civil rights

Immigrants and workers must band together on May 1, 2007 for a common cause that ultimately hurts all of us in our nation of immigrants. Let us not forget the strength and sacrifices of those who died at the Haymarket Square massacre.

Muslims failed to successfully launch a movement for their rights post-9/11. Today, we have a golden opportunity to work with those who have started the second civil rights movement when we should have. We must become part of this cause today.

Rosa Parks was a woman of quiet strength and dignity who displayed incredible courage in the bastion of racial hatred in segregated America in the 1950s---Montgomery, Alabama---to spark a movement for change that liberated both the oppressed and the oppressors.

Today, America's Muslims are enjoying the fruits of the civil rights struggle and its impact on the country's immigration laws. Were it not for the sacrifices of African-Americans and their supporters, it is highly unlikely that discrimination based on color and ethnicity would have changed in America. 

In Islamic history and tradition, Ethiopia (Abyssinia or Al-Habasha) is known as the "Haven of the First Migration or Hijra." For Muslims, Ethiopia is synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear.

African-Americans have been trying to fight racism, bigotry and hate all of their lives. What has been the strategy? What have been the tools? The philosophy and way of life of the opponents has become the philosophy and way of life of the slave.

I am a man of peace and denounce all forms of terrorism and injustice; it is simply outrageous for the U.S. authorities to suggest otherwise. I have dedicated my life to promoting peace and understanding throughout the world.