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[–] UncleDoug 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

A 2010 leak of 114 police files revealed nationwide surveillance of Japanese Muslims. The files revealed that Muslim places of worship, halal restaurants and Islam-related organisations across the capital, Tokyo, were being monitored.

Considering how mosques, late night kebab shops, Islamic community centres and Islamic book stores here domestically have definitely been linked to terrorism on more than one occasion. This shouldn't come as surprising, especially considering not a week goes by for the past 4 years, where somewhere in the world there hasn't been a terrorist attack motivated by Islam.

A sovereign nation has finite resources to expend on counter-terrorism to keep it citizens safe, its not like there is an historical precedent to have ongoing surveillance on Japans, Chinese or Korean ethnic groups or other religious minorities.

My dear wife is Japanese. She cannot understand us. When asked why there are few Islamists in Japan she looks surprised and says...."mmmm, we don't like them and don't let them in". I just train her in being PC. Worse still, she is a really strong supporter of Mr Gove who she thinks wonderful. Great country; great people. ~ Peter Wayde


"What occurs here in one guise is not new. We have been down similar roads before. Jewish-Americans during the Red Scare, African-Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, and Japanese-Americans during World War II are examples that readily spring to mind. We are left to wonder why we cannot see with foresight what we see so clearly with hindsight—that “[l]oyalty is a matter of the heart and mind[,] not race, creed, or color.” ~ CCRBlog

This is definitely poignant.

Remember Islam is not a race but Japanese is.

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[–] Indepentarian [S] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago  (edited ago)

Considering how mosques, late night kebab shops, Islamic community centres and Islamic book stores here domestically have definitely been linked to terrorism on more than one occasion. This shouldn't come as surprising, especially considering not a week goes by for the past 4 years, where somewhere in the world there hasn't been a terrorist attack motivated by Islam.

Fair enough. I suppose to me it does hinge on the level of granularity of the surveillance, and in many of the other cases an honest and objective assessment of the imams'/leaders' public statements (including their "sermons" or whatever they call it) would have been enough to raise a red flag (and many times did, they were just ignored, whether deliberately or not).

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[–] UncleDoug 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

I can definitely see where your coming from, I was on the fence myself thinking in no way can 'blanket surveillance' not be an infringement of civil liberties.

However Japan is not monitoring Muslims in their homes or on the streets, only at Muslim related organisations from what I gather.