Community Corner

NYPD, the City Prepare for Ramadan

NYPD hosts Muslim community and religious leaders at annual pre-Ramadan Conference

Around 400 Muslim religious leaders gathered at the NYPD's headquarters yesterday in New York City for a pre-Ramadan conference hosted by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

The annual event hosted by the NYPD pays respect to the observance to this holy month of fasting which, this year, begins on Monday, August 1. Imam Mohamed Shamsi Ali of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York delivered the opening and closing prayers.

Bloomberg addressed the religious leaders about the City's measures for safety during this time of strict observance, emphasizing that New York is a city built on religious tolerance and a respect for diverse faiths:

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"Recognizing what we all have in common are key to what makes this the world's most diverse and welcoming city," said Bloomberg. "Despite the incredible progress we've made in recent years in stamping out bigotry and racism, hate-based acts of vandalism and other outrages still occasionally occur.

"And last week's terrible events in Norway remind us that there will always be extremists, and that some of them harbor violent fantasies. So we cannot drop our guard, we will not drop our guard and the NYPD never does. We want all followers of Islam in the city to have a safe Ramadan and we are going to do everything we can to ensure that."

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During Ramadan the police department increases foot posts around mosques and assigns patrol cars to houses of worship and select areas, as well as deploys additional anti-crime officers to deter burglaries.

In addition, NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force officers visit mosques to facilitate reporting of possible bias incidents and to provide hate crime awareness training.

Members of the NYPD Youth Cricket League, including the Brooklyn-based Pak Stallions who on Tuesday won the league championship, were recognized at Wednesday’s event, along with members of the Muslim Officers Society, a fraternal organization established in 2008.

Since 2002, the NYPD has distributed guidelines to commanders which overview the observance period and provide precinct personnel with detailed information Ramadan, its observance, prayers and other activities during the month of fasting.


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