[Peace] Fwd: National Day of Solidarity With Arab, Muslim and South Asian Immigrants ...

[Alfred Kagan]

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>Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 14:37:20 -0600
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>From: Irfan Ahmad <isahmad at uiuc.edu>
>Subject: Fwd: National Day of Solidarity With Arab, Muslim and South
>   Asian Immigrants ...
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>>Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 20:44:48 -0600 (CST)
>>From: Ra Ravishankar <ravishan at students.uiuc.edu>
>>X-X-Sender:  <ravishan at ux13.cso.uiuc.edu>
>>To: <sac_uc at yahoogroups.com>, <sac_uiuc at yahoogroups.com>,
>>    <peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com>,
>>    Simona Sawhney <ssawhney at staff.uiuc.edu>, Irfan <isahmad at uiuc.edu>
>>Subject: National Day of Solidarity With Arab, Muslim and South 
>>Asian Immigrants
>>  ...
>>X-Status:
>>X-Keywords:
>>
>>
>>Friends:
>>
>>Enclosed is the Call for the Second February 20 National Day of
>>Solidarity With Arab, Muslim and South Asian Immigrants, including
>>an updated list of endorsers. Please email, circulate, print and
>>post this far and wide. Send in endorsements ASAP as well as  notice
>>of planned activities.
>>
>>Refuse & Resist!'s mission is to create a society wide atmosphere --
>>a climate, culture and community -- of resistance in opposition to
>>the culture of fear and snitching, disappearances and helplessness.
>>Since 911 Bush's secrete war-time police state has drastically
>>changed the basic concepts of justice, presumption of innocence, the
>>right to association, the right to dissent and the right to not have
>>the police intrude into every aspect of personal and public life.
>>The attacks on immigrants are the door through which much of the
>>repressive agenda is being swept in.
>>
>>We say: No police State!
>>                 Another World is Possible
>>
>>We will Refuse & Resist!
>>
>>Join us on February 20 and February 21st, the third deadline for the
>>"INS Special Registration" of Arab, Muslim and South Asian
>>immigrants from more than 20 specified countries including Iran,
>>Iraq, Pakistan, etc.
>>
>>The National Office of Refuse & Resist!
>>
>>FEBRUARY 20, 2003
>>
>>NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM, ARAB AND SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS
>>
>>First they came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I
>>wasn't a Communist.
>>
>>Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
>>
>>Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
>>because I wasn't a trade unionist.
>>
>>Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was
>>a Protestant.
>>
>>Then they came for me, but by that time, no one was left to speak up.
>>
>>--Pastor Martin Niemoeller, Nazi Germany
>>
>>We call on people everywhere to come together for the second
>>February 20 National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South
>>Asian Immigrants. We are at a critical and historic moment. This
>>time they are coming for the Muslim, Arab and South Asian
>>immigrants. Now is the time to sound the alarm and act.
>>
>>In the face of forced registrations and the detention of up to 1,000
>>immigrants, a demonstration of 3,000 in Los Angeles on December 18
>>carried signs that said, "What's Next? Concentration Camps?" We
>>applaud the brave demonstrators, most of whom are themselves
>>immigrants. They dared to protest at a time when immigrants from the
>>Middle East are subjected to roundups and indefinite detention
>>without charges. Can we do anything less? This demonstration was a
>>moral challenge to us all.
>>
>>January 10 was the deadline for immigrant men from 13 mainly Muslim
>>countries to register with the Immigration and Naturalization
>>Service. In over 15 cities, people of all different nationalities
>>organized protests and press conferences. Many wore the blue
>>triangle with the names of the disappeared. Opposition and
>>resistance are growing. But we have much more to do if we are to
>>stop the increasing repression.
>>
>>The reality is that the government is registering and detaining
>>Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants now! Detention is not a
>>future possibility but a present reality. Federal authorities
>>detained over 1,200, maybe many more, in the immediate wake of
>>September 11. The government has given a strong indication that
>>there will soon be new waves of mass detentions as they go to war
>>against Iraq. The authorities want to silence those in this country
>>who can speak truth about the reality of life in the Middle East.
>>They want to silence the Palestinian who has lived through the
>>Israeli Air Force dropping U.S. supplied cluster bombs on his
>>refugee camp. They want to silence the Afghan-American woman whose
>>19 family members in Afghanistan were killed when the U.S. bombed
>>their wedding party. They want to silence the Afghan-American woman
>>whose husband was taken during the mass round-ups after 9/11, held
>>for nine terrifying months without charges, and then suddenly
>>deported without warning--away from his family, his life and
>>livelihood here.
>>
>>In July 2002, Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights
>>Commission, proposed that a mass roundup and detention of Arabs and
>>Muslims may be necessary. Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed
>>detention centers where U.S. citizens deemed to be 'enemy
>>combatants' can be held indefinitely without charges. The Bush
>>administration has begun an unprecedented program to monitor Iraqi
>>citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship in the United
>>States. The Bush administration is establishing a separate legal
>>system for anyone the government declares a terrorism suspect and
>>"enemy combatant." Citizens and non-citizens would be stripped of
>>long established constitutional protections and measures.
>>
>>We must learn from history. February 19 is the anniversary of
>>President Roosevelt issuing the infamous Executive Order 9066 in
>>1942. It authorized the roundup and imprisonment of all Japanese
>>Americans living in the western coastal states.
>>
