Petition Tag - muslim

March 01, 2006

To: Waukesha West High School

The Waukesha West High School has made a special room for Muslims to pray five times a day?

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People from the Muslim world have been settling in the U.K. for generations now and yet over the last 10 years the current of Racism has prevailed so strongly against people of that religion that even children who bear Arabic/Muslim names are treated inhumanely by officials of the Government especially the policies from Immigration and Citizenship.

Hilal Ali a mixed race child of African and Lebanese parentage. Parents divorced, Hilal moved to Lebanon with his father and family. His father remarried an English wife. When the war in Lebanon took the lives of most of his family, The Ali family moved to the U.K. Hilal, grew up in Essex and aged 14, his "mother" applied for his right to remain as her child in the U.K.she was advised to send him back to Lebanon still at war and with no living family there.

He remained in the U.K. and has lived here for the last 22 years. He was issued with all the documents given to a Naturalised Citizen, i.e.National Insurance/Tax code. Hilal many years ago realised his name was the cause of additional racism and so he had his name changed by deed poll. The Immigration has been in receipt of all his school, work, travel and work documents and each time he has applied over the years he has submitted the required. This week Mr Ali received a letter to say they have refused him his rights of abode and he can expect to be returned. But to where? He has no cultural links with Lebanon and there is a fear that this English man is a traitor or a spy and his life will be in grave danger.

The anger which comes from continuous racist policies of colour as well as religions has become real for many Muslim youths and they are LIVING IN THE U.K. The climate created by this Government is one of complete mistrust and disappointment and I know there are many Muslim communities where this is taking root and creating a new race of terrorists and counteractive racists.

The helpline given from Labour MP for Streatham is appreciated but he is alone and perhaps because of his large Asian/Afro Caribbean voters he is all too familiar with the realisation that Racism against children as adults will create terrorism within the society and the world, where those "refused" are sent to start a new life often in countries where the wars continue. The majority of such 'Refused' are African or Muslim.

educatingmyfamily@yahoo.co.uk

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Imposing religious and moral law will only lurch a state to more theocracy (rather than democracy) where it could undermine religious tolerance and civil liberty in the country.

The September 11, 2001 event was an act of revulsion that was committed in the name of Islam, and Islamic States including Malaysia and Arab countries blunted their criticism relatively to the U.S. occupation of Muslim land in the Arab world or U.S. affiliation with repressive regimes in Muslim countries counting mainly at U.S. support for the State of Israel as the root of terrorism.

Theocratical states (especially Islamic states these days) are less venerating to democracy and human rights. They draw religious lines between Muslim and Non-Muslim moving the Islamic world to fanaticism, while others may label it Islamo Fascism.

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Raping woman, killing children, pillaging agricultural villages, destroying lives.

The attention of the world is much too slowly turning its head to address the rampant and unmitigated devastation occurring in Sudan that has in the past 18 months left more than 50,000 savagely murdered and 1.5 million more among the families of those unfortunate dead as displaced refugees in ill-equipped camps and neighboring countries. This is a UN recognized human rights atrocity; the situation in Sudan is a grave emergency! Devastatingly, the attention that Sudan has received from commercial media - which is largely focused on the situation in Iraq - has not expressed the gravity of the situation.

Who is killing who in Sudan and why? The current campaign of ethnic cleansing is intent on eliminating several sedentary African tribal groups, motivated by a struggle for power in Khartoum, Sudan's capital. The killing campaign is being conducted by a hired militia at the bidding of an imposed, abusive, and controversial government struggling to retain its power over a nation of people that wants the fanatical government routed. While the urgency for action and assistance has never been keener, the conflict has actually been long standing. Sudan as a whole has been embroiled in 50 years of civil war and rebellion between the usually tyrannical power in Khartoum and the southern populations that do not want to live under the Khartoum government's religious and dictatorial policies.

