in their own country. They knew it was insane the way the Muslims live. But along with them came the riff raff to start up trouble. and that’s why we think they are all alike.