Human Rights – Page 3 – Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Carolyn Cook Calls for American Women’s Rights on Human Rights Day

Carolyn Cook, founder and CEO of United for Equality, spoke at the National Press Club in Washington DC on December 8, as part of a Human Rights Day Event, calling for a renewed commitment by Americans in support of the Constitutional rights for all American women, as part of our global human rights goals. United for Equality is a social justice enterprise seeking the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) by 2015.

United for Equality has the symbol of the three women, symbolizing the three waves that it has taken for women to struggle for equality in America. Carolyn stated that we must change the way people think and what we tolerate in our culture regarding the rights and dignity of our fellow Americans and fellow human beings. Carolyn spoke out against the discrimination and the efforts to deny full equality to women in America, in every aspect of their lives. She stated that we need to take our system back and make it ours.

Carolyn Cook stated that United for Equality’s coalition successfully introduced a bill to the 112the session of the United States Congress calling for Congress to remove the time limit on the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.), as the United States previously had the ratification of the E.R.A. in 35 states, and it requires ratification in 38 states and by 2/3s of the House and Senate. She pointed out how previous U.S. government officials sought to halt the efforts to ratify the E.R.A. after 10 years when nearly all of the required states but 3 had ratified this Constitutional Amendment, and pointed out that women have no desire to “start over” the ratification of the E.R.A.

Carolyn Cook also spoke on the importance of human rights activists to work together in our common causes of universal human rights for women, men, and children, and people of all identity groups. She also spoke of learning from other activist groups, and identifying how we can grow as human rights activists, by first identifying where we are on the paradigm of activism and learning how we can reach further as individuals committed to human rights and social justice.

Carolyn Cook also spoke on the paradigm of options we have as activists and participants in defending human rights. Carolyn urged a more holistic approach towards addressing human rights as lifelong causes. She discussed lessons learned from the Occupy movement and other social activist efforts to bring change to the world. Her discussion on lessons from the Occupy movement are detailed in the YouTube video of her speech beginning at 6:36 minutes in on Part 1 and continuing and concluding in Part 2 of her remarks.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stands united with our good friends in United for Equality and all American women seeking the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment and both Constitutional and social justice for women in America.

Carolyn_Cook_HR_Day_2011 — Carolyn Cook, CEO and Founder of United for Equality, Speaks on Behalf of American Women's Constitutional Rights - on Human Rights Day 2011 Event

The video and audio of her full speech can be seen on YouTube, which is in two parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

Human Rights for Falun Gong Addressed at Human Rights Day Event

Jared Pearman, Spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, DC, spoke on behalf of human rights and human dignity for the Falun Gong / Falun Dafa at the 2011 Human Rights Day Event held at the National Press Conference in Washington DC. Below are his remarks. R.E.A.L. has been reporting on Falun Gong human rights issues.

Jared_Pearman_HR_Day_Falun_ — Jared Pearman, Spokesperson of Falun Dafa Association of Washington DC, oppressed in the PRC and denied their most basic human rights and dignity by those who view their practice and support for traditional Chinese values as a threat to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) - Speaking at 2011 Human Rights Day Event

A YouTube Video is also available to provide the full video and audio of Mr. Pearman’s remarks on this issue.

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Statement by Jared Pearman, Spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Association of Washington, DC, at the National Press Club on December 8, 2011

Hello Everyone, It’s an honor to be here today to mark World Human Rights Day. I’d like to especially thank Jeffrey and everyone at Responsible for Equality And Liberty for putting today’s event together.

Some people here may be familiar with the persecution of Falun Gong in China, but perhaps for others, this is the first you’ll be hearing about this in-depth. So let me begin with a brief introduction to the issue followed by some of the key developments we’re seeing in China today.

Introduction

Falun Gong, which is often also called Falun Dafa, is a peaceful spiritual practice rooted in traditional Chinese culture. It consists of meditation, five gentle sets of exercises, and a moral philosophy centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Practitioners of Falun Gong aspire to live in accordance with these principles in their daily lives. It’s a very simple, very effective method of achieving a healthy mind, body, and spirit.

Although it is rooted in ancient Chinese spiritual tradition, Falun Gong was first taught publicly in China in 1992. It spread quickly through word-of-mouth as tens of millions of Chinese citizens took up the practice. By the mid 90’s every park in every city of China had people practicing the graceful movements of the exercises. Today, Falun Gong is practiced in over 80 countries worldwide by people of all ages and backgrounds. It is always taught free of charge by volunteers, and can be practiced individually or in groups.

Unfortunately, as Falun Gong grew in popularity throughout the 1990s, China’s communist leaders began to view the practice and its moral philosophy as ideological competition. Although Falun Gong is peaceful and possesses no political aspirations, the Communist Party of China does not tolerate large independent religious or spiritual practices. Thus, on July 20th, 1999, China’s rulers began a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong. Since then, like underground Christians and Tibetan Buddhists, millions of Falun Gong adherents have been denied the right to peacefully practice their faith.

Falun Gong in 2011

Now, let’s talk a bit about what’s happening with Falun Gong today. In the last year, Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China continued to be the targets of a severe, centrally-coordinated suppression at the hands of the Chinese Communist Party. Hundreds of thousands of practitioners are estimated to be detained extrajudicially in detention centers, labor camps, prisons, and in the network of ad hoc “transformation-through-reeducation” centers. In all these facilities, adherents of Falun Gong are subjected to varying degrees of psychological and physical torture and coercion as authorities seek to force renunciations of their beliefs. In the last several years, we’ve received verifiable reports of over one hundred deaths due to torture, and this year’s numbers sadly look to be on par with that, bringing our confirmed total to 3427. The real number could be many times higher.

The campaign against Falun Gong continues to be coordinated by what’s known as the 610 Office—an extrajudicial, Communist Party-based security agency named for the date of its creation on June 10, 1999. The 610 Office is overseen by the Central Leading Group for Dealing with Heretical Organizations, headed by Politburo member Zhou Yongkang. Corresponding local 610 Offices exist at the provincial, municipal, district, and neighborhood levels, as well as in some large workplaces and universities. Although they possess no legal authority, the 610 Office wields substantial influence in coordinating the anti-Falun Gong campaign, as well as the power to direct media entities, courts, and the state-based security forces.

In 2010, the central 610 Office ordered the launch of a three-year campaign to intensify the coercive “transformation” of Falun Gong practitioners nationwide. Transformation here refers to a process of ideological reprograming, the objective of which is to force the Falun Gong practitioner to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. If they fail to renounce their beliefs, they are sent to labor camps or sentenced in sham trials to lengthy prison terms.