To understand why the groups are in conflict, you need to first acquaint yourself with the region. Sudan is in East Africa, just South of Egypt, East of Chad, and North of Kenya. The population is a conglomerate of Arabs and Africans, nomadic pastoralists and farmers, Muslims, Christians, and Animists (those believing that everything in nature has a soul). These people of Sudan have been in conflict ever since the British abandoned the region in 1956. Upon their leaving, the British undemocratically passed control to one group of ethnically-foreign Arab northerners in the capital city, Khartoum. This empowered groups' policy of disregarding civil rights and instituting classical Islamic rule over the ethnically diverse Southern population has spawned the 50 years of civil war, famine, and human rights violations that have never been effectively dealt with. Compounded by the discovery of oil in the Sudan South in the 1970s, the Northern dictatorial government breached beyond merely unfair policy and began trying to dominate the natural resources of the South. Still, the worst of problems had yet to come.

By the 1980s, a series of poignant civil rights abuses aroused fear in the southern populations. The increasingly fanatical Islamized northern government had been abusing its power by dismantling the constitutional rights for people in the southern region and by imposing Shariya Law - traditional Muslim Law Code - over the ethnically diverse southern populations. In 1985, the southern borne Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) led a popular uprising that succeeded in expelling the Northern Arab government. The SPLM revolt was successful in replacing the government and at ushering in the installation of a democratically oriented - but still religious - Islamic government. This progress lead to peace talks that gave many hope for a stable Sudan; but the steps forward were not to last. In 1989, as peace agreements were being consolidated between the democratized Islamic government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in the South and just as the government was finally preparing to freeze the Shariya Islamic Law Code, General Omar al-Bashir lead the National Islamic Front in a coup against the liberating government to bring back the authoritarian Arabic form of Islamic government.

The Southern Sudanese hopes' had been dashed and there worst fears rekindled; upon Omar's imposition, he abolished the constitution that protected the Southern populations, censured his opponents by outlawing opposition parties, and he revamped Khartoum's control of the controversial Shariya Law by imposing, additionally, a traditional Islamic Justice System which began dealing out death liberally. Omar then proceeded to declare Jihad, a holy war in the name of Mohammad, against the non-Muslim and democratic African-Muslim people of Sudan.

The National Islamic Front government continued to polarize the Sudanese people and its actions began even to alienate Khartoum from its neighboring countries. Accused of attempting to incite jihad in eastern neighbor Eritrea, and of assisting in an assassination attempt on Egyptian President Mubarak during his visit to Sudan's eastern neighbor Ethiopia, and because Sudan was recognized for harboring terrorists such as Osama bin Laden who used Sudan as a base for executing the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, General Omar's government became regionally isolated but Omar al-Bashir remains in power still today.

Omar's fundamentalist government, supported by their oil reserves, military technology, and fear, continue to push forward. Their campaign however is not fueled by purely by religious zeal as it may appear at first glance. It is much more ethnically motivated, pitting the Arabic Muslim government against the African, dark-skinned Muslim and non-Muslims of greater Sudan. The African Muslims are mostly sedentary tribal peoples, agricultural societies that embrace diversity. The Arabic government fosters the form of ethnic fanaticism that has plagued the Middle East, such as in Iraq where Arabic Sunnis have in the past threatened and massacred Islamic Shiites and Kurds.

By 2003, Omar's mistreatment of even his northern contingents and tribal populations in the area called Darfur, lead the tribal groups to mount a rebellion. In April 2003, in the name of human, social, and economic rights, and impassioned by their suffering, the Muslim tribal peoples of the Fur, the Zaghawa, and the Massaleit, allied under the two names, the Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), took up arms against Omar's militarily defended government. Despite inferior resources, they actually achieved a string of victories.

At this point, fearing further retaliation, Omar made one of the most horrific moves that any dictator could entertain. He called upon nomadic Arabic horsemen in Sudan to enlist in a Janjaweed militia, promising a gun and additional payment of $116 a month in order to rape, route, and kill the African people of Darfur. Janjaweed is translated from Arabic as "man with a gun on a horse" but the Janjaweed are generally known as nomadic bandits. The government motivated the Janjaweed to carry out their mission in the Darfur region with racist incentive; told that their job was to cleanse Darfur of its darker skinned inhabitants. They were too given the additional incentive that their monthly payment would come from the booty plundered in the villages which they attacked.

For the last 18 months, the janjaweed have terrorized unabashed the tribal people of Darfur with a scorched earth policy, destroying the villages they attack. "They dump human corpses in wells to contaminate the water supply, essentially doing whatever is necessary to force the black African Muslims from their land never to return" says the report from the office of Congressman Wolf on what he witnessed while visiting.

