{"id":14145,"date":"2016-08-04T10:40:34","date_gmt":"2016-08-04T20:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14145"},"modified":"2016-09-03T14:19:19","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T00:19:19","slug":"asahi-japans-supreme-court-approves-police-surveillance-of-muslim-residents-due-to-their-religion-next-up-surveilling-nj-residents-due-to-their-extranationality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=14145","title":{"rendered":"Asahi: Japan’s Supreme Court approves police surveillance of Muslim residents due to their religion: Next up, surveilling NJ residents due to their extranationality?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. Article first, then comment:<\/p>\n

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It’s OK to snoop on Muslims on basis of religion, rules top court<\/strong>
\n By RYO TAKANO\/ Staff Writer<\/strong>
\n The Asahi Shinbun, August 2, 2016, courtesy of RD<\/strong>
\nhttp:\/\/www.asahi.com\/ajw\/articles\/AJ201608020076.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Muslims can still be monitored in Japan solely based on their religion, while in the United States courts are cracking down on granting such approval.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An appeal by 17 Muslim plaintiffs accusing police of snooping on them<\/a> was dismissed by the Japanese Supreme Court in late May, which upheld lower court decisions.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The plaintiffs argued that \u201ccarrying out surveillance of us on grounds of our religion amounts to discrimination and is a violation of the Constitution\u201d in the lawsuit filed against the Tokyo metropolitan and the central government.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tokyo\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department had been keeping close tabs on Muslims solely because of their religion, reasoning it was pre-empting possible terrorism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The tide changed in the United States after the leak in 2013 of global surveillance programs and classified information from the National Security Agency by U.S. computer expert Edward Snowden, said Ben Wizner, attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Snowden, a former CIA employee, revealed that U.S. intelligence agencies had secretly collected personal information and communications from the Internet.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The leak revealed the extent of clandestine surveillance on the public by the government for the first time.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent Japanese case came to light in 2010 after 114 articles from internal MPD documents containing personal information on Muslim residents in Japan were leaked online. Data included names, photos, addresses, employers and friends<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The leaked data showed that the documents were compiled in a style of a resume on each individual, along with a record of tailing them.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Compensation of 90 million yen ($874,000) was awarded to the plaintiffs by the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court, which ruled there was a \u201cflaw in information management.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the plaintiffs appealed because the courts stated \u201csurveillance of Muslims\u201d was \u201cunavoidable\u201d in order to uncover terror plots.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The top court sided with lower court rulings, declaring the surveillance was not unconstitutional. A Moroccan man, one of the 17, said he was upset by the Supreme Court’s ruling.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am disappointed with the Japanese judiciary,\u201d said the man in his 40s.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

He said he was terrified by the sarin gas attack of 1995 on the Tokyo subway system, which he himself experienced. The attack left 13 people dead and thousands injured.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHas there been a terror attack by Muslims in Japan?\u201d he said. \u201cSurveillance is a breach of human rights.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

After the 9\/11 attacks in the United States in 2001, investigative authorities heightened their surveillance of Muslim communities.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But recent U.S. court rulings have seen the judiciary move against the trend.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two lawsuits were filed in the state of New York and New Jersey after The Associated Press news agency in 2011 reported on the wide-ranging surveillance of Muslim communities in the two states by the New York Police Department.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Last October, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed down a decision in favor of the plaintiffs, sending the lawsuit in New Jersey back to the district court for further proceedings.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

New York police reached a settlement with plaintiffs in January, banning investigations solely on the basis of religion.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2006, the German Constitutional Court delivered a ruling restricting surveillance.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Masanori Naito, a professor of modern Muslim regions at Doshisha University\u2019s Graduate School in Kyoto, blasted the Supreme Court’s decision as a manifestation of its \u201csheer ignorance\u201d of Islam.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Muslims account for more than 20 percent of the global population of 7.3 billion, only a fraction reside in Japan.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, Japanese tend to think that all Muslims are violent,\u201d he said. \u201cConducting surveillance will only stir up a feeling of incredulity among Muslims and backfire. What police should do is to enhance their understanding of Muslim communities and make an effort to gather information.\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
\nENDS<\/p>\n

