Excerpt:
For some local residents, feelings of persecution have resurfaced with the recent revelation that New York City Police Department surveillance operations have been targeting Muslims in Connecticut.
"I lived all my life away from my country because of our dictatorship regime," Ibraheem Faraj said Friday of his native Syria. "We came here because of justice and peace … because of the democracy that we find here.
"When this country starts (acting) toward us as our country did toward us - there's no difference."