Japan approves Muslim surveillance and profiling to screen terror suspects

Japan's Supreme Court ruling on May 31 signaled its approval of police surveillance to profile suspected and potential future terrorists among its Muslim population.

According to Al Jazeera, 17 plaintiffs of mostly Middle Eastern or North African origins lodged two cases of appeal to challenge the police surveillance and profiling among the country's Muslim community. The judges largely ignored the case of police surveillance and profiling while they granted ¥90 million ($880,000) to the plaintiffs for violations of privacy.

"We were told we don't have a constitutional case," the plaintiffs' lawyer Junko Hayashi told Al Jazeera. "We're still trying to figure out, how is it not constitutional?"

The cases came after 114 police files leaked in 2010 and revealed a detailed profiling of the country's Muslim residents. The files also dated back in 2008 with at least 72,000 individuals from Organization of Islamic Conference countries already profiled.

According to an earlier report by Al Jazeera, researchers believed that the negative stereotyping of Muslims started after the infamous Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

"Police stationed agents at mosques, followed individuals to their homes, obtained their names and addresses from alien registration records, and compiled databases profiling more than 70,000 individuals," said a 2014 Asia-Pacific Journal, "Japan Focus."

"In some cases, the police actually installed surveillance cameras at mosques and other venues," read a statement in the article.

Although a National Police agency official insisted that "police collected information according to the law" while saying that they could not possibly disclose any information regarding their activities to thwart terrorism, the United Nations human rights committee indicated in their report that it considered the practice a "violation" and a form of "racial discrimination."

Hayashi, also a Muslim, expressed concern for the Muslim kids growing up in Japan.

"The police have been dealing with them as future terrorists," Hayashi said.