In February, the Jiamusi Prison in Northeast China established a special unit to increase the transformation rate of incarcerated Falun Gong practitioners. Within two weeks of the unit’s establishment, three middle-aged, male Falun Gong practitioners were tortured to death in custody at the prison.

Although the majority of Falun Gong adherents unlawfully detained are held in reeducation-through-labor camps, in recent years a greater proportion of practitioners have been sentenced in sham trials to prisons. Most are tried under a vaguely worded provision that outlaws “using a heretical religion to undermine the implementation of the law.” Which laws are being undermined is never made clear. Moreover, as lawyers have pointed out, there are actually no laws in China that formally ban the practice of Falun Gong.

Lawyers who have sought to defend Falun Gong clients continue to face harassment by security agencies and the 610 Office. These lawyers have reported being denied access to clients, barred from entering courtrooms, or facing harassment, detention, imprisonment, and even torture for their advocacy on behalf of Falun Gong. Dozens of lawyers who have taken Falun Gong cases have been either disbarred or have been unable to renew their licenses to practice law.

Chinese authorities, under the direction of the Communist Party, have also continued to intensify the response to Falun Gong’s efforts to disseminate information to the general populace of China. This includes cracking down on underground “material sites” run by Falun Gong practitioners, which produce literature and information on the practice and its suppression. Ongoing crackdowns on black market satellite equipment, on the internet, and on shortwave radio broadcasts are also strongly linked in official literature to the anti-Falun Gong campaign.

Although the central 610 Office and Communist Party continue to pursue the eradication campaign as a national priority, grassroots opposition to the persecution has been steadily increasingly since approximately 2005, as has the efficacy of Falun Gong’s resistance to suppression. As I said, human rights lawyers continue to risk their careers and personal safety to defend Falun Gong adherents. In a series of wonderfully surprising events, thousands of ordinary Chinese citizens in multiple locales have openly petitioned for the release of imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners—something that would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. Anecdotal reports from across China speak of local 610 Officers and public security agents who have grown resentful of the central orders to crack down on Falun Gong, and who secretly protect the Falun Gong practitioners they are charged with persecuting. Similarly, many judges and prosecutors participating in anti-Falun Gong cases now do so with disdain, and sometimes openly express admiration for Falun Gong (though they still comply with 610 Office directions).

Perhaps the best evidence of the waning support for the party’s anti-Falun Gong campaign comes from official documents themselves. Publicly available documents published online in recent years describe Falun Gong’s resistance efforts as a potential existential threat to the party—a “matter of life or death.”

This erosion of grassroots support for the anti-Falun Gong campaign is significant. As with other political “douzheng” (struggle) campaigns launched by the Communist Party, the anti-Falun Gong campaign has been carried out with the support and participation of the citizenry, co-opted through propaganda. Although many citizens do continue to participate actively in the suppression, a growing proportion now refuse to be complicit. Some of these—perhaps tens of millions of people—have gone so far as to symbolically disavow their affiliations with party organizations in a movement known as Tuidang, which literally translates as “quit the part.”

Outlook

The trend lines are now clear: Falun Gong has not been crushed, and reports from China indicate that the number of practitioners is instead growing. Ordinary citizens are increasingly standing up in defense of Falun Gong and are refusing to participate in the persecution. At the same time, however, it is vitally important to make it clear that the Communist Party has not given up its campaign against the practice, and in all likelihood, it never will; to do so would be a potentially fatal admission of fallibility, one that would lay bare the truth of a campaign that has taken thousands of lives, costs billions of dollars, ruined innumerable families, and deceived a nation.

It is important to state here, that Falun Gong does not seek political power in China or elsewhere. The pursuit of worldly influence is viewed as being inconsistent with the transcendental objectives of our practice. Falun Gong has never prescribed what kind of system of governance China should adopt, nor participated in unrelated social or policy debates. Falun Gong is, and has always has been, apolitical. Our interest is purely to secure basic human rights.

Yet in the course of our efforts, we have presented an alternate vision of what China could be—an alternative way of conceptualizing Chinese national identity. Like Falun Gong itself, this vision connects with China’s moral and spiritual traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, and holds that the cultivation of virtue, honesty, and humanness are the true sources of national greatness. Put simply, Falun Gong is challenging the Communist Party’s hegemony over what it means to be Chinese, and has done so in a manner that is credible, accessible, and inspiring to the Chinese people. If this vision gains momentum over the Leninist / Legalist paradigm currently in place, it is our belief that the Chinese people will enjoy greater freedoms and security, and China will become a more transparent, cooperative, and stable partner for the world.

Women’s Equality Day Event: DC Area Gathering

On Women’s Equality Day, August 26, a Washington DC area gathering in the Maryland suburbs of Rockville, remembered the historic granting of women the right to vote, and activists called for full Constitutional Equality for all women in America! Supporters gathered at the La Tasca Restaurant, remembering the 163rd Anniversary of the Women’s Rights Movement and the 91st anniversary of women winning the vote.

Activists also called for continuing efforts to PASS the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) for full Constitution Equality of women in America. Activists also discussed progress that they were making in the campaign for the E.R.A. Activists continue to work in Congress and among state legislative bodies to continue to work to pass the E.R.A.

House Joint Resolution 47 for the E.R.A. seeks to remove the deadline for the ratification of the E.R.A. to leverage the past ratification of the E.R.A. by states that have already accepted it in the past. That bill was sponsored by Wisconsin Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin.

R.E.A.L. urges all to support our universal human rights by demanding Constitution Equality for all women through the passage of the E.R.A.

Hosting the organization of the gathering and remembrance of Women’s Equality Day included:
— Montgomery County Business & Professional Women
— United for Equality LLC – Facebook
— Montgomery County Maryland National Organization for Women (NOW) – Facebook
— American Association of University Women
— Women Back to the Future
— Women Business Onwers of Montgomery County
— Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd
— Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

At the gathering, there were speakers from these organizations, including:
— Rockville Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio
— State Senator Jennie Forehand
— Kate Campbell Stevenson
— United for Equality’s Carolyn Cook
— Montgomery County NOW
— R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm

Rockville Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio spoke of her own inspiration of an early career challenge, seeking her to pursue women’s equality issues. Senator Forehand spoke of the challenges of women suffragists and equality for women in politics.

Montgomery County Business & Professional Women (BPW) Secretary Susan Horst was a major organizer of the event and deserves our thanks. An article on the event was also posted in the Rockville Patch.

A reporter from the local Gazette newspaper also covered the event, and we look forward to their story.

Women’s Equality should never be a question.
It must be a declaration.
It must be a Constitutional Right for ALL American Women.

