Month: November 2015

Voice of Human Rights Must Challenge Khilafah Extremists from ISIS or Other Groups

When extremists have come to the United States of America to attack democracy, call for an end to our shared universal human rights, and call for a global Khilafah (as ‪#‎ISIS‬ also does), where have been the voices challenging this? There have been very few. And when the Hizb ut-Tahrir group, which shares ISIS‘ goals for a ‪#‎Khilafah‬ state, held such an event within a short drive of Washington DC, who was there to challenge such views? Just Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.). If we are outraged over the terrorist attacks and threats by ISIS, we need to first start with finding the Courage of our Convictions, to defend the democratic human rights that we support. We need the voices of the rest of the nation and the world on this.

June 14, 2015 - Demonstration in Support of Democracy and Universal Human Rights by R.E.A.L. at Hizb ut-Tahrir America Extremist Conference in the Washington, DC Suburb of Springfield, Virginia
June 14, 2015 – Demonstration in Support of Democracy and Universal Human Rights by R.E.A.L. at Hizb ut-Tahrir America Extremist Conference in the Washington, DC Suburb of Springfield, Virginia

 

R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm Leads Protestors to Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir America in Oak Brook, IL (Chicago suburb)
R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm Leads Protestors to Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir America in Oak Brook, IL (Chicago suburb)

 

Protesters Supporting Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Oak Brook, IL Outside Hizb ut-Tahrir Event
Protesters Supporting Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms in Oak Brook, IL Outside Hizb ut-Tahrir Event
Demonstrators Rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir's View that Democracy is "Kufr" and Must Be Rejected (Hizb ut-Tahrir Oak Brook, IL)
Demonstrators Rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir’s View that Democracy is “Kufr” and Must Be Rejected (Hizb ut-Tahrir Oak Brook, IL)
Chicago Demonstrators in 2009 - Rejecting Anti-Human Rights Message of Hizb ut-Tahrir
Chicago Demonstrators in 2009 – Rejecting Anti-Human Rights Message of Hizb ut-Tahrir
What We Believe - Responsible for Equality And Liberty's Jeffrey Imm Demonstrating Outside Hizb ut-Tahrir America's July 19, 2009 Chicago Event
What We Believe – Responsible for Equality And Liberty’s Jeffrey Imm Demonstrating Outside Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s July 19, 2009 Chicago Event

Arlington: R.E.A.L. on Jefferson Davis Highway

November 14, 2015

Prepared Remarks of Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) on Jefferson Davis Highway

Arlington County Board
2100 Clarendon Blvd., 3rd floor, Arlington, Virginia
arlingtonboard@arlingtonva.us

My name is Jeffrey Imm, and I was a resident of Arlington, Virginia for nearly 10 years. I am here to urge the Arlington County Board to remove the name of “Jefferson Davis” from the Arlington portion of U.S. 1, which is called “Jefferson Davis Highway.” The United States of America must reject and denounce white supremacist hatred, violence, and terrorism, which we saw led by former Confederate leader Jefferson Davis. A few miles away in Arlington National Cemetery, we see the graves of brave men who gave their lives to defend the Constitution of the United States of America. 140,000 American Union soldiers gave their lives in combat to fight the racist Confederate forces that fought to defend human slavery of African-Americans, and who were led by the racist leader of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. Arlington County should not name its highway after this racist enemy of the United States of America. The Confederate white supremacist war of terror against African-Americans and those who stood for human freedom did not end with the Civil War. We have seen this white supremacist terrorist war continue across the nation, even today, in attacks across the nation, and white supremacist hate group activity in Virginia. White supremacists extremists who have promoted terrorist attacks on the Stormfront web site are attacking those who would dare to challenge the name of this highway after Jefferson Davis. Such white supremacists extremists have praised and called for terrorist attacks across this nation, including praise for the terrorist attack on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.  White supremacists on Stormfront and elsewhere have called for death threats against me and others who will defy their ideology of terrorism. But it is essential that Arlington, Virginia and all of us show the courage of convictions, and defy the forces of terrorism from white supremacist groups and others.

We must never give in to terrorist hatred of our human rights and human dignity.

Jeffrey Imm
Founder, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
Volunteer Human Rights Group
usa@realcourage.org
301-613-8789

 

ISIS in America – Majority of 900 Investigations Involve Links to ISIS

The U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee has provided a report on November 2, 2015, on the growing threat of the ISIS terrorist organization to Western nation targets, including the United States of America.  It states “vast majority of the 900 active homegrown extremist investigations involve links to ISIS.”  The Homeland Security Committee maintains a terrorist threat map for the United States of America.  In the Committee’s October report, it stated that 17 out of the 61 planned ISIS plots against Western targets were focused on the USA.  In the November report, it increased that total number by 1 to 62 ISIS plots with 18 plots in the USA.

