In an effort to combat terrorism after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the New York Police Department collected intelligence on Muslim neighborhoods and infiltrated over 250 mosques and Muslim student organizations around the city, according to an investigation conducted by the Associated Press.

The NYPD Intelligence Division, with help from the CIA, sent out undercover officers — known as rakers — to monitor and report on daily life in certain Muslim or Arab-American neighborhoods, according to the investigation. The division also alledgedely sent out secret informants and officers to scrutinize these mosques and organizations.

Muslims and those of Middle Eastern descent were classified as “ancestries of interest” by the NYPD.

In recent years, civil liberties groups have questioned methods used by the government and local police departments to gain intelligence in the years following 9/11.

“I can’t say that it’s illegal to put [police] into the mosques,” NYU law professor Burt Neuborne said. “It is morally questionable … because it alienates the community, and you get no more information than you would through other means.”

In response to the report, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Paul Browne said that the NYPD is doing all that it reasonably can to stop terrorism.

“We don’t apologize for [our work] and we’re not deterred by petite jealousies that success sometimes breeds,” Browne wrote in an email.

Islamaphobia has had large effects on Muslim and Arab-American communities, one Columbia U. report found. Among the findings, 28 percent of Muslim students reported being stopped by law enforcement because of racial profiling. And almost two-thirds of Muslims thought they would face discrimination in the workplace if they wore Islamic attire.

NYU education professor Jonathan Zimmerman said that such Islamaphobia has created anxiety in Muslim communities. But he added that it was too early to understand the impact of this racial profiling.

Although a list of the organizations and mosques has not been released to the public, Abid Hossain, chair of the Islamic Law Students Association, believes that mosques near NYU’s campus and several student organizations in the NYU community have likely been subject to the NYPD’s surveillance.

“If this surveillance was conducted on our organizations, they would learn that the association is the kind of organization that fosters an attitude that combats terrorism,” Hossain said.

According to the NYPD report, student organizations were targeted for being “involved with religious and political activities” and for having members that are “politically active and are radicalizing.”

Many people, including Abid, said they believe that if the NYPD and other government organizations had wanted more information about the Muslim community, they would’ve been welcomed by the community to learn.

“I think many members of our community would welcome the NYPD and other affiliates to come to our mosques, but it has to be based on trust,” he said. “They have to be generally interested in who we are as a community and as individuals, as opposed to trying to spy on us, which just makes us believe we are targets.”