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Stop the Repression

by Mike Rhodes (MikeRhodes [at] Comcast.net)
February 20, 2005 Stop the Repression, Blue Triangle network, event in Fresno
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Stop the Repression
By Mike Rhodes
February 20, 2005

The Fresno chapter of the Blue Triangle Network held a candle light vigil tonight. Vickie Fouts, spokesperson for the group, said they were there to "stop the repression against Muslim, Arab, and South Asian immigrants." The vigil was held at the Fresno Center for Nonviolence at Van Ness and McKinley.

The group of about 30 held candles as they listened to several speakers from local community groups. Fouts welcomed everyone and read the now famous warning from Paster Martin Niemoeller who lived in Nazi Germany:

"First they came for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, but by that time, no one was left to speak up."

Ruth Obel-Jorgensen, a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom reported that Samina Faheem, an activist that has worked with the Fresno group has recently received numerous threats. Faheem lives in the Bay Area. Obel-Jorgensen said "an attack against one is an attack against all" and encouraged everyone at the vigil to become active in defending all of our civil liberties.

Genie Baranoff, immediate past president of Peace Fresno, told the group about The Real ID Act which has just passed the House of Representatives. This act, if passed by the Senate, will take away even more of our civil liberties. According to the American Civil Liberties web site, The REAL ID Act would make it possible to deport long-term, lawful, permanent residents for providing non-violent, humanitarian support to organizations labeled "terrorist" by the government. This provision would apply even when such support was completely legal at the time it was provided.

The bill would also retroactively make legal donations to "terrorist" groups grounds for deportation of green-card holders who have lived here for decades. The Patriot Act already allows the government to deny entry to non-citizens outside the country on this basis. The REAL ID Act would also worsen the already troubling driver’s license provisions in the intelligence reform legislation passed last year by forcing states to deny driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Fresno Center For Nonviolence (FCNV) board member Richard Stone reminded participants that there has been repression right here in Fresno. He told those at the vigil that Kehinde Solwazi, who was a board member of the FCNV, had been arrested under suspicious circumstances. Solwazi was an official at Gateway, a Muslim charter school. He has pleaded not guilty.

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