Category Archives: State Oppression

Salmond upholds liberties

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Salmond upholds libertiesSalmond upholds liberties

By James Tweedie

Morning Star, 3 July 2007

Scottish civil liberties campaigners welcomed First Minister Alex Salmond’s insistence on Monday that the recent terror attacks must not be a pretext for increasing detention without charge to 90 days.

Speaking in the wake of the failed Glasgow airport car bomb attack, Mr Salmond said: “We have not been persuaded about the necessity for that, as, indeed, other parties haven’t. There is nothing in this incident which would affect that at the present moment, since we have in custody two people who are suspected of being involved in a terrorist incident.”

Scotland Against Criminalising Communities secretary Richard Haley said: “We are glad Alex Salmond has made these comments. The interests of justice will be served best if police stick to the tried and trusted methods contained in the ordinary criminal law and avoid using the divisive powers granted them under terrorism laws. When all is said and done, let’s remember that fewer people were hurt in the Glasgow airport incident than in the the football-related violence in Shettleston on the same day,” he pointed out.

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Muslims should show support for attacks on civil liberties, advises Torygraph

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A number of Muslim leaders have made clear how shocked and offended their community has been by these incidents. But given the state of public anger and alarm over the series of failed attacks, and the sense that it was only the most extraordinary good fortune that prevented them from ending in carnage, it may no longer be enough for British Muslims to offer verbal condemnations after the fact….

“Obviously, all Muslims should not be branded as potential terrorists, but, for present purposes, all terrorists are likely to be Muslims…. it is they who will have to accept the infringements of liberty that follow from racial profiling and the targeting of likely terrorists, which are now necessary for public safety. Perhaps the many British Muslims who detest terrorist activity might consider raising their voices against it in public protests, to demonstrate their understanding of the need for the hard measures to come.”

Editorial in Daily Telegraph, 3 July 2007

US border guards deport Canadian Muslims

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Milgo Noor had an appointment at 3:30 p.m. this past Sunday to look at bridesmaid dresses in a Buffalo bridal shop. She never arrived. When the young bride-to-be tried crossing the border with her three bridesmaids – two sisters and a cousin – the women were detained for more than eight hours and two of them were escorted back into Canada in handcuffs.

Shortly after Noor, 26, showed her citizenship to a U.S. border guard at the Peace Bridge, more than a dozen customs officers “charged” at her vehicle, starting an ordeal that she said stripped her of her dignity. For three of the eight hours, Noor and her eldest sister Rukia, 32, were held in solitary holding cells. After asking repeatedly why they had been detained, they were laughed at by U.S. border officials. “You have no rights here,” they were told. “You came to us.”

Their rooms had a chair bolted to the floor, a wall-mounted surveillance camera and an alarm that sounded every 30 minutes. They were searched by border officials wearing gloves, the women said, as well as being fingerprinted and photographed. Noor said they were held without food or water. They sat while border officials ate pizza in front of them. “We asked for water and no one would even look at us. They told us to ‘Shut up and sit down’,” Noor said.

Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, said the incident does not surprise him. He says his organization receives about five complaints per week from Canadian Muslims who feel they have been treated unfairly at a U.S. entry point. “They’re brown and they have a Muslim name. There’s two strikes against them,” Elmasry said, adding that had the women been wearing the hijab it would have been three.

His organization advises Canadian Muslims to avoid travelling to the United States, and issues alerts before the annual Hajj pilgrimage urging Muslims to ensure their flights do not have U.S. stopovers.

Toronto Star, 28 June 2007

Muslim in final appeal to stop extradition to US

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Ashfaq AhmadLawyers acting for Babar Ahmad are making a final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the computer expert from London’s prestigious Imperial College being extradited to the US for allegedly running terrorist websites.

A decision on the case is expected to be made Thursday after Britain’s highest judicial authorities, the House of Lords, refused permission to appeal at the weekend.

“After three years of imprisonment without charge, Babar is being sent to face a flawed justice system in the United States,” said his family, who live in Tooting, south London. They said that his supporters from all over the UK will “hold the British Government responsible if he is subjected to any physical or psychological abuse.”

Law Lords rejected Babar’s appeal on Sunday when concluding that two points of law presented to them were not matters of “public importance”. But his family said that the refusal was a “complete travesty of justice”. The Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service had confirmed in writing several times that there is “insufficient evidence to charge Babar with any crime,” they said.

