Day: September 11, 2010

DC: Americans Join Together on 9/11 to Defend Freedom of Religion

Washington DC: Americans Join Together on 9/11 to Defend Freedom of Religion

September 11, 2010

On September 11, 2010 in Washington DC, American volunteers from diverse faiths, races, and identity groups, came together in a community unity rally in support of freedom of religion, freedom of worship, and freedom at Freedom Plaza.  Washington DC’s Freedom Plaza park was named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who worked on his “I have a dream” speech in the nearby Willard Hotel in 1963.

The community public gathering of concerned Americans was a response to the growing anti-Islamic hatred spreading across America, efforts to deny Muslims houses of worship in California, Tennessee, Kentucky, and New York, violence and vandalism against Muslim mosques, and violence against Muslim Americans.   About 30 Americans from Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, and some as far as from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Seattle, Washington joined together on 9/11 to stand in solidarity on our freedoms.  The event was sponsored by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), Muslims for Progressive Values, United for Pluralism, and the Muslimah Writer’s Alliance (MWA)

See our online web album of photographs from the event.

Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Americans spoke on behalf of the Constitutional religious freedom for Muslim Americans, as well as the need to ensure enforcement of the Religious Land Use Act federal law ensuring all people, including Muslim Americans, have equal opportunity to houses of worship without restrictive zoning or other acts designed to unfairly burden any American from creating a house of worship.  The group circulated our petition to ask President Obama and Attorney General Holder to enforce these laws to ensure Muslim Americans equal rights to create houses of worship.

Photo Below: Washington DC – Some of the Individuals at Community Rally for Freedom of Religion

The Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV)’s Fatima Thompson spoke of the need to remind Americans that Muslims are our fellow Americans, who also suffered in the 9/11 attacks.  She told the audience “Let’s not repeat the actions of those who would instill fear on others. Let’s consider the US Constitution and its guarantee for freedom of religion, freedom of worship and freedom of conscience. Let’s unite as Americans and demonstrate those values we cherish in order to allow all to enjoy these freedoms regardless of creed. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

See this link for the full text of her statement: “In Memory of Freedom on 911.”

Photo Below: MPV’s Fatima Thompson Speaks Out for Freedom of Religion, Worship, and Conscience

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)‘s Jeffrey Imm extended the nation’s continued sympathy to those who lost loved ones, family, friends and associates in the 9/11 attacks on 2001.  He urged the nation not to allow those who spread anti-Islamic hatred to divide us as a United States of America.  He stated that the answers to such anti-Islamic hatred require both enforcement of the Constitution and law, as well as a renewed effort to combat the forces of intolerance with tolerance, meeting the forces of hate with love, and meeting those with an upraised fist with “an outstretched hand in healing and hope.”  He stated “Winning minds without winning hearts will give us no victory over hate. We must Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.”

See this link for the full text of his statement: “R.E.A.L. Remembers September 11, Calls for National Healing.”;
YouTube of his statement earlier on September 11.

Photo Below: R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm Urges Respect and Love for Our Fellow Americans


R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm went around with the microphone to gather comments from the assembled audience, which shared their individual messages of peace, and support for freedom of religion, worship, and respect for their fellow Americans.  (When additional YouTube videos of such messages are available, they will posted on R.E.A.L.’s YouTube page and updated to this web site.)

Members of the Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV) attended with signs showing their support for human rights and freedom.

People from diverse faiths attended the event including a number of Jewish Americans, as well as Rabbi Binyamin Biber, who brought members of the Machar congregation with him to publicly stand for freedom of religion.

Mike Rychlik and others urged individuals to also join the Interfaith Youth Action Unity Walk on September 12 starting at 1:30 PM at Embassy Row, in Washington DC – for more information see, 911UnityWalk.org.

Another attendee, Andra, sang “Let There be Peace on Earth,” as other members of the community rally joined in.

Photo below: Concerned American Andra Waves Peace Flag, Sings “Let There Be Peace on Earth”

The group then sang, as our final “surprise” part of the event, a sing-a-long to an American folk song – “This land is your land.”

You can hear and see their solidarity in supporting Muslim Americans and all Americans in our shared America, our shared Constitution, our shared law, and our shared nation – in their singing of “This land is your land, this land is my land” – for ALL Americans.

See YouTube link to video.

To Muslim Americans and all Americans:

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.


