[Biggest
Islamic
web site in the
U.S.]
P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087.
Phone: 410-435-5000.
Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily
shared by editorial committee.
Responses (positive or negative) up to 250 words are welcome.
Names will be withheld on request.
--------------------------------------------
30,000 March Against
War
in Washington D.C.
LATINO ANTI-WAR CHANT SETS THE PACE
RACHEL COREY REMEMBERED: HECKLING BY
ZIONISTS
By Nadrat Siddique
The mood at the April 12 march in Washington,
D.C., had the air of a requiem,
perhaps in recognition of the tens of thousands
of innocent Iraqis who have
been killed in the past few weeks by the Dajjalic
"Coalition." It was evident
in the somber faces of this crowd that they were
anything but behind the
policies of President-Select
Bush.
Some carried
signs remembering Kent State,
where police shot and killed students protesting
the Vietnam War, an event
perhaps called to mind by last weekend's
incident in which police fired into
crowds of anti-war protestors in San Francisco.
At the Washington, D.C.
march, protestors were met by police in riot
gear, with helicopters hovering
overhead. Many of the protestors wore
kaffiyas––in fact I'd not seen so many
Caucasians wearing that symbol of
Palestinian
self-determination in one place
before; they lined the streets, the subways, even
the Starbucks, chanting
openly pro-Palestinian slogans, like "Free
Palestine at any cost.
I spoke with an older Caucasian woman who carried
a picture of Rachel Corey,
as she marched, heckled by some evidently Zionist
passers by. She said she'd
visited the occupied territories with a group of
Quakers and been horrified at
the Israeli treatment of Palestinians there. She
told me that young people
from all over the world, inspired by the spirit
of Rachel Corey, were joining
the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in
droves. ISM. workers try to
physically prevent the demolition of Palestinian
homes by Israeli Defense
Forces (IDF). Unlike previous days, she said, IDF
had openly started
targeting foreign nationals if they were
perceived to have Palestinian
sympathies, most recently, killing a young ISM.
worker from Mexico and
permanently crippling another from Holland.
It is significant that in a country where "free
press" translates to "freely
zionist press," the old aphorism, "You can't
fool all of the people all of the
time" has hit home, and despite the efforts of
the zionist media to exclude
the voices of opposition, many
Americans are waking up to the reality of the
injustice in the Middle East, at the heart of
which lies the zionist
occupation of Palestine.
Unlike the march two weeks prior, our march was
permitted to proceed through
key points in downtown, including the Carlyle
Group,
Fox News,
the Justice
Department and FBI Building, the White House,
Bechtel, the
Washington Post,
the
New York Times
,
and Haliburton. We paused
briefly at the Washington Post,
shaking our fingers in the direction of its
editorial offices, and
chanting "Tell-the-truth! Tell-the-truth!
Many participants from the Latin American
Solidarity Conference, being held in
Washington the same weekend, joined the march.
Thus veteran activists from
CISPES (Committee In Solidarity with the People
of El Salvador--an
organization whose entirely legal activities in
support Salvadoran
self-determination made them the targets of
illegal FBI harassment), and Latin
American activists, with first hand experience
fighting U.S. imperialism and
repression joined in anti-war slogans. I walked
for several miles with a
particularly spirited group of young Latinos, who
chanted in the
characteristic Latino fashion:
Chant leader: ¡¡A bajo George Bush! (Down with
George Bush!)
Response by crowd (hereafter response): ¡¡A bajo!
(Down with him!)
Chant leader: ¡¡Viva la paz! (Long live peace!)
Response: ¡¡Viva! (Long live it!)
Chant leader: ¡¡Viva Jose Martíí! (Long live Jose
Marti!)
Response: ¡¡Viva! (Long live him!)
Chant leader: ¡¡Viva Zapata! (Long live Zapata!)
Response: ¡¡Viva! (Long live him!)
Chant leader: ¡¡Viva puebla lucha popular! (Long
live popular peoples
struggle!)
Response: ¡¡Viva! (Long live it!)
Chant leader: ¡¡A bajo la guerra contra el pueblo
Iraquíí! (Down with the war
against the Iraqi people!)
Response: ¡¡A bajo! (Down with it!)
Some Anglo passers by, hearing the Spanish
slogans, and seeing English
language
signs against the war, told them "If yah don't
like it in this country, why
doncha go back where you came from!" I almost
laughed out loud and told
them, "They probably would, but U.S. corporations
have already been over there and
robbed their countries of anything that wasn't
tied down." Thus while it was
truly heartening to see the warmth and generosity
of support for the Iraqi and
Palestinian people by Latino activists, it made
me think back to Ather
Masood's piece in this forum a couple weeks back,
emphasizing that we too, as
Muslims must support the struggles of Latin
American peoples against the same
imperialism and neo-colonialism which targets our
Muslim lands. Latinos from
almost every country in Central and South America
and Mexico had come out to
support us.
