Staten Island Advance : Muslims' Grievances Get Ear Of Top Cop

MUSLIMS' GRIEVANCES GET EAR OF TOP COP

On visit to Island, commissioner tries to soothe anger over alleged NYPD entrapment in subway bomb plot

By LESLIE PALMA-SIMONCEK | STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE | Saturday, March 31, 2007

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Hesham El-Meligy was an angry man when he arrived at a question-and-answer session with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly last night.

He left a little less angry.

Kelly was invited to speak at the Albanian Islamic Cultural Center as part of a program the Tompkinsville mosque planned for the eve of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad.

Arriving an hour and 10 minutes late, Kelly spoke briefly about the city's falling crime rate and his department's emphasis on the "three Cs" -- community affairs, crime and counter-terrorism -- before taking questions from the audience of more than 300.

On the minds of many was the recent sentencing of a second Muslim in a plot to blow up the Herald Square subway station. Many believe the young men were entrapped by a police informant who was the linchpin of the case.

El-Meligy's feelings were personal.

Shahawar Matin Siraj, 24, an immigrant from Pakistan, was arrested Aug. 27, 2004, and after a trial in Brooklyn federal court, was sentenced in January to 30 years in prison.

Former Rossville resident James Elshafay, who was 19 when arrested, immediately cooperated with the government. He pleaded guilty last year and earlier this month was sentenced to five years.

Their arrests were the result of information from Osama Eldawoody, a 50-year-old Egyptian immigrant working as a paid informer for the police.

For more than two years, Eldawoody visited mosques, including Noor-Al-Islamic Center in Mariners Harbor, where El-Meligy met him several times over the course of a few months.

"When you stand next to each other at prayers you don't have to know each other," said the New Springville resident, also from Egypt. "But you talk to each other, you get to know each other."

Eldawoody's banter never raised an eyebrow, until after El-Meligy read of the arrests and later saw the informant's picture. Replaying their conversations in his head, he realized "anything could have been a way for him to fish."

One comment stood out.

"He said, 'I'm with the brothers,'" El-Meligy recalled. "I didn't know what he meant." But it seemed odd, in retrospect, because Muslims understand that in the post-Sept. 11 world "you have to be very conservative in your speech."

El-Meligy and Imam Ghulam Rasul, spiritual leader of Masjid-al-Noor in Concord, both grilled Kelly about the use of informants.

"The Police Department hires and trains people who look like us, who speak to us in our language," the imam said. He suggested that young people are particularly incautious, and can fall victim to entrapment.

"It is not just for the Police Department to have a policy like this," Imam Rasul said.

But Kelly defended the use of informants as a "traditional investigative tool," and denied that entrapment led to the arrests.

"There were allegations made from the beginning that this was entrapment," Kelly said. But in a trial that lasted four-and-a-half weeks, a federal jury took just 10 hours to convict Siraj.

"Entrapment was the number-one issue in this case, but the jury rejected it," Kelly said.

Other concerns raised during the hour-long session included the disrespect some police officers show to Muslim men in African clothing and to women wearing traditional head coverings.

"I hear you," the commissioner said, emphasizing that "we're human and we make mistakes." He said sensitivity training is ongoing.

The evening ended abruptly just after 8 because it was already way past the hour for nighttime prayers. On his way to the sanctuary to pray, El-Meligy said the police commissioner seemed sincere.

"It's important to come face-to-face," he said. "I was more angry before the meeting. Overall, it's good that these meetings happen and I look forward to more of them."

Leslie Palma-Simoncek is the religion editor for the Advance. She may be reached at palma@siadvance.com.