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COMMENTS<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

MA<\/strong>:\u00a0Yes, I remember how it was a Muslim who slashed forty throats in the night last week<\/a>…no, wait, that was a Japanese lunatic with no religion…I got it, it was a Muslim who attacked people in [Akihabara]\u00a0with knives…no, not Muslim<\/a>…OK, it was a Muslim who killed several elementary school children<\/a> in ….no, hang on, not Muslim…<\/em><\/p>\n

Debito<\/strong>: \u00a0The obvious extension of this legitimization of racial profiling (defined as using a process of differentiation, othering, and subordination to target a people in Japan; it does not have to rely on phenotypical “looks”) is that for “national security reasons<\/a>” the next step is to target and snoop on all foreign residents in Japan. \u00a0Because they might be terrorists. \u00a0The National Police Agency et al.\u00a0have already been justifying the targeting of NJ\u00a0as terrorists (not to mention as criminals<\/a>, “illegal overstayers<\/a>“, holders of “foreign DNA”<\/a>, and carriers of contagious diseases<\/a>). \u00a0And Japan’s Supreme Court has now effectively given the green light to that too. \u00a0The noose further tightens around NJ residents in Japan. \u00a0Dr. ARUDOU, Debito<\/p>\n

===================<\/p>\n

Do you like what you read on Debito.org? \u00a0Want to help keep the archive active and support Debito.org’s activities? \u00a0We are celebrating Debito.org’s 20th Anniversary in 2016, so please consider donating a little something. \u00a0More details here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asahi: Muslims can still be monitored in Japan solely based on their religion, while in the United States courts are cracking down on granting such approval. An appeal by 17 Muslim plaintiffs accusing police of snooping on them was dismissed by the Japanese Supreme Court in late May, which upheld lower court decisions.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs argued that \u201ccarrying out surveillance of us on grounds of our religion amounts to discrimination and is a violation of the Constitution\u201d in the lawsuit filed against the Tokyo metropolitan and the central government. Tokyo\u2019s Metropolitan Police Department had been keeping close tabs on Muslims solely because of their religion, reasoning it was pre-empting possible terrorism. […]<\/p>\n

The recent Japanese case came to light in 2010 after 114 articles from internal MPD documents containing personal information on Muslim residents in Japan were leaked online. Data included names, photos, addresses, employers and friends.<\/p>\n

The leaked data showed that the documents were compiled in a style of a resume on each individual, along with a record of tailing them. Compensation of 90 million yen ($874,000) was awarded to the plaintiffs by the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court, which ruled there was a \u201cflaw in information management.\u201d However, the plaintiffs appealed because the courts stated \u201csurveillance of Muslims\u201d was \u201cunavoidable\u201d in order to uncover terror plots. The top court sided with lower court rulings, declaring the surveillance was not unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

COMMENT: The obvious extension of this legitimization of racial profiling (defined as using a process of differentiation, othering, and subordination to target a people in Japan; it does not have to rely on phenotypical “looks”) is that for “national security reasons” the next step is to target and snoop on all foreign residents in Japan. Because they might be terrorists. The National Police Agency et al. have already been justifying the targeting of NJ as terrorists (not to mention as criminals, “illegal overstayers”, holders of “foreign DNA”, and carriers of contagious diseases). And Japan’s Supreme Court has now effectively given the green light to that too. The noose further tightens around NJ residents in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,36,33,50,52,5,37,26,4,10,15,11,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-embedded-racism","category-bad-social-science","category-fingerprinting-nj","category-gaiatsu","category-hate-speech","category-human-rights","category-injustice","category-ironies-hypocrisies","category-japanese-government","category-japanese-policeforeign-crime","category-lawsuits","category-problematic-foreign-treatment","category-sitys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14145\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}