Los Angeles scraps move to map Muslims

A decision to map Muslims -- citing security reasons -- in Los Angeles had to be called off after protests from the community, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

The decision also drew flak from civil activists, who equated the mapping with religious profiling. Others, the paper said, questioned the authenticity of such a mapping.

Police department deputy chief Michael P Downing said on Wednesday it would drop the mapping aspect of the plan after protests. But the officer was quick to add that they would continue their efforts to reach out to the Muslim community.

The paper said Downing and other officers would outline a new strategy to Muslim American activists at a meeting on Thursday.

Elated, activists said the new move would lead to greater involvement by the police in their communities as long as mapping was withdrawn.

"American Muslims were very disturbed and concerned about the ramifications of the plan and having their privacy invaded," Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council told the paper.

The paper also quoted him as saying the move was the first step to a very healthy dialogue between Muslims and the city administration.

Meanwhile, the police had not provided details on its plans to create the Muslim database.

But in a document reviewed by The Times last week, the department's counter-terrorism bureau proposed using US. census data and other demographic information to pinpoint Muslim communities and then reach out to them through social service agencies, the report said.

Earlier, the police planned to partner with the National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events in building the mapping programme. But the center officials are thinking twice, saying they are carefully studying whether to join the endeavour and stressed that no deal had been made.

Downing then described the mapping plan as an attempt to "mitigate radicalization".

Downing and other law-enforcement officials said police agencies across the world were dealing with radical Muslim groups, which are isolated from the rest, creating potential breeding grounds for terrorism.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa admitted that though the plan was well intentioned, the move created fear and apprehension.

Critics, the paper reported, said it would be impossible to create an accurate map of where Muslims live inn the city.

According to the paper, the Census department is barred by law from asking people for their religious affiliation. Hence, there is no scientific data on the size of the nation's Muslim population, let alone its location, with estimates of totals ranging from about 1.4 million adults in a Pew Research Centre study this year to the 7 million or more claimed by some community organisations.

Census data on ancestry would also fail to yield accurate Muslim estimates, because large numbers of people with Iranian backgrounds are Jewish and many people with Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian roots are Christian.

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the scrapping "shows what community outrage can do".

"We are going to be watchful that they don't try again to bring this mapping plan forward with another name," Ripston said.

The ACLU has also filed a public records request for details of the mapping project, the paper said.

Al-Marayati said he wrote to Downing, urging to drop the plan before the scheduled meeting with American Muslims' leaders.