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

American Folk Song: This Land Is Your Land

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me that endless skyway
I saw below me that golden valley
This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and I rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
While all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
A voice was chanting, As the fog was lifting,
This land was made for you and me.

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

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

R.E.A.L. Statement on September 11, Calls for National Healing

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to those who lost families, friends, and acquaintances in the September 11, 2001 attacks. I would like for us all to extend our sympathies, our compassion, and our prayers to those who died this day, and those who were left to pick up the shattered pieces of their lives and their dreams. I would like for all of us to extend our shared remembrance to the brave men and women who gave their lives to help protect and save others in the terrible attack on September 11, 2001. The heart and prayers of this nation go out to you this day and every day. We remember.

We often say “it is a good day to be responsible for equality and liberty.” And indeed it is. Even on 9/11, perhaps especially today, it is always a good day to be responsible for equality and liberty. Across the nation today, Americans will remember this day as Patriot Day, as designated by the President of the United States. The Presidential proclamation for Patriot Day points out that the Americans we lost on 9/11 came from diverse identity groups. The Presidential proclamation for Patriot Day also points out that the Americans we lost on 9/11 also came many faiths. We know that included Muslim Americans.

Those who died on 9/11 lived in an America that believed in our equality and liberty for each of us, including our freedom of religion, our freedom of worship, and our freedom of conscience – without question, without reservation, without exception. That is the America we love, the land of the free and the home of the brave. That is the America that we need to reclaim for all Americans – Muslims, non-Muslims, and people of every faith and identity group.

Just like there were terrorists on 9/11 that have sought to divide America, there are those extremists that seek to divide us again today. There are those who seek to spread anti-Islamic hatred across America. There are those who seek to deny Muslim Americans their Constitutional freedom of religion and freedom of worship from coast-to-coast in California, Tennessee, Kentucky, New York to intimidate those who seek freedom of worship. There are those who protest against mosques in eight states across America today. There are those who have tried to use pipe-bombs against a mosque in Florida, those who have sought to vandalize mosques, those involved in arson, and those today in some parts of America who plan to burn the Qur’an.

But we will not be moved – from the truths that we find self-evident as Americans. We will not be divided. We will stop the virus of hatred towards one another, and we will not turn against one another, but we will remain a UNITED States of America. We will defend the freedom of religion and worship for Muslim Americans, because it is the AMERICAN thing to do.

We will also not be moved, we will not be divided on the Constitution of the United States or the law. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion for all. We will defend the Constitution of the United States of America. United States federal law also ensures the right of all Americans to practice their religion without intimidation by oppressive zoning or other restrictions, as we continue to see growing across America today. We have a petition to President Obama and Attorney General Holder to call upon them to enforce the Constitution and to enforce the Religious Land Act to ensure such freedom of religion for Muslim Americans today. The first step in overcoming our divisions is to remember that our Constitution and our law applies to all Americans, including Muslim Americans.  We cannot make deals with hate or compromises on freedom.

On this National Day of Service, we must join together to serve our nation by seeking to heal the wounds of this growing national hatred against Muslim Americans. To those who seek hate, I only offer love. To those who seek to never forgive, I only offer forgiveness. Instead of an upraised fist, I offer an outstretched hand in healing and hope to all Americans. We got to this situation together, and we must heal as a nation together. Enforcing the Constitution and law is only part of the solution to our national divisions. We must also remember the importance of respecting one another, and with that respect, trusting one another.

America has seen other crises of intolerance, distrust, and hate before. We faced such crises together not just with our minds, but most importantly with our hearts. There was a time in America when many people believed that black Americans did not have the same rights as white Americans. We challenged that hate with logic and law. But I saw that struggle against hate with my own eyes, and I know that America needed more than that.

We have defied the power of hate with the power of love. We must do so once again. Winning minds without winning hearts will give us no victory over hate. We must Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.

We can be a UNITED States of America, responsible for equality and liberty, and respecting freedom of religion and worship for Muslims, non-Muslims, and people of all beliefs and conscience. But to do so, we must respect one another, we must find a way to trust one another, and we must open our hearts to love one another – as fellow Americans and fellow human beings.

In the words of an American folk song which I share with my Muslim American friends here and around the nation:

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California to the New York Island
From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.

God bless you all and God guide the United States of America.

NYC: Planned World Trade Center 1 and Pentagon Interfaith Chapel Stained Glass Window