Say No to Islamophobia!

Say No to Islamophobia

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To: all concerned people

Say No to Islamophobia!
Defend Mosques and Community Centers!
The Fight for Peace and Social Justice Requires Defense of All Under Attack!

There
has been an explosion of racist attacks, verbal and physical, on masjids
(mosques), proposed masjids, and Islamic community centers around the US.
In episodes reminiscent of Kristallnacht, the Nazi destruction of Jewish
synagogues and businesses, masjids have been picketed and vandalized and
obscenities shouted at worshippers.

On September 11th the Tea Party and
its allies plan to demonstrate at the site of the proposed Islamic masjid
and community center in lower Manhattan. On the same day, Christian fundamentalists
plan a “Burn the Quran” day at a Florida masjid.

Like Hitler before them,
these bigots whip up hatred against a religious minority in the midst of
an economic crisis. They want to divert popular anger away from the banks
and corporations who rob millions of their jobs and homes. Hitler did not
only target Jews, and the Tea Party bigots do not only target Muslims.
They aim to build a fascist movement against all people of color, immigrants,
union members, against the civil and human rights of all.. They must be
stopped! 

The Islamophobes also want to justify the murderous stream of
bombs and missiles the Pentagon rains on the people of Islamic lands in
wars that feed corporate contractors at the expense of our schools, hospitals,
subways and communities. They want to justify continued U.S. funding of
Israeli apartheid and a U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran.

The Anti-Defamation
League, part of the pro-Israel lobby, has allied publicly with this wave
of Islamophobia, whose promoters explicitly advocate violence and even
genocide. But even mainstream figures who defend some masjids and some
Muslim rights on civil liberties grounds helped create a political and
social climate that breeds Islamophobia. 

After 9/11 the government and
media launched a witch-hunt against Muslims and Arabs, encouraging individual
violent attacks. Even before 9/11, demonization was used to justify support
for Israel’s wars and U.S. efforts to control Arab and Iranian oil.

Since
9/11, as part of the bipartisan “war on terror,” tens of thousands of Muslim
men were fingerprinted, questioned and registered. Hundreds were detained
with no regard to their constitutional rights, often abused and tortured,
in a campaign of preemptive prosecution mirroring the practices in Guantanamo,
Abu Ghraib and overseas secret detention centers.

Masjids have been subject
to FBI and police surveillance, infiltration and intimidation. We are told
that Muslims must be presumed guilty of “terrorism” until proven innocent
– then denied the chance to prove their innocence. The government and media
demand hypocritically that “moderate” Muslims denounce and inform on so-called
“extremists.”

The Obama administration claims to support the right of
the Cordoba Initiative to build the lower Manhattan masjid/center but fuels
Islamophobia with the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a stepped-up
campaign of extra-judicial assassinations..

These attacks occur for one
fundamental reason: To intimidate those who would oppose Washington’s wars
abroad and growing economic misery at home.

The government demonizes those
who oppose its wars and its support for Israeli apartheid and aggression.
It seeks to prepare public sentiment for a US and/or Israeli attack on
Iran.

Attacks on Muslims and Arabs mirror the labeling of war opponents
as “supporters of terrorism” during US wars in Central America and Vietnam,
and the persecution is carried out in the spirit of the round-ups of Japanese-Americans
during World War II.

Islamophobia also serves to split potential allies
in the fight against the deepening economic crisis. The attacks parallel
the persecution and terrorist-baiting of unionists and radicals during
previous depressions, as well as of fighters for the freedom of Black,
Latin@ and other peoples of color who suffered the worst impact of such
crises.

The attacks on Muslims parallel the scapegoating of mostly Latin@
undocumented workers, whose labor is key to the economy but whose status
is used to pit workers against each other.

This understanding of the roots
of Islamophobia and the resulting attacks impels us to mobilize and speak
out whenever there is an attack on any Muslim individual or institution
and call on our allies in every social movement to do the same.

We demand:

• End the attacks on masjids and Islamic community centers. Stop the government
  and media witch-hunt that sparks such attacks.
• End “preemptive” prosecutions
  and entrapment by government informants.
• Close Guantanamo, US prisons
  in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the CIA’s secret detention centers. Free all
  Arab and Muslim political prisoners at home and abroad.
• End all attacks
  on immigrant communities, including racial and religious profiling, harassment,
  detentions, and deportations.
• Stop US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and
  Pakistan. End all US aid to Israel. No war or sanctions against Iran.
• Redirect
  the trillions of dollars from war to funds for jobs, education, healthcare,
  and humanitarian relief, at home and abroad.

Sincerely,
The Undersigned