Liaison Strives to Bridge Police, Muslim Cultures
By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
At the headquarters of the New York Police Department, in a high-ceilinged, wood-floored room, Erhan Yildirim is speaking to a group of officers. As he lists facts about Islam, they crack their gum and tap their feet. Yildirim is slighter, shorter and snazzier -- in a sleek Turkish-made suit -- than most of his audience, and he speaks with a Turkish accent to their Brooklynese.
Yildirim, as the part-time civilian liaison of the NYPD to Muslims throughout the city, is a man assigned to bridge cultures.
"I'm the PR," says Yildirim, and the PR goes two ways: At once, he is trying to redeem the name of the police department to Muslims and the reputation of Islam to police officers.
Of course, the misunderstandings may also go every which way, even for Yildirim, a funeral director by trade who may or may not have become conversant in cop talk but who also doesn't speak the languages of the majority of immigrant Muslims in New York.
...
Kelly [The brainwashined infidel...ed. A.I.] hoped that Yildirim could help reduce friction. "That includes making certain we're doing everything we can to learn about the culture and communicate that to our police officers," Kelly said. "And also to allay some concerns in the Muslim community that they were being targeted."
...
But even Muslim leaders who themselves liaise informally with police say they are nervous about law enforcement's intentions. Wael Mousfar, president of the Arab Muslim American Federation, noted that undercover agents have surveilled his mosque and others, and written down license plate numbers. Throughout the city, many Muslims have been questioned, arrested or deported on immigration charges. At community forums, Muslims complain there are so many police in their neighborhoods that they even receive a disproportionate number of traffic tickets.
And then there is Yildirim.
Mousfar said he hopes Yildirim will be a conduit for better relations with police. "We need a good ear and a person who could deliver the message."
When NYC goes up in a puff of nuclear smoke, all this liasoning will have been for naught...
Pertinent Links:
1) Liaison Strives to Bridge Police, Muslim Cultures
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
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