• MEMBERS

National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants

In the face of forced registrations and the detention of up to 1,000 immigrants, a demonstration of 3,000 in Los Angeles on December 18 carried signs that said, “What’s Next? Concentration Camps?” We applaud the brave demonstrators, most of whom are themselves immigrants. They dared to protest at a time when immigrants from the Middle East are subjected to roundups and indefinite detention without charges. Can we do anything less? This demonstration was a moral challenge to us all.

January 10 was the deadline for immigrant men from 13 mainly Muslim countries to register with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. In over 15 cities, people of all different nationalities organized protests and press conferences. Many wore the blue triangle with the names of the disappeared. Opposition and resistance are growing. But we have much more to do if we are to stop the increasing repression.

The reality is that the government is registering and detaining Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants now! Detention is not a future possibility but a present reality. Federal authorities detained over 1,200, maybe many more, in the immediate wake of September 11. The government has given a strong indication that there will soon be new waves of mass detentions as they go to war against Iraq. The authorities want to silence those in this country who can speak truth about the reality of life in the Middle East. They want to silence the Palestinian who has lived through the Israeli Air Force dropping U.S. supplied cluster bombs on his refugee camp. They want to silence the Afghan-American woman whose 19 family members in Afghanistan were killed when the U.S. bombed their wedding party. They want to silence the Afghan-American woman whose husband was taken during the mass round-ups after 9/11, held for nine terrifying months without charges, and then suddenly deported without warning--away from his family, his life and livelihood here.

In July 2002, Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, proposed that a mass roundup and detention of Arabs and Muslims may be necessary. Attorney General John Ashcroft proposed detention centers where U.S. citizens deemed to be ‘enemy combatants’ can be held indefinitely without charges. The Bush administration has begun an unprecedented program to monitor Iraqi citizens and Iraqi-Americans with dual citizenship in the United States. The Bush administration is establishing a separate legal system for anyone the government declares a terrorism suspect and “enemy combatant.” Citizens and non-citizens would be stripped of long established constitutional protections and measures.

We must learn from history. February 19 is the anniversary of President Roosevelt issuing the infamous Executive Order 9066 in 1942. It authorized the roundup and imprisonment of all Japanese Americans living in the western coastal states.

New important dates are just ahead. February 21 is the deadline for immigrant men from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to register. March 28 is the deadline for immigrant men from Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Jordan to register.

Send a powerful message on February 20. We refuse to accept the registration and detention of people based on their nationality and religion. We refuse to accept racial profiling, roundups, indefinite detentions, secret courts, secret charges, secret evidence, secret wiretaps, secret sneak and peek break-ins, secret military tribunals, deportations, telephone and e-mail surveillance, and demonizing of Muslims, Arabs, South Asians and others based upon where they were born, the language that they speak, the color of their skin or the religion that they practice.

On February 20 wear a blue triangle with the name of one of the newly “disappeared”. In the early 1940’s, German Nazis used many different colored triangles to categorize and divide people in the concentration camps. We will not allow the same kind of profiling to happen here. We will wear a blue triangle in a positive way to show our solidarity with those being targeted today. Sponsor a speak-out for the families of the disappeared so they can tell their stories. Think of what it would mean if on that day churches, synagogues, mosques, unions and schools declared that they would provide sanctuary for the persecuted. Organize a vigil or demonstration at a local INS detention center; hold a teach in at your local school, college, or university; call your political representatives and demand that these outrages cease; organize a poetry SLAM or a music show; write a letter to your local newspaper calling for justice for all; students demand that your colleges or universities not turn over the files of immigrant students to the government; contact local TV and radio talk shows asking to be part of the program. Find the ways to express your solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants and your opposition to this repression. Use February 20 as a springboard for press conferences and protests on February 21.

Remember the roundup of the Jews in Nazi Germany. Remember the roundup of the Japanese Americans in the United States. What would you have done then? Think of the roundup of Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians in the United States in 2003. What will you do now?

Please endorse this call & distribute, post & publish everywhere! Funds are quickly needed to organize for February 20. We urge you to immediately send donations. All actions on February 20 should be publicized and popularized. Write, e-mail or call the Blue Triangle Network with news of activities in your area:

P.O. Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451 (313)942-7187 E-mail: NationalOffice@bluetriangle.org