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Here are some more articles and commentary on the military commissions bill being debated in the Senate right now. If you haven’t called your Senator today to ask them to defend the writ of habeas corpus, please do so ASAP because the vote will likely take place today. See my earlier post for more details.

Molly Ivins: Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215 - 2006)

Boston Globe: Legal Residents’ Rights Curbed in Detainee Bill

LA Times: Don’t Suspend Habeas Corpus

WP: Rights Groups Decry US Senate Bill on Detainees

MSNBC: Specter to Press for Detainees’ Habeas Corpus Rights

Znet: Indefinite Detention and Torture: A Political and Moral Mistake

[technorati tags: writ, habeas, corpus, Bush, civil rights, senate]

Recent news about the compromise on the military commissions bill that was debated in Congress has focused on article 3 of the Geneva Conventions and relevant US military stipulations regarding torture of detainees. A very critical section of the bill that has not been discussed by the media is the abolishment of the writ of habeas corpus for anyone in the US who is not an American citizen. The passage of this section of the bill would be a disaster for civil and human rights advocates across the US. Abolishing the writ of habeas corpus is slap in the face of the founding fathers of this country. While the bill has passed in the House, it is still up for debate in the Senate, and we still have a chance to try to stop it from passing!

What is the writ of habeas corpus?

A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a detainee be brought to the court so it can be determined whether or not that person is imprisoned lawfully and whether or not he or she should be released from custody. The writ of habeas corpus in common law countries is an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.

This is what the Supreme Court has said about the write of habeas corpus:

the Supreme Court has “recognized the fact that`the writ of habeas corpus is the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.‘ Harris v. Nelson, 394 U.S. 286, 290-91 (1969). ” Therefore, the writ must be “administered with the initiative and flexibility essential to insure that miscarriages of justice within its reach are surfaced and corrected.” Harris, 394 U.S. at 291.

This is what Congress wants to do with the writ; from the Center for Constitutional Rights:

Congress is on the verge of passing a military commissions bill that would authorize the indefinite detention, without access to the courts, of immigrants detained inside or outside of the United States—even if they are not charged with any crime. What began as legislation to regulate the trials of men at Guantánamo has grown so sweeping that it would encompass any non-U.S. citizen picked up anywhere in the world, even permanent legal residents detained inside the United States. This is being voted on in the House of Representatives today and will likely be voted on in the Senate on Thursday. Senators Specter and Levin will be introducing a bipartisan amendment to remove a provision that denies these immigrants access to courts. It is essential that you call your Senators and Representatives and urge them to vote for the Specter Amendment to remove the jurisdiction-stripping provision from the military commissions bill. (more)

Please act now to ensure that out Constitution continues to protect all who reside in this country. Call your members of Congress immediately, especially those listed with contact information below.

Fasting in the month of Ramadan is a unique pillar in the Islamic faith. It is one that the majority of 1.6 billion Muslims around the world practice despite their varying levels of religiosity. Especially for those living in a Muslim majority country, it is hard to avoid fasting and the magical atmosphere of Ramadan. I experienced Ramadan in Dubai for 2 short years, but I would say it must be unique in every country. I would love to experience Ramadan in a more cultural and Islamic environment, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t enjoyed Ramadan most of my life right here in good ol’ northern Virginia.

We have a sizable and very diverse Muslim community in the Washington D.C. metro area, with plenty of mosques, community centers, MSA’s, and Islamic schools. Because my family has always maintained close ties to our community here, I’ve never felt that I’ve been deprived of a sense of “Islamic-ness” during Ramadan and other Islamic holidays. I grew up going to the iftars (fast-breaking dinners) at the local mosque some evenings where it felt like we were all one big family enjoying dinner together. As we grew up, however, we stopped attending these community iftars and frequented the mosque for prayers less and less. Still, our memories as elementary school kids gathered in different parts of the Islamic center waiting impatiently for the prayer call, having iftar together, then rushing to buy candy to indulge our sweet cravings are truly unforgettable.

I remember one Ramadan when I was about 10 or 11 years old, I volunteered to help baby-sit some kids in the mosque while their mothers attended a lecture. We had a bag of lollipops and I passed them out to the kids while they played. I was proud to be fasting as I had started doing so at an early age. I got distracted with the kids, and found myself eating lollipop after lollipop. They were the small ones of which you could easily have 10 and still would want more. After going through about seven of them, my mom came to check on me and found me eating one. She said, “aren’t you fasting?” And of course I was shocked, “oh my god! I totally forgot I was fasting! oh my god, how could I forget!” My mom just laughed at me and told me it was OK since I didn’t do it on purpose, and that this was probably “a gift from God” since I was fasting so well for the past few years. I just can’t seem to understand how I could go through so many lollipops without remembering that I was fasting! It’s one of those incidents you never forget.