You know when they are coming because they don't come alone. First you here the low pitched hum of the helicopters approaching. This is when most of the able villagers dash into the forest for sake of their lives. As the helicopter gun ship arrives, it first strafes the village destroying housing and killing people that have not left. It will often unload supplies for the janjaweed militia that follow close behind, coming out of the forest on horseback to finish the killing, raping, and destruction making the village uninhabitable, and to collect bounty from the village.

The government of Omar al-Bashir denies involvement, aid, or support of the raids. They maintain that the culprits are just uncontrolled bandits. Their overt lie is not much believed by anyone, as it is plainly obvious that the nomadic janjaweed alone are by no means capable to be flying the attack helicopters.

To date, the actions of the government and its militia have displaced over 1 million people from their homes, consolidating them into 129 crowded concentration camps monitored and surrounded by more janjaweed. These are what is called internally displaced people (IDPs). Their camps are ill-resourced. In Mornay, the largest camp with 70,000 people, rains carry human excrement back through the camp. At least 160 thousand Darfurians have escaped across the western border of Sudan to Chad. Few of them will ever be able to return to their home. If the refugees leave their camp, the janjaweed are there waiting for them just beyond the borders says the Wolf Congressional report. Rape of Sudanese woman is a daily reality for these refugees. They are forced to accept it, they must leave the camp to gather firewood for their families and straw to feed their cattle. The janjaweed tell the girls they rape that they are "trying to make their babies lighter." The janjaweed have even instituted a policy of branding the raped girls and woman so as not to mistake them. Murder of the male IDPs is a constant threat as well.

This is a holocaust going in Sudan today, directly in our site. After the holocaust of WWII where six million Jews were murdered by the Nazi forces, and again after failing to intervene to stop the devastating genocide of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, the world has now twice said "never again" to genocide. This is your chance to not only to say never again but to act on your intention. Get informed, read a few articles, you will understand the situation and realize why it is so devastatingly clear that this is a genocide that must be confronted immediately.

In the past months, the government in Sudan has been coming under increased - but still feeble - international pressure to address and respond to the crises. Kofi Anan and Colin Powell have both visited the region and agree it is a problem that needs to be dealt with, but what have they done to accomplish this? Currently the UN is discussing so they can make a declaration as to whether or not these atrocities may be considered a genocide. This is after a recent Security Council Resolution that urged the Khartoum government to better control the devastation in the region and to help ensure the security in the IDP camps. Do you believe it is appropriate to hold the same group which is responsible for instigating the atrocity as the group to hold responsible for ensuring the security of the region? Obviously the UN Security Council does. So who is guarding the camps? The janjaweed, the same people that were commissioned and brainwashed for murdering the Darfurians are now being publicly sanctioned by the UN to carry "defensive" weapons that will allow them to defend the safety of the black African people in the refugee camps.

The UN Security Council Resolution had the opportunity to send a clear message to the Khartoum government. Instead what do they do? They approved that more African Union monitoring forces should come to Sudan to oversee the situation. They failed to issue an arms embargo ensuring the Sudan government will have continued access to weapons. The UN also failed to inflict any real pressure on the Sudan government by passing on their opportunity to impose an oil embargo. An embargo would have forced Sudan to address the problem.

"The [UN] Security Council has ensured that the Sudanese government will have the resources necessary to continue its scorched-earth campaign in Darfur," said Human Rights Watch, an international non-profit human rights watchdog group. Instead of providing a resolution that sends a clear message to Khartoum indicating how serious the world is about putting an end to the atrocities, they committed a toothless resolution providing no real incentive for al-Bashir to respond.

This makes good sense. The UN is incapable of responding appropriately to human rights issues. You will agree if you look at who is one of the 14 member states on the UN Human Rights Commission: Sudan. Yes, the same government that fosters the genocide of ethnically African black Muslims in Sudan is a voting member on human rights issues.