The U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee November 2015 reporting and Terror Threat Snapshot states:

— “ISIS is fueling an unprecedented tempo for law enforcement authorities combating the homegrown Islamist extremist threat. The vast majority of the 900 active homegrown extremist investigations involve links to ISIS. Authorities have already arrested nearly 60 individuals this year in ISIS-related cases.”

— “ISIS’s global expansion has unleashed a wave of violence around the world – including against Western targets. From July through September this year, ISIS-affiliated groups launched around 12 attacks every day killing more than 30 people worldwide. ISIS’s calls for attacks are resonating with its  supporters in the West. ISIS has directed or inspired 62 plots to attack Western targets, including 18 inside the United States.”

— “Al Qaeda and its affiliates are regenerating their terror networks and capitalizing on power vacuums.Al Qaeda is exploiting the diminished American troop presence and weak local security forces in Afghanistan in order to rebuild its sanctuary. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has captured additional territory in Yemen amidst the ongoing war there.”

— “Foreign fighters converging on the battlefields in Syria and Iraq pose a continuing threat to the United States and our allies. A French fighter returnee reportedly described Syria as a “factory of jihadists” trained to launch external attacks in the near future. A recent House Homeland Security Committee bipartisan task force found that security weaknesses overseas are enabling fighters to travel more freely.

— “The massive refugee flows out of Syria remain vulnerable to terrorists seeking to exploit the crisis to infiltrate the West. American national security officials cautioned during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on October 21 that our limited intelligence picture of the conflict zone in Syria has the potential to undermine the integrity of the U.S. refugee resettlement screening process.”

— “Guantanamo Bay detainees transferred overseas continue to pose a threat to U.S. national security interests. Nearly one in three detainees released from the facility have rejoined or are suspected of having rejoined Islamist terror groups. The Obama Administration transferred two more detainees out of Guantanamo in October.”

— “The world’s leading state sponsor of Islamist terror, Iran, continues to sow instability and is poised to gain additional resources in the coming months as a result of sanctions relief. Iran has ramped up its military involvement in Syria in conjunction with its proxies, the Assad regime, and Russia. The Obama Administration is preparing to provide Iran with additional sanctions relief under the terms of the nuclear agreement, meanwhile, the Iranian parliament vowed that the “martyr-nurturing nation of Iran” will continue chanting “Death to America.”

— “Al Qaeda and its affiliates are regenerating their terror networks and capitalizing on power vacuums. Al Qaeda is exploiting the diminished American troop presence and weak local security forces in Afghanistan in order to rebuild its sanctuary. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has captured additional territory in Yemen amidst the ongoing war there.”

— “Foreign fighters converging on the battlefields in Syria and Iraq pose a continuing threat to the United States and our allies. A French fighter returnee reportedly described Syria as a “factory of jihadists” trained to launch external attacks in the near future. A recent House Homeland Security Committee bipartisan task force found that security weaknesses overseas are enabling fighters to travel more freely.
The massive refugee flows out of Syria remain vulnerable to terrorists seeking to exploit the crisis to infiltrate the West. American national security officials cautioned during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on October 21 that our limited intelligence picture of the conflict zone in Syria has the potential to undermine the integrity of the U.S. refugee resettlement screening process.

— “Guantanamo Bay detainees transferred overseas continue to pose a threat to U.S. national security interests. Nearly one in three detainees released from the facility have rejoined or are suspected of having rejoined Islamist terror groups. The Obama Administration transferred two more detainees out of Guantanamo in October.”

— “The world’s leading state sponsor of Islamist terror, Iran, continues to sow instability and is poised to gain additional resources in the coming months as a result of sanctions relief. Iran has ramped up its military involvement in Syria in conjunction with its proxies, the Assad regime, and Russia. The Administration is preparing to provide Iran with additional sanctions relief under the terms of the nuclear agreement, meanwhile, the Iranian parliament vowed that the “martyr-nurturing nation of Iran” will continue chanting ‘Death to America.'”

TerrorThreatSnapshot_November_Social-Media

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands in support of our universal human rights for all, and we stand in defiance against those, including terrorist and hate groups, which seek to attack such universal human rights, dignity, and security for all

We Are NOT Anonymous – Racist Hatred Won’t be Stopped by More Hatred

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) promotes the universal human rights of all people, including those we disagree with, and whose ideological views we reject.  We can disagree with and reject extremist views and anti-human rights views, while not sinking to a level of extremism and hatred ourselves.  While we have had our own bitter experience being attacked by such extremist groups, we do not believe the answer to hate is more hate.