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Photos from the DC / Rockville Area Women’s Equality Day Event – August 26, 2011

(As we get better photos, we will share links to them – these are just spontaneous photos captured from Jeffrey Imm’s iPhone.)

082611-003 — United for Equality's Carolyn Cook Speaks to Gazette Reporter Chris

082611-016 — R.E.A.L's Jeffrey Imm Speaks

Oslo and Finding the Courage to Change — A Responsibility for All (Part I)

We stand in sympathy and shared mourning with the people of Norway over their loss in the horrific terrorist attack of July 22, 2011 in Oslo. We can only imagine the pain of parents who have lost their children, and the pain of families that have lost their loved ones. They are not just numbers or statistics, but they were unique and special human beings who loved and were loved. As I am writing this, some of the first funerals have ended, and those families and friends have gone home to remember their loved ones.

While we may want to “make sense” of such horrific terrorism against innocent children and people, the truth is there is no rational reason for the monstrous actions that Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to committing.

But as the world watches the courage of the Norwegian people after this terrorist attack, we must also find the courage to urge our society to make changes that would discourage inspiring such individuals as Mr. Breivik. Too many have known too much for too long, and not done enough to stop the rise of hatred in our world. Our sympathies to the Oslo families must not be half-hearted regrets, but must be full-hearted commitment to find ways to change, including standing up for our responsibilities to one another.

We have many freedoms as human beings. But with great freedoms comes great responsibilities. Any cause or campaign for human rights must understand these basic aspects of human society.

Those who work in the vital and passionate cause of human freedom must also remember that the struggle for such universal human rights are for all people. That includes human rights for those we may disagree with, as common brothers and sisters in the human race – the only race that matters.

It has been my privilege to preside over a coalition of individuals passionate about human rights that periodically come together for different human rights issues, coordinated by Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.). We address different human rights issues for people of all nationalities, religions, races, and genders, because equality and liberty is a right for all. When equality and liberty is denied for some, it is our problem as fellow human beings.

Our slogan has been “Choose Love, Not Hate. Love Wins.”

I was surprised to discover how controversial that slogan would be. A number of people have told me how weak it sounds, and how they did not find it sufficiently inspirational to “fight” for human rights. But we are not “fighting,” we are reaching out. We may challenge anti-freedom ideologies, and we may even confront organizations’ activities, but our goal is to reach out to our fellow human beings everywhere for consistency on the cause of our universal human rights.

While we may disagree with the ideas, words, and activities of some, as human beings we must reach out to offer love and our shared human rights to all, including those who would call themselves our enemies. Some may wonder how can we love those who view us as their enemies? But the real question is: how can stand for universal human rights and NOT love our fellow human beings? Our greatest defense for these rights is not our passion for campaigns and causes, but it is our compassion for one another as human beings.

There are some who believe that they can work for human rights, just for one culture, one religion, one race, one group, and not others, because they believe that only their group deserves such rights. That perspective negates the very term “human rights.”

Confessed terrorist Anders Behring Breivik may have believed that human beings in only some groups, religions, and cultures are entitled to human rights, and even life itself. But those who believe in human rights must always reject such exclusionary and supremacist philosophies – and we must never forget the grim results of such thinking. We must always remember that all human beings have human rights, including Mr. Breivik.

The challenge our society faces is how to balance our disagreements with dignity and compassion. For some and in some instances, this may be difficult. But we are reminded by the terrorist attack in Oslo, what happens when we do not make love and dignity for our fellow human beings our first priority.

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This will be continued in “Oslo and Finding the Courage to Change — A Commitment to Change Our Dialogue (Part II).”

Egyptian Protesters: We ARE Them

About the Egyptian protesters, Richard Cohen states in the Washington Post: “We are not them.” I am sorry to disagree, and I believe this is the root of our continuing problems, and our inability to effectively challenge extremist views. We ARE them as fellow brothers and sisters in humanity, with shared universal human rights, human dignity, and human freedom.

egypt-photo-2 — We Are Them - We Are Brothers and Sisters in Humanity (Photo: Hassan El Helali)

Especially as Americans, these are the truths that we hold self-evident, that ALL, not SOME, have these universal human rights. Not just those we think who are “ready” for such rights and freedom. Do we believe in this or not?

Mr. Cohen states that “the dream of a democratic Egypt is sure to produce a nightmare” because democracy and democratic values “are worse than useless in societies that have no tradition of tolerance or respect for minority rights.”

I have written many times of the abuses against Coptic Christians in Egypt, and I have stood with them in demanding freedom for their people from the dictator Mubarak. Yes, certainly these abuses start with allowing them to happen among the people. But the Mubarak government and its policy of discrimination, repression, and oppression of the Copts has set the example to institutionalize such discrimination and hate – and it has institutionalized oppression of all Egyptians.

I understand that some fear the increased power of extremists in a future Egyptian government without the dictator Mubarak. However, as the Copts, other Muslims, and intellectuals could easily tell you, the power of extremists who sought to oppress others has been significant during and within the existing Mubarak government. The dictator Mubarak did not care as Copts and Muslims have been oppressed by extremists; moreover, he supported the institutionalization of such oppression. You just need to have been paying attention to Egypt before the protests. When dictatorial governments (as Egypt has has for decades) set the example of oppression as an institution, then one cannot expect democratic values in that society to thrive.

This is why Free People Must Reject Dictators of all kinds — Consistently and Without Reservation, Everywhere.

We cannot ask others to aspire to freedom when Americans arrogantly claim to some, no you are not ready for freedom, you are not worthy of such human rights.

Today, on the streets of America’s national capital, Mr. Cohen’s claim is being read that Americans should reject Egyptian human rights because “we are not them.”

In the February 1, 2011 Washington Post, Mr. Cohen claims of the Egyptian protesters, “we are not them,” and continues to claim that America must reject human rights for Egyptians, stating “America needs to be on the right side of human rights. But it also needs to be on the right side of history. This time, the two may not be the same.”

If such an anti-human rights statement is published by the Washington Post, is it any wonder that American anti-Islam web sites have had no shame in calling for shooting at Egyptian protesters and effectively calling for their deaths?

Egypt-Protest-Getty — Egyptian Protester Rejects Hypocrisy (Photo: Getty) -- By The Way - So Do Many Americans...

Yet some people will still wonder why some in other parts of the world hate Americans.

We must hang our heads in shame at such anti-human rights statements by Richard Cohen, Violent Extemism Watch, and other groups that claim that everyone, including the Egyptian protesters, do not deserve our shared universal human rights. This is not the America I know and not the land of the free and the home of the brave. Those who seek to turn our nation into one of quaking cowards that call for denying human rights and mass murder against others, even if we disagree with some, do not understand what it means to be an American.