While in many Muslim countries most people will stop eating in public and restaurants will shut down during the day, that is not the case over here. Everywhere you go there is food and temptation. I remember in college when I used to walk through the main student union and have to face the aroma of french fries, burgers, pizza, and the works while going to meet my friends or study. In class I would cringe upon seeing a Starbucks cup and would just imagine the sweet taste of a tall chai or white mocha in the early morning. Still, nothing really ever came so close as to tempt me to break my fast, except getting sick. It’s a disgraceful feeling that you have if you do break your fast for a stupid reason. This is what I feel when I’m sitting in front of the dinner table covered with all kinds of food and waiting for the clock to turn so I can break my fast. Once I drink that sip of water or juice, every feeling of hunger and weakness disappears. And you wonder to yourself how strong your body can be, but how weak your will can be as well, without faith. Because what else would make you not raise your hand to eat a bite or drink a sip during the day even if nobody can see you and nobody will know but you?

Despite all the talk of food, Ramadan is so much more than just abstaining from food and drink. It truly is a test of patience and strength. It’s a time when Muslims feel that everything they do should be a form of worship. They like to pray on time, read more Quran, supplicate to the Lord, help the needy, and stay away from negative thoughts and bad language. It is a time when we should come closer to God and remember those who are less fortunate. Remember that we are nothing without the blessings of our Lord and that we are created to appreciate them and not abuse or misuse those blessings.

Just like other religious holidays that have been hijacked by businesses, this is the case in most Muslim countries where many people want to make a buck off of their Muslim brethren during this holy month. It’s sad to see that Ramadan is being taken advantage of, and I’m glad that being in America keeps me away from that. I’m glad we don’t have “Ramadan tents” over here to entertain us all night with coffee, sheesha, and belly dancers. How this concept could even be related to Ramadan still manages to shock me every time I see it on Arabic satellite channels. Instead of people praying for peace in Iraq, Palestine, and Darfur, they are smoking and drinking the night away so they can sleep the day away as well.

This Ramadan, I will pray for our communities across the world that are suffering from war, poverty, disease, occupation, oppression, and ignorance. I will pray that our youth are guided away from those who seek to take advantage of them for personal gains that cannot be justified by Islam. I will pray that our global community is not weakened by any attempts to sow disunity among Sunni and Shi’a, and that people of all faiths will continue to respect one another despite their differences. Ameen.

~Wishing you a blessed and peaceful Ramadan~

Ramadan prayers in Jakarta, Indonesia (REUTERS/Supri)

[technorati tags: Islam, Ramadan]

I wanted to share a few articles that I came across recently which should put the recent debates on Guantanamo Bay prisoners and secret prisons into perspective for all of us. Let us not forget that we are speaking of individuals who have not been convicted and most have no evidence against other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time, as Abu Bakker Qassem writes in a New York Times Op-Ed yesterday.

I have been greatly saddened to hear that the Congress of the United States, a country I deeply admire, is considering new laws that would deny prisoners at Guantánamo Bay the right to challenge their detentions in federal court.

I learned my respect for American institutions the hard way. When I was growing up as a Uighur in China, there were no independent courts to review the imprisonment and oppression of people who, like me, peacefully opposed the Communists. But I learned my hardest lesson from the United States: I spent four long years behind the razor wire of its prison in Cuba.

I was locked up and mistreated for being in the wrong place at the wrong time during America’s war in Afghanistan. Like hundreds of Guantánamo detainees, I was never a terrorist or a soldier. I was never even on a battlefield. Pakistani bounty hunters sold me and 17 other Uighurs to the United States military like animals for $5,000 a head. The Americans made a terrible mistake.

Also is the news recently is a similar type of secret imprisonment, extraordinary rendition, which I blogged about before regarding the case of Canadian Maher Arar. Extraordinary rendition occurs when “terror suspects are transferred from U.S. control into the control of foreign governments, so that interrogation methods that are not permitted under U.S. law may be applied to the suspects.”

