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Release on Umar Defense News Conference
Hawkins Supports Justice for Imam Umar, Halt to Harassment of all Muslims |
For more information:
Howie Hawkins (315) 425-1019
Sally Kim (518) 364-2968
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party nominee for US Senate, called today for an end to the government’s attack on Imam Warith Deen Umar and an end to all government harassment of Muslims.
“After the attacks on 9/11, the US government fostered an atmosphere of fear in this country as a way of mobilizing people for war. The targets of their fear campaign were Arabs and Muslims, who were branded as terrorists or supporters of terrorism. Imam Umar has been an outspoken critic of the US government’s foreign policy and their discriminatory attacks against Muslims in the United States. This made him a target of the government,” Hawkins said.
In 2002, Umar was the target of a front-page attack by the Wall Street Journal, which claimed Umar supported the 9/11 terrorists. “The New York Times, the Daily News, Senator Schumer, and Governor Pataki jumped on the bandwagon with further attacks, although they could produce no direct quotes supporting their contention that Umar supported the 9/11 attacks,” noted Hawkins. Schumer demanded that all Muslim chaplains in New York State prisons be fired. Soon Umar was barred from working in the prisons, which he had done for 25 years. Umar sued the Wall Street Journal for slander, but to this date the major media have never given him the opportunity to explain that he does not support the 9/11 terrorists.
In January of this year, Umar called police to the Bronx apartment building he owns after being assaulted by a prospective tenant and repelling the assault with an unloaded shotgun. The police arrested Umar, but later dropped the charges. However, New York City Police Department officers in plain clothes soon raided Imam Umar’s Bethlehem home and Bronx apartment, taking personal belongings, including computers and book manuscripts, which have never been returned. In February, FBI agents arrested Umar for owning a shotgun in violation of the law because he had been convicted of a felony 35 years ago. He is now faced with up to 10 years in prison for gun possession.
According to Hawkins, “Imam Umar’s real ‘crime’ is that he is Black, Muslim and an outspoken critic of the government’s wars. I call on the government to stop its harassment of Imam Warith Deen Umar and all Muslims."
Hawkins criticized Senator Clinton’s silence on the Umar case and her support for the Patriot Acts I and II. “Bush dubiously claimed that the US is under attack by Middle East terrorists because ‘they hate our freedom.’ Bush and Clinton seem to have concluded that by taking away our freedoms with the Patriot Acts they will take away the reason for the attacks,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins pledged that if elected he would fight to restore civil liberties, including repeal of the Patriot Acts and an end to secret detentions, arrests without charges, no access to attorneys, the use of secret “evidence,” military tribunals for civilians, and indiscriminate government surveillance and data-banking of private phone, internet, and bank records.
Hawkins also pledge to support passage of the End Racial Profiling Act, introduced by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. in the House and Senator Russell Feingold in the Senate, that would deter law enforcement from racial profiling by requiring collection of race data, and providing legal remedies to victims of racial profiling.
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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