Author: mopress

By Dr. Asma Salam

God is great! The Judge has declared a mistrial in the Holy Land Foundation case. It does not sound like victory; however, when you look at the details, then we realize that it is a true victory, since not one guilty verdict was found against 197 charges against the defendants of Holy Land Foundation (the Largest Muslim Charitable organization in America).

Monday Oct 22 was a morning of test and patience for Muslims and their non Muslim friends at the Federal curt building at 1100 commerce St in Dallas. We all arrived their before 10:00am. Regardless of arriving early none of us got to sit in the court room, since we were told that it is reserved for the family, also we were not allowed on the 16th floor to observe it on video as we were told that it is reserved for media.

I did not understand the discouragement of friend’s support at the crucial moment of these defendants life. It is the same court room where we all sat with the family for many days during the trial. Anyways, we all went to the first floor and were removed from there as well. Finally, we ended up at the cafeteria area with no TV monitors to watch or hear what is going on in the court room. I am sure most of us were wondering “Are we in America?”

It was a time to persevere with patience and prayers. Some of us were using cell phones to watch the news coming out of the court room through media. When we all heard that Holy Land Foundation was fully acquitted we all made Sajuood (heads down to floor to praise God). Initially, three defendants were almost entirely acquitted, but a juror poll and further deliberations resulted in an entirely hung jury on all counts.

All praise to God, this trial is the biggest trial against a Muslim charity in the history of the US, and today I feel that there is hope people are still capable of thinking and utilizing their god gifted talents of analyzing the facts and not playing with the lives of innocent people who are just being wrongfully charged for helping orphans and widows.

I am very happy that Jurors were not biased by the wrong information and bad image that has been portrayed deliberately by some private parties to destroy the hard work of Muslim Americans who take America as their beloved country and take pride to follow the freedom of religion to help each other grow stronger.

Inshallah (godwilling) there will be no trial again. Amen. I have regained hope and this event has reaffirmed my faith that the public will understand that it is a wastage of our tax money and these defendants lives, since for last 13 years and for so much wastage of money and resources the prosecutors have no solid evidence except their prejudice and hatred against Muslims.

It is time for all Americans to show our strength in diversity to accept each other as humans and not let the administration violate our rights to live and practice religion in freedom in our homeland America.

Anyways, it was a moment to thank God for his grace and mercy to see four defendants sitting among family and friends after Isha prayer Monday night at the Richardson Mosque. We pray that Br. Ghassan, the fifth defendant, will join them soon and fill the seat that was left empty by his friends with his name on it in Monday’s get together.

Monday night at the Mosque, at the family fellowship with our Holy Land Foundation leaders felt like an Eid celebration. It is an extended Eid celebration for all Muslims to believe in the power of justice and prayer and to humble ourselves in front of God and not to give up our unity and good work in the fear of injustice and mistrust in our administration.

This victory is not a small victory, it is a tremendous achievement in the environment of paranoia against Muslims in America and world. Inshallah (godwilling) justice will prevail. Amen. Inshallah we will all live once again in America with respect and love for each other regardless of our color and creed. Amen.

If you would like to learn about defendants our community leaders and their great work to feed orphans and widows and their contributons in promoting health and quality of life in the death vally of 21st century please click on these links.

http://www.h4jusa.com/

http://freedomtogive.com/mufid

http://freedomtogive.com/shukri

http://freedomtogive.com/mohammad

http://freedomtogive.com/ghassan

http://freedomtogive.com/abdulrahman

http://www.muslimlegalfund.org/links.html

If this Court grants the Plaintiff’s request for authorization to drug Rrustem Neza so Plaintiff can deport him without his protest, then the deportation will deprive the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and the BIA of jurisdiction of the actions now pending before them to prevent the deportation of the Defendant. As the Appendix demonstrates undeniably, “If Rrustem Neza is returned to Albania, he very likely will be killed on account of his political activities related to the Hajdari assassination.” Affidavit of James Pettifer, Exhibit 6 to the Appendix to Amended Motion to Reopen on Account of Changed Circumstances, which is Appendix 1 to the Appendix to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, Motion for More Definite Statement, and Reply to Motion for Preliminary Injunction.

Excerpt from Rrustem Neza’s Oct. 22, 2007 reply to continuing legal efforts to dope and deport him to Albania.

See also: Oct. 1, 2007 motion by USA immigration authorities to dope and deport Rrustem Neza to Albania.

PRESS RELEASE

Indigenous Peoples’ Border Summit of the Americas, Nov. 7 — 10, focuses on human rights and right of mobility

Del Rio, Texas, border and human rights activist Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr., among the speakers

TUCSON — A human rights crisis for Indigenous Peoples living along borders in the Americas threatens their survival, with rapidly expanding militarization and new laws which limit their mobility in their ancestral territories.

Responding to this crisis, the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation will host the Indigenous Peoples Border Summit of the Americas II, Nov. 7- 10, with support from the International Indian Treaty Council.

Mike Flores, Tohono O’odham summit organizer, said, “It is necessary for Tohono O’odham and other Indigenous Peoples of the border regions to collectively address the adverse impacts that are increasingly occurring on tribal lands. The Border Summit of the Americas II will provide us the opportunity to do just that,” Flores said.

San Xavier District Chairman Austin Nunez joins Flores in welcoming Indigenous Peoples to the Border Summit on Tohono O’odham land, located near South Tucson.

The Border Summit will host a human rights workshop by the International Indian Treaty Council. The summit will be broadcast live on the Internet at http://www.earthcycles.net as was done in 2006.

