Statement from the Blue Triangle Network to All Those Protesting and Speaking Out on January 10
The Blue Triangle Network sends its unity and support to all those who are, today, protesting and speaking out across the country. 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. We saw what happened last December in Southern California, 500 to 1,000 immigrants who came to register were arrested and detained.
In response, the 3,000 strong demonstration of mostly Iranian immigrants in Los Angeles, with signs saying, "What Next? Concentration Camps?", was a clarion call for people everywhere to rise to the challenge and stop these detentions. It was incredibly righteous that those targeted by the government stood up. As we said in the Blue Triangle Network statement, ³We 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.² Can anyone doubt that this demonstration was why the INS released the vast majority of the detainees? This demonstration exposed the mass detentions to the whole world.
Heed the words of the editorial in the Arab-American News of Dearborn, Michigan in response to the December registrations and detentions,
"We believe it was designed to actually discourage further cooperation from the community with the government, thus ultimately giving the government wider latitude in its ongoing trampling of constitutional and civil rights. Henceforth, when thousands of people donıt cooperate in any given initiative out of well-founded fear and mistrust of the Bush-Ashcroft regime, detention camps can be set up all over the country.
"But the fact is that the government is only interested in instilling terror in the hearts and minds of Arabs and Muslims everywhere. Why? The coming firestorm in the Middle East. Conducting the Bush Administrationıs brand of foreign policy can be difficult with a nation of immigrants looking on, so shutting those immigrants up is mandatory. If our foreign policy were just, of course, that would not be necessary. But that is a distant dream right now. This is our worst nightmare."
Across the country, a wave of moral outrage burst forth because the people have right on their side. Suddenly, diverse voices were comparing this to the roundup of Japanese Americans in World War II and the registration and round up of the Jews by the Nazis. Many have been propelled into action. The road is not straight ahead or easy but we can see the potential for actually building a national movement that can stop the whole wave of repression against Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants. We refuse to accept racial profiling, roundups, indefinite detentions, 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.
Today is the deadline for men from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Eritrea, Lebanon, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen to register with the INS. Can anyone deny that the men who must register by today, those who had to register by December 16, and those from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia who must register by February 21, overwhelmingly come from countries that are predominantly Muslim? Can anyone deny that the government is targeting them because of their nationality and religion?
On the home front, the reality is that they are registering and detaining Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants now! Detention is not a future possibility but a present reality. And the government has made explicitly clear that there will soon be new waves of mass detentions as they go to war. People must act now to stop this.
In the months immediately after 9/11, over 1,200 Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants were detained and held in secret. Some have estimated over 2,000 but we will never know because the government refused to divulge the names of detainees or how many were held. The government deported many. Despite the fact that after 9/11, the government arrested and detained possibly several thousand people, raided dozens of Muslim businesses, and froze the assets of major Muslim charities, not one person arrested since 9/11 has been charged with any crime related to September 11!
We call on people everywhere to find the ways to publicly expose, oppose and stop all the repression against Muslim, Arab and South Asian immigrants. In solidarity with those who are persecuted, wear the blue triangle with the names of the ³disappeared². Make the repression a major social question in your schools, unions, neighborhoods, families, churches, synagogues, mosques, and community groups and plan what you can do. Participate in the Blue Triangle Network so that all of us together can figure out how to stop this repression. Help distribute the new fact sheet to expose the full range of this repression to many more. Organize activities in your area for the Second February 20 National Day of Solidarity with Muslim, Arab and South Asian Immigrants.
We say:
Stop the Registrations, Detentions, Deportations, and Disappearances!
Stop All Racial and Religious Profiling!
No Police State!
This Time They Are Coming for the Muslim, Arab and South Asian ImmigrantsBut We Are Resisting!
BLUE TRIANGLE NETWORK, P.O. BOX 7451, DEARBORN, MI
48121-7451
CALL 313-942-7187 http://www.bluetriangle.org/ NationalOffice@bluetriangle.org
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