Outlawed is a new documentary film that addresses the issue of rendition by telling “the stories of Khaled El-Masri and Binyam Mohamed, two men who have survived extraordinary rendition, secret detention, and torture by the U.S. government working with various other governments worldwide.” Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman highlighted this documentary film on her show last week which is produced by the international human rights organization Witness. [You can read the transcript or download the episode here.] This is an excerpt from the interview:

BINYAM MOHAMED: [read by his brother] “I refused to talk in Karachi until they gave me a lawyer. I said it was my right to have a lawyer. The FBI said, ‘The law has changed, there are no lawyers. You can cooperate with us the easy way or the hard way.’ On the first day of the interrogation ‘Chuck’ said, ‘If you don’t talk to me you are going to Jordan. We can’t do what we want here. The Arabs will deal with you.’”

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: The United States has not transported anyone and will not transport anyone to a country when we believe he will be tortured. Where appropriate, the United States seeks assurances that transferred persons will not be tortured.

BINYAM MOHAMED: [read by his brother] “They would say, ‘There is this guy who would say you are a big man in Al Qaeda.’ I would say, ‘It is a lie.’ They would torture me. I would say, ‘OK it is true,’ they would say, ‘OK tell us more.’ I would say, ‘I don’t know more,’ they would torture me again. The guards would say, ‘America’s really pissed off at what happened, and they have said to the world, “either you are with us or against us.” We Moroccans say, “We are with you,” so we will do whatever they want.’”

You can watch the full length film which is available on Google Video. I recommend that everyone watch this brief film to get a realistic perspective on the issue. Imagine being abducted while on vacation, taken half way across the world, tortured, and forced to confess to a crime that you have nothing do with. Your family has no idea where you are. They move out of your home and back to their country. The full story with all of the gruesome details are in the film.

Fortunately, some of our senators have come to realize the dangers and risks involved in this type of criminal and inhumane activity and have recently protested the passage of legislation endorsed by President Bush with regards to the rights of detainees. Many Americans are speaking out in support of these senators as they still have a conscience and still believe in the rule of law [see these letters to the editor].

Most of these congressmen will be up for re-election in a few weeks, and this issue should be a top priority for every American that cares about the freedoms which this country was founded upon and cares about the reputation of the US in the international community. We cannot continue to promote democracy and freedom in parts of the world while secretly jailing innocent and not-yet-proven-guilty suspects and allowing the governments of third world countries to torture them indefinitely on our behalf.

[technorati tags: Guantanamo Bay, Bush, terrorism, war, torture, torture, human+rights, Outlawed, Witness]

As if we don’t have enough frustration and anger in the Muslim world for the wars, occupation, poverty, unemployment, humiliation, lack of freedoms, and so called terrorism that plague us, the highest authority of the Catholic faith decides that there is a pressing need to reiterate the ignorant and insulting message the Danish cartoons portrayed only a few months ago. And as if we don’t have enough people saying we’re crazy angry terrorists, a few Muslim lunatics had to go prove the Pope’s statements by throwing fire bombs at churches in the West Bank town of Nablus. Do people not think anymore?! Is it really that hard to think twice before saying or doing something that might cause harm to many people around you and many people who listen to you?

The ‘cartoon controversy’ is still fresh in the memory of most people around the world, especially Muslims. The Prophet Muhammad was defamed in the satirical Danish cartoons with complete disregard for the feelings of 1.6 billion Muslims around the world who consider such drawings offensive at least and blasphemous at best. Millions of Muslims around the world peacefully protested the cartoons and some of course violently protested. It took much effort on the part of the Danish to retract and apologize for the actions of a few of their countrymen, and it took a lot more effort from the Muslim world to begin a dialogue about the important role the Prophet plays in the Islamic faith with the West. Discussions, conferences, and countless dialogues were held in order to bring both sides together to recognize the sanctity of different aspects of religion for followers of different faiths. This is the only positive result of the Danish cartoon controversy.

But just as people are beginning to calm down and realize that discussion and exchange of ideas is the only way to educate ourselves and each other about our beliefs, ideals, and customs, the Pope decides to spark yet another controversy by insulting the most revered figure in the Islamic faith, the Prophet Muhammad.

Muslims around the world have demanded an apology from the pontiff, and rightly so, for his insulting and inflammatory statements. Today, the Pope issued a statement, which most media outlets are still debating as to whether it constitutes an apology or not. The BBC says the Pope has apologized, while CNN says his statement comes short of an apology. [The full text of the statement is here.]

Thank you, Pope Benedict XVI, for “regretting” that your statement “could have sounded offensive” to Muslims around the world. Unfortunately, the damage has been done, yet again. And while most Muslims want an official and personal apology, that is not likely to change the reality of what happened. We all make mistakes, that is true. But we also know that a Pope is given such an important responsibility that he could not mistakenly make such a statement in a well-prepared for speech before a large audience.

