“The organization’s history with radical dogma, convicted terrorists and radicalized alumni tell a different story.”

“NYPD officials visited websites and forums of different MSAs and noted the posted information, all of which was in the public domain. No one hacked into any email accounts or sites as part of the surveillance. A separate story reports that an undercover officer attended a rafting trip with more than a dozen MSA members.”

“But NYPD officials say critics are off base when they claim the department did something wrong.”

“There is no constitutional prohibition against a police department collecting information,” city senior counsel Peter Farrell told reporters Thursday.”

“What’s unconstitutional is if they then use that information to chill someone’s First Amendment rights or to impose harm on them.”

“The AP report chronicles different events that some MSAs held and speakers that chapters hosted on campus and provides some lists of event attendees. The surveillance was intended to track any potential radical speakers or behaviors of the different chapters or individual members.”

“The report lists six different incidents of monitoring in 2006 at the University of Buffalo, New York University, and Rutgers University. It also lists 12 other MSAs that were tracked, but did not provide “significant information posted to their web sites, forums, blogs and groups.”

“Some of the most dangerous Western Al Qaeda-linked/inspired terrorists since 9/11 were radicalized and/or recruited at universities in MSAs,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said as an explanation for the surveillance. “We were focused on radicalization and/or recruitment, specifically by groups like Al Muhajiroun, Islamic Thinkers Society, Revolution Muslim and others………”

“The NYPD has a duty to protect New York City from terrorist attacks. And MSA leaders and members have been convicted of terrorist activities and plots.”

The list is extensive, but among the MSA alumni who went on to terrorist involvement are:

• Anwar al-Awlaki, an influential American-born al-Qaida cleric who recruited a series of homegrown jihadists before being killed by a U.S. drone strike;
• Aafia Siddiqui, convicted of attempted murder and assault on U.S. officers and employees in Afghanistan;
• Zachary Chesser, convicted of attempting to provide material support to the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab and soliciting attacks on “South Park” producers for an episode in which the prophet Muhammad was shown in a bear suit;
• Jesse Morton, convicted with Chesser of threatening the South Park producers with murder;
• Adam Gadahn, an al-Qaida spokesman who is on the FBI’s Most Wanted List for treason and material support to al-Qaida;
• Waheed Zaman, who was convicted of plotting to blow up transatlantic flights;
• Adis Medunjanin, who is awaiting trial for plotting to bomb New York subways;
• Ramy Zamzam, who was convicted in Pakistan of conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks;
• Omar Hammami, who was indicted on charges of providing material support to al-Shabbab and is designated by the U.S. Treasury Department for his terrorist connections;
• Muhammad Junaid Babar, who pled guilty to his support to al-Qaida; and
• Syed Hashmi, who pled guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida.

“MSA was founded in the United States in 1963 by members of the Egyptian-based Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood seeks a global Islamic state and has spawned leaders of a series of Sunni terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”

“The Muslim Brotherhood motto established by founder Hassan al-Banna is, “God is our objective, the Quran is our Constitution, the Prophet is our leader, jihad is our way, and death for the sake of God is the highest of our aspirations.”

“MSA members remain faithful to Brotherhood ideology. At the closing session of the MSA West conference in January 2011 at UCLA, attendees recited a pledge, “Allah is my lord, Islam is my life, the Quran is my guide, the Sunna is my practice, Jihad is my spirit, righteousness is my character, paradise is my goal. I enjoin what is right, I forbid what is wrong, I will fight against oppression, and I will die to establish Islam.”