So I will simply let America’s founding fathers respond to such outrageous and shameful statements. Let us hear what America’s founding fathers said about what our values, principals, and even identity is as Americans.

This is the “American” position on such human rights, freedom, democracy and human dignity.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

— July 4, 1776 – United States of America Declaration of Independence

To Americans who may have forgotten this, remember when we decided to become Americans this was our founding declaration. We did not declare that only some deserve these rights, but that ALL deserve these rights. Americans did so, because even before we were Americans – we are them – we are our fellow brothers and sisters in humanity who deserve the same rights around the world.

These are the truths that we hold self-evident, even if there are those today who have forgotten them.

Be Responsible for Equality And Liberty – for All.

Free People Must Reject Dictators

The continuing human struggle for freedom, human rights, and human dignity will not end at just one nation’s borders, or with one nationality, one race, one religion, one gender, or any one identity group.

Those who seek to stem this endless tide of human freedom are like those who think they can control the oceans. For a time, one can try to restrain such natural forces, but inevitably the tide will turn, and those who reject our human freedoms will fall from power.

The real choice we have is whether we will be on the side of freedom – or not. The idea that we can support human freedom, human rights, human dignity just some of the time – for some people like us or those we like – is the foundational LIE that tyrants and dictators have used throughout history. Dictators and oppressors count on this lie, they depend on it, they create entire societies and tyrannies on this. But as history has shown and will continue to ultimately show, “A Lie Cannot Live.”

The lie that only some people, because of their identity group or elite status, deserve freedom, rights, and dignity, while others are denied such rights, will continue to be proven to be as a lie again and again around the world. In the racial segregation era of America, the lie of denying humanity to black Americans did not live. In Nazi Germany, the lie of denying humanity to Jews through the Holocaust ultimately did not live. But in too many parts of the world, similar lies continue to be propped up, defended, and excused.

We have seen our national leaders meet with and ignore the horrific human rights abuses and ignore the Laogai concentration camps in Communist China, while freedom is denied to the Chinese people, and people of all religions and beliefs are routinely tortured, kidnapped, and abused. We have seen our national leaders offer to take Sudan off the list of terrorist nations, while its leaders accused of Genocide continue to rule and travel freely around a world that has not seen fit to act for justice in Sudan’s crimes against humanity.

But from time to time, people will stand up to the lies of dictatorship and oppression. Millions have left and openly denounced the Communist Chinese Party. White supremacists no longer can promote hatred and contempt of other races without public rejection.

The days are numbered for societies and ideologies based on the lie of denying human freedom, human rights, and human dignity.

For those who think we can pick and choose who does and who does not deserve these rights, dignity, and freedom, you are on the wrong side of history.

To American and Western leaders, you too need to decide which side of history you are on, when you meet with dictators and when you dignify the lie of oppressors and societies that reject the truth of universal human rights, human dignity, and human freedom. To the American people and people around the world, whether it is in Tienanmen Square, the election protesters of Iran, or now in the streets of Tunis and Cairo, we must stand in solidarity with those who seek freedom. It is no surprise that the Communist China totalitarian leaders seek to censor the Internet to avoid the Chinese people finding out about what is going on in Egypt.

Egypt-Standoff-1 — January 2011 Egypt Protesters

The current popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt once again speak to how human freedom and rights will not be denied. There is much to be seen on how such uprisings occur and we must condemn violence against others. But to be consistent in challenging both societies and ideologies that seek to defy freedom, free people around the world must reject dictators and oppressors, no matter who they are, no matter what their identity group, and no matter what their rationale for dictatorship and oppression.

Dictators and Oppressors are dependent on the world’s silence about their lie that only some deserve human rights, human dignity, and freedom. We must speak out consistently on this anywhere and everywhere.

A Lie Cannot Live. Choose the Truth on Humanity and Its Universal Human Rights.

Choose Freedom, Choose Human Dignity, and Choose Human Rights.

R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Remarks – Human Rights Day Event

Human Rights Day Prepared Remarks
Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)

Welcome

It is another good day to be responsible for equality and liberty.

Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Human Right’s Day event to recognize the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the importance of our universal human rights around the world. My name is Jeffrey Imm, and I am with the volunteer human rights activists “Responsible for Equality And Liberty.” I would like to thank those groups and their activists who come to join us this year here at the National Press Club. Our plan is for me to mention why we remember Human Rights Day, offer a brief introduction on the theme of today’s event, “Compassion and Human Rights,” and then allow various speakers to come up. We will try to have Q&A after each speaker but if we start to run too long, then we may have to postpone some Q&A period until the end.

The groups and speakers that we have scheduled for today include:

1. Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) – on Compassion and Human Rights; on the Challenge of Racial and Religious Intolerance in America
2. Mohamed Yahya, Damanga Organization – on Sudan and Darfur
3. Dr. Nazir Bhatti, Pakistan Christian Congress – on Christians in Pakistan
4. Ms. Caylan Ford, DC Liaison and Analyst of Falun Dafa Information Center – on Falun Dafa in the People’s Republic of China
5. Yubin Pang MD Ph.D., Executive Director, Washington DC Area, Global Service Center for Quitting CCP
6. Ms. Maria Rohaly – Mission Free Iran, on women’s rights in Iran
7. Ms. Carolyn Cook – United for Equality – on women’s rights in the United States
8. C. Naseer Ahmad – Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and human rights

We may change the order of some of these speakers to accommodate some who are traveling here from out of town, so I appreciate your patience and understanding on that.

Introduction to Human Rights Day

Around the world every year, people remember Human Rights Day to honor the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the assembled nations of the world in the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, three years after the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and the tragedy of the Holocaust.

The UDHR was designed as a statement of “never again” to such atrocities against human rights and human dignity. But the UDHR was more than simply defiance against those who would promote hate, it has more importantly been a guideline and declaration of the universal human rights we view as inherent human rights, regardless of your nationality, your race, your religion, your beliefs, your political views, your gender or sexual orientation. No matter who you are, you are human being with universal human rights.

The bold and unequivocating view of the UDHR’s declaration is that human beings are human beings with the same universal, inherent human rights and freedoms everywhere on our shared planet Earth – no matter what organization, what nation, or what group of people believes otherwise. According to the UDHR, all of us share a common family of humanity together – along with the universal human right of human dignity for all.

