Mosque Boosts Citizens Patrol

March 17, 2007

Author: NADINE PARKS

Source: The Post and Courier

http://www.charleston.net/assets/webPages/departmental/news/default_pf.aspx?NEWSID=135055

Failure for the Citizen Patrol Against Drugs is not an option.

That's the message this week from a North Charleston mosque that has teamed up with residents of Charleston's East Side and North Charleston's Chicora-Cherokee neighborhood to get the civilian patrol group back on the streets. Also, a march is set for March 24 in Union Heights, with patrols beginning there on March 26.

"We all share in this commonality of trying to make our communities better," said Imam Rahim Karriem of Masjid Al-Jami Ar-Rashid. "We're all in this together. That's what the Citizen Patrol Against Drugs is all about."

Six or seven members of the North Charleston mosque have been there since the patrols began in the fall on Charleston's East Side. For weeks, they patrolled to report crime almost every night and to get the civic movement flowing in the drug-infested neighborhood that saw a rash of violence last summer.

See also: Islam, Civic