The internationalist character of the protest,
struck me again and again, as I
saw a large continent of Buddhist monks, many
young Muslims (including many
young Muslim women in hijab but unaccompanied),
and--Native Americans. One
American Indian Movement
(AIM)
leader spoke
powerfully against the war at a
rally held at Freedom Plaza just prior to the
march. Tomahawk missiles should
be renamed "Bush's missiles" as should the
"Apache helicopter," he said. No
Native tribe would approve of these instruments
of death and destruction being
unleashed on innocent Iraqis. Native people were
predominantly peaceful
before the coming of the White man, and when they
did engage in warfare, it
was between two equally matched sides, not at all
like the current scenario of
"Surrender your arms, and lay down, so that we
can massacre you."
The Washington, D.C. demonstration by 30,000
(according to D.C. police
estimates) was paralleled by demonstrations in
Argentina, Australia, Austria,
Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Burma (Myanmar),
Canada,
Chile, China, Croatia,
Cyprus, Denmark, Dominican Republic,
Egypt,
Ecuador, Finland, France,
Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Iceland,
India,
Indonesia,
Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan,
Jordan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mexico,
Morocco, Mongolia, Netherlands,
New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway,
Pakistan,
Paraguay, Philippines, Poland,
Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Scotland,
Slovenia, South Korea, Spain,
Sudan,
Sweden, Switzerland,
Syria,
Taiwan, U.K.,
Venezuela, and Yemen.
For Foreign readers: The word "caucasian" means
"White" in America. -Ed
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Support For
Imam Jamil
at D.C. Peace Rally
Prof. Al-Arian's Daughter Speaks
"WHOSE STREETS? OUR STREETS!" Defying Police
By Sister Motisola Malikha Abdallah
Washington DC Peace Rally April 12, 2003
Thousands of people of all backgrounds, religions
and cultures took to the DC
streets once again last weekend in solidarity
with protest movements all
around the world against the war on Iraq. These
relentless protests against
Bush's war on Islam and the Middle East is clear
evidence that the
CNN
polls are a lie and the whorish
media
and its one-sided showing of the war on Iraq
is unconvincing. The diversity at this rally was
awesome and too numerous to
list. However, I did want to give special mention
to the several bus loads of
Latinos that arrived, a special group of what
looked like Chinese Monks that
came, Dr. Zulu Malik Shabazz and the
New Black Panther Party, the veterans
and a good showing of NYC Muslim especially
sisters with their babies.
The signs held by the protesters told the real
story of how the American
public feels. There were thousands and thousands
of signs with slogans like:
"where are the weapons of mass destruction, when
will the US plant them", "no
war on Syria", "no blood for oil", "no war on
Iran", "McS_ _ _ " (in
reference to McDonald's restaurant), "drop Bush
not bombs", "who is going to
democratize the US" and "we need a regime
change."
Anti-war protesters spoke out loud, clear and
defiantly against Bush and the
Media.
The most vocal among the rainbow sea of
speakers were the young
people, especially the Muslim sisters. Dr. Sami
Al-Arian's, [the Florida
Professor arrested a few weeks ago] daughter
spoke about her father and the
trumped up charges against him. A Native American
speaker reminded us of how
the US liberated 16 million of them right into
distinction. Several speakers
talked about the war at home against Muslims led
by the FBI along with
reference to Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin and
other political prisoner in
America. Each time when the Imam's name was
mentioned an arousing applause
followed in support of him. The International MAS
had a table set up at the
rally with Imam Jamil information for the public.
A taped message was played
from Mumia Abu Jamal speaking out about this
unjust war from an unjust
president. It was very well received.
Shortly before the march got underway, hundreds
of young people came from the
DC subway into the streets chanting repeatedly
"whose streets? our streets".
A police captain kept shouting to the top of his
voice and turning red that
it was their last warning to get out of the
streets and back on the sidewalk.
No one moved. This sent him into a rage and he
must have gave a call for
backup. In a matter of a few seconds it seemed
like the entire DC police
force came out of the woodwork on foot, on
horseback and in cars towards us.
We thought they were going to move in. Instead of
people moving out of the
streets, more protesters moved into the streets
and the slogan "whose
streets? our streets" grew intense and deafening.
Instead of moving in, the
police for some reason retreated back several
feet and never rushed the crowd.
