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Muslim Community Members Encourage Coalition-Building
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| ADAMS (All
Dulles Area Muslim Society)
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By
Ayesha Ahmad, IOL Washington Correspondent
STERLING,
Virginia., March 26 (IslamOnline) - Muslims who were affected by the
federal raids last week on their homes and businesses, as well as
neighbors and community members, spoke out Monday night against the
erosion of civil liberties and encouraged Muslims to join forces with
other minority and civil rights groups in their search for justice.
Speaking
at a town hall meeting held by Muslim organizations at the public
library in Sterling - about 20 miles from Washington, D.C. - Louay
Safi, research director of the International Institute for Islamic
Thought (IIIT), described the shock his organization felt when it was
raided.
"We've
been involved in efforts to integrate Muslims… to make them part and
parcel of American society," he said, adding that the
constitution they were proud to uphold - based on values of freedom
and due process of law - was now being degraded.
"This
country developed and grew by the efforts of those who resisted this
type of behavior," he said, referring to the order and
performance of the raids. "People… were not given their rights
on a platter, they had to fight… We have to stand up."
Between
150-200 people - mostly Muslims, but also press and non-Muslim
community members - left standing room only in the library's meeting
room; another 150 attendees had to be turned away and met instead at
the ADAMS (All Dulles Area Muslim Society) Center mosque nearby.
Indignation
felt by the local and surrounding Muslim community has been rising
steadily since last Wednesday, when about 150 federal agents stormed
several Muslim businesses, institutions and homes with search warrants
alleging possible support for terrorist groups.
With
local news stations and papers spreading the word, outrage has grown
regarding the nature of the raids' targets - which included
well-respected learning institutions - and the conduct of authorities
involved in the raids, including handcuffing two women in their home
for five hours and pointing guns at innocent people.
Also
addressing the crowd at the library was Kit Gage, from the National
Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, who urged the Muslim community
to learn from those who had experience working for their rights from
the federal government.
"You
don't have to be a lawyer… to organize around your rights," she
said. "It has to be done by the community as a whole."
Saying
that it was the job of the people to "help the government figure
out what really works," - because what they've been doing since
September 11 is not working - she said that the community "can't
just ask the Arab-American community to do it alone."
"It
will only work if people get together" and learn from others who
have experience, she said, adding that it was the responsibility of
people who have been through it before to tell the Muslim community,
"you're not alone."
Attending
the town hall meeting was the Rev. Roberta Finklestein of the
Unitarian Universalists of Sterling, who voiced her support for the
Muslim community. "All Americans are threatened by the erosion of
civil liberties".
Another
community member, Reverend James Papile of St. Anne's Episcopal Church
in nearby Reston, encouraged grassroots mobilization among faith
communities, saying that, "change happens from the ground
up."
Imam
Johari Abdul-Malik, of Howard University, referred to a verse in the
Qur'an that tells humans God has made them into different groups so
that they may "know each other… That's what we have to
do," he said.
The
town hall meeting's moderator, Mahdi Bray - political advisor for the
Muslim Public Affairs Council and a long-time civil rights activist -
summed up the arguments on the necessity of joining hands with one
statement: "This is not a Muslim tragedy, this is an American
tragedy, and I pray to God that America will do better."
Others
who spoke at the meeting included Imam Mohammad Magid of the ADAMS
Center, who was there when the Center's day and Sunday school was
raided because it leased the second floor of the IIIT.
He
spoke to the effects if the raids on his community, saying that Muslim
children who carried American flags after September 11 are now telling
him they are afraid to go home, or afraid to go to their rooms at
night, because they are afraid people will break in with guns and
handcuff their parents.
"It's
very difficult for me as a counselor, as an imam, as a spiritual
leader in my community," he said. "What can I tell my
community?"
Laura
Jaghlit, a Fairfax English teacher whose home was raided Wednesday
while she was away, also encouraged Muslims to stand together to
overcome what happened to them.
And
Nihad Awad, executive director of Council on American Islamic
Relations (CAIR), who was in Saudi Arabia at the time of the raids,
described how he had to defend his government to the Saudis he was
meeting with, whose first reaction to the news of the raids was,
"This is a war against Islam and Muslims."
"Our
administration has the burden of proving otherwise," he said.
"This incident has to be a turning point in our history… every
one of us will be an activist," he continued, adding that the
community members owed it to themselves and to their children to
"stand up and say enough is enough."
Local
Fox 5 news, which carried the story of the meeting later Monday night,
reported that the Customs Agency, which obtained the warrants through
the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., did not have any response,
and that the government was being "tight-lipped" about the
raids.
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