Clarkson University Professor Abul Khondker says he was "shocked and surprised" to learn the New York City Police Department was spying on local members of the Muslim Student Association of Northern New York as part of a secret intelligence operation in 2006 and 2007.
 
"That was the shocking part of it...Why us," said Khondker.
 
News that The NYPD monitored Muslim student activity at universities across the Northeast first surfaced in an Associated Press report over the weekend.

Much of the surveillance involved websites, blogs and Internet forums frequented by the Islamic students and instructors from both Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam.
 
No wrongdoing was found.

"If you don't break the law, you have nothing to hide and nothing to worry about," said Khondker.  

It was Khondker who designed the website for the local Muslim Student Association.

The group worships at a mosque just outside Potsdam.

Khondker wonders whether the cyber-profiling that began six years ago is still continuing today.
 
The Muslim students and instructors have kept a low profile on both the Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam campuses.

Susan Stebbins is a special assistant to the president on diversity at SUNY Potsdam.

She tells us the surveillance borders on civil rights violations.
 
"College students have a perfect right to the same Constitutional rights as everybody else and that includes freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly," said Stebbins.
 
Meanwhile, in a statement, the NYPD defended the investigation - pointing out that there have been a dozen terrorism-related arrests of individuals belonging to Muslim student associations.

Police did not respond to our request for an interview.