NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM, ARAB AND SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS

During the day: wear and distribute the blue triangle as a symbol of solidarity and in defiance of the indefinite detentions, racial profiling, secret evidence, denial of due process and human rights

6 PM: Come learn about those who have been disappeared in the USA, share cultural presentations, express solidarity and join with others to build the movement to resist repression.

Confirmed speakers so far:

Marian Kromkowski, member of legal team for Amer Jubran, a Palestinian activist detained by INS in Boston

Nabih Ayad, attorney for many Arab immigrants who have been forced to register; representing Michigan Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

PLACE: Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) 2651 Saulino Ct, Dearborn. ACCESS is located 4 blocks east of UAW local 600, just north of Dix Ave, 3 blocks east of intersection of Dix and Vernor, 1/2 block north of Dix Ave.

Directions to ACCESS:

From I-94 westbound: Exit Lonyo, turn left upon exit, cross Mich. Ave., go south past rail tracks to Dix. Turn right (West) on Dix. 3/4 m. to Saulino Ct.
From I-94 eastbound: Exit Schafer/Wyoming, take Wyoming split. Go right (south) on Wyoming to Vernor. Left on Vernor 200 yds. to light. Left on Dix, 2-3 blocks to Saulino Ct. Left on Saulino Ct. ACCESS is on the left.
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2003

Protest at INS Building, Mt. Elliot & E. Jefferson, Detroit

7-9 am: Protest the "special Registration" of Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants

9 am: Press conference at the ins gate, Mt. Elliot, just south of Jefferson Ave., Detroit

2-4pm: Continue to protest the "special Registration" of Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants
 

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

To read the complete Call for the Feb. 20 National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants and to see the new BTN Fact Sheet, go to: www.bluetriangle.org

To order laminated blue triangle badges with names of the disappeared, go to: www.laresistencia.org <http://www.laresistencia.org/>
 

FEBRUARY 20, 2003

NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM, ARAB AND SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS

First they came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, but by that time, no one was left to speak up.

--Pastor Martin Niemoeller, Nazi Germany

We call on people everywhere to come together for the second February 20 National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants. We are at a critical and historic moment. This time they are coming for the Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants. Now is the time to sound the alarm and act.

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

___Our organization endorses or ___I personally endorse (check one) the above "call" for a NATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM, ARAB AND SOUTH ASIAN IMMIGRANTS (signing this "call" gives permission to publish or otherwise make public this endorsement. If organizational or institutional affiliation of a personal endorsement is to be listed for identification purposes only check here.___ )

Signature

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Enclosed is my donation of $_____ to distribute, print, publish, fax, and mail this call nationwide. Please return endorsed calls and donations to Blue Triangle Network with news of activities in your area:
P.O. Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451 Tel: (313)942-7187 E-mail: NationalOffice@bluetriangle.org
Order sheets of laminated blue triangles with names of the disappeared you can cut out and wear from: http://www.laresistencia.org/eng/struggles/f202003A/blue_triangle/OrderBlueTriangles.html

Endorsers: (as of Feb. 12, 2003)

3rd I New York (Monthly South Asian Film and Music Salon)
Al-Fatiha Foundation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Questioning (LGBTIQ) Muslims
American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, San Francisco, CA
American Islamic Institute, San Marcos, CA
Amer Jubran Defense Committee (Boston, MA)
Anarchist Action of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Asians For Mumia/Jericho Network, NYC
Baloch & Kurdish Human Rights International
Ellen E. Barfield, National Boards of: Veterans for Peace*, War Resisters League*, Women‚s International League for Peace and Freedom*, Baltimore, MD
Campaign to Stop Sevis, Honolulu, HI
Campus Greens at UC San Diego
Chicago Anti-Bashing Network
Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism
Christian Friends of Muslims & Jews
Civilians Down, Houston, TX
Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Los Angeles, CA
Council on American Islamic Relations, NY Chapter (CAIR-NY)
Council on American Islamic Relations - Southern California (CAIR-LA)
Critical Resistance, Oakland, CA
Detroit Area Peace and Justice Network (DAPJN)
Free Mumia Coalition, NYC
Freedom Socialist Party, NYC
Fresno Center for Nonviolence, Fresno, CA
David Gangsei, Psychologist, San Diego, CA
Melissa Gerstel, Artist, Equal Rights Activist, Hapa Issues Forum*, Ledyard, CT
Global Exchange, San Francisco, CA
Green Party of San Diego County, CA
Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, Auxiliary Bishop, Archdiocese of Detroit*
Hate Free Zone Campaign of Washington, Seattle, WA
Gloria House, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Wayne State University*, Detroit, MI
Randall B. Hamud, Attorney at Law, San Diego, CA
Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, Los Angeles, CA
Jews Against the Occupation, New York, NY
Justice for New Americans, San Francisco, CA
La Raza Centro Legal, San Francisco, CA
La Resistencia
Christine Madore, student, San Jose State Univ.* San Jose, CA
Joan Maruskin, World Church Service Immigration and Refugee Program, Washington, D.C.*
MEChA de Palomar College, San Diego, CA
Travis Morales, member La Resistencia, supporter of Revolutionary Communist Party, Houston, TX
Mumia Defense Committee, Rochester, NY
Muslim Civil Rights Center, Chicago, IL
National Lawyers Guild - Detroit Chapter
Dale Nesbitt, Berkeley, CA
New England Committee to Defend Palestine (Boston, MA)
NJ Solidarity
New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
Not In Our Name & Bush‚s Backyard Surprise, Houston, TX
October 22 Coalition to Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation
Rev. James A. Oines, Lutheran Pastor, Sanctuary Movement Leader, Los Angeles, CA
Pax Christi USA
People Against Oppression and War , Houston, TX
People's Nonviolent Response Coalition, Oakland, CA
Radical Women
Michael Ratner, President, Center for Constitutional Rights, New York, NY
Red Bandanna: Roma Against Racism, Burton, WA
Refuse&Resist!
San Diego Coalition for Human and Civil Rights
San Francisco Day Laborers Program, San Francisco, CA
Seeds of Solidarity, Glendale CA
Holly Severson, journalist and activist, San Francisco, CA
Edward Sledge, Austin Human Rights Commission*, Austin, TX
Leadership: Society of the Sacred Heart, U.S. Province
Students Movement for Justice, Wayne State University*, Detroit, MI
South Alameda County Peace and Social Justice Coalition, California
South Asian Collective, Urbana-Champaign, IL
South Asian League of Artists in AMerica (SALAAM), Geeta Citygirl, Artistic Director, New York, NY
South Asian Network, Los Angeles, CA
South Asians Against Police Brutality and Racism, New York, NY
South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice (SBLPJ), San Jose, CA
South Bay Mobilization to Stop the War (SBMSW), San Jose, CA
Triangle Foundation, Detroit, MI
United Muslims of America Interfaith Alliance, San Francisco, CA
United Teachers of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Anti-Imperialist)
Barbara Weith, San Diego, CA
Rev. Dr. David L. Wheeler, Senior Minister, First Baptist Church, Los Angeles, CA*
Sonny Williams, Cincinnati, OH
Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Fresno, CA Branch
David Wong Support Committee, NYC
World Alliance for Humanity, Fremont, CA
Workmen‚s Circle/Arbeter Ring Southern California District

(* organizational affiliation for identification purposes only)
 
 

Please reply to: NationalOffice@bluetriangle.org
Blue Triangle Network
P.O.Box 7451, Dearborn, MI 48121-7451

(313) 942-7187