By IOL Washington Correspondent, Ayesha Ahmad
WASHINGTON, March 9 (IslamOnline) – With thousands of Muslim and Arab non-citizens
being detained after September 11, many of them on minor visa violations, their
communities will not get the rights that are due to them unless they fight for them, Muslim
civil rights activists and lawyers said Friday, March 8.
“Every single minority in this country was not empowered without a fight,” Sami Al-Arian, a
University of Florida professor, who was recently fired from his position. “[Many] of these
rights are not rights unless you fight for them.”
Al-Arian is a well-known activist in the Muslim and Arab community here, having
campaigned against “secret evidence” laws for years while his brother-in-law was kept in
jail on charges nobody was ever told about.
“We never thought that civil rights would concern us,” he said, explaining that many
immigrants came to this country seeking the protections and the freedoms it affords to its
residents. “Many of us thought that this is a society that values freedom… freedom of the
press, free speech.”
Speaking at a fundraiser for Solidarity USA, a Washington-based civil liberties task force
currently focusing on the backlash against Muslims and Arabs in post-September 11
America, he said Muslims and Arabs have often been targets because they are
misunderstood, mostly because of media misrepresentation. But he added that the nature
of this country allowed them to agitate against that targeting.
“That is the beauty about America – unlike other societies – here we can fight and we can
also win, and we must put civil rights at the core of our fight,” he said, stressing that
political power in America would not come without winning civil rights battles.
Solidarity USA, which has successfully aided a number of foreign nationals in processing
their cases, held the fundraiser at Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church, Va. near
Washington, D.C., to raise money for a Muslim national legal defense fund, among other
goals.
Al-Arian, the fundraiser’s keynote speaker, detailed the situation of his brother-in-law
Mazen al-Najjar, who spent three years in jail under secret evidence before a judge ruled
that there was no evidence against him.
He was finally released, only to be picked up and detained again after September 11 on a
visa violation. Al-Najjar has three American-born daughters.
In the three years he was in jail before, Al-Arian said, “when he was a threat to national
security,” his brother-in-law was able to talk to people, to watch TV, to maintain a life even
behind bars that was in line with acceptable levels of human and civil rights.
Now, al-Najjar has been in jail for 104 days on nothing more than a visa violation, and he
is kept in isolation 23 hours a day, strip-searched naked twice a day and allowed only one
15-minute phone call per week, Al-Arian said.
After September 11, Al-Arian said, “thousands of people are victims… It’s not even secret
evidence anymore; it’s no evidence… Innocent people [are] being arrested and detained
for no reason except their ethnicity, except their opinions.”
Al-Arian’s points were bolstered by the testimony of several lawyers, who represent some
of the post-September 11 detainees.
Attorney William Moffitt said he represented a man, whom he said all the information the
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used against him came out of his own mouth –
“because he wanted to help.”
Moffitt stressed that it was not necessary to talk to authorities if they had no warrant. “With
the frenzy in law enforcement right now in this country, they’re no very careful about who
they arrest… who they prosecute,” he said.
Lawyer Hamdi Rafai warned that the FBI would use any means necessary to get
information. “They are allowed to lie to you, they can mislead you to get you to give
information,” he said.
Another lawyer, Rhonda Gelfman, said she had represented Muslims from Lebanon,
Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq and even the Bahamas after September 11, and
called their detentions “a travesty.”
“They’re not involved in terrorism, but Attorney General [John] Ashcroft isn’t sure, so let’s
just leave them there till we’re sure,” she said sarcastically.
She told people in the audience to ask immigrant friends and relatives to apply for
citizenship as soon as possible – as citizens can’t be deported.
All the lawyers urged Muslim and Arab Americans to avoid saying anything to authorities
unless they are required to, and to obtain legal help immediately if they are arrested;
foreign nationals specifically should ask to speak to their consulate immediately, Moffitt
said.
In urging people to support the creation of a Muslim legal defense fund, Al-Arian said that
there was nothing more noble than fighting for justice for people unjustly incarcerated.
“I don’t think there is anything more noble on earth than justice. Justice is the highest
value in Islam next to tawhid,” or the Islamic belief in the oneness of God, he said.
Solidarity USA’s chief coordinator, Yaser Bushnaq, told the audience that the fundraiser
was meant to educate their community “on matters related to their constitutional, legal and
human rights,” and “to coach the community on how to prepare itself to become more
proactive,” and he hoped to expand such events across the country in the future.