There were a few pro-war demonstrators along the
side of our route. Everyone
was tensed. I tried to remind myself to keep
walking and ignore them.
However, I lost it when one group of five white
men with signs "fry Mumia"
caught my eye. I rushed towards them past the
police line and invited them
all down off the sidewalk and it was not an
invitation to talk. However,
several of my co-marchers came and pulled me back
and told me it was not
worth it and they were right. We must be careful
not to waste good energy on
fools.
The relentless active participation of the people
against this war is what is
going to stop this war. It is going to take the
people of the world united
and firm to push this war out of existence. We
must stop this war.
Sister Motisola Malikha Abdallah
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHICAGO CALLING
FOR APRIL 12-14
PROTESTS CONTINUE. FAMILIES OF TROOPS OPPOSE WAR
BY: ATHER MASOOD [Our Chicago correspondent.]
Despite the so-called end to
Iraq,
Chicago
activists continued to march this
weekend.
In conjunction with London, New York, and other
cities Chicago continues to
put large numbers of people on the streets. The
Logan Square neighborhood
Peace organization organized about 600-700 people
to speak out against the war in Iraq.
It was ironic because Logan Square
had the first mosque on the
North Side of Chicago in the 70's. Jamming the
intersection protestors
marched from one street to another against Bush,
Rumsfeld and other
governmental figures.
It was amazing to see that no less than
25 people who had family
members in the war, were present denouncing the
conflict. Wearing green
bands, twenty-five different people called the
names of loved ones currently
deployed. WHY DOES THE
MEDIA
NOT FOCUS ON THESE
INDIVIDUALS? constantly we
are bombarded with stories of "patriotic"
Americans serving in the armed
forces. We NEVER hear from those families who
oppose the war, even though
they have loved ones in Iraq. Nonetheless Mostly
Caucasians along with a few
Blacks, Latinos/as, and Muslims were present.
from 12PM-2PM large numbers of
activists jammed the streets. Alderman Colon,
recently elected asked the
question, "Why does America always glamorize
violence? Why do we always use
He-Man, Batman, and soldiers are role-models? We
need to create new role
models away from violence." As of this time two
alderman have com on record
to oppose the war on Iraq. In a surprising move
the Logan Square Peace
movement has adopted Baghdad as it's sister city.
Americans are in regular
contact with the citizen from Baghdad from
Chicago. Such contacts have
confirmed fighting still continues with both
American and Iraqi troops killed
in action.
MUSLIMS NEED TO SUPPORT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
As this article is being written Muslims must no
lose sight of affirmative
Action. In the United States of America,
Affirmative Action remains the only
source of equal opportunity for Blacks,
Latinos/Latinas, and Native
Americans. The legacy of Separate and Unequal
still remains. In any School of
higher education, we see a clear trend of denying
people of color educational
opportunities. Going to any campus in Chicago,
One see a steady decline in
applicants and participants belonging to Black,
Latin-American, and Native
Peoples. To ensure the further advance of such
people, Muslims must take
steps to change realities in American educational
culture. President Bush
has, so far, turned attention away from domestic
issues by starting
unnecessary wars.
We should not lose sight that this may have been
Mr. Bush's agenda to being
with. Start a war and curtail any civil liberties
from the masses of
Americans. At the same time we must be aware that
Imam Jamil, Dr. Samirah,
Dr. Al-Arian, Mumia Abu-Jamal and others should
not be forgotten. Clearly in
that same vain, Affirmative Action legislation is
something people bleed,
fought, and died over. Many of us have advanced
in life due to such laws.
Therefore, it is important for us, AS MUSLIMS, to
not allow such
opportunities to be denied for others. RICH
MUSLIMS NEED TO STOP BUILDING
MOSQUES AND should FUND AFFIRMATIVE ACTON
PROGRAMS SO THEY DON'T COLLAPSE. WE
HAVE ENOUGH MASJIDS IN AMERICA. People must begin
to support peace movements
and Affirmative action laws with their own funds.
We encourage our Muslim
family in the world to support causes of the
masses such as Affirmative
action.
WAR ON SYRIA.
This past weekend as many as fifteen "hawks"
began to attack Syria on Capitol
Hill. Several "Middle East," experts gathered to
speak with Congressional
representatives on the issue of Syria. Almost
immediately the media began to
assault Syrian as a place full of chemical
weapons and even nuclear warheads.
indeed some sources in Washington have already
stated Mr. Rumsfeld has
directed attention to begin another phase of war.
This writer will keep new
Trend posted on other such developments. We
advise our Muslim and Arab
peoples of Syria to prepare for a possible
attack, as all signs indicate to
such an eventuality.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003-04-16 Wed 19:01ct