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Human Right Day Event Theme: “Compassion and Human Rights”

This year, three British archeologists completed scientific research on compassion in prehistoric human beings. They published their findings in a book entitled “The Prehistory of Compassion.” They found that compassionate behavior in prehistoric human beings was evidenced as early as 6 million years ago, and they trace the increasing growth of compassion in human beings at 1.8 million years ago, 300,000 years ago, 120,000 years ago, and 40,000 years ago.

Their findings lead us to the conclusion that compassion is not only an essential part of promoting human rights, but also that our capacity for compassion is a part of our identities as human beings.

There are others who seek to deny compassion in themselves and others. Some seek to actively promote hatred. In Washington DC in 2009, Nazi and white supremacist James Von Brunn sought to commit a terrorist attack on the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. Mr. Von Brunn told his supporters that hate was “natural, normal, necessary.”

We are challenged by such views in the United States and around the world, where people are taught that their identity group, their divisions, their self-interest alone, is all that matters. We are challenged by views from some that other identity groups are inferior and not deserving of the same inherent, universal human rights.

Scientific evidence proves that compassion, not hate, is “natural, normal, necessary” in human beings. Our shared religious, moral, and ethical practices teach us that compassion towards others is an inherent part of our human identities. When some deny our human capacity for compassion by denying human rights to others, they are not just attacking our universal human rights, they are also denying their identities as human beings.

We tend to look at compassion as only a choice, when it is convenient and when we have time. But compassion is more than a choice. Compassion is a legacy of our continuing development as human beings. Our growing capacity for compassion is the path ahead for our future as a human society. Human dignity and our other universal human rights are dependent on our shared compassion for each other as human beings.

Human rights campaigns really begin with compassion. Certainly, there are those who speak out on oppression, discrimination, and violence against their own identity group. But they do so because they believe that someone else will listen to them, that someone else will care, that someone else will have compassion.

Our volunteer activists with Responsible for Equality And Liberty believe in this so much that our motto is “Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.” We offer an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist, even to those who would offer us hate, even to those who would deny our human rights. I know that this is not always easy to do, when you are attacked, when your identity group is attacked, when your family is attacked. I understand this first-hand. But I will stand my ground to the last and state that “Love Wins,” not just now, but also tomorrow. Compassion is not only the hope for human rights, it is also the destiny for humanity.

Compassion and A Shared Human Rights Cause

If we accept that compassion is necessary for an effective human rights campaign, then it follows that individual human rights campaigns share this need for human compassion. Responsible for Equality And Liberty sees such individual human rights campaigns as elements of a larger, shared human rights cause. Your campaign for human rights is our campaign. The larger shared cause of universal human rights for all is also your cause as well. We believe that for individual campaigns to truly succeed, we must also work towards our shared human rights cause.

The mission of Responsible for Equality And Liberty has been to bring people and human rights campaigns together to become aware of each other, to see what we have in common, to identify our shared human rights struggle, and to demonstrate how we can work together. Our goal is to work to help our fellow human beings prioritize human rights issues in their lives, activities, governments, nations, and shared world.

In the traditional human rights community, we have defined ourselves primarily by individual human rights campaigns. Individual human rights campaigns struggle with competition for attention, resources, and visibility, and today many campaigns struggle with a difficult economy and apathy. Some groups have created coalitions on specific regions or specific topics to maximize their effectiveness and resources.

We have a different vision, different agenda, and different hope for the future.

We believe that there is a singular, shared human rights cause that is larger than any one campaign, any one organization, or any one coalition. We are reaching out to the larger coalition of our human brothers and sisters across world to embrace their human capacity for compassion, that is part of their very human nature. We believe the leaders for human rights are every single one of us as human beings. The message to our fellow human beings is that their self-interest begins with prioritizing the compassion that is part of their humanity, and that their self-interest begins with prioritizing the universal human rights that we must all share. An attack on human rights anywhere is an attack on human rights everywhere.

We seek to get our fellow brothers and sisters in humanity to recognize the needs of their human family, to recognize their inherent human identity for compassion to their fellow human beings. We aren’t seeking to CHANGE our fellow human beings, but we seek to get our brothers and sisters to stop denying who and what they are as human beings, to stop denying their responsibility for their human family, and to stop denying their capability for the compassion. To truly work towards a shared human rights cause, we must urge our human brothers and sisters to be true to who they are as human beings.

It is time for our fellow human beings to come to the aid of our human rights leaders and TOGETHER bring an end to the human rights violations of our brothers and sisters around the world. We must all be responsible for equality and liberty.

In working in our human rights cause, we must remember that our conscience must also be led by our compassion. We must remember that without compassion to others, we cannot promote any human rights initiative. People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

In the traditional human rights community, we have also largely defined ourselves with what is wrong and bad in the world. In our passion and concern for others, it is easy to slip into a pattern of simply cataloging the ills of the world, especially given the horrible genocide, violence, oppression, and abuse of so many in the world.

If we believe in the power of compassion, we must also balance a shared human rights cause with describing what is right in the world as well. We must offer hugs with our entreaties, we must offer hope from within the gloom. We must offer a positive message of optimism that celebrates our accomplishments. Every step, every accomplishment, no matter how small it seems, is another demonstration of the growth of human compassion. Every success once again proves how love will defeat hate.

You are demonstrating how important this is by being here at this Human Rights Day event today.

We have the answer to our shared human rights cause within each of our hearts. Imagine those hearts working together as one. That is our vision, and we hope it is yours.

We must find the courage and consistency to work towards our human destiny of compassion in human rights and human dignity for all.

Love Wins.

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Human Rights Challenges for the United States: Racial and Religious Intolerance

While we address human rights challenges around the world on Human Rights Day, it is important for those of us in America to also recognize the continuing human rights challenges that we face within our own country. When we call for our fellow human beings to be compassionate and responsible in such human rights – that compassion and responsibility must also come from ourselves in our own lives as Americans.

The hard work of defending human rights in America may be unpopular at times. It is often easier to get Americans to agree that people in another country, people of another majority religion, or people who are somehow “different” should make commitments to “change” first. But as a nation responsible for equality and liberty, we must practice what we preach – not just when this is easy to hear – but most especially when this is difficult for us to hear.

When we ask others to recognize the need to support our universal human rights and to embrace their human compassion for one another, as a nation in America, we must also take a good look in the mirror and ask ourselves and our nation to do the same. When we work for the human rights of women, racial harmony, religious freedom, and liberty around the world, let us not forget that we must also continue to extend our hand in compassion to work for such human rights in the United States of America as well.

The past year saw a marked increase in racial and religious intolerance in America that those of us in the United States working for human rights around the world must also be responsible for addressing as Americans. We have seen how such intolerance can and will continue to divide us as a nation. There are some working to celebrate and even to expand such divisions based on intolerance in our nation. We have a responsibility, not just as Americans, but also as human beings committed to our universal human rights, to use the power of compassion to defy the venom of intolerance. Love will ultimately win.

