City Room: At Mayor's Interfaith Breakfast, Some Muslim No-Shows

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg?s annual interfaith breakfast is typically a feel-good event, a chance for the mayor and other city officials to mingle with representatives of many religions.

But the mood at this year?s event, held on Friday morning at the New York Public Library, was dampened slightly by a controversy involving accusations of police surveillance of Muslim communities and a long-running dispute over religious groups meeting in public schools.

In the days leading up to the breakfast, 14 Muslim leaders sent Mr. Bloomberg a letter saying that they were boycotting the breakfast over reports, mostly by the Associated Press, that described the use of undercover officers and informants to gather information about political activity among Muslims in the city. And the information, the reports said, was gathered in circumstances in which there was no indication that crimes had occurred.

Mr. Bloomberg and the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, have denied the accusations. The mayor?s office also noted that two of the people who signed the letter had not actually been invited to the breakfast.

Mr. Bloomberg did not address the controversy in his remarks at the breakfast, and the event attracted no protesters, although there was a substantial police presence outside. The crowd of 368 guests ? larger than at last year?s event and including a number of Muslims ? gave Mr. Bloomberg a standing ovation when he rose to speak.

However, one Muslim who attended, Hussein Rashid, 37, signaled his protest by wearing a T-shirt that said, ?I AM NOT A TERRORIST.?

Mr. Rashid, a visiting professor of religion at Hofstra University, said that he was troubled by the mayor?s denial of the reports, and that an independent investigation was needed.

?We know N.Y.P.D.?s track record on self-policing. What we need is an open and honest investigation,? he said.

He said he sympathized with those who chose to boycott the breakfast, but that he thought it was a constructive event and important for him to attend.

Mr. Rashid chose to keep his opinions to himself ? or at least to his T-shirt ? during the breakfast.

That was not the case, however, with the Rev. Bill Devlin, an evangelical pastor, who was upset by a separate issue.

As Mr. Bloomberg took the stage to deliver his remarks, the Rev. Devlin rose to protest a decision by the city to eject churches and religious groups that hold prayer service in schools.

The city has set Feb. 12 as the day by when religious groups can no longer worship in schools. The deadline was imposed after the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling that backed the city?s decision to ban a Bronx congregation from holding its services at a public school.

?We love you, Mayor Mike?we love you,? Mr. Devlin began, before adding, ?But please don?t kick out our houses of worship from our city schools.?

?I hear you ? we?ll be happy to talk about that,? Mr. Bloomberg said, before continuing with his planned remarks.

After Mr. Bloomberg finished speaking, the Rev. Devlin said of the city?s decision. ?We feel that this is discriminatory. If the mayor wants our support, we want his support.?

As for his brief disruption of the breakfast, the Rev. Devlin said, ?I got his attention, so, as Tom Cruise says, ?Mission accomplished.??

Mr. Bloomberg spoke about how congregations could use social media to connect to city government and encouraged nonprofit groups to submit proposals to play a role in the city?s Young Men?s Initiative, a campaign aimed at improving health and educational achievement for young black and Latino men. Mr. Kelly, the police commissioner, also attended the breakfast and lingered, after the remarks were over, shaking hands and posing for photographs with guests.

Although no one directly confronted Mr. Bloomberg at the breakfast about the surveillance controversy, he was asked about it earlier on Friday, during his weekly radio interview with John Gambling.

?I thought some of the reporting about is it just not accurate or even really responsible,? Mr. Bloomberg said. ?We go where the potential threats are reported to be. It?s like saying you?re going after people that are my height with brown hair. If the perp is described that way in the neighborhood, you look at everybody in the neighborhood that?s got brown hair, my height, and you stop them.?

Source: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/30/at-mayors-interfaith-breakfast-some-respectful-dissents/

mike leach billy graham scion fr s elf on a shelf elf on a shelf carrier iq carrier iq