May 30, 2012

On the afternoon of May 30, MPAC hosted its semi-annual Spring legislative staff lunch, where Salam Al-Marayati and Southern California Government Relations Director Aziza Hasan briefed more than 20 attendees on MPAC's work in counterterrorism, including recent initiatives to rid law enforcement training of anti-Muslim trainers and recent reforms it helped win in LAPD's Suspicious Activity Reporting program.

SEE: Photo Album of the Spring 2012 LA Legislative Lunch (Flickr)

Aziza Hasan, MPAC’s Director of Southern California Government Relations, shared the reforms LAPD recently agreed to implement regarding the SAR program:

• Any reporting of incidents by law enforcement on individuals or groups must be connected to criminal activity
• Any surveillance must have a connection to terrorism
• Any report that does not meet that standard will be purged from any intelligence gathering mechanism within LAPD
• The Inspector General will conduct audits of the SAR program. This is especially significant because it has been 5 years since the implementation of the SAR program and no audit has analyzed the program to date.

MPAC’s work in counterterrorism also is being featured on the Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, where our Post 9/11 Terrorism Incident Database is the fourth most popular resource on the website. This site is frequently used by line officers nationwide.

Salam Al-Marayati, MPAC President, also spoke about the working relationship between faith-based organizations and homeland security agencies for the purpose of making our country safer.

"Our nation faces challenges unique to our modern era and government agencies must continually try to adapt their strategies to face them," he said. "By working with faith-based organizations, homeland security agencies can build bridges with the communities these FBOs represent, increasing the impact of community-oriented policing and providing greater insight on how best to serve these communities."

MPAC continues to work with congressional leaders informing them about the pressing issues Muslim Americans are facing and care about.

For more information about our work, please contact Aziza Hasan at aziza@mpac.org or 323-258-6722.