While we condemn the horror of slavery in parts of the world today, on December 20 in South Carolina and other states in the American South, there will be celebrations of the 150th anniversary of Secession Day, when the Confederate States of America began to failed efforts to dissolve their union with the United States of America. A key issue in the Confederate states’ secession was the issue of slavery in America (which was in both the South and the North at that time), a dark chapter from America’s struggles with human rights. We ask our fellow Americans in the South to reflect on this issue. While some celebrate our past divisions, we know that there will be Southern Americans who will continue to prioritize of common bonds in humanity and compassion.

In the past year, we have seen numerous groups anxiously try to revive hatred and divisions between all races in America. We have seen white supremacists get radio shows on FCC-licensed radio stations. We have seen those who promote diverse racial supremacism (both white and black) interviewed in parts of the news media without challenge to their views against equality. The rhetoric of racial intolerance seems to becoming more public and more prevalent, as we see not only in the media and the Internet, but also in marches in the streets of our city, including our nation’s capital. Racial slurs, hate symbols, nooses hung outside black American’s homes, and marches of racial hatred continue in America. Racial hate messages are distributed in fliers, promoted in our libraries and parks, and racial hate messages are hidden in plastic Easter Eggs for children to find. Even the simple snowman is not safe from the disease of racial hate. Last week in Idaho, a white supremacist made a Ku Klux Klan shaped snowman holding a rope hanging noose.

But we have also seen the activism and courage by many other Americans who reject and who are horrified by such divisions and hatred. While racial supremacists get the news headlines, there are countless unheralded heroes who have condemned such racism, who have promoted racial harmony, and who in cities across our nation have taken a courageous stand against hate. Americans across the nation have replied to hate: “Not in Our Town.”

In the past year, we have seen the consequences of desperate acts of violence by white supremacist and Neo-Nazi groups, as they have come to realize that America will no longer consider going back to the bad old days of racial hate. This year, individuals were convicted of terrorist plots against black Americans. Daniel Cowart and Paul Schlesselman were convicted of a plot to kill 88 black Americans and Barack Obama in Tennessee; this plot included a plan to decapitate 14 black Americans, as well as shooting out the windows in a black American church. This year, we have seen the conviction of Ku Klux Klan leader Raymond “Chuck” Foster in killing a white woman Cynthia Lynch, who died because she chose her conscience over the KKK’s efforts to indoctrinate her in the white supremacist group.

For every desperate act of racial violence and hatred, we have seen a hundred acts of courage and compassion. Our nationwide law enforcement and Department of Justice have stood up to such violence and ensured that criminals have received justice. When the Nazis marched in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the YWCA has offered a message of peace and a commitment to our human rights. The message from law enforcement has been consistent: while we respect freedom of speech even by those promoting racial hate, we are a nation of laws where violence will not be tolerated. The message from our community organizations has been that we will respond to hate with compassion and dignity for all.

Last winter in 2010, we saw the growing efforts of a nationwide white nationalist group to hold a national event in our nation’s capital, where diversity was to be mocked and minority races were to be viewed as inferior. We stand without question to respect the dignity, equality, and liberty of all of our fellow Americans and human beings. That is why we are Responsible for Equality And Liberty. Responsible for Equality And Liberty made an effort to urge local hotels to give us the chance to also promote racial equality, human dignity, and the value of our human diversity as brothers and sisters in humanity. For such compassionate activism in America, we were condemned by white nationalists, mocked in some foreign media, we were threatened, and efforts were made to disparage my family. Our efforts to promote racial dignity, equality, and liberty were undeterred. When white nationalists later came to disrupt other human rights events we had, I continued to extend our mission of compassion and offer an outstretched hand to them as well, as my brothers and sisters in humanity.

At the time, some asked me why don’t we just let black civil right groups challenge the views of white nationalists. We are Responsible for Equality And Liberty. Responsibility begins at home, in our own city, state, and nation. Responsibility begins with our own identity group. That is why as a white human being, I must challenge white supremacism. That is why as a man, I must challenge misogyny and attacks on women’s rights. That is why as a Christian, I must challenge those Christian extremists in America who seek to deny religious rights to religious minorities. We must be living examples as agents of compassion and change in our own identity groups.

If we only look to identity groups in the minority (in America or anywhere or the world) to lead the path of compassion in gaining human rights and human dignity, then those in majority identity groups in the world have not truly accepted our responsibility for compassion and human rights. I urge those around the world, whatever your identity group, to embrace this responsibility for compassion and human rights. Change begins with us.

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On the issue of religious intolerance in America, we have seen tremendous attacks on our religious freedoms, religious pluralism, and a growing religious intolerance that attacks our institutions, laws, and Constitution. I wrote earlier this week about my first president, John F. Kennedy, who in a speech in 1960 while a candidate for president stated that “I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end…”. Fifty years later, we have seen, especially this year, that America sadly still has a long way to go.

We have not just seen the rise of only one form of religious intolerance. We have seen attacks on houses of worship and we also have seen a growing rise of religious militants intolerant of people with different faiths.

We have seen black Christian churches attacked across America, including here in the Washington DC area, some of which have been shot up by guns. We have seen attacks on Hindu and Buddhist temples; this has included attacks on Buddhist temples that have included pro-“Christian” graffiti. We have seen an endless series of attacks on Jewish synagogues in America, which have included Nazi symbols, death threats, and hate – even here in the Washington DC area and in the city where I live.

We have seen the rise of a virulent hatred against Islam and Muslim mosques across our nation, with a pipe bomb attack against a mosque in Florida, arson attacks against mosques in Texas and Oregon, and a conviction of Neo-Nazis for their arson attack against a mosque in Tennessee. We have seen other cases of arson, vandalism, and destruction in attacks against Muslim mosques across America, with vandalism and destruction of property in Tennessee, arson of construction equipment for a new mosque in Tennessee, arson attack against a mosque automobile in Louisiana, children harassed outside of their mosque in Texas, and youths shooting rifles outside of a mosque in western New York.

Our freedom of religion and worship, like all of our other freedoms, is dependent on our shared trust of pluralism in our society; in America, we don’t have to agree with someone else’s religion or faith or even support any religion at all. But we do have the responsibility to ensure that others’ freedoms are defended, as they are guaranteed by our Constitution, by our laws, and by our society.

