Seattle-area city manager in hot water for wanting to create a map of where Muslims live

SeaTac, Washington, City Manager James Payne plotted to create a "tactical map" of Muslims in the neighborhoods around Seattle's SeaTac airport, apparently due to terrorism concerns, The Seattle Times has learned. Payne, who has since resigned, reportedly "stated an interest in knowing with a great deal of specificity (to the neighborhood, house, and even person) where Sunni and Shiite Muslim residents lived," an investigator in the case found.

Payne justified his map, which never came to be, as necessary in case he "needed to go into the neighborhoods to 'make the peace,'" the report said. It further concluded that "Mr. Payne's concerns about Muslims committing acts of terrorism seem to be the main motivation for his GIS mapping request."

Payne defended himself against accusations of ethnic profiling by saying he was "trying to provide good governance to a diverse population."

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"This is what is so outrageous to me: Because it was a white male asking for this information, suddenly people jumped to the conclusion that I must be out to get certain people. I'm deeply offended by that," Payne said.