Liaison Strives to Bridge Police, Muslim Cultures

Things are more complicated now, for Muslims and for Yildirim.

On a recent afternoon, he turned his 2007 Audi SUV right across three lanes of traffic on Manhattan's Second Avenue and pulled up in front of a Turkish restaurant on 34th Street. The restaurant owner had a dispute with another restaurant owner, and Yildirim had to mediate, he said. When the man wasn't there, Yildirim ordered lunch.

Soon he was enjoying labni, a white cheese, and lahmacun, a kind of pizza with lamb. But his cellphone rang, and while he was talking, so did his BlackBerry, so he had a phone on each ear and his conversations switched from Turkish to German to English. He had to ship an Albanian body to Montenegro and there was no room on the flight. At one point, when the cellphone rang again, he passed it to the waiter to answer for him.

It's difficult juggling business with part-time police responsibilities, said Yildirim, but he draws a line between the two: "I don't want anyone to say Erhan is using his job to get funerals."

Asked if he ever encounters hostility because he works for the police, he interrupted: "No!"

But even Muslim leaders who themselves liaise informally with police say they are nervous about law enforcement's intentions. Wael Mousfar, president of the Arab Muslim American Federation, noted that undercover agents have surveilled his mosque and others, and written down license plate numbers. Throughout the city, many Muslims have been questioned, arrested or deported on immigration charges. At community forums, Muslims complain there are so many police in their neighborhoods that they even receive a disproportionate number of traffic tickets.

And then there is Yildirim.

Mousfar said he hopes Yildirim will be a conduit for better relations with police. "We need a good ear and a person who could deliver the message."