Monday, July 24, 2006

Protests against Israeli aggression in Lebanon and Palestine

While I am unable to attend many of these events, I am sure many would like to and hope you can forward the info on.

When I found out about them, I replied back to my friend Maryum saying:

"I'd like to help in efforts but am weary of two things: 1) organizations who are involved in shipping and handling of donated/received goods (legitimacy, authenticity, etc.) and 2) how goods are supposed to reach people in need when ports, bridges, roads and airports are not a viable option for us.

Can we get minutes or notes from this and/or any other meetings you might attend?"

It's great to see people organizing in the hopes of not only helping people who are in dire need of assistance, but also to counter-balance what the Western media has come to show us as "Lebanon's fault".

Below are events of interest:

Events taking place in NYC this week (22-29, July) protesting the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Palestine
Summary of events~

Monday July 24
Emergency Planning Meeting at Alwan for the Arts at 7:30 - 10pm

Tuesday July 25
Community Meeting. More details to follow.
Friday July 28
"Stop the killing Stop the War" Demonstration, at the Israeli Mission at the UN, from 3:30 to 6:30.
Saturday July 29
March Across the Brooklyn Bridge. More details to follow.
Details ~
Monday 24 July:
EMERGENCY PLANNING MEETING!

Help plan actions against Israel's brutal invasion of Gaza and Lebanon
under false pretenses of defending itself.


When: Monday, July 24th, 7:30 - 10pm
Where: Alwan for the Arts, 16 Beaver Street, 4 th Floor (b/w Broad and Broadway). http://www.alwan.org/info/
What: Come with ideas for action to stop Israel's continuing atrocities in the Middle East.
Tuesday 25 July:
Community Meeting
Details to follow
Friday 28 July:
Stop the war Stop the Killing
When: Friday 28 July, 3:30 to 6:30,
Where: Israeli Mission at the UN, 2nd Ave , between 42nd and 43rd Sts.
What: Join us in Saying NO to ISRAELI WAR of aggression against Civilians and Infrastructure in PALESTINE & LEBANON. We MUST continue the pressure.
Sponsored by: Arab Muslim American Federation, National Council Of Arab Americans, International Action Center, Troops Out Now Coalition , Alawda New York , Al-Khuli Islamic Center, ICNA N.Y, MAS New York.
Saturday 29:
March Across the Brooklyn Bridge
When: Saturday, July 29,
Details to follow
Called by the Ad-Hoc Coalition for Justice in the Middle East.

==========================


Dear colleague in justice ministry:
The Riverside Church in recent months has been working in concert with interfaith partners in this City and around the country in calling for torture awareness in these dark days in which what seems so self-evidently immoral has been tolerated and, yes, encouraged in the highest circles of society, government and even religion.
A consensus has arisen among us that the time has come for a coalition to be formed, or at least, the establishment of a strategy group, to coordinate such continuing efforts in this arena.
Several of us have agreed to have a meeting to discuss this idea and TRC has agreed to be the host on Monday, July 24, at 3:00 p.m. in Room 10T at Riverside (490 Riverside Drive, enter on Claremont Av. between 120th and 122th Streets). If you or your organization would like to become involved in the coalition to end torture, please join us in launching this effort. I look forward to hearing from you.

The Rev. Charles H. Straut, Jr., D.Min.
Special Asst. for Mission and Social Justice Ministries
The Riverside Church of New York
contact: 1021 East 87th Street, #6A, Brooklyn, NY 11236-4253
(917) 750-7739 (cell) / (718) 763-9266 (study) / (718) 255-4800 (fax)

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Sunday, July 23, 2006

Panel Discussion on Human Rights in South Asia - Thursday, July 27

International Institute for South Asian Affairs (INSAF)
and South Asian Journalists Association, New York Chapter (SAJA-NY)
present

a panel discussion on Human Rights in South Asia

with
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Representative of the UN
Secretary-General for Violence Against Children

Malika Dutt, founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough

Sahr Muhammed Ally, Researcher in the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch

Moderated by Maya Chadda, Professor of Political Science at William
Paterson University in New Jersey

(bios below)

at Em Lee Concert Hall
Turtle Bay Music School
244 EAST 52nd Street, New York, NY

on Thursday, July 27, 2006
at 6.30pm

PROGRAM:
6.30-7.00 pm reception
7.00 pm- 8.30 panel discussion and q&a

tix: $7

If you would like to contact the panelists for interviews please
contact Aseem Chhabra -- chhabs@aol.com

Bios of the panelists

1. Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy in working at the UN as Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Violence Against Children.
She was Director of the International Center for Ethnic Studies in
Sri Lanka and also Chair Person of the Government of Sri Lanka's Human
Rights Commission. She worked as Special Rapporteur of the UN for
Violence Against Women--a global project. Ms. Coomaraswamy has been
a ! Visiting Professor at Oxford and New York Universities. She is a
graduate of Yale and Columbia Law School and did her LLM at Harvard.

2. Ms. Malika Dutt is the founder and Executive Director of
Breakthrough, an international human rights organization that uses
media and popular culture to promote values of dignity, equality and
justice. Breakthrough has cutting-edge multi-media educational
materials on issues like racial justice, immigrant rights, women's
rights, HIV/AIDS, religion and peace. Earlier she had worked for Ford
Foundation in New Delhi as Program Officer for the Human Rights and
Social Justice Program. She was a co-founder of Sakhi for South Asian
Women in New York, an organization which combats violence against
women in the New York community. She worked at the Center for
Constitutional Rights and the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. She
is a recipient of many awards and has authored many widely-referenced
books. Ms. Dutt is a graduate of New York University law school.

