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Muslim Raid Victims Urge Community to Unity and Action
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| Laura Jaghlit (left) described how federal agents invaded her home. |
By
Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington correspondent
ALEXANDRIA,
Va., April 2 (IslamOnline) - For Hana Unus, and for many others whose
homes, businesses and institutions were raided by the federal
government on March 20 in a search for alleged links to support for
terrorism, it's really starting to sink in now, almost two weeks
later.
"The
impact that it had on us mentally - it's really starting to sink in
now," said Unus, 19, who was handcuffed for nearly five hours
along with her mother after federal agents broke into their home with
guns drawn and pointed at them on the morning of March 20. "It
has an incredible impact on you emotionally."
Unus
was speaking Monday night at a town hall meeting in Alexandria
sponsored by the northern Virginia Dar al-Hijra mosque and the Muslim
American Society; it is the latest in a series of local meetings
designed to keep community members abreast of what national Muslim
organizations are doing in response to the raids and provide the
community a platform for their concerns.
The
high school senior, who says that school is becoming difficult for
those students whose homes were raided as the memory of March 20 seems
to grow more painful, was one of a number of other raid victims who
spoke at the meeting about how the impact of the raids affected them.
Her
mother, Nudrat Unus, spoke very briefly only to say how despite her
more than 30 years of citizenship in the U.S., her confidence in the
American promise of "freedom and justice for all" had been
badly shaken.
For
Laura Jaghlit, an English teacher in northern Virginia whose home was
raided and whose family trusts were listed on the search warrant for
the raids, there has been a nearly overwhelming series of emotions
since March 20, "from shock to a sadness to outrage to just…
complete disbelief of the whole situation," she said.
Mona
Abu Fadl, a political science professor at the Graduate School of
Islamic and Social Sciences (GSISS), which was raided on March 20, was
asleep and alone at home when federal agents broke into her house,
coming up the stairs to stand next to her bed as she woke up.
"Only
in retrospect, only after everything was gone, [I realized] that if I
had really been aware of what was happening, I would have lost my
mind," she said.
She
also described "various phases" of emotions that she had
undergone since the raids - beginning with "utter
disbelief," which she illustrated by the fact that when the
agents were preparing to leave, "I told them, I'm sorry I didn't
offer you coffee."
Now,
Abu Fadl said, she was barely composed enough to come to the town hall
meeting. "I am not feeling very well still," she said,
adding that she had been "hesitating between my reluctance to
come… not being able to articulate my thoughts… and the sense of
duty, of obligation I feel to my community."
She
said the question had only occurred to her after the agents were gone:
"Why should they search? I realized they took everything… in
one fell swoop. If they had tortured me… how much could they have
taken out of my life?"
Abu
Fadl urged the Muslim community to "live up to the essentials, to
the essence of what we as a community mean," to show the truth of
Islam by its actions and to bring to America the value of "the
sanctity of the home."
Jaghlit
also called on her community and its leadership to take action.
"We
have to make a change in our community," she said. "Stand up
tall, stand up straight and scream loud because if we don't do it, no
one will do it for us."
Also
speaking at the meeting were community and organization leaders,
including Mahdi Bray, political advisor for the Muslim Public Affairs
Council (MPAC), Imam Johari Abdul Malik of Howard University, Louay
Safi, research director for the International Institute of Islamic
Thought and Mohamad Omeish of the Success Foundation - both of which
were also raided - and Ray Bush, a legal advisor for the American
Muslim Council (AMC), among others.
Imam
Abdul Malik told the community to develop a strategic plan, both for
response to these raids and for preparing against further such
incidents; Bush encouraged Muslims to take the lead role in bringing
America back to the principles of freedom and due process it was
founded upon.
Safi
echoed Bush's remarks, challenging Muslims to overcome the
"duality" of being unable to meld Islamic and American
identities.
"Muslims
have to stand for justice, for human rights, for civil rights and for
due process," he said. "And to do that… we have to claim
this country because it is ours… make it truer to its own
values."
Community
members who spoke after the leaders voiced their concern that they did
not have enough time to speak, but acknowledged it was one of the
first such town hall meetings. Muslim leaders also promised a wider
platform in upcoming meetings. Imam Abdul Malik expressed the need for
having such meetings "over and over and over again."
Among
other issues, Bush described some of the actions that had already been
taken; leaders had met with police departments and congressmen,
letters had been written and plans had been made for a meeting at a
senator's office Tuesday.
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