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CHICAGO CALLING.
BY: Ather Masood
May 4, 2003.
CONGRESSMAN PUT IN HOT SEAT
100 Muslims Secretly Arrested
The Ravenswood Neighbors for peace organization
put Rep. Rahm Emanuel in a
precarious position. Speaking to a packed church
full of mostly community
members, Mr. Emanuel attempted to defend his
pro-war, pro-occupation stand.
In many ways Mr. Emanuel, of the 5th district in
Chicago, defended his
positive domestic legislation. He openly stated
to be against the Patriot
act, defended all people, and asked people to
defend his domestic program.
Asked about Operation Iraqi freedom, he stated
that it may cost from 60-100
billion dollars for
Iraqi
reconstruction. The
representative also mentioned
that the "head start program" made famous in
American public schools, will be
re-created for Iraqi schools. The level of
"reconstruction" funds for Iraq
clearly dismayed the participants.
Mr. Emanuel was polite and respectful but could
not defend many of his
positions on foreign policy. When asked about why
Israel
routinely violates
international law, Mr. Emanuel stated the nation
has been routinely attacked
by terrorists and therefore, such violations are
to be seen differently. When
a spectator stated Ashcroft is a terrorist, the
congressman chose to
disagree.
When asked about five hate crimes towards
Muslims, Asians, or Arab-Americans
taking place in his district, the Congressman
looked perplexed. It was made
known that his office did not return calls from
victims suffering from
similar prejudiced attacks. Despite the events
the Congressman apologized and
promised to look into these matters further.
It was very clear that EVEN in the heart of
Chicago's famous fifth district,
very few people agree with the war on terrorism.
Most participants clearly
showed their frustrations towards the
Congressman.
AT LEAST 100 MUSLIMS SECRETLY DETAINED IN CHICAGO
A source working with the INS watch group told
this writer of mass arrests
last friday. The source, A Falasteni brother,
stated that a number of Muslims
were detained by INS on April 25, 2003. The
source also told this writer that
several community organizations tried to educate
others before they went into
the INS offices. These very people were later
arrested by INS officials.
Even though these arrests were not on a mass
scale like in Los Angeles.
However, the significant thing is that the
media,
mainstream Muslim groups,
and community organizations did not know anything
about such events. The more
we become aware of these actions we will
inshallah report them.
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2003-05-05 Mon 18:59ct