Twenty-three Egyptians sent to prison for gay gatherings on Nile. Amazing, isn't it? One to five years in prison for something that isn't even illegal in Egypt.
Of course, we don't have any leg to stand on with regard to that these days. After all, we've got over 1,000 people in prison -- without charges or sentences -- for not much more than being Arab; even the Department of Injustice admits that most of the people being held have committed no crime. Those people don't know when they'll get out of jail, either. Moreover, over 5,000 other young men will soon be questioned purely because they entered the US on a visa in the past few years. In other words, because they DID, in fact, obey the law, they've been subject to questioning about events in which they took no part.
Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Washington-based advocacy group, acknowledged that the federal government has the right to investigate and interview anyone when it comes to guarding national security. "But we need to balance that with the importance of not sending a message that every Muslim or Arab student is a suspect," Awad said.
Um ... where have you been, guy? Every Muslim or Arab student IS a suspect until further notice. That's what Ashcroft's instructions mean.
Copyright © 2001, Iain Jackson, after-words.org
[Archives: 2001 and after]
Archives before February 5, 2001
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12/19/2001: vive la france
12/19/2001: princess, redux
12/19/2001: yemen and rumsfeld
12/18/2001: you're NOT in the army now
12/18/2001: interesting donation
12/18/2001: shame on winn dixie, indeed
12/18/2001: saudi princess
12/17/2001: new resolve
12/17/2001: a victim of the attack ... yeah, right
12/17/2001: polluters ho!