”Challenging U.S. Human Rights Violations Since 9/11”
A. Basic Rights Of All Peoples Under U.S. Jurisdiction
- Right Not To Be Killed Or Disappeared
- Right Not To Be Tortured
- Right Peaceably To Assemble And Petition The Government
- Right To Equal Protection Regardless Of Race Or National Origin
- Right To Equal Protection For Women
- Right To Free Exercise Of Religion
- Right Of The Media To Report Facts, And Not Be Killed
- Right To Privacy From Surveillance
- Right Of Libraries Not To Report On Readers
- Right Of Universities To Accept Foreign Scholars And Students
- Right To Travel
6. Right To Free Exercise Of Religion
The First Amendment is clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
UN Charter Article 55, and many articles in ICCPR and CERD repeat this right and spell out all types of forbidden discrimination.
After 9/11, Bush said the attackers were from Saudi Arabia. Many Americans did not know the difference between “Arabs,” “Muslims,” “Moslems,” “Shiite” and “Sunni Muslims.” So many attacked “the wrong people.”
In 2001, the Justice Department rounded up and imprisoned over 1,000 people without charges, access to lawyers, or notifying their families. In March 2003, Ashcroft authorized FBI agents and state and local police to make routine immigration arrests for the first time, with no training in this law. This illegally transformed immigration law into criminal law, but without jury trials, etc.
Ashcroft also began entering immigration data into the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) database, formerly used only for criminal cases, and in March 2003 stopped requiring that such information be accurate and current. These acts violated the right to privacy (First and Ninth Amendments and ICCPR.)
DOD Detains U.S. Army Muslim Chaplain: James Yee
(Lisa Hoffman, "Fort Jackson a Magnet for Muslim Soldiers," Scripps Howard News Service, Oct. 25, 2002; Coralie Carlson "Army Islamic Chaplain To Guantanamo Prisoners Detained," Associated Press, Sept. 20, 2003, http://www.centredaily.com/mld/cctimes/news/world/6825347.htm accessed August 4, 2004; Muslim US Army chaplain arrested on suspicion of spying," AFP, Sept. 21, 2003 http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/ac/Qus-attacks-guantanamo.Rty9_DSK.html accessed August 4, 2004; David Cole, "Taking Liberties: The War On Our Rights," The Nation, December 23, 2003, http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml%3Fi=20040112&s=cole accessed August 4, 2004; anonymous letter to Marti Hiken of the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force; Charlie Savage, "Limits Put On New Muslim Chaplain; Role At Guantanamo Won't Include Contact With Camp's Detainees," The Boston Globe, Nov. 7, 2003, http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/ 2003/11/07/limits_put_on_new_muslim_chaplain/ accessed August 4, 2004; Mike Barger, "All Charges Dropped, but Army Gags Yee," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 15, 2004, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169156_yee15.html accessed August 4, 2004; Gene Johnson, "Muslim chaplain who was cleared of charges resigns," Seattle Post Intelligencer, August 2, 2004, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/ aplocal_story.asp?category=6420&slug=WA%20Muslim%20Chaplain accessed August 4, 2004.)
FBI Arrests U.S. Citizen, President of American Muslim Foundation: Abdurahman Alamoudi
("Feds Arrest Va. Man For Libya Ties," CBSNEWS.com, Sept. 29, 2003, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/29/attack/main575749.shtml accessed August 4, 2004; Michael Isikoff & Mark Hosenball, "Who, and What, Does He Know," Newsweek, Oct. 1, 2003, http://www.msnbc.com/news/974564.asp?0sl=-12 accessed August 4, 2004; James Vincini, "FBI Arrests Man Linked to American Muslim Groups," Reuters, Sept. 29, 2003, http://www.asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=3526224 accessed November 13, 2003; ALERT the Case of Abdurahman Alamoudi- Update," Muslim American Society, Oct. 2, 2003, http://www.masnet.org/takeaction.asp?id=512 accessed August 4, 2004; In re: Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, Federal Insurance Co., et al., v. Al Qaida, et al., 2004 WL 1348996 [S.D.N.Y.].)
U.S. Citizens Perpetrate Hate Crimes Against Muslims: Rashid Alam, et al.
(Muslim Teen Files Suit Over Alleged Beating By Orange County Mob: Police Believe Incident Was Hate Crime," NBC4 TV News, April 23, 2003, http://www.nbc4.tv/news/2154286/detail.html accessed August 8, 2004; Ray Henry, "Hate crime charges filed: Second suspect arrested in brutal beating," South Coast Today, June 25, 2003, http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/06-03/06-25-03/a01lo005.htm accessed August 8, 2004; DOJ Civil Rights Division, "Enforcement and Outreach Following the September 11 Terrorist Attacks," U.S. Department of Justice, Page updated February 14, 2004, http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/legalinfo/discrimupdate.htm accessed August 10, 2004.)
U.S. Muslims Feeling a "Chilling Effect"
(Don Lattin, "U.S. Muslims Struggle With Faith and Public Image," San Francisco Chronicle, Mar. 16, 2003, http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/03/16/MN253692.DTL accessed July 13, 2004; Executive Summary: The Status of Muslim Civil Rights in the United States 2004," Council on American-Islamic Relations, August 8, 2004, http://www.cair-net.org accessed August 8, 2004.)
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