[Reader-list] Fw: THE BURDEN OF SANITY

[Geeta Patel]

This is from an organization in Karachi that has been involved in
alternative organizing for a while, please circulate. Ajmal sent it out to
all the people I had sent a message to.  g
----- Original Message -----
From: Ajmal Kamal <city_press at email.com>
To: Geeta Patel <geeta.patel at verizon.net>
Cc: Kath Weston <kath.weston at verizon.net>; Jason Foster
<maabus1999 at hotmail.com>; Aparna Sen <aparnasen at hotmail.com>; Carolyn
Dinshaw <carolyn.dinshaw at nyu.edu>; <judith.diane.weston at hotmail.com>;
<LBerlant at aol.com>; Holly Hughes <HHughes334 at aol.com>; Aishwarya
Lakshmiratan <alakshmi at wellesley.edu>; AAJ <aaj at digicom.net.pk>; Neloufer de
Mel <neloufer at sltnet.lk>; Anindyo Roy <a_roy at colby.edu>; Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri
<crawlybug at hotmail.com>; Ziauddin Sardar <zsardar at compuserve.com>; Zia
Ziauddin <ziaziauddin at yahoo.com>; VIVIECHANA <vivechana at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 11:10 AM
Subject: THE BURDEN OF SANITY


> In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pantagon on 11
> September 2001, there is a real danger of the US government and people
> bahaving
> irresponsibly and putting the world peace in danger. Apprehension have
> been
> expressed regarding a deterioration in the treatment of Muslims living
> the US as
> a result of these tragic events. The following is an appeal to the US
> authorities and citizens for maintaining sanity.
>
> 1. Although the FBI's initial investigations are reported to indicate
> that the
> hijackers, who delibrately crashed the commercial aircrafts with
> civilian
> pasengers on board, were Arabs who had entered the US and gained access
> to the
> training facilities in flying inside the country abusing the laws in
> force, the
> entry of people of the Arab or other Muslim origin and their access to
> such
> training and other facilities  in the US must not be curtailed.
>
> 2. Although the Taliban have ordered all non-Muslim foreigners to leave
> Afghanistan at once, the US authorities must not consider deporting
> Arab,
> Afghan, Pakistani and other Muslims living in the US.
>
> 3. The US legislature must not make law that would result in the
> discriminatory
> treatment of the Muslim immigrants living in the US in the manner
> Pakistan's
> Qadianis are treated after the country's National Assembly passed the
> famous
> amendment to the constitution in 1974.
>
> 4. The US citizens must not attack the settlements of the Muslim
> immigrants as
> Qadiani settlements are occasionally attacked in Pakistan resulting in
> death and
> injury to men, women and children and damage to their property.
>
> 5. In case of any such attacks on Muslims in the US police must not
> arrest the
> victims of the attacks just as several Qadiani families (men, women and
> children) - victims of an attack by Muslims in a town in Punjab,
> Pakistan, a few
> weeks ago - were arrested and locked up inside the police station
> because,
> according to the police, "they were not safe outside."
>
> 6. The Muslims living in the US must not be regularly killed in ones and
> twos as
> those belonging to the minority Shia community are being killed in
> Karachi and
> other cities of Pakistan these days.
>
> 7. The people of USA should refrain from harassing Muslim consulting
> physicians
> and surgeons working here the way Shia consulting physicians and
> surgeons are
> being threatened regularly in Pakistan. Several such doctors were given
> three
> days to sell off their property and leave Pakistan (on pain of getting
> killed)
> in the last few months. Most complied and moved to the US. It would be
> rather
> unjust if they are asked to leave the US and return to Pakistan where
> they are
> likely to be murdered.
>
> 8. The angered people of the US must not attack the places of worship of
> different sects of the US Muslim community in the manner these people
> attack
> each other's places of worship in Pakistan, resulting in multiple deaths
> of
> people praying inside.
>
> 9. The religious freedom of the Muslims in the US must continue to be
> guaranteed. In the incident mentioned in 5 above, the Qadianis were
> planning to
> watch on satellite TV a speech by their religious leader, which the
> majority
> community did not allow them to do. They shifted their gathering to a
> private
> house, on which their place of worship, which they are not allowed to
> call a
> "masjid", was attacked and damaged. There should be no such treatment of
> the
> Muslims in the US.
>
> 10. The US citizens belonging to the majority community must not scare
> the
> Muslims by conducting public meetings inside their neighbourhoods with
> speakers
> making derogatory remarks againts their religion and religious leaders
> such as
> the Pakistan's majority commuinity routinely does inside the settlements
> of
> Qadianis and Shias.
>
> 11. In general, the US (and other western countiries) must continue to
> grant
> visa, immigrant status and nationality to the liberal minds of the
> Muslim
> countries because they have a danger to be persecuted, harassed and even
> killed
> in their native countries.
>
> The US authorities and citizens should display sanity and do the above
> and much
> more. And, they must not ask the present sermonizer why the governments
> and
> citizens of Muslim countries should not be urged to do the same with the
> "aliens" living there.