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Advisory on Umar Defense News Conference
Hawkins Supports Justice for Imam Umar and an End to Racial and Religious Profiling |
Media Advisory / Notice of News Conference
Date: Sunday, July 2
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: On steps of Town Hall, 445 Delaware Ave, Delmar NY
Who:
Howie Hawkins, Green Party candidate for US Senate
Imam Warith Deen Umar
Joe Lombardo, Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Green Party
Topic:
Justice for Iman Umar and Ending Racial and Religious Profiling
For More Information:
Howie Hawkins (315) 425-1019 h, (518) 364-2968
Joe Lombardo (518) 439-1968
Since the 9/11 attacks in New York, a climate of fear has been fostered in the US to mobilize people towards war. Arabs and Muslims, and especially those who spoke out against the US-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have been targeted in the media and by the government as terrorists or supporters of terrorism.
Imam Umar, an outspoken critic of the US government's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is one of those who have been targeted. In 2002, the Wall Street Journal published a front-page attack on Umar, charging him with supporting the 9/11 terrorists, a charge Umar has always denied. The New York Times, Daily News, Senator Schumer, and Governor Pataki jumped on the bandwagon, without providing a single direct quote from Umar to support their allegation. As a result of this hysteria, Imam Umar lost his access to the New York State prisons where he had served as a Muslim Chaplain for 25 years.
Then in early 2006, the FBI arrested Imam Umar on gun possession charges stemming from an incident where he used an unloaded shotgun to repel an assault by a prospective tenant in the Bronx apartment building he owns. New York City police raided Umar’s Bethlehem home and his Bronx apartment, confiscating personal belongings, including computers and book manuscripts, which have nothing to do with the gun possession charges. Umar faces up to 10 years in prison.
Hawkins says this persecution of Imam Umar fits a pattern where the government and media play up innuendoes about Muslims supporting terrorists, while the charges brought against them have nothing to do with terrorism and often would not be prosecuted outside this context of anti-terrorism hysteria. Hawkins calls for an end to government-sanctioned racial and religious profiling and discrimination.
"Imam Umar's real crime is that he is Black, Muslim, and an outspoken critic of the government's wars," Hawkins says. |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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