By Jon Schuppe
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
ONE POLICE PLAZA — Police are gearing up for the month-long Muslim high-holiday of Ramadan by adding patrols around mosques and other potentially sensitive locations, including the site of a proposed Muslim cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, officials said Tuesday.
The plans were outlined in a conference at police headquarters, an event held every year to encourage New York’s Muslims to work with authorities to prevent and solve hate crimes. More than 200 people attended Tuesday’s event, including religious leaders, community leaders, members of the NYPD’s Muslim Officers Society and members of youth soccer and cricket teams sponsored by the department.
“Our goal at the department is to make sure you are able to experience (Ramadan) in safety and in peace,” Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Ramadan, which corresponds to Islam’s lunar calendar, will begin around Aug. 11 and will end around Sept. 10, depending on the appearance of the moon.
In preparation for Ramadan, NYPD commanders are receiving planning guides that include Islamic calendars, primers on the religion's tenets and descriptions of how the holiday is observed, Kelly said.
In a city with more than 100 mosques, large numbers of worshippers will be visible late into the night in many neighborhoods, officials said.
Kelly encouraged Muslims to contact their local precinct’s community affairs office with questions or concerns. For those who don’t speak English, he said, there are over 100 Arabic-speaking officers on the force, and each precinct has a “language line” by which callers can have three-way conversations with an officer and a translator.
The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is visiting the city’s mosques, as well as proposed mosques near Ground Zero and in Brooklyn, to conduct “awareness sessions." Anyone who asks will receive a “security analysis” for their place of worship, Kelly said.
There have been nine hate crimes committed against Muslims in the city this year, compared to five last year and eight in 2008, police said.
On Sept. 11, the anniversary of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center, opponents of the proposed mosque on Park Place will protest near Ground Zero.
Since many victims of hate crimes are recent immigrants, Kelly stressed that non-citizens should not fear going to the police.
“If you’re a victim of a crime or a witness, you can come to police regardless of your immigration status,” he said. “The police department is not an immigration agency. Our job is to prevent crime and bring those responsible for committing crime to justice.”
