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August 30, 2004 Protest Racist Immigration Detentions, Remember Farouk Tuesday, August 31st – 12PM26 Federal Plaza, Manhattan Meet at Columbus Park – corner of Pearl and Bayard Streets - at 11AM. We will leave as a group for the BICE offices at 11:45AM. The prison cops confiscated reading material and medicines as they kicked Abdel-Muhti to the ground, punched him, and told him to “shut the fuck up” and to “go back to Palestine.” The officers, who were not wearing name tags, pushed Abdel-Muhti against the wall on at least two occasions, kicked him to the ground, and punched him on the side of the head. They then confiscated his personal property, including papers, address books and medicine, which was prescribed by the prison clinic for high blood pressure and a thyroid condition. -Report from the Committee for the Release of Farouk Abdel-Muhti, regarding an attack on Palestinian detainee Farouk Abdel-Muhti on November 19, 2003.The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 have profoundly increased the racist policies of the United States government. In a feeble attempt to provide the public with an illusion of safety, the Bush administration has instituted new policies that have destroyed the lives and freedoms of millions with the pretext of “A War on Terrorism.” This so-called "War on Terrorism" is not just being fought with foreign nations, as the news media would like us to believe. It is also being fought here at home, as thousands of individuals in the United States are being prosecuted and persecuted on the basis of their race, religion, and political beliefs by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Since the September 11th attacks, Bush and his Orwellian Department of Homeland Security have engaged in an illegal and racist program of round-ups and detentions. Thousands of men between the ages of 25 to 45 from South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa have been swept up and in many cases disappeared, spending years in jail without being charged with a crime. The following instances from jails in New Jersey demonstrate the absurd conditions the detainees are being forced to endure: • Two dozen detainees were brought to Union County Jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey after acting out their frustrations about jail conditions in a previous jail. For three days, detainees from Albania, India, Ghana, and elsewhere were beaten, held naked, made to crawl on their hands and knees through a gauntlet of jail officers, and forced to chant “America is Number One.” One Indian detainee claimed that between beatings, correctional officers used pliers to pinch the skin on his genitals and squeeze his tongue.As Farouk Adbel-Muhti said: “We must speak out against the actions of our government and provide a voice for those who are silenced behind prison walls in order to cease the prosecution and persecution of immigrants in the name of ‘homeland security.’ We must challenge policies based on the discredited notion that ethnic profiling is an effective way of combating terrorism, a notion that in the past has led to the incarceration of Japanese-Americans and other shameful episodes of American history. Any program that targets people based upon national origin, race, religion or political involvement is repugnant to the core values of our Constitution. It is our responsibility as residents of the United States to speak up when we see injustices committed in the name of democracy, to stand up for each other and for ourselves when we see our civil liberties under attack.” This month, when the Republican National Convention comes to town, let’s join together in telling the Bush Administration that we will not stand for these racist policies, policies that do nothing to ensure our safety, and that do everything to curtail our freedoms and civil liberties. Join us in telling the Republicans what it can do with its policies regarding people of color, and let’s also take the time to mourn for our comrade Farouk Abdel-Muhti, who died as a result of these illegal and brutal policies of the Department of Homeland Security. Join us! from New Jersey Anti-Racist Action and various Philly affinity groups
Posted by aderkon on August 30, 2004 07:25 PM
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