Muslim Community Patrol In New York City

MCP says this is to keep communities safe, and that it is not a sharia patrol, but questions persist

Did you know that Brooklyn has a Muslim Community Patrol? The Muslim Community Patrol (MCP) in Brooklyn, New York, operates vehicles that closely resemble NYPD patrol cars and describes itself as a visible deterrent to crime. In addition, its “officers” wear badges nearly identical to the NYPD’s and act as a liaison between police and the city’s Muslims.

Most Americans would likely be stunned to discover that private pseudo-police forces are imitating real law enforcement without interference in the United States. In the UK, such a disclosure would surprise nobody because the British have witnessed that phenomenon for years.

Within the scant mainstream media coverage of the Muslim Community Patrol, one can find a BBC piece highlighting the fact that the Muslim patrol cars even come with flashing lights. Typical of the BBC, it rejects all concerns and criticisms as “far right.” Such critics tend to complain that communities are apparently permitted to self-police, while others accuse the organization of seeking to enforce sharia law on American streets. British experience suggests that the latter argument is not implausible.

The MCP’s founders claim that their motivation was to protect Muslims from hate crimes and to rebuild bridges between New Yorkers post-9/11. However, it can be confusing because Muslim communities in the US, like those in Britain, often complain of feeling socially marginalized while simultaneously advocating for insularism and separation.

For example, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has composed a guidance booklet on how it believes police in the United States should deal with Muslims. The demands include physical separation along gender lines and for Muslim women to be allowed to cover themselves – including their faces – in the presence of male law enforcement officers. It also states that police should avoid using dogs where possible.

The key point is that pleas for inclusion are often accompanied by requests for special treatment, resulting in self-imposed exclusion. It becomes a game where the winner not only has every demand met but also wins victimhood status through declarations of oppression.

In Europe, it is common for insular communities to separate themselves, expecting the rest of society to accommodate their sensitivities. These communities have begun to self-police, claiming that mainstream law enforcement doesn’t understand how to interact with them appropriately. More importantly, communities, particularly Muslim communities, do not necessarily approve of the law of the land, and prefer to impose their own.

Muslim patrols in London have ordered women to cover up and told couples not to hold hands. They have posted signs in public places declaring them sharia zones where alcohol, smoking, and music are prohibited. "You are entering a sharia-controlled zone – Islamic rules enforced,” the posters read.

It is true that the actual police eventually intervened in these cases, but there are numerous instances of British officers approaching mosques or imams before (or instead of) arresting Muslim suspects. Furthermore, it is widely recognized that terrible crimes committed by Muslims in the UK went uninvestigated for years because the police were hesitant to disrupt "community cohesion."

America is heading in the same direction, and the presence of Muslim Community Patrols is a sign of things to come. The growing alliance between Islamists and leftists is largely responsible for this, of course. For instance, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an apparent champion of rights, now defends those who want to take rights away.

In the UK, there are sharia courts operating quite openly and they have been caught red-handed forcefully marrying underage girls and hearing and deciding upon cases involving domestic violence. Nothing is done to stop this, and in the US, the ACLU has gone to great lengths to sanitize sharia and understate the threat it poses to universal rights and legal equality.

The organization has accepted the argument that civil arbitration is the purpose of sharia councils, regardless of evidence from Europe making it abundantly clear that domestic violence, in particular, comes under their remit. Domestic violence, it should be noted, is permitted under sharia law, and even mainstream US courts have recognized that.

A New Jersey court refused to grant a permanent restraining order against a Muslim woman’s violent husband because his religion permits him to beat her. The court saw photos of the physical damage he had inflicted but still allowed sharia to dictate the outcome. American law was relegated, just as it is in New York when its laws against impersonating police officers are ignored.

Sidelining law in favor of political opportunism is a clear indicator of left-wing dominance. It suits the extreme left to allow sharia, so the political elite do not intervene. It similarly suits the left to apply the law to its political opponents, even when that involves stretching it to breaking point. That’s what is happening in New York. Donald Trump, for instance, is prosecuted under every law Democrats can throw at him, but they’ll do nothing about sharia, because it’s a convenient tool that will help sow chaos and undermine the established order. Leftists will happily use that tool, even though sharia contradicts almost everything they purport to believe in.