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Press Conference
Religious Leaders, Holocaust and Japanese Internment Survivors
Demand Justice for Detained and Persecuted Muslims
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Below you will find a draft of a letter to email to Senators Boxer and Feinstein – or you can send it to your favorite media outlet – describing the press event sposored by ICUJP and others (see list below) on Wednesday January 13, 2005. We are asking that the Senators investigate the ICE's harrassment and detention of Muslims. Feel free to put this in your own words. We are not able to provide a direct email link to these Senators, beacause they have set up a system which requires you to use their website to send them email. Please copy and paste the letter below (or write your own) into the forms on these pages: |
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Honorable Dianne Feinstein
United States Senate
11111 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 915
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Honorable Barbara Boxer
213 N. Spring Street, Suite 1748
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Dear Senator,
I understand that on Wednesday, January 12th a group of religious leaders gathered near the Federal Correctional Institution at Terminal Island, to protest the unjust harassment, detention, and incarceration of Muslims. They joined with family members who spoke about their father being dragged out of his home at 4:30 in the morning and in detention for five months without charges. They heard about people repeatedly detained at airports for "traveling while Muslim" merely because their names resembled those on "no-fly" lists.
In fact, they gathered at a memorial to the Japanese American community from Terminal Island. 3,000 people from that community were rounded up and sent off to detention camps as a result of the racism and hysteria following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Actions like these are unacceptable in a democratic society.
I believe in the rule of law, and the Bill of Rights. Anyone who is arrested must be given the opportunity to consult with counsel and respond to charges in a timely manner. No one should be detained without charges. I urge you and your fellow Senators to investigate the practices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and demand an end to this harassment.
As Pastor Martin Neimoller said in 1945 when the Nazis were rounding up Jews in Germany: "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 Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." It is incumbent upon all of us, as members of a free society, to hold our government accountable.
I look forward to hearing what you are doing about this.
Sincerely,
The Press Conference's supporting organizations included Nikkei for Civil Rights & Redress, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, Progressive Christians Uniting, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, CAIR, Progressive Muslim Union, Southern Christian Leadership Conference.