3. Ms. Sahr Muhammed Ally is a Researcher in the Asia Division at
Human Rights Watch. She has carried out fact-finding human rights
investigations in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Pakistan.
Previously, she worked for two years at the law firm of Gibbons, Del
Deo, Dolan, Griffinger and Vecchione where she undertook significant
pro bono work on indefinite detention of non-citizens in the US. She
has also worked for the American Civil Liberties Union, International
Rescue Committee, ! and Human Rights in China. She is the author of
Enduring Abuse: Torture and Cruel Treatment by the U.S. at Home and
Abroad; Detained Without Trial: Abuse of Internal Security Act
Detainees in Malaysia; Always on Call: Abuse and Exploitation of Child
Domestic Workers in Indonesia. Ms. Muhammed Ally is a graduate of
Brooklyn Law School and Mount Holyoke College.

4. Prof, Maya Chadda will serve as moderator of the panel. She
teaches Political Science at William Paterson University in New
Jersey. She is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Research
Fellow at the South Asian Institute of Columbia University; and also
served on the Review Board of the U.S Institute of Peace. She has
written extensively, in books and journals, on political issues in
South Asia and on U.S. foreign policy in South Asia. She is a
recipient of many awards for excellence in teaching as well as in
research. Her major publications include Ethnicity, Security and
Separatism in South Asia; Building Democracy in South Asia: Pakistan,
Nepal and India; and Paradox of Power: U.S. Policy in South Asia.
Prof. Chadda did her Ph.D at the New School for Social Research.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: 2007 SAJA Convention & Job Fair: July 12-15, 2007, at
Columbia University

See photos and reports from the SAJA Convention at http://www.saja.org and
http://www.sajaforum.org
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Friday, July 21, 2006

Lecture by Dr. Atta-Ur-Rahman - Wednesday, July 26

Invitation to a special Lecture by Dr. Atta-Ur-Rahman @ Pakistani Consulate

The Consulate General of Pakistan, New York
and
The Promotion of Education in Pakistan Foundation, Inc.

are pleased to invite you to a special evening Lecture:

"HEC (Higher Education Commission) Current Plans and Future Programs"

by

Dr. Atta-Ur-Rahman
Federal Minister/Chairman HEC

Advisor to the Prime Minister on Science & Technology

Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at 7:00 pm

The Consulate General of Pakistan, New York
12 East, 65th Street, New York, NY-10021

Please R.S.V.P. by contacting:

Ms. Rudina Xhaferri
Tel: (212) 255-5399
Fax: (212) 633-2220
E-mail: info@pepfoundation.org
Website: www.pepfoundation.org
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Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Beirut burns...

I've copied my column below that has just been published online here. I've got so much to say about the whole issue, but I feel like I haven't been doing enough research. I've relied on selective media outlets which, thankfuly, are trustowrthy and reliable, so I feel secure in knowing that I am in the know and am cognizant of true ground realities.

Meanwhile, the thoughts expressed below should suffice. Please do leave comments. And please do pray - for all.

In the short life I have lived thus far, only one thing has ever been constant: change. It is also unfortunate that the clearest manifestation of this “change” takes place when we are no longer at peace with “others”. A perfect example of this scenario is the current events that are unfolding as I type this column far away from the lands of the Middle East, an area that has experienced wars ever since it was deemed holy. Some of these wars were holy, but I think we can quickly arrive at the consensus that any vicissitudes that result in the shedding of innocent blood are, in essence, sacrilegious.

It is natural, then, that my energies are constantly focused on what is going on in Israel and Lebanon currently. While the entire region is precariously on the brink of war, all I can think about are the innocent civilians being killed, one after the other. The destruction takes place on both sides, and the first casualty is not always human, but usually truth and justice. No suicide bombings are taking place, yet the media coverage is conspicuously geared towards the suffering of Israel and its citizens. It is almost as if Lebanon is only of secondary importance. The people (or the country) are not worthy of extensive media coverage. Instead, the focus continues to be on Hizbollah and the dozens of rockets it has, and continues to fire into Israeli territory. Even more important (to CNN at least) is how Israel is responding to the situation.

But why is the media so focused on Israel and Israelis? Isn’t Israel the recipient of almost $ 3 billion in foreign aid? Isn’t Israel the country with far fewer civilian casualties (approximately 10)? Isn’t Israel the country with thousands of army personnel and an equal number of tanks and machine guns? How can such a country even compare itself with Lebanon, itself still trying to stand on its own feet after years of internal conflict? Lebanon’s capitol city Beirut was only beginning to reclaim its title of “the Paris of the East”, when it was reduced to rubble in a mere few days. How easy it is to destroy, but so hard to construct.

Beirut burns and I mourn.

At this point, I do not remember and cannot even recall who the initial “aggressor” was, and who might even care? Innocent lives and destruction of property continue to take place. The question we must ask is: where do we go from here? What must be done to prevent a further escalation of violence? I asked these same questions at the outset of last week’s conference on the Future of Western Muslim World Relations at the CUNY Graduate Centre. I end with the same response I used in my opening comments: I wish I knew the answers.

The political situation is changing every minute in the Middle East and thousands of innocent lives hang in limbo as their fates are decided by warring factions on both sides. My heart tells me that there are people without adequate military forces that need moral and even physical support that I may not be able to give, but my mind also tells me that this war has another battlefront: the media. I have great faith in the jihad of words, and not the jihad of swords, or guns and bombs. People do not realize that there is great power in words. It can be instrumental in the path to peace, if they so choose to use them constructively. Letters to the Editor of community newspapers, Op-Ed pieces, and even blogs all have a positive impact in this “war”. If sanity and serenity must prevail, then this battlefront must be used effectively. And what better way than with words?!

For the rest of the column (which I borrowed from my speech on July 8th!), click here...
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