Oct

23

Not Guilty

October 23, 2007 | 4 Comments

 *SLAP* for the “War on Terror Peaceful, Law-abiding Muslims in America”

Since it’s a NOT GUILTY verdict, you probably didn’t hear it on the top CNN headlines , or your local radio station. It didn’t make it to the CNN frontpage, or their US page either. Since a jury could not return ONE guilty charge out of 197 counts on the men involved in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the American mainstream media tucked the news deep in their websites, at the end of some broadcasts or skipped it altogether. Had these men been convicted on even ONE charge, you would have been inundated with news of “the terrorist charity that tried to help Palestinian women and children” by providing food and healthcare products. Since you probably didn’t hear the news by switching on your local evening news (trust me it would’ve made it to local news station in the middle of Idaho had they been guilty), here is the latest slap in the face of the “Justice” department’s efforts to scare Americans and demonize the Muslim community. The verdict came out yesterday:

A deadlocked federal jury here did not convict any leaders of a Muslim charity who were charged with supporting Middle Eastern terrorists, and the judge today declared a mistrial in what has been widely viewed as the government’s flagship terror-financing case.

The prosecution said the committees were controlled by Hamas and contributed to terrorism by helping Hamas spread its ideology and recruit supporters. The government relied on Israeli intelligence agents, using pseudonyms, to testify in support of this theory.

But prosecutors appeared to have made little headway in convincing the jury..

The case involved a total of 197 counts, including providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, years of investigation and preparation, almost two months of testimony and more than 1,000 exhibits, including documents, wiretaps, transcripts and videotapes dug up in a backyard in Virginia.

After 19 days of deliberations, the jury acquitted one of the five individual defendants on all but one charge, on which it deadlocked. A majority of the jurors also appeared ready to acquit two other defendants of most charges, and could not reach a verdict on charges against the two principal organizers and the foundation itself, which had been the largest Muslim charity in the United States until the government froze its assets in late 2001.

The decision today is “a stunning setback for the government, there’s no other way of looking at it,” said Matthew D. Orwig, a partner at Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal here who was, until recently, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

“This is a message, a two-by-four in the middle of the forehead,” Mr. Orwig said. “If this doesn’t get their attention, they are just in complete denial,” he said of Justice Department officials, whom he said may not have recognized how difficult such cases are to prosecute.

David D. Cole, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University, said the jury’s verdict called into question the government’s tactics in freezing the assets of charities using secret evidence that the charities cannot see, much less rebut. When, at trial, prosecutors “have to put their evidence on the table, they can’t convict anyone of anything,” he said. “It suggests the government is really pushing beyond where the law justifies them going.”

Full article

Watch the Muslim community’s reaction to the verdict outside the courthouse

Watch the interview with one of the jurors

Oct

22

Students United Against Hate

October 22, 2007 | Leave a Comment

To: All of Humanity

I am against any form of hate speech on our campuses and in our communities.

I am in support for equality between all human beings, including all genders, races, and ethnic and religious groups.

I am in support of justice, freedom and peace for all people.

I am in support of the “Students United Against Hate” Campaign.

Please sign the petition by clicking here.

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(more posts on the hate promoting campaign across American universities this week, coming soon…)

Oct

11

Empire State Building Will Light Up for EID!

October 11, 2007 | 10 Comments

This is a great gesture and I hope it will translate into more efforts to recognize Muslim Americans and their holidays as part and parcel of the beautiful American fabric. It shows that New Yorkers are well aware that a couple of misguided criminals will not be allowed to get in the way of peaceful coexistence among Americans of all faiths and backgrounds. Now we just need Eid lights on the White House lawn, next to the Christmas tree, and the Menorah… :)

New York’s iconic Empire State Building is to be lit up green from Friday in honor of the Muslim holiday of Eid, the biggest festival in the Muslim calendar marking the end of Ramadan, officials said.

“This is the first time that the Empire State Building will be illuminated for Eid, and the lighting will become an annual event in the same tradition of the yearly lightings for Christmas and Hannukah,” according to a statement.

Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the fasting month, is expected to be celebrated in New York from Friday, depending on when the new moon is sighted, and the city’s tallest skyscraper will remain green until Sunday.

[AFP]

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May this Eid bring peace and blessings to everyone on Earth!

Oct

9

Protecting State Secrets At the Cost of Justice

October 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment

A very unwelcomed decision by the Supreme Court today regarding the US government’s illicit “Extraordinary Rendition” program. The Court decided to protect Bush and his cronies rather than expose their dirty laundry to the world. Why am I surprised that this Bush-appointee-infested court threw out this case? I shouldn’t be, but I thought after the case of Maher Arar, we’d learned our lesson. I guess not.

A German citizen who says he was kidnapped, imprisoned and tortured by the CIA lost his appeal on Tuesday when the Supreme Court refused to review a decision dismissing the case because it would expose state secrets.

Attorneys for Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese descent, argued in the high court appeal that his lawsuit did not depend on the disclosure of state secrets and that it should be allowed to go forward in U.S. court.

His case has drawn worldwide attention to the CIA’s extraordinary rendition program in which terrorism suspects are sent from one foreign country to another for interrogation. Human rights groups have strongly criticized the program.

Masri’s case sparked outrage in Germany and prompted a parliamentary inquiry to find out what authorities might have known about U.S. renditions.

Masri’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union challenged what they called the Bush administration’s increased invoking of national security secrets to prevent any judicial inquiry into serious allegations of misconduct.

The administration also has asserted the so-called state secrets privilege in an effort to dismiss the lawsuits over the warrantless domestic spying program that Bush created after the September 11 attacks.

[full article]

Watch the short documentary film about El-Masry’s Case 

More on the policy of extraordinary rendition:

TIME Salutes Maher Arar

Senator Rips Gonzalez on Extraordinary Rendition

Stirrings on Guantanamo Bay & Extraordinary Renditions

Extraordinary Rendition: The Case of Maher Arar

Thoughts and Images from the DC Anti-torture Protest

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