Religious militantism that seeks to promote violence or deny others their human rights is a violation of that covenant of shared trust, and we continue to urge representatives of religious groups to combat such militantism. But we have the common sense and the respect for our fellow Americans that we don’t begin to believe that religious militants represent the majority of kind-hearted, loving people of various faiths. When we see threats in NYC and Portland by Muslim men who have sought to have bombs in large groups, we know that they do not represent Muslim America. When we see threats by the Christian Hutaree group arrested for plotting attacks against police officers, and others who claim to represent Christian groups in America who call for violence, we know that they do not represent Christian America.

We must recognize efforts by those of a majority religion to seek to deny the human rights of freedom of religion and freedom of worship presents a significant problem for America, just as it would in any nation. This year, we have seen coast-to-coast efforts across American by those who claim to represent elements of Christianity to seek to prevent Muslims from having houses of worship, who seek to deny freedom of religion, who seek to ban mosques, and even some who have gone to court in Tennessee to seek to deny that Islam is a religion in America. In California, Tennessee, New York, Georgia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Florida, Connecticut, North Carolina, in state after state, we see those who seek to deny religious freedom and freedom of worship for Muslim-Americans. We have seen people call for attacks on mosques on the radio and on the Internet, we seen those who have called for a war on Islam, and we have seen those in our nation’s capital and other parts of the nation who have destroyed and burned the Qur’an. In the city of our Statue of Liberty, we have seen those who tell to the cheers of American crowds that some Muslim leaders should not have the right to have freedom of worship, not just in NYC, but anywhere in America.

But we have also seen the rise of a new generation of interfaith movements across America, created out of the troubling challenge of growing religious intolerance in America. Diverse people across America have joined hands together in response to the storm of religious hate and intolerance against Muslim Americans and other Americans. They have held their own candle-light vigils. On September 11, in our nation’s capital, I was privileged to have the opportunity to have people of all faiths and no religion at all join together to defend freedom of religion and worship for Muslim Americans, simply because it was the right thing to do, it was the American thing to do. To those who promote religious intolerance and hate, we offer an outstretched hand, not an upraised fist, of pluralism, peace, and compassion as fellow human beings.

A few weeks ago in Portland, Oregon, a Muslim man was arrested for an alleged plot to bomb a crowd during a Christmas-tree lighting. Days later, a mosque that he attended was attacked by an arsonist. But then the true face of compassion showed itself, as Portland neighbors of all religions and none at all, people of diverse groups banded together. The parking lot of the Portland mosque was full as community and religious leaders who joined together to condemn such hate and violence. That is the America that I know and love. In the past several months, I have attended two mosque services, and my regret is that I have not had time to have further visits yet. But to those of you who have not had the opportunity to visit a mosque, I would urge you to do so, and send a signal that those of us who defend human rights support such tolerance and freedom of religion and worship for all people.

Some may think this is a problem just for Muslim Americans. We see that once that the disease of hate takes root, this illness does not just limit itself to any one group, but sickens and undermines our entire society. The group in Georgia that seeks to deny freedom of worship for Muslim Americans, has also opposed Buddhists from holding worship services. A Christian extremist group based out of Virginia that sought to destroy the Qur’an in our nation’s capital also has opposed Hindu public prayer. The group in Tennessee that seeks to deny freedom of religion for Muslims and seeks to deny that Islam is a religion, also opposes Falun Dafa / Falun Gong members from publicly practicing their beliefs in Tennessee. A Christian extremist group that led one of the Qur’an burning efforts also regularly protests and seeks to disrupt worship services in Jewish synagogues, and has praised terrorist attacks against Iraqi Christians.

Fifty years ago, John F. Kennedy told those who sought to deny him the right to run for president because he was a Catholic American: “Today I may be the victim–but tomorrow it may be you–until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped at a time of great national peril.”

It has been a very difficult year for America, but many have made the courageous decision to put hate and intolerance in our past, and make compassion and human rights our future.

America is a nation of nations, an amalgamation of different races, different religions, different ethnic groups, and different identity groups. Our infinite diversity is balanced by our uni-culture of respect for our Constitution, our freedoms, and our universal human rights. When groups within America begin to fight among themselves, our balance has always been in the agreement on the truths that we hold self evident that all men and women are created equal. This commitment to equality and liberty in America is a model for what we seek to share with our brothers and sisters in humanity around the world.

George Washington Quoted on Religious Liberty and Tolerance

During a visit to Newport, R.I., in 1790, a year before the Bill of Rights was ratified, President George Washington received a letter from Moses Seixas, warden of the Touro Synagogue. President Washington replied, in part, to the the Touro Synagogue to state that:

— August 1790 – George Washington: “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.”

…

— “May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.”

United States President George Washington - 1789 - 1797 — United States President George Washington - President: 1789 - 1797

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Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Event Canceled – R.E.A.L Challenges HT at Lincoln Memorial

On the night of July 10, 2010, the anti-democracy organization Hizb ut-Tahrir America canceled its event scheduled for the month of July in suburban Chicago. The next day, on July 11, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Muslim and non-Muslim supporters of the volunteer human rights group Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) stood together on a hot July afternoon to publicly challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir America on its views, with R.E.A.L. promoting democracy and human rights and rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir’s intolerance to religious freedom, rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir’s anti-democracy views, and rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir’s promotion of the barbaric act of stoning. Human rights volunteers against stoning challenged Hizb ut-Tahrir’s previous demonstrations where the anti-democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir group promoted stoning on June 22 and on World AIDS Day.

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)'s Jeffrey Imm Leads Challenge to Hizb ut-Tahrir -- Hizb ut-Tahrir America Cancel Chicago Conference

R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm Speaks Out on Muslims that Promote Democracy and Freedom and Reject Hizb ut-Tahrir's Intolerance — R.E.A.L.'s Jeffrey Imm on Muslims that Promote Democracy and Freedom , Rejecting Hizb ut-Tahrir's Views

To counter Hizb ut-Tahrir’s statements that its anti-democracy view represented an “Islamic” position, Muslim supporters of R.E.A.L. rejected Hizb ut-Tahrir’s positions. At the Washington DC Lincoln Memorial where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke out in support of racial equality, R.E.A.L. founder Jeffrey Imm read statements from pro-democracy, pro-human rights Islamic groups in the United States, which he called “Muslims in support of democracy and freedom,” including the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), the American Islamic Congress, the Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), and others.

