Participants in the demonstration at the federal building in downtown Detroit on November 5, 2009. The action was called by MECAWI to protest the assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah on October 28 by the FBI.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Published Nov 22, 2009 8:36 PM
Federal agents moved on Nov. 12 to seize four mosques and an Islamic charity, the Alavi Foundation, using phony claims that they were channeling money to fund an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
The charge is preposterous that a few mosques in the U.S. and an office building in New York City, with an annual rental income of just $4.5 million, constitute a financial front for the Islamic Republic of Iran to finance its nuclear industry.
This is despite the fact that even U.S. intelligence agencies admit that no such nuclear weapons program exists (newsweek.com, Sept. 16).
This attack is just the latest in the ongoing assault against Muslim people, used to justify U.S. colonial wars and occupations in the Middle East and Central Asia. All progressive and anti-war activists in the U.S. have a particular obligation to stand in solidarity with our Muslim sisters and brothers and to defend their basic rights to assemble and worship as they choose. These are basic human rights which are also guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution.
Stop the War on Iran calls upon all those who protest the attacks upon the mosques and who stand with our Muslim sisters and brothers and defend their basic civil rights to sign on to the petition below, and demand an end to these attacks. See StopWarOnIran.org.
Workers World endorses this petition and joins with progressives and anti-war forces in calling for an end to repression against all Muslim communities.
Petition Text:
I am writing to denounce attempts by the U.S. government to seize four Muslim houses of worship built with funds from the Alavi Foundation. The claims that this foundation was somehow involved in funding an Iranian nuclear program are as false as previous claims from Washington about alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iran and Iraq.
Attempts to seize the assets of the Alavi Foundation, a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) charity that works to promote interfaith dialogue and to teach Islamic culture, the Persian language and literature, is just the latest act in an ongoing campaign of demonization, disinformation, sanctions, and threats targeting the people of Iran. It is no coincidence that on the same day that the U.S. government unleashed its attacks on the mosques, the White House renewed the long-standing U.S. economic sanctions against Iran, once again using false claims about “weapons of mass destruction.”
This attack is a clear violation of the basic human rights to assemble and worship, just two weeks after FBI agents gunned down Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Detroit. It is part of an escalating number of political attacks, legal frame-ups and media slanders against Muslim people.
I demand an end to the targeting of Muslim people and mosques.
I demand an end to the campaign of demonization and sanctions against Iran.
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EDITORIAL: Free Lynne Stewart!
Published Nov 18, 2009 10:08 PM
Lynne Stewart, who is affectionately known as the “People’s Lawyer”
for her tireless defense of clients in social justice and human rights cases, has been ordered to prison after her bail was revoked.
In 2005—as the U.S. government was using their phony “war on terror” to justify their invasion of Iraq—Stewart was falsely accused and convicted of aiding terrorists by forwarding messages from one of her clients. She was sentenced to 28 months in prison in 2006, and has been free on bail since that time, pending appeal.
Now the U.S. is whipping up another round of anti-Muslim hysteria and repression—including the FBI assassination of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in Detroit, the attempted seizure of mosques and other properties from a Muslim organization in New York, and the continued frame-ups and convictions of young Muslim men such as the Fort Dix 5.
With this backdrop, a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals not only upheld Stewart’s conviction on Nov. 17, but remanded the case back to the judge who originally sentenced her, urging him to consider a longer sentence. Prosecutors in the 2005 trial had wanted 30 years.
The “Justice for Lynne Stewart” Web site (www.lynnestewart.org) describes the government’s case against Stewart as “an obvious attempt ... to silence dissent, curtail vigorous defense lawyers, and install fear in those who would fight against the U.S. government’s racism, seek to help Arabs and Muslims being prosecuted for free speech and defend the rights of all oppressed people.”
Stewart, 70, is known for seeking justice not only in the courts but also on the streets, appearing at many protests and rallies.
We must fight these attempts to shut down resistance. Free Lynne Stewart and all political prisoners! Stop all attacks on Arab and Muslim peoples!
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Articles copyright 1995-2009 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Page printed from:
http://www.workers.org/2009/editorials/lynne_stewart_1126/
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