(Phone: 410-435-5000)
Address: P.O. Box 356, Kingsville, MD 21087
[$10
for one year. $1 for sample]
Disclaimer: The views expressed are not necessarily shared by the
editors.
Critical responses up to 250 words are accepted.
--------------------------
1. Cab Driver (once a pilot in Sudan) Labelled Terrorist by U.S.
Sudanese Community in North Carolina Rallies to his Support
2. Sudan Notes
Israel
is Arming and Funding SPLA Rebels Again
3. Sanctions Against Sudan Remain in Place Despite Appeasement of U.S.
-----------
1. Imam Badi Ali,
Jamaat al-Muslimeen's
representative in North Carolina, has
once again played an important role in the human rights struggle. He has
mobilized support for a Sudanese Muslim who is being victimized by the
U.S. government. Muslims must unite to stop the
American
government's oppression
of Muslims in America. Fortunately there is no treacherous group like
American Muslim Council
(AMC)
or a spy-type like Dr. Khalid Qazi in North
Carolina. Muslims are outraged and united in opposition to this shameful
attempt to victimize this Sudanese Muslim. Below we give excerpts from
three
North Carolina papers, from Greensboro, Winston-Salem and Charlotte.
Note
that when there are no traitors around, the genuine voice of the Ummah
gets through.
[For more information and to help the victim:
Badi323@aol.com or
Stetson H.Clark 336-851-1451
stetsonh@hotmail.com.]
"Members of the
Islamic
Center of the Triad said yesterday that Hamed, a
former pilot for the Sudanese national airline, drove a cab in
Greensboro for
about two years. He was taking college classes and working to bring his
wife to this country, they said.
"He is just a cab driver," said Badi Ali, the president of the Islamic
center. "He came here for no other reason than to find a better life."
Hamed, who usually attended Friday services at the mosque, was
described as
modest and likable. Ali said that Hamed's father is a high-school
principal in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital.
"He is a soft-hearted, hard-working man with a good reputation," Ali said.
"Unfortunately, Muslims across the nation are having to deal with
events like this. We are guilty until proven innocent."
Men from the mosque met yesterday to discuss ways to help Hamed, who they
said is not an especially devout Muslim and had shown no signs of being
anti-American. Some collected money for a legal-defense fund and hired a
lawyer for him. Hamed's friends say that he left Sudan, a poor African
nation wrecked by years of civil war, with the hopes of earning a pilot's
license
here. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks quashed that dream, they said.
"He knew that as a Muslim he probably wouldn't be allowed to fly," said
Jamal
Omer, a Sudanese immigrant who worked with Hamed at United Yellow Taxi.
"He was going to school for engineering. They got the wrong guy."
There are about 2,000 Sudanese living in Greensboro, and Omer said that
about
two-thirds of the cabdrivers for Yellow Taxi are from Sudan - many of
whom held professional positions back home. Degrees from oversees
universities are often not recognized in the United States.
"There are doctors driving cabs here," said Omer, who has a Sudanese law
degree. "We drive cabs because you can set your own schedule and go
back to school."
Friends say that Hamed took classes at Guilford Technical Community
College before enrolling at N.C. A&T State University in spring. Hamed was
living in an inexpensive apartment off West Market Street with three other
Sudanese cabbies. No one answered the door at the apartment yesterday.
Omer said that the arrest had sent shock waves through the Sudanese
community and that Hamed's roommates are living in fear that they might be
deported.
Since Hamed was arrested, some wives have urged their husbands to shave
their beards to better blend in.
Though he has not been convicted of any crime, officials denied
permission for him to be interviewed.
"We understand that these are sensitive times," Omer A. Omer said. "But
if you knew (Hamed) you would know that he is not involved with those
people (in
al-Qaida). We believe this must be a horrible mistake, but if the
evidence proves us to be wrong, we will be the first to condemn him."
(Courtesy Charlotte Observer)
--------------------------------------------------
A 30-year-old Sudanese pilot is being held on
immigration charges as investigators try to determine if he is an
al-Qaida operative who planned to fly an airplane into an American target,
government
officials said Friday.The man is in custody in North Carolina, accused of
making false statements while applying for a U.S. visa, The Associated
Press reported. He was identified as Mekki Hamed Mekki, according to law
enforcement and administration sources, although no other details
about him
were provided."There is a lot of uncertainty about this case. We're
trying to
sort it out," one of the officials told The Associated Press. The FBI in
Greensboro and Charlotte and Justice Department officials in Washington
refused to discuss the arrest.Members of Greensboro's Sudanese community
fear the detainee is the man they know as cab driver Mekki Hamed.
Greensboro cab driver Mekki Hamed was detained by federal authorities
in Greensboro on Sept. 13. His friends and co-workers say they haven't
seen him for several days.Drivers for United Yellow Cab Association, where
Hamed worked, said they had heard he had been arrested, but they weren't
sure why. They said he had been a pilot in Sudan and that he had studied in
Pakistan. They weren't sure how long he has been in the United States.
They said they and other Sudanese drivers for United Yellow -- a dispatcher
said about 75 percent come from Sudan -- were raising money to help him
hire a lawyer. "He's a very decent guy. They just suspect him. They got the
wrong person," said Abdel Elsseikh, a driver parked in the United Yellow
lot on
South Elm Street on Friday afternoon.One driver, Mohammed Ahmed, said
Hamed had leased his cab -- United Yellow No. 50 -- to another driver. He
did so,
so that he could take college classes. Amin Wagalla, another United
Yellow driver, said Hamed told him he had been a captain in the Sudanese
national
airline before he won a visa lottery that enabled him to come to the
United States. Badi Ali, president of the Islamic Center of the Triad, said
Hamed attended services, called juma, on Fridays at the mosque off High
Point Road.
Ali called him a "well-disciplined, polite, modest, likable man with a
sense of humor." Hamed told Ali that his family is well-known in his
hometown of
Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. His father is principal of a high
school and
a noted scholar."(Hamed) came to this country for one reason and one
reason
only: to earn a better life," said Ali. "The media is sensationalizing
these incidents with a green light from the administration."
(Courtesy: Greensboro Record)
-------------------------------------------------------------
2. The Sudanese government has issued a statement SPECIFICALLY BLAMING
ISRAEL FOR ARMING THE SPLA REBELS in southern Sudan. Israel plays a
reactionary rule
all over Africa in opposition to all popular Islamic and peoples'
movements. Its role in Sudan has been the most vicious.
The arms and funds are said to be smuggled in through Uganda whose
government is supported by the United States. A gang leader named
Garang has
become a "national leader" over the years owing to the weaponry sent in
to arm and funds to pay mercenaries and bandits. Garang's repression
against
local populations have led to the flight of thousands of Christians
from the south to take refuge in the Islamic capital of Khartoum.
For years Sudan has been trying to work out peace in the south but each
attempt is thwarted by Israeli moves. This time Sudan came out openly
to name
Israel as the force behind the ongoing violence in the south.
------------------------------------------------------------
3. Ever since the 9/11 attacks SUDAN's government has bent over
backward to
appease the United States. The country was opened up to American spying
and intrusions. All Islamists suspected of anti-U.S. sentiments were
harrassed
and/or expelled. However, the appeasement has not worked. THE SANCTIONS
ON SUDAN, placed in conjunction with zionist propaganda about "slavery in
Sudan", REMAIN IN PLACE.
Latest news indicate that the U.S. has NO plans to remove the sanctions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002-09-23 Mon 14:22ct