BALTIMORE POLICE AND AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSLIMS FORGE A RELATIONSHIP (544 hits)
African Americans first introduced Islam to the east coast city of Baltimore 65 years ago. Today, more than 60 percent of the city's 630,000 residents are black. About 5000 of them are African-American Muslims. Some African Americans in Baltimore, including Muslims, distrust the police. To foster good relations, the department has an Islamic liaison.
Police officer Robert Horne is Baltimore's Islamic liaison. On this day, he is visiting a predominately African-American Islamic school to help the children better understand what police do.
"How many of you are learning Arabic?" he asked. Horne speaks Arabic and is teaching the children some Arabic words. He said he wants to show that the police can be their friend.
Horne agreed relations are generally good, but said mistrust grew after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. He said he reassured Muslims that the police wouldn't target them.
"Many of them were afraid that the police would stereotype them, that they would just enter into the mosque and there would be surveillance on the mosque and things of this nature," said Horne.
Horne said Baltimore police learn about Islam and Muslims. Omar Davis, President of the Baltimore City Muslim Council, said his group provided the training requested by the police. "One of the concerns that some of the officers had expressed to us is that when they get called on various police calls, that they wanted to be respectful of the person of the culture. They don’t want to come off as being disrespectful."
Horne said he hopes he has helped bridge the gap between the police and African American Muslims, especially the younger generation who he said is the future of the community.
Friday, February 11th 2011 at 12:35PM
Siebra Muhammad