From the southern Andes to the northern Arctic, corporations intent on seizing natural resources have increased the oppression and displacement of Indigenous Peoples, resulting in their forced mobility across national borders. Further, free trade agreements, mining and exploitive development have forced Indigenous Peoples into exile in the Americas, displaced from their lands where they farmed, hunted or fished for survival.

In the United States, corporate profiteering for private migrant prisons, experimental spy technology, poorly trained border agents, privatized security and new laws for immigration threaten the right of mobility in ancestral territories.

The human rights crisis at the southern border of the United States and Mexico has resulted in over 4,000 migrant deaths in recent years, including deaths of women from Guatemala on Tohono O’odham tribal land in Arizona who died walking with their children in 2007. Migrants, including Indigenous Peoples from Mexico and Central America, die of dehydration and severe temperatures while walking in search of a better life. The Border Summit speakers will include Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson, who puts out water for migrants on tribal land.

“No one should die for want of a drink of water,” Wilson said.

The privatization of prisons, including the T. Don Hutto Residential Center and Raymondville migrant tent encampment, both near Austin, Texas, reveals the sinister motivation of profiteering from the plight of migrants. Hutto imprisons migrant and refugee infants and children. Speakers will include Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr., of Texas, among those organizing protests against the prisons.

Johnson-Castro, was born in Portland, Oregon and raised in the Alaskan wilderness. He is tri-lingual (English-Spanish-Albanian) and has served on the Tourism Advisory Committee, Officer of the Governor, Texas Historical Foundation and Texas Hotel & Lodging Assn., Los Caminos del Rio and Val Verde County Historical Commission.

Residing on the border in Del Rio, Texas since 1992, Johnson-Castro has mostly been noted for promoting heritage tourism all along the Texas-Mexico border. He has also been championing the ecology and environment of the Rio Grande Corridor, submitting the Rio Grande as an endangered river and filing suit against the Federal Government to protect endangered species in the Rio Grande region.

Johnson-Castro has most recently become recognized internationally as a human rights activist for his hundreds of miles of Border Wall-ks and has traversed the entire US-Mexico border in protest against the border wall. He has also walked against the “for profit” prison camps of thousands of immigrant refugees, especially T. Don Hutto prison camp where untold hundreds of children have been imprisoned for profit.

A father of four grown children and grandfather of seven, Johnson-Castro is a sculptor, writer, photographer, pubic speaker and gourmet cook. He is the founder of Border Ambassador and Freedom Ambassadors. He is a columnist for the Rio Grande Guardian, “Inside the Checkpoints” (http://www.riograndeguardian.com/columns3.asp).

In May, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for migrants, Jorge Bustamante, was denied entrance into Hutto, and Johnson-Castro, with the support of Amnesty International coordinated human rights protests that followed.

The border wall and border vehicle barriers along the southern border have resulted in the removal of ancestors’ remains of the Tohono O’odham and Kumeyaay from their final resting places. Further, the barrier wall on Tohono O’odham land is a barrier interfering with an ancient annual ceremony.

Since ceremonial leaders from Mexico often lead ceremonies in the United States, new immigration laws threaten the survival of ceremonies, culture and languages. Because many Indian people are born at home, or lack funds for visas and passports, crossing the border has become a harsh ordeal.

Further, at both the northern and the southern borders of Canada and Mexico, federal border agents ransack and violate ceremonial items. Speakers on the right of mobility at the northern border include representatives of Mohawks and other Six Nations.

With the increased militarization and surveillance at the borders, the dangers from speeding border agents, aerial vehicle crashes and abuse and harassment by border agents increase. Women, children and elderly along the border are most often the victims of oppression and suffer most often from the lack of food, safe drinking water and medicines.

With the militarization and oppression increasing for Indigenous Peoples around the world, the Border Summit of the Americas invites Indian people to offer their testimony while receiving information and training on human rights.

The International Indian Treaty Council will present a human rights training, following the United Nations adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The US will be examined by the UN Committee for Racial Discrimination (CERD) Committee in March of 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland.

“This workshop will provide information as to how Indigenous Nations, tribes and organizations can use this historic opportunity to inform the CERD Committee on the true state of racial discrimination in this country and how it affects Indian Nations, Peoples and communities. This information will be very important to help the UN CERD experts get a more accurate picture of racial discrimination in the US and hold the US accountable to their obligations under international human rights law,” IITC said.

“An additional focus will be on strategies to defend our human rights, border rights, and protecting our sacred sites and traditional land rights using the newly-adopted UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples from the local to the international levels.”

The human rights workshop presenters will be Bill Means, Lakota cofounder of the Treaty Council; Andrea Carmen, Yaqui and Treaty Council executive director; Ron Lameman, Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations, and Francisco Cali, CERD Member and Treaty Council board president.

For more information: bordersummit2007@yahoo.com

Website: http://indigenousbordersummitamericas2007.blogspot.com

Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr. jay@villadelrio.com (830)734-8636

For the information of you who are interested in the efforts of the US government to deliver Rrustem Neza, who identified the killers of Azem Hajdari, into the hands of those killers, here is an update.

Congressman Louie Gomert has promised to introduce a private bill in the Congress to stop the deportation.

The judge in whose court the government filed suit for permission to drug Rrustem has set a pretrial deadline of August 2008, and will set the trial for a date after motions for summary judgment have been submitted. I expect the government will be filing its motion for summary judgment any day now.

John Wheat Gibson
Dallas