Muslim News, 13 June 2007

US judge: Police can ban religious Muslim garb

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Philadelphia PoliceA Philadelphia police officer has no right to wear a head covering as required by her Muslim faith when she is in uniform, a federal judge ruled yesterday.

The Police Department’s uniform code “has a compelling public purpose,” Judge Harvey Bartle III wrote in deciding against Kimberlie Webb, an officer since 1995. The uniform code “recognizes that the Police Department, to be effective, must subordinate individuality to its paramount group mission of protecting the lives and property of the people living, working and visiting the city of Philadelphia,” Bartle wrote. Furthermore, the department’s uniform code, known as Directive 78, maintains “religious neutrality,” the judge said.

The ruling countered a finding by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2003 that the department had violated Webb’s rights in barring her from wearing a hijab, also known as a khimar, over the top and back of her head.

The case began in February 2003, when Webb, a mother of six, filed an EEOC complaint after being denied a request to wear a hijab. In August 2003, Webb was sent home three times after showing up at roll call wearing the hijab despite being told not to do so. She also was later suspended for 13 days.

Police officials initially defended their actions by saying, in part, that Webb could have been hurt or restrained by somebody grabbing the hijab. In subsequent statements and legal arguments, the department, which was represented by law firm Cozen O’Connor, said its sole reason was fostering “obedience, unity, commitment and esprit de corps” with a uniform dress policy. Detracting from that policy would cause the department “undue hardship,” it said.

Philadelphia Daily News, 14 June 2007

US to let toddler reunite with family

Posted on by Bob Pitt

WASHINGTON — After two years of inaction, U.S. immigration authorities approved a request Thursday for the 3-year-old son of a U.S. citizen to emigrate from Morocco and join his family in Virginia.

Abdeloihab Boujrad, 38, of Alexandria, and his wife, Leila, have been trying since June 2005 to get authorities to allow their son, Ahmedyassine, to join them. The toddler has been living with an aunt in Morocco. The application languished without any action by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. An Islamic civil rights group that took up Boujrad’s cause suspected the delay was caused by a similarity in Ahmedyassine’s name to the founder of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

The decision to approve the application came a day after The Associated Press and other media detailed the Boujrads’ plight. “The matter has been resolved favorably,” USCIS spokesman Dan Kane said. “Once the issue was brought to our attention, we worked expeditiously to resolve it.” Kane would not comment on what caused the delay.

“The matter has been resolved favorably,” USCIS spokesman Dan Kane said. “Once the issue was brought to our attention, we worked expeditiously to resolve it.” Kane would not comment on what caused the delay.

Boujrad said he did not receive an explanation for the delay when he was told Thursday morning the application had finally been approved. But he was so ecstatic he did not care. “I was shocked,” Boujrad said of being informed about the good news. “They said, ‘We apologize for the delay.’”

Morris Days, a legal director with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said he appreciates how quickly the issue was resolved once Boujrad’s case was publicized. But he said he’d like more information on what caused the delay, so that similar incidents can be avoided. “If they’ve looked into this, they must have been able to research, ‘How did this happen?’” Days said.

Days said he has nearly a dozen cases in the last few months involving Muslims in the D.C. region who are facing unexplained delays on various immigration applications.

Boujrad was living in Morocco in 1997 and engaged to Leila when he won an immigration lottery that allowed him to come to the United States. He married his wife in 1999 but was unable to bring her to the U.S. until 2005. She is now a legal permanent resident.

In the interim, Ahmedyassine was born in May 2004 in Morocco. Leila reluctantly left the boy in the care of her sister in the fall of 2005 when her visa allowing her to emigrate to the U.S. was about to expire. Neither Abdeloihab nor Leila Boujrad have seen their son in person since then.

Associated Press, 14 June 2007

Pro-hijab rally in Brussels

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Residents in the Belgian capital have gathered to demonstrate their support of Islamic hijab as a freedom of choice for Muslim European women. Demonstrators took part in protests in Brussels Saturday against a decision by several school authorities to ban hijab, the Al Alam news channel reported.

Among the protestors were members of Islamic organizations, independent human rights groups and Muslim students. The demonstrators condemned what they said is an anti-Islam stance taken by officials in Belgium and supported the right of Muslims to freely practice the customs of their religion.

Press TV, 10 June 2007