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US Muslims defiantly stick to their religion and civic rights
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By
Fareed Aktai, IOL Correspondent
Philadelphia,
November 2 (IslamOnline.net) – Resolved to be united in Ramadan,
visit each other as much as they can, spend a lot of time in the
mosque to read the Qur’an and figure out whether any “brother”
is in trouble, despite the fact that they are still feeling the
increasing heat after the infamous attacks of 9/11/2001; they are the
US Muslims.
People
went Tuesday, November 2, to cast their ballots in the US presidential
elections, but US Muslims in Philadelphia made it clear they would
choose Senator John Kerry, not for good but as “the better of two
evils”. They desperately hope that their sufferings in the “land
of freedom” would ease a little bit so that they can play a role to
make the “American dream” come true.
“After
September 11 everything has changed. The 9/11 has not initiated
something new, but oppression was just made more visible and more
intense, particularly of Muslims growing beards and praying dawn
prayers at mosque,” Madyan Niazi, an American citizen of Yemeni
descent, told IslamOnline.net.
“Muslims
are still targeted in this country, bothered by FBI calls and predawn
raids at their houses though we have nothing to do with terrorism or
even suspicious activities like fundraising and something of this
sort.”
One-way
Ticket
“They
are giving us really hard time in trying to install fear and they
really push us to leave the country and give us a one-way ticket,”
said another American Muslim, who only identified himself as Mohammad.
“The
other day, a friend of mine was arrested from his home and treated in
an inhumane way and stripped of his Green Card papers and he is still
in detention and God only knows when he would show up again.”
Mohammad
says it does not matter whether you are an American citizen or not.
“The
infamous Patriot Act issued by Congress sometime ago gave them an open
license to do whatever they want,” he said.
“Often
the times that we are stopped at the street and given the finger by
cops because of Mideastern appearance.”
In
August, a US judge has chided the administration for building a
terrorism support case against two Muslims in New York on
false evidence, much to the consternation of community
members.
“Big
Brother”
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To Muslims, Kerry is “the better of two evils”
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Samir,
who only spoke on an unreal name, said Muslims are now calling the FBI
as the “Big Brother”.
“Life
is coming to a point where we do feel constantly that we are watched
and every step by our Big Brother, who should have catered for us and
protected us instead,” Samir said laughably.
He
himself is one of the people who got in trouble with the FBI, but
fortunately he called a professional lawyer, who saved him the hassle
of investigation and detention and in part because he was fully aware
of his federal rights as an American citizen.
“I
looked them in the eye with fierce determination and I told them that
what they are doing was just unconstitutional.
“Thank
God that I knew my rights very well, but other friends, who know
nothing about their rights, were told by the FBI that their
citizenship was just a piece of paper,” he added.
“Probably
you have heard of the story of this Muslim guy who was driving his
work truck in a Pennsylvanian suburb, when he was chased down by FBI
choppers on a highway and found nothing in his vehicle.”
Niazi
is also furious at the way Muslims are being maltreated by police and
the notorious FBI agents.
“When
they search houses they go to private places, like women’s clothing
and so on…I truly believe that they know exactly what they are
doing. I mean they know how to humiliate Muslims.”
Observers
believe the policies of the Bush administration, coupled with some
media campaigns, are widely to blame for increasing hate feelings the
9/11 attacks helped formulate.
More
than 1,200 Muslims and Arab-Americans have been taken into custody
since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.
A
May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded
that the Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the United States have
taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other
federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.
Amnesty
International also repeatedly said that racial
profiling by US law enforcement agencies had
grown over the past
Election
Day
And
on Election Day, Ibrahim Ghaloush, a social worker in New York, said
he would vote for Kerry as the “better of two evils”.
“I’m
pretty sure that Kerry, if elected, wouldn’t be much better than
Bush but this president (Bush) is really a curse not only for the
American Muslims but for the entire world.”
Ghaloush
still fears the worst-case scenario if Bush was reelected for a second
term in the White House.
“This
means four more years of oppression against Muslims, four more years
of occupation and turmoil in Iraq. This also means preemptive attacks
against any country that hosts what he may decide to consider a
terrorist threat, which means more years of instability in the Middle
East.”
The
American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections – Political
Action Committee (AMT-PAC) urging Muslims on October 21 to vote for
him only as a “protest
vote.”
“Kerry
has so far failed to explicitly affirm support for due process, equal
justice and other constitutional norms,” it had said in a statement.
Read
also…
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