NYC Muslim cop’s anti-terrorism dreams dashed by xenophobic higher-ups: suit

Police Officer Ahmed Elmenshawy, 33, said he joined the NYPD in hopes of fighting terrorism in the Intelligence Division. Jin S. Lee

A Muslim NYPD cop is suing the NYPD after a boss told him not to speak Arabic — the second time the supervisor has been sued for telling officers not to speak their native languages, according to a lawsuit.

Police Officer Ahmed Elmenshawy, who came to the U.S. in 2010 from Egypt, left a tech job that paid $150,000-a-year to join the NYPD in 2016 because he wanted to join the Intelligence Division and fight terrorism, he said.

He would regularly talk to his mom on the phone and an Egyptian coworker in Arabic, which angered then-Assistant Chief of Personnel John Benoit, he claims in the lawsuit.

“It was just annoying him so much,” the cop told The Post. “He would make comments like, ‘We speak English here. This is America. I can’t understand what you’re saying.’”

The 33-year-old, with a masters from Pace University, worked four years in Staten Island’s 122 Precinct before applying to the prestigious Intelligence Division, but was denied the post, according to the Nov. 24 lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court.

Officer Elmenshawy says when he would speak Arabic on the phone with his mother, then-Assistant Chief of Personnel John Benoit would tell him, “We speak English here. This is America.” .

Jin S. Lee

He ended up in the Personnel Bureau in December when he was selected by then Chief Donna Jones to be her assistant, according to the lawsuit.

Benoit was Jones’ underling at the time.

Lt. Junior Carela, a commanding officer in the same division, has also sued the NYPD, claiming in an April lawsuit that Benoit transferred him for speaking too much Spanish.

Police Officer Ahmed Elmenshawy at home.

Jin S. Lee

Benoit even had a staff meeting earlier this year to officers “they could only speak English” at work, Elmenshawy contends in court papers.

In May, while Chief Jones was on vacation, Benoit transferred Elmenshawy out of the Personnel Bureau to a summer detail in Coney Island.

When Jones retired earlier this year, Benoit was promoted and took her job as chief of personnel. Elemenshawy was sent back to the122 Precinct on patrol, where he remains — despite Jones’s recommendation that he be moved to the intelligence unit.

The NYPD is being sued by Elmenshawy over the alleged xenophobia of Chief of Personnel John Benoit.

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“Honestly, I feel like I wasted seven years of my life and got injured on top of that,” said Elemenshawy. “The best years of my life, my 20s and 30s. They wonder why they can’t recruit.”

The NYPD declined to comment on pending litigation, a spokesperson said.

Jones and Benoit couldn’t be reached for comment.

Lawyer John Scola, who filed the lawsuits, said Benoit and the NYPD removed “highly trained and educated officers due solely to their race and national origin.”