A Moroccan immigrant who failed to become a police officer is suing the department charging that he was not hired because he was a Muslim and was born outside the United States.
The New York Police Department has expanded counterterrorism efforts in foreign countries and has also aggressively tried to recruit speakers of Arabic and other languages of countries where Islam holds sway.
City lawyers filed a motion asking that Said Hajem’s claim be dismissed, but on 29 January, Judge Richard J. Sullivan of US District Court in Manhattan ruled that there was enough evidence for the suit to proceed.
The immigrant, took the police exam in February 2006 and said he scored 85.6, well above the passing grade.
That June he received a letter of congratulations from Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and began preparing to enter the Police Academy.
Mr Hajem said he had even decided to delay his wedding, hoping to get married as a police officer.
"I started dreaming of becoming one of the Finest," Mr. Hajem, 39, said last month, as he sat in his lawyer’s office on lower Broadway, "an important person who is going to save lives and stop terrorism".
It has been four years since Mr Hajem passed the exam, but his application has been suspended since.
Mr Hajem, who said he became an American citizen in early 2006, said the hiring process faltered for him in July 2006 when an officer reviewing his paperwork, Ricardo Ramkissoon, told him that he disapproved of people from "other countries" joining the department.
Mr. Hajem added that Officer Ramkissoon had also rejected references he had provided from people with Middle Eastern names.
"He told me, ‘I need American names,’ " Mr. Hajem said.
"He said, ‘You may be a terrorist.’ "
Mr Hajem’s lawsuit said he had been subjected to discrimination that violated his constitutional rights.
In response, a lawyer for the city, Jessica Miller of the Law Department, said in a statement: "We expect to prevail at trial."
Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, declined to specifically address the statements that Mr Hajem attributed to Officer Ramkissoon, but said in an e-mail message that "the allegations fly in the face of the N.Y.P.D.’s well-established record of outreach and hiring" of recruits from countries like Turkey, Bangladesh and Pakistan, which all are mainly Muslim nations.
"We have actively and successfully recruited native speakers of Urdu, Farsi, Arabic, Pashto and other languages," Mr. Browne wrote. "Our linguist program is the envy of law enforcement worldwide."
Officer Ramkissoon did not respond to a request for comment.