Reasonably, you are probably appalled by what you have learned about Sudan. You know you can not rely on the UN to do anything constructive regarding this matter. Little known to most, the United States has actually been supporting the reabsorption of refugees from Sudan. Four years ago, the United States allowed the immigration of 7,000 black Sudanese refugees, actually victims of a different struggle against the same government. Many of these are young boys from southern Sudan who lost their parents violently while trying to escape the onslaught of northern Sudanese forces. They are now known as the Lost Boys. A group of at least 100 of them now call San Diego their home and are actively trying to build themselves a new life in this new world, along with all the trappings of modernity.

Take it upon yourself to learn, to discuss, and to represent what you know is right. Make sure that who ever wins the election for president on November 2 knows that giving attention to Sudan needs to be a priority for the United States. Don't wait to speak out and don't be afraid to raise the issue, it is not a very contested topic outside Sudan.

Resources for your learning interest:
www.lostboysfilm.com

Website about the Sudanese refugees experience starting a new life in the US:
www.icg.org

International Crisis Group, human crisis watch group:
www.house.gov/wolf/issues/hr/trips/sudanrpt_web.pdf

Document of Congressman Wolf's impression.

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Forbidden Love is the shocking testimony to the courage and strength of women who are prepared to defy generations of male dominance. Dalia was a young muslim girl living with her family in Amman, Jordan when she unexpectedly fell in love with Michael, a major in the royal army, and a catholic. For a Muslim woman, any relationship with a catholic man is forbidden, and Dalia was only to aware that flouting this rule could cost her her life.

Norma Khouri's Book is a gift to the memory of her friend and a powerful love story that ends in an appaling tragedy. It is also an attempt to bring to the worlds attention the continuating practice of Honour Killings in Jordan - an ancient tradition that encourages the murder of woman who are believed to have brought to dishonour to thier families. Today, it is still a crime that effectively goes unpunished.

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Currently under Anti-Discrimination Law it is virtually impossible to even criticise Islam or Muslims. Muslims in Australia, including fire-brand clerics abuse the tolerance and protection given under Australian law by calling for the very destruction of the democratic institutions that allowed them into the country in the first place. Under the guise of religious tolerance, mosques are being used to train, brainwash and incite hatred against any non-Muslim.

We are at war against terrorism. Yet even "moderate" muslims become strangely silent when innoccent civilians are killed in atrocities committed by Muslims in the name of Islam. Where are Muslim Australians when Sept 11, Bali and Madrid and many other atrocities happened? If they sympathise with the enemy then they ARE the enemy. Mosques should not necessarily be treated as places of worship but as terrorist training camps.

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Protect Alternative Tamil Opinion & Democracy During the Ceasefire

Introduction

We welcome the ceasefire commencing 25.12.2001 between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE, in order to bring an end to the war caused by the ethnic problem in Sri Lanka.

People of all ethnic communities are yearning that both parties should continue to extend this ceasefire and hold talks in a responsible manner and with mutual understanding in order to bring a lasting solution to the ethnic problem.

But the LTTE which declared that it was going to cease hostilities from the midnight of 24th December 2001, has committed over 20 human rights violations since the date of its declaration. These violations include murders, abductions, extortions and attacks. But to date, nobody has either expressed concern or criticised the LTTE.

Current Violations by the LTTE

In the Batticaloa District, the LTTE has rounded up certain villages and has forcibly taken away a number of children for arms training. The LTTE has also burnt over 30 houses in the uncleared areas that were vacated by Tamil families who fled in order to safeguard their young children from being taken away by the LTTE.

The LTTE has even taken letters of consent from parents to the effect that they would hand over their children who are now below eight years, when they reach the age for arms training.

In the Jaffna District, the LTTE has started imposing taxes on all commodities. Because of this taxation, the prices of all essential items have increased by at least 15% in Jaffna.

All these incidents show that despite the ceasefire, the LTTE is threatening normality and the lives of the ordinary people living in the North and East.

Previous Ceasefires

When we look back at our past experiences, the Tamil and Muslim people and those who are democratic-minded have welcomed the prospects of ceasefires and peace talks. At the same time, they have been anxious about the terrible experiences that have taken place during those ceasefires and immediately following their breakdown.

In particular, it is undeniable that the LTTE has made use of the situations resulting from ceasefires to intimidate, imprison and kill those who dissent from the LTTE or disagree with its political views.

