Muslim leaders boycott Bloomberg breakfast

More than a dozen Muslim leaders invited to Mayor Michael Bloomberg's annual interfaith breakfast Friday have declined to attend in protest after a news report on the NYPD's surveillance of Muslims.

"This year we have decided to respectfully decline your invitation," wrote a group of 52 members of clergy from several faiths. As many as 21 of them are identified as Muslim leaders and, of those, 13 had been invited to Friday's breakfast.

"We believe with heartfelt conviction that during times when a community's rights are being flagrantly violated its leaders cannot in good conscience appear at a public gathering with the government official who is ultimately responsible," the letter said.

The surveillance program, according to a recent Associated Press report, included police officers infiltrating Muslim communities in an effort to gather evidence of suspected terrorist activity.

Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser said that "the Mayor's Office and the NYPD maintain their strong ties with the city's Muslim communities." He added: "a couple dozen" Muslim leaders are still attending.

Linda Sarsour, executive director of the Arab American Association of New York, said the boycott would "raise awareness of the unwarranted surveillance of the Muslim American community and in hopes that Mayor Bloomberg is moved to request an independent investigation of the NYPD."

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said in a statement that "the NYPD lawfully follows leads in terrorist-related investigations and does not engage in the kind of wholesale spying on communities that was falsely alleged" by the AP.