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Purpose of Project SALAM
This web site is devoted to researching and documenting the likelihood that the United States Justice Department’s post-9/11 terrorism-related prosecutions and convictions have included a significant number of Muslims who were in fact innocent of any crime. Other cases were severely overcharged and/or over sentenced. Read more . . .
Would you like to volunteer? Email Lynne Jackson at lynnejackson@mac.com or Jeanne Finley at finlandia@nycap.rr.com
For information and stories about Muslims and others
who have been preemptively prosecuted:
Download Project SALAM's booklet -
"Victims of America's Dirty Wars."
People's Summit in Chicago Workshop: The Post-9/11 Targeting of Muslims: Naming the Victims, Naming the Repression
presented by Lynne Jackson and Cathy Callan. Read more and viewlinks to reports. . .
ALBANY GROUPS DECRY SURVEILLANCE OF MUSLIMS IN ALBANY AND IN
THREE STATES
The Muslim Solidarity Committee of Albany; Project SALAM (Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims, http://www.projectsalam.org), based in Albany; and the University at Albany Muslim Student Association strongly protest surveillance of Muslim students by the NYPD. The Associated Press has revealed that from 2006–2009, the New York Police Department was carrying out illegal surveillance of Muslim students . . . Read more
Current Events:
Attend the trial of Ziyad Yaghi
Monday, September 19 - New Bern, North Carolina
Innocent Muslims are being targeted and convicted for crimes they have not committed. On September 19, 2011, a trial is scheduled to take place in New Bern, North Carolina––that accuses a number of individuals of terrorism, including twenty-one-year-old Ziyad Yaghi. We believe that only by observing these trials can fair-minded people decide whether the trials are just and the defendants guilty or innocent. . . . Read and download complete letter asking people to attend the trial . . .
Arts Against Repression
Friday, August 5, 2011
7th Anniversay Commemoration of the Arrests of
Yassin Aref & Mohammed Hossain
In Solidarity with all Victims of Preemptive Prosecution
GATHER: 5:30 pm Masjid As-Salam Mosque, 278 Central Avenue, Albany
MARCH: 6:15pm to Grand Street Community Arts (GSCA) 68 Grand Street
PERFORMANCES: 7-10 PM at GSCA featuring: Taina Asili & Gaetano Vaccaro
of the Banda Rebelde,
Antoine Dowdell, NYC jazz musician and brother of prisoner Tarik Shah, Sybil Allyson & Roots of Change with Roger Mock Read more . . .
To catch a
Terrorist
The FBI hunts for the enemy within
By Petra Bartosiewicz, Harper's Magazine, August, 2011
In June 2008, I attended a meeting in Albany organized by the FBI and designed to quell the growing fury over the arrest and prosecution of two local Mus lim immig r ant s , Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain. The previous year Aref and Hossain, both leaders at a local mosque, had been sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison in connection with their role in a terrorism scheme that the press had dubbed the Albany “missile plot.” Read the rest . . .
'Little Gitmo'
By Christopher S. Stewart, Published Jul 10, 2011 in New York Magazine
When an upstate imam named Yassin Aref was convicted on a suspect terrorism charge, he was sent to a secretive prison denounced by civil libertarians as a Muslim quarantine.
Read the article online at New York Magazine, published on July 10, 2011
Just Published -
"Victims of Ameria's Dirty Wars"
"Victims of America's Dirty Wars" begins with the story of the FBI’s infamous COINTELPRO program of the 1960s, which targeted the Black Power and anti-war movements, and ends with the government’s attack on and repression of innocent Muslims in particular, but also peace activists, civil rights proponents, union organizers, environmentalists, animal rights advocates, and immigrant communities after 9/11. The story shows how the last decade has seen a dramatic increase in profiling read more . . .
Entrapment or Foiling Terror? FBI’s Reliance on Paid Informants Raises Questions about Validity of Terrorism Cases
Democracy Now! half-hour program. See the video - read the transcript.
United National Peace March to Mosque
The United National Peace Conference concluded with a solidarity march to the Albany Mosque. The activists marched in support of our Muslim brothers and sisters who have been charged, found guilty and are serving jail terms for terrorism. The cases of the Albany 2, the Fort Dix 5 and Lynne Stewart were brought to light during the rally. The peace groups reiterated their opposition to the preemptive prosecution techniques used by the FBI. It was a moving conclusion to an inspiring weekend.
Muslim Solidarity Handbook Published
The Muslim Solidarity Committee in Albany, New York (supporting Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain) has now become the local “chapter” of Project SALAM. But the committee was founded in October 2006, and Project SALAM grew directly out of the committee’s four-year advocacy for Aref and Hossain. Here is a history of the Muslim Solidarity Committee, written for the United National Peace Conference in Albany on July 23–25, 2010, in the form of a downloadable booklet. Read about who we are, why we began, the background of the Aref-Hossain case, other Muslim prosecutions in Albany, and the committee’s activities year by year––and use it as a handbook for Muslim justice in your own community.
The Albany City Council Passes the Resolution Asking for Justice for Muslims!
Read reports on this historic report and watch a video of the event.
On Monday, April 5, the Albany, NY City Council passed a resolution entitled: "RESOLUTION URGING THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO REVIEW THE CONVICTIONS OF MUSLIMS WHO WERE “PREEMPTIVELY PROSECUTED” TO ENSURE THEIR FAIR TREATMENT UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS"
Preemptive Prosecution Case Summaries
ReadProject SALAM's newest analysis of preemptive prosecution
Preemptive Prosecution Amicus Brief
Project SALAM asked for permission to file the first Amicus (Friend of the Court) brief in the case of Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, Muslims entrapped by the FBI in Albany, New York. Click here to read the papers Project SALAM filed.
See the new review of Rounded Up featured on Truthout.org.
Click here to sign
Seventh Letter to President Obama and
Attorney General Eric Holder
(Please note: the petition is hosted by iPetitions.
No donation is necessary to sign the petition)
Please sign the seventh letter to President Obama and Attorney General Holder. This letter requests that the Justice Department deal with the serious issues of misconduct and illegal behavior in which the Justice Department has been engaged, including the failure of the Office of Professional Responsibility to discipline lawyers such as Yoo, Bybee, and Bradbury who committed serious professional misconduct in authorizing torture, and the Offices failure to discipline lawyers who fail to disclose exculpatory information (the Stevens case).
Also discussed is the failure of the Department of Justice to take appropriate action in the cases of the CIA Agents convicted in Italy; the failure to turn over exculpatory information in the Samueli and Ruehle cases; the dismissal of charges in the Blackwater prosecution; the “loss” of 22 million emails from the White House; the cover-up of prisoner murders at Guantanamo; the manufacturing of emergencies to by-pass warrant requirements; the continuing torture program of the Obama Administration; the killing of Imam Luquman Ameen Abdullah, and the implementation of the Total Information Awareness system in violation of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Please add your signature as well. The truth is coming out about how the Bush Administration broke the law, lied about it, and covered it up on a massive scale. We know that justice was twisted and that innocent Muslim were convicted as a result. Soon the whole world will know. Please be part of this effort to force the Obama Administration to address the injustices that stain our nation's honor.