>>New important dates are just ahead. February 21 is the deadline for
>>immigrant men from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to register. March 28
>>is the deadline for immigrant men from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia,
>>Kuwait, and Jordan to register.
>>
>>Send a powerful message on February 20. We refuse to accept the
>>registration and detention of people based on their nationality and
>>religion. We refuse to accept racial profiling, roundups, indefinite
>>detentions, secret courts, secret charges, secret evidence, secret
>>wiretaps, secret sneak and peek break-ins, secret military
>>tribunals, deportations, telephone and e-mail surveillance, and
>>demonizing of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and others based upon
>>where they were born, the language that they speak, the color of
>>their skin or the religion that they practice.
>>
>>On February 20 wear a blue triangle with the name of one of the
>>newly "disappeared". In the early 1940's, German Nazis used many
>>different colored triangles to categorize and divide people in the
>>concentration camps. We will not allow the same kind of profiling to
>>happen here. We will wear a blue triangle in a positive way to show
>>our solidarity with those being targeted today. Sponsor a speak-out
>>for the families of the disappeared so they can tell their stories.
>>Think of what it would mean if on that day churches, synagogues,
>>mosques, unions and schools declared that they would provide
>>sanctuary for the persecuted. Organize a vigil or demonstration at a
>>local INS detention center; hold a teach in at your local school,
>>college, or university; call your political representatives and
>>demand that these outrages cease; organize a poetry SLAM or a music
>>show; write a letter to your local newspaper calling for justice for
>>all; students demand that your colleges or universities not turn
>>over the files of immigrant students to the government; contact
>>local TV and radio talk shows asking to be part of the program. Find
>>the ways to express your solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South
>>Asian immigrants and your opposition to this repression. Use
>>February 20 as a springboard for press conferences and protests on
>>February 21.
>>
>>Remember the roundup of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Remember the
>>roundup of the Japanese Americans in the United States. What would
>>you have done then? Think of the roundup of Muslims, Arabs, and
>>South Asians in the United States in 2003. What will you do now?
>>
>>Please endorse this call & distribute, post & publish everywhere!
>>Funds are quickly needed to organize for February 20. We urge you to
>>immediately send donations. All actions on February 20 should be
>>publicized and popularized. Write, e-mail or call the Blue Triangle
>>Network with news of activities in your area:
>>P.O. Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451 (313)942-7187
>>
>>E-mail: NationalOffice at BlueTriangle.org www.bluetriangle.org
>>
>>Our organization endorses or ___I personally endorse (check one)
>>the above "call" for a NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM, ARAB
>>AND SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS (signing this "call" gives permission to
>>publish or otherwise make public this endorsement. If organizational
>>or institutional affiliation of a personal endorsement is to be
>>listed for identification purposes only check here.)
>>
>>Signature
>>
>>Name Printed .
>>
>>Organization or Institution
>>
>>Title .
>>
>>Address .
>>
>>Phone
>>
>>E-mail .
>>
>>Enclosed is my donation of $_____ to distribute, print, publish,
>>fax, and mail this call nationwide. Please return endorsed calls and
>>donations to Blue Triangle Network with news of activities in your
>>area: P.O. Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451 Tel: (313)942-7187
>>E-mail: NationalOffice at bluetriangle.org Web: www.bluetriangle.org
>>
>>Initial Endorsers: (as of Feb. 2, 2003)
>>
>>American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco, CA
>>
>>Anarchist Action of Rochester, Rochester, NY
>>
>>Council on American Islamic Relations --Southern California (CAIR--LA)
>>
>>Freedom Socialist Party, NYC
>>
>>Green Party of San Diego County, CA
>>
>>Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit*
>>
>>Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, Seattle, WA
>>
>>Interfaith Coalition United for Justice and Peace, Los Angeles, CA
>>
>>La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco, CA
>>
>>La Resistencia
>>
>>Joan Maruskin, World Church Service Immigration and Refugee Program,
>>Washington, D.C.*
>>
>>Mumia Defense Committee, Rochester, NY
>>
>>Dale Nesbitt, Berkeley, CA
>>
>>New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
>>
>>Not In Our Name & Bush's Backyard Surprise, Houston, TX
>>
>>October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the
>>Criminalization of a Generation
>>
>>Pax Christi USA
>>
>>Radical Women
>>
>>Red Bandanna: Roma Against Racism, Burton, WA
>>
>>Refuse & Resist!
>>
>>San Francisco Day Laborers Program, San Francisco, CA
>>
>>Holly Severson, journalist and activist, San Francisco, CA
>>
>>South Asians Against Police Brutality and Racism, New York, NY
>>
>>South Asian League of Artists in America (SALAAM), Geeta Citygirl,
>>Artistic Director, New York, NY
>>
>>South Alameda County Peace and Social Justice Coalition, California
>>
>>South Asian Network, Los Angeles, CA
>>
>>South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice (SBLPJ), San Jose, CA
>>
>>South Bay Mobilization to Stop the War (SBMSW), San Jose, CA
>>
>>Triangle Foundation, Detroit, MI
>>
>>United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance, San Francisco, CA
>>
>>United Teachers of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
>>
>>Barbara Weith, San Diego, CA
>>
>>Rev. Dr. David L. Wheeler, Senior Minister, First Baptist Church,
>>Los Angeles, CA*
>>
>>World Alliance for Humanity, Fremont, CA
>>
>>(* organizational affiliation for identification purposes only)
>>
>>BLUE TRIANGLE NETWORK, P.O. BOX 7451, DEARBORN, MI 48121-7451 CALL
>>313-942-7187


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu