UNDER SUSPICION

When the NYPD set up a spying operation to keep track of Muslims in North Jersey, including more than a dozen mosques in Newark, it wasn’t clear who exactly it was that they were spying on. I had an opportunity get into Newark to find out. The result is an article that I wrote for New Jersey Monthly, out this week, called “Under Suspicion.” I discovered, to my surprise and dismay, that many of the people who were spied on were not surprised at all by it. In fact they had lived with such a threat for a long time. I also learned about the history of the Nation of Islam and how much it is tied into Newark’s history.  It’s important to understand what happened in Newark in human terms–it involved not a group but real, individual people who have dreams, hopes and desires like everyone else.