The reason for such killings is that the ceasefires declared so far have been viewed as those between the armed forces and the LTTE. They have not affected the behaviour of the armed forces towards the Tamil and Muslim people in the Northeast, or the behaviour of the LTTE towards the Tamil and Muslim people living in the Northeast. None of the previous ceasefires have included any clause to safeguard the democratic rights of the ordinary Tamil and Muslim people living in the Northeast and the rights of those who do not wish to live under the rule o the LTTE.

It is due to this reason that the LTTE was able to make use of this period to kill ordinary Tamils and Muslims, or violate their human rights without any hindrance. The Governments, which agreed to ceasefires with LTTE in the past, not only ignored these killings and other violations by the LTTE, but also did nothing to protect these people from the threat of the LTTE, nor take any action to inquire into those killings and punish those who have committed them.

Past Experiences

On 21st September 1989 Dr. Rajani Thiranagama was killed in Jaffna.

During the ceasefire period between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE from 1989 to June 1990, the LTTE had killed hundreds of Tamils in the Eastern Province for their connections with the non-LTTE groups and also those whom they considered as their opponents. Independent Human Rights groups have documented details of those killed.

When the IPKF started withdrawing from the North and East, the LTTE went in to those areas and arrested hundreds of Tamils whom they thought, had acted against them. These incidents had taken place in Amparai, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Vavuniya Mullaitivu, Mannar, Killinochchi and Jaffna Districts.

LTTE even checked the trains and other modes of transport, which came from Jaffna, Batticaloa and Trincomalee and abducted those Tamils on whom they had suspicion. Their whereabouts are not known to date.

Even in Colombo, with the help of the Government Forces, the LTTE arrested those whom they thought were their opponents, took them away, chained in state-owned and privately-owned buses plying between Colombo and Jaffna, and forced them out of the buses at Omantai and Murikandy in the Vanni. The fate that befell them is not known even to date.

And it was during a ceasefire, that the LTTE killed TULF leaders A.Amirthalingam and V.Yogeswaran, and seriously injured M.Sivasithamparam. They also killed Member of Parliament Sam Tambimuttu and his wife, outside the Canadian High Commission in Colombo.

Minister Gamini Dissanayake was killed during the period of exchange of letters relating to a ceasefire with the Government.



Our Demands

The NGOs and the INGOs who have been committed to peace in Sri Lanka and have worked to promote democracy and human rights in the country must pay particular attention to the violations of human rights that continue to take place during ceasefires.

While we agree that all necessary steps should be taken to continue this ceasefire between the Government and the LTTE, we request the government of Sri Lanka and those countries which are paying attention to the ceasefire and political developments in Sri Lanka to ensure that the LTTE does not violate the human rights of the ordinary Tamils and Muslims and those who express views not to the liking of the LTTE.

We urge the Government of Norway that has been engaged in facilitating the talks to pay particular attention to this matter and take necessary action.

We call upon the Government of India, which has always shown a genuine interest and concern for the Tamil speaking people of Sri Lanka, to guide and encourage the Governments of Norway and Sri Lanka in this regard.

The Governments of the USA, UK, Canada and Australia which had banned the LTTE in their own countries and are pushing for the success of the talks between the Government and the LTTE, should maintain their pressure on the LTTE not to violate the rights of the other Tamils and Muslims.

We call upon all the democratically elected Members of the Parliament of Sri Lanka to take up as their duty the protection of the democratic forces within the Tamil and Muslim community and pressure the government to act appropriately in this regard.

Because representatives elected by the Tamil and Muslim people have often been killed in the past, we ask all Members of Parliament to pay attention to this concern. In particular, we draw attention to the constant threat to their lives faced by the fifteen members of the Tamil National Alliance and other Tamil and Muslim Members of Parliament from the Northeast.

As the government and the Tigers are taking preparatory steps to workout a long-term ceasefire agreement and begin peace talks we would stress that particular attention be paid to the above concerns.
The right to life, and other fundamental rights and freedoms are inherent in all human beings. These rights cannot be taken away by governments or any groups to fulfill their own agendas.

01.02.2002
For all contacts: matodmatod@hotmail.com

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