Jeffrey Imm also read to those at the Lincoln Memorial the comments by Muslims who were former members of Hizb ut-Tahrir and who have since rejected Hizb ut-Tahrir’s extremist and intolerant views, such as Hadiya Masieh and Ed Husain. On July 4, Muslim woman Hidiya Masieh told the Guardian newspaper that “The 7/7 bombers and the people I knew at HT were two sides of the same coin… HT says it does not believe in violence, but the violence was never condemned….” Ed Husain has written that “Hizb ut-Tahrir calls for an expansionist, violent, totalitarian Islamist state,” and that the “rhetoric of jihad introduced by Hizb ut-Tahrir in my days was the preamble to 7/7 and several other attempted attacks.”

Muslims Ed Husain and Hadiya Masieh: Former Hizb ut-Tahrir Members Who Reject HT's Extremist Views (Ed Husain - Left - Photo: the Independent, Hadiya Masieh - Right - Photo: the Guardian)

The UK branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir was built up by Omar Bakri Muhammad, who then formed the Al-Muhajiroun that held demonstrations in support of the 9/11 attackers as the “Magnificent 19.” The New Stateman has reported that intelligence sources state that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed spent time with Hizb ut-Tahrir, and that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was “former member of the Jordanian branch of Hizb.” BBC Newsnight has previously reported that Hizb ut-Tahrir’s “website promotes racism and anti-Semitic hatred, calls suicide bombers martyrs, and urges Muslims to kill Jewish people.” The Daily Telegraph has reported that “Omar Shariff, the first UK suicide bomber, who blew himself up in a Tel Aviv bar in 2003, is alleged to have been radicalised by Hizb ut Tahrir.” In 2007, the Daily Telegraph also reported that “Ata Abu-Rishta, the global leader of Hizb ut Tahrir… called for the ‘destruction’ of Hindus living in Kashmir, Russians in Chechnya and Jews in Israel.”

R.E.A.L. has also previously reported on the British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD) which seeks to promote democracy and human rights as an alternative to political groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir that reject such freedoms.

Muslim Tehmina Kazi, BMSD Director, Promotes Secular Democracy and Human Rights

On June 28, 2010, the volunteer human rights group R.E.A.L. first reported that the Oak Brook Marriott had decided not to host the Hizb ut-Tahrir America event this year, and on July 1, 2010 Hizb ut-Tahrir America confirmed this. R.E.A.L. had reached out to the Oak Brook Marriott and others in the Chicago area to inform them of the activities and positions of Hizb ut-Tahrir. At the beginning of July, Hizb ut-Tahrir was still planning to relocate to another facility on July 18 or July 25. However, on July 10, Hizb ut-Tahrir America announced the cancellation of its national conference. In June 2009, Hizb ut-Tahrir America attempted to hold their event at a Chicago-area Islamic school, before the school understood the nature of Hizb ut-Tahrir’s event and the Islamic school refused to host the event.

R.E.A.L. did not seek the Hizb ut-Tahrir America conference to be canceled, but believes that it is our responsibility to speak out and to challenge groups that seek to attack our universal human rights and seek to attack freedom of religion. R.E.A.L believes it is our responsibility to challenge groups that call for the “death penalty” for those who seek religious freedom or call for stoning or violence against other identity groups. R.E.A.L. supports all individuals’ freedom of assembly, and we have offered Hizb ut-Tahrir the opportunity to join our July 11 public event at the Lincoln Memorial, and have extended an offer to Hizb ut-Tahrir America to publicly debate R.E.A.L. on democracy and religious freedom. Hizb ut-Tahrir America did not appear at our July 11 event, and has not replied to our offer of a public debate.

A year ago on July 19, 2009, R.E.A.L. led a pro-democracy, pro freedom demonstration outside the Hizb ut-Tahrir July 2009 convention at the Oak Lawn Hilton in suburban Chicago.

R.E.A.L. reported last July 2009, how Hizb ut-Tahrir America distributed brochures calling for the “death penalty” for those who sought religious freedom. At Hizb ut-Tahrir America’s July 19, 2009 event in Chicago, they distributed a pamphlet (page 62) that supports killing those individuals who leave Islam as guilty of “treason and a political attack on the Khilafah.” The Hizb ut-Tahrir America website promoting this year’s conference in Chicago promotes links to the main Hizb ut-Tahrir website, Khilafah.com, where this pamphlet is still distributed online by Hizb ut-Tahrir, even after the cancellation of its latest U.S. conference.

R.E.A.L. has reported on Hizb ut-Tahrir’s other attacks on religious freedom, pluralism, democracy, and women’s rights. R.E.A.L. has also reported on the effort by Hizb ut-Tahrir to protest and demand the closure of the Gereja Kristen Indonesia (GKI) Taman Yasmin Church church in Indonesia, with hundreds of Hizb ut-Tahrir protesters seeking to deny freedom of worship to Christians there.

According to the Bangladesh press, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s intolerance has included death threats against university officials. BD News 24 reported “Hizb ut-Tahrir threatens Dhaka University’s vice chancellor with death,” stating in November 2009 that “The Dhaka University’s vice chancellor received death threats on Sunday from banned Islamist outfit Hizb ut-Tahrir.”

In its manifesto, Hizb ut-Tahrir rejects democracy as because it “is the rule of people, for the people, by the people” (page 24 – alternate link). Hizb ut-Tahrir has called for Muslims to boycott voting.

On July 4, 2010, in Australia, Hizb ut-Tahrir members have called for Australian Muslims to reject democracy as “forbidden” and as “uni-Islamic,” and have called upon Muslim women to reject women’s equality movements. British Hizb ut-Tahrir leader Buhan Hanif, who spoke at the July 2009 Hizb ut-Tahrir event in Chicago at the Oak Lawn Hilton, told Australian Muslims that he rejected Muslim political involvement that is based on “secular and erroneous concepts such as democracy and freedom” (see HT video).

UK Hizb ut-Tahrir Leader Burhan Hanif Urges Australian Muslims to Reject Democracy (Photo: YouTube) — UK Hizb ut-Tahrir Leader Burhan Hanif Urges Australian Muslims to Reject Democracy -- Spoke at 2009 Chicago Hizb ut-Tahrir America Conference (Photo: YouTube)

On International Women’s Day 2010, Hizb ut-Tahrir used the day to once again to women’s gender equality movements and to instead demand that women seek to become part of an Islamic caliphate instead, arguing that “Women faced the protection of their honour under the khilafah.” At the July 4, 2010 Australia conference, Australian Hizb ut-Tahrir speaker Reem Allouche stated that women’s rights and equality should not be based on “secular liberalism.” Consistently, at Hizb ut-Tahrir America events in the Chicago area in July 2009 and December 2009, women are given their “place,” in the back of the room.

Anti-Democracy Hizb ut-Tahrir America December 20, 2009 Meeting at Govt-Managed Facility in Lombard, Illinois -- Women