And to those individuals who claim to represent me and my religion by attacking sacred churches and burning effigies and flags, please remember that the Prophet would not have, in a million years and in the face of thousands of insults, ever acted this way. His neighbor threw trash in front of his house every single day and the non-Muslims in Mecca insulted him verbally and even abused him physically. He turned the other cheek and prayed that God would forgive them and guide them. The Prophet said, “The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself in a moment of anger.”

I conclude with a very well written editorial in the New York Times today which analyzes the situation very clearly and effectively:

There is more than enough religious anger in the world. So it is particularly disturbing that Pope Benedict XVI has insulted Muslims, quoting a 14th-century description of Islam as “evil and inhuman.”

In the most provocative part of a speech this week on “faith and reason,” the pontiff recounted a conversation between an “erudite” Byzantine Christian emperor and a “learned” Muslim Persian circa 1391. The pope quoted the emperor saying, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

Muslim leaders the world over have demanded apologies and threatened to recall their ambassadors from the Vatican, warning that the pope’s words dangerously reinforce a false and biased view of Islam. For many Muslims, holy war — jihad — is a spiritual struggle, and not a call to violence. And they denounce its perversion by extremists, who use jihad to justify murder and terrorism.

The Vatican issued a statement saying that Benedict meant no offense and in fact desired dialogue. But this is not the first time the pope has fomented discord between Christians and Muslims.

In 2004 when he was still the Vatican’s top theologian, he spoke out against Turkey’s joining the European Union, because Turkey, as a Muslim country was “in permanent contrast to Europe.”

A doctrinal conservative, his greatest fear appears to be the loss of a uniform Catholic identity, not exactly the best jumping-off point for tolerance or interfaith dialogue.

The world listens carefully to the words of any pope. And it is tragic and dangerous when one sows pain, either deliberately or carelessly. He needs to offer a deep and persuasive apology, demonstrating that words can also heal.

[technorati tags: pope, catholic, vatican, Islam, Islam, Muhammad]

So our friend Iman decided to get inspired a week ago and inspire us all with her, so here it goes :o)

Name: me? moi? ana? Childhood ambition: i don’t remember having one in particular, but many which include being a journalist, a teacher, or a highly influential person that could make a difference in the world. [this question stumped me!]
First job: information services at my university
First ‘real’ job: what’s a real job?
Fondest memory: childhood innocence
Retreat: sitting by the Potomac River
Wildest dream: winning the Nobel Prize for Peace
Proudest moment: when someone tells me I’ve changed the way they view the Palestinian issue or the way they view Muslims
Perfect day: when I can accomplish everything on my to-do-list and still have an extra hour to do whatever I want
Indulgence: shoes, handbags, chocolate (and jewelery)
Soundtrack: the best of savage garden
Last purchase: $10 on my Metro card
Alarm clock: my annoying cell phone alarm, but I usually wake up a few minutes before it rings
People: i’ve got them all figured out
Favorite book: not one in particular, most of them are in my profile
Most used expression: bala baradeh! (stop being silly )
Inspiration: failure and success
News source: Aljazeera on tv, BBC/AP/Reuters for quick online news, newspapers for analysis
Religion: indeed a way of life
Biggest challenge: maintaining hope in humanity
Education: is everything, cannot be compromised
Pain: no pain no gain
Happiness: stability

I didn’t expect this to take me so long but I really had to think about some of them! Thanks Iman, as if I have enough brain cells to burn

The time of this incident appears to be coinciding with the 5th anniversay of 9/11. Whether it is the work of Al-Qaeda is still not clear, but in my view highly unlikely because it does not appear to have been conducted with the same scale and precision that Al-Qaeda attacks are characterisitic of.

Three armed men have been killed and one wounded after they attacked the US embassy in Damascus in what Syria has called a terrorist operation.

The men approached the embassy compound on Tuesday morning and then attempted to blow up a car outside, according to Syrian television. [link]

The AP reports that Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha made comments to CNN indicating that an Al-Qaeda offshoot group named Jund al-Sham has been responsible for previous attacks in Syria although no one has yet claimed they are directly responsible for this attack.

Secretary of State Rice thanked Syria, a country the State Dept considers a sponsor of terrorism and a part of the “Axis of Evil”, for protecting the US embassy and its staff.

[technorati tags: Syria, terrorism, US]

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