{"id":867,"date":"2010-03-01T22:52:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T17:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mohamediqbalp.wordpress.com\/2010\/03\/01\/american-muslim-accuses-police-of-bias-in-hiring\/"},"modified":"2010-03-01T22:52:33","modified_gmt":"2010-03-01T17:22:33","slug":"american-muslim-accuses-police-of-bias-in-hiring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2010\/03\/01\/american-muslim-accuses-police-of-bias-in-hiring\/","title":{"rendered":"American Muslim Accuses Police of Bias in Hiring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Lawsuit
\n by Moroccan-American Muslim Accuses Police of Bias in Hiring<\/h1>\n

By COLIN MOYNIHAN<\/a><\/h6>\n
Published: February 28, 2010<\/h6>\n

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\n

\nAs the New York Police Department has initiated and expanded
\ncounterterrorism efforts in foreign countries over the last several
\nyears, it has also aggressively tried to recruit speakers
\nof Arabic and other languages<\/a> of countries where Islam holds sway.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Enlarge
\n This Image<\/a><\/div>\n


\n\"\"
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times<\/h6>\n

Said Hajem says that a police officer reviewing his
\napplication told him, \u201cYou may be a terrorist.\u201d\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\nBut a Moroccan immigrant who applied to become a police officer as a
\nresult of those efforts is suing the department, charging that he was
\nnot hired because he was a Muslim and was born outside the United
\nStates.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nLawyers for the city filed a motion asking that his claim be dismissed,
\nbut on Jan. 29, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of United States District
\nCourt in Manhattan ruled that there was enough evidence for the suit to
\nproceed.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nThe immigrant, Said Hajem, took the police exam in February 2006 and
\nsaid he scored 85.6, well above the passing grade. That June he received
\n a letter of congratulations from Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly<\/a> and
\nbegan preparing to enter the Police Academy. Mr. Hajem said he had even
\ndecided to delay his wedding, hoping to get married as a police officer.\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\u201cI started dreaming of becoming one of the Finest,\u201d Mr. Hajem, 39, said
\nlast month, as he sat in his lawyer\u2019s office on lower Broadway, \u201can
\nimportant person who is going to save lives and stop terrorism.\u201d\t\t<\/p>\n

\nNow those hopes seem remote. It has been four years since Mr. Hajem
\npassed the exam, but his application has been suspended in bureaucratic
\nlimbo.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nMr. Hajem, who said he became an American citizen in early 2006, said
\nthe hiring process faltered for him in July 2006 when an officer
\nreviewing his paperwork, Ricardo Ramkissoon, told him that he
\ndisapproved of people from \u201cother countries\u201d joining the department.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nMr. Hajem added that Officer Ramkissoon had also rejected references he
\nhad provided from people with Middle Eastern names. \u201cHe told me, \u2018I need
\n American names,\u2019 \u201d Mr. Hajem said. \u201cHe said, \u2018You may be a
\nterrorist.\u2019 \u201d\t\t<\/p>\n

\nMr. Hajem\u2019s lawsuit said he had been subjected to discrimination that
\nviolated his constitutional rights.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nIn response, a lawyer for the city, Jessica Miller of the Law
\nDepartment, said in a statement: \u201cWe expect to prevail at trial.\u201d\t\t<\/p>\n

\nDeputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department\u2019s chief
\nspokesman, declined to specifically address the statements that Mr.
\nHajem attributed to Officer Ramkissoon, but said in an e-mail message
\nthat \u201cthe allegations fly in the face of the N.Y.P.D.<\/a>\u2019s
\n well-established record of outreach and hiring\u201d of recruits from
\ncountries like Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which all are mainly
\nMuslim nations.\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe have actively and successfully recruited native speakers of Urdu,
\nFarsi, Arabic, Pashto and other languages,\u201d Mr. Browne wrote. \u201cOur
\nlinguist program is the envy of law enforcement worldwide.\u201d\t\t<\/p>\n

\nMr. Hajem\u2019s lawyer, David B. Rankin, did not contest the department\u2019s
\nclaims of diversity. He contended, however, that Officer Ramkissoon had
\nsabotaged Mr. Hajem\u2019s application by giving misleading and false
\ninformation to superiors.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nOn a department form dated July 2006, Officer Ramkissoon presented
\nseveral reasons not to hire Mr. Hajem, including that he had not
\ndisclosed a summons received while he was working as a livery driver,
\nand that he had engaged in \u201ctax evasion\u201d from 2001 to 2005.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nIn court papers, Mr. Hajem included Internal
\nRevenue Service<\/a> documents; he said that he had earlier provided them
\n to Officer Ramkissoon and that they showed he had paid the proper
\namounts in taxes.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nAnd Mr. Hajem said the summons, issued for picking up a passenger who
\nhailed him from the sidewalk, was dismissed when he went to court.\t\t<\/p>\n

\nOfficer Ramkissoon did not respond to a request for comment.\t\t<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
A version of this article appeared in print on
\nMarch 1, 2010, on page A24 of the New York edition.<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawsuit by Moroccan-American Muslim Accuses Police of Bias in Hiring By COLIN MOYNIHAN Published: February 28, 2010 var articleToolsShareData = {“url”:”http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/01\/nyregion\/01muslim.html”,”headline”:”Lawsuit by Moroccan-American Muslim Accuses Police of Bias in Hiring”,”description”:”In a federal lawsuit, Said Hajem says that he passed the written exam but that an officer reviewing his paperwork blackballed his application.”,”keywords”:”Hiring and Promotion,Discrimination,Muslim-Americans,Suits and…
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