We do not have to silently and passively “tolerate” extremist views, and we can defiantly use our freedoms and our free speech to disagree with and reject such extremist and hate views.  This includes, of course, the most aggressive enemies of human rights and of R.E.A.L. in particular.  We have long been a target of white supremacist and other extremist hate groups, both organizationally and individually.  We understand the frustration and the desire to undermine such groups arguments and their activism in spreading hatred.  We have stood many times, and will stand many times again in defiance of such views.

But defiance of views we reject is not hatred.  Even those whose views we reject are still our brothers and sisters in humanity.  Perhaps it is understandably difficult for us to “love” those who “hate” us.  Yet when we respond to hate with hate of our own, we are giving strength and courage to the enemies of human rights, not undermining and defying their objectives.

So we will not be reporting on or discussing the efforts by the extremist group Anonymous to “hack” the computers and systems of the enemies of human rights.  We understand the frustration of such individuals in their frustrated belief that the enemies of human rights can act with impunity.

Anonymous is wrong.  The enemies of human rights have never acted with impunity, and there have been those who have stood up to them and will continue to stand up to them – no matter who they are or where they promote racial and extremist hatred.   The slogan on Anonymous is “EVILdoneEVILdo.”  At R.E.A.L., we will Fear No Evil, and we have the ethics that two wrongs do not make a right.

We at R.E.A.L. have found that the public statements of the enemies of human rights speak volumes as to the challenge that they present.  We don’t have to “hack” their computers or reveal “hidden secrets,” because the racist and extremist views that these groups and individuals have are publicly known.  If we only challenged such publicly known racist and extremist views, we could find ourselves busy every hour of every day.

Yet the hacker group Anonymous feels the need to break into these extremists’ Twitter accounts, computer networks, etc.  and “reveal” their true identities, personal information, family information, telephone numbers, vehicle information, and other information which is totally unnecessary to reject anti-human rights views.  Of what human rights value is it to reveal alleged extremists’ telephone numbers, vehicle information, personal addresses, and names and details of family members (which may be totally innocent of the anti-human rights views of such extremists)?

In fact, R.E.A.L. has been the target of such hacker attacks from white supremacists and other groups.  They have gone after personal information on our families, addresses, telephone numbers.  They did so because we DARED to defy their white supremacist and extremist views.

White supremacist and other extremist hackers didn’t and won’t STOP US FROM DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS.  Their death threats didn’t and they won’t silence our free speech to defend the universal human rights for all people.

So we know the similarly wrong tactics of Anonymous will not stop those whose hatred of human rights will just be fueled by these hacker attacks.

When R.E.A.L. sees the  hacker group Anonymous doing the same thing, all this demonstrates to us is that they are just as willing to use such irresponsible tactics as those who are the enemies of human rights.  As we have said then, and we say again – we are not afraid – we will defend the universal human rights of our fellow human beings with real courage.

Anonymous  does not help the ongoing cause of fighting for human rights this way.  Anonymous only undermines the good work that those who challenge racists and extremist groups are doing to show that anti-human rights views and values have no place in democracy which values human rights and compassion for our public.

We may not control the actions of others, but we certainly can control our own actions and words.

The example we set defines our own values and principals.   We believe in the ethical mathematics that two wrongs do not make a right.

We are NOT Anonymous.

We are freely and openly Responsible for Equality And Liberty.

Even, and especially, when it is difficult to do so.

We offer an outstretched hand to all of our brothers and sisters in humanity, and we urge those burdened by the hate of anti-human rights views to drop such burden, and rejoin the family of humanity and respect for all.

Every day is another good day to demonstrate what it means to truly be RESPONSIBLE.

Volunteers Offer an Outstretched Hand, Not an Upraised Fist - to White Nationalism and Anti-Semitic Group Leader - Choose Love, Not Hate
Volunteers Offer an Outstretched Hand, Not an Upraised Fist – to White Nationalism and Anti-Semitic Group Leader – Choose Love, Not Hate

Human Rights Campaigns and Anonymous’ “Do Evil” Campaign

When we are publicly responsible as citizens of humanity for our universal shared human rights, the most powerful action is to be responsible as ourselves, with real names, real faces, and a real sense of personal responsibility.  Such genuine supporters of our shared human rights fight hundreds of diverse battles in defense of human rights and dignity for people of different identity groups, ethnic groups, races, nationalities, genders, religions, and beliefs – as part of a shared commitment to our Universal Human Rights.

We don’t wear masks to hide behind.  We walk in the streets, unashamed, unafraid, and honest with our names, our identities, and our shared values of human rights and dignity for all.  We are Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), volunteers helping many different human rights causes around the world.

This is very different than the planned “Anonymous” hacker extremist group.  It is understandable that some frustrated people may think that people like “Anonymous” might make a difference with their hacker campaigns.  But their are misled and misguided – because the difference the “Anonymous” hacker group really seeks to make is a negative difference – one to promote hatred and contempt.  R.E.A.L. rejects the idea that hate will defeat hate, as we have stated in our response regarding the misguided “Anonymous” campaign against racist members of the Ku Klux Klan which has targeted innocent people, and which undermines efforts by human rights groups that seek to gain public rejection of racist ideologies of hate.

But what really identifies the corruption in the extremist group “Anonymous” is their promise to “Do Evil,” as part of the Anonymous slogan “EVILdoneEVILdo.”

Where in our shared Universal Human Rights, do we have a “right” to “Do Evil”?  What human rights group bases its public awareness campaigns and efforts to challenge and defy extremists on a slogan to “Do Evil”?

For those Responsible for Equality And Liberty – we will FEAR NO EVIL – not from the racist Ku Klux Klan, not from Anonymous, and not from any extremist group.

Of course, we all know the answers to this.  Members of Anonymous have written to R.E.A.L. stating, “there’s so many racists. You’re not doing a good job.”  We have and we will continue to defy racist hatred and extremist ideologies.  But we have no illusions over the long struggle against racism and hatred.  It will continue in corners, despite our best near-term efforts.  The struggle against racism is not in one short-term, sweeping victory.  That can’t and won’t happen.  Any adult knows this.  Our long-term efforts will continue to challenge those who defy our shared human rights – from any area.

For that, we need to respect human rights ourselves.  For that, we cannot fight hate with hate, or evil with evil.  A human rights crusade can never be based on “evil,” because when it does – it is not a human  rights crusade at all.

We don’t need masks.  We don’t need to be “Anonymous.”

We have nothing to hide or be ashamed of.  We are openly and publicly, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

R.E.A.L.'s Orange Ribbon Campaign for Equality And Liberty
R.E.A.L.’s Orange Ribbon Campaign for Equality And Liberty

UNHCR – Template Letter – for Pakistan Christian Refugees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
UNHCR Regional Representative in Thailand
3rd Floor, United Nations Building, Rajdamnern Nok Avenue, 10200 Bangkok, Thailand
Telephone: 66 2 288 1858
FAX: 66 2 280 0555
Email: thaba@unhcr.org, TANV@unhcr.org

CC: Director’s Office: Email: usane@unhcr.org

Department of International Protection
E-mail: hqpr02@unhcr.org

UNHCR –
I am writing you today as a private citizen due to my concern over the issue of Pakistan Christian refugees who have traveled in desperation to Thailand for safety. I am writing to ask you to reassess the UNHCR Thailand’s processes and effectiveness in fairly granting refugee status to desperate Pakistan Christian refugees who have traveled to Thailand as a last resort to obtain human rights, dignity, and security for themselves and their families.

These Pakistan Christian refugees have sacrificed their homes, their livelihoods, their friends, and their neighbors – their entire lives in their home country – out of desperation, due to their persecution and oppression in Pakistan due to their religion.

There is widespread documentation and proof of such persecution of Pakistan Christian minorities, including by reports of the U.S. Council on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The USCIRF declared in its 2015 report on Pakistan (issued in July 2015) “that the U.S. government should designate Pakistan as a ‘country of particular concern,’ as required under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).” The USCIRF has documented a “well-founded fear of persecution” of Pakistan Christians based on their religious human rights, and it has also documented “serious threats to life, physical integrity, and freedom” of Pakistan Christians. This is due to the rampant persecution of religious minorities, including Pakistan Christians and their human rights, as described in their report, which you can read at:
http://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Pakistan%202015.pdf

In addition, the U.S. Department of State has recently reported on the oppression and persecution by Pakistan Christians, including use of the oppressive Pakistan “blasphemy law” to target Christians and minority religions by extremists who seek to bully such religious minorities.

In its October 2015 report, the U.S. Department of State has reported on Pakistan attacks by extremist mobs, such as a “mob of more than 3,000 persons burned some 100 Christian homes in Lahore’s Joseph Colony,” “the September 2013 bombing of Peshawar’s All Saints Church that killed at least 83 and injured more than 146,” and in November 2014 “in Kot Radha Kishan, Punjab, an estimated mob of 1,500 villagers accused a Christian couple of blasphemy and burned them alive in a brick kiln.” This official government report also describes their social disadvantages in education and every other facet of life, in Pakistan. These cases of persecution and violence against Christians are part of the official report of the U.S. Department of State, which you can see at:
http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/238716.pdf

In the UNHCR Resettlement Handbook, Chapter 6, Resettlement Submission Categories, Section 6.3.2, page 251, the UNHCR uses the definition of violence from the World Health Organization: “Violence is the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community, which either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation.”

I have seen from such official government reports that such cases of violence against Pakistan Christians (as you define in the UNHCR Resettlement Handbook) have been conducted by large mobs with dire and often fatal consequences. These are the types of threats of violence and death with Pakistan Christian refugees have fled from, and in desperation, driven them to flee to Thailand for sanctuary.

So I urge the UNHCR Thailand to fully and accurately assess the Pakistan societal threats of violence (and actual violence) against such Pakistan Christians who have been desperate enough to flee their homelands for Thailand. If the UNHCR Thailand does not fully and accurately assess such threats of violence against Pakistan Christian refugees seeking asylum, then the very mission of the UNHCR in refugee resettlement will be undermined.

I am disappointed that too often, I am seeing the results of Pakistan Christian refugees’ Refugee Status Determination (RSD) being denied by UNHCR Thailand for some administrative or trivial issue, which goes to the question of what should we expect from refugees? What should we expect from persecuted people, who are denied educational opportunities, and living in constant poverty and fear? Should we expect them to be brilliant and nimble debaters in interviews designed to probe for “inconsistencies,” rather than look with compassion and understanding at people who are literally running for their lives? Should we expect that the elderly, the sick, the exhausted, and the frightened will have perfect memories of every possible detail of every event in the lives they fled from?

It is unreasonable and unfair by anyone’s standards, and surely for an agency of compassion, such as the UNHCR, designed to support resettlement of the persecuted. Desperate Pakistan Christian refugees fleeing for safety should not then then be rejected by the very agency designed to protect their rights.
This has no place in the mission of the UNHCR.

I support the UNHCR’s mission, because I believe in the good work of the mission. My nation gives generously to the UNHCR as I also do as an individual to NGOs and other charity sources to support such refugees.

But when I give to support the UNHCR mission of protecting refugees, I do not do so for refugees to be ignored, rejected, and bullied. I give and support the UNHCR mission of protecting refugees, so that refugees will get the compassionate help and understanding that they need, in consideration of the desperate conditions under which they have fled their homeland.

I support this for Pakistan Christian refugees, but I don’t ask for this as any “special” treatment. I ask for the same treatment, the same courtesy, the same understanding, and the same human rights and dignity that I would expect any other refugee to receive.

I understand that the UNHCR has many cases to see and a limited staff. I recognize that is a challenge, which you have told the news media impacts your ability to expeditiously complete RSDs for Pakistan Christian refugees. However, the answer to this issue is in your own hands. There is no need to make the RSD process so protracted and so onerous in trying to probe for new arguments to deny asylum that it takes you years and years for each candidate. This is a problem of the UNHCR’s creation, and it is one you can solve, by taking a position of reasonable compassion and understanding in assessing these RSD applications, and using your judgment based on the knowledge you already have in interviewing such Pakistan Christian refugee applicants.

These Pakistan Christian refugee seekers clearly did not come to migrate to Thailand for no logical reason; the reasons for their fleeing from Pakistan are well documented by the USCIRF, by the U.S. State Department, by NGOs around the world, and by the news media on a near-daily basis. If the UNHCR Thailand chooses not to acknowledge all of this evidence of their conditions, then it is not only wasting the valuable funding of its donor nations in inefficiency, but it is also being unfair in its assessment of Pakistan Christian refugee applicants.

I urge you to re-evaluate your RSD processes and standards for such Pakistan Christian refugee applicants, so that I and the nation who my tax dollars funds, can (in good conscience) continue to fund the important work that the UNHCR has been put in place to perform. Remember, it is based on our shared commitment for the universal human rights and dignity for all, and our shared commitment for the rights of refugees, that the UNHCR’s important work is funded not just for these Pakistan Christian refugees, but also for refugees around the world. They and you should expect consistent, fair, and equitable standards to protect the rights, dignity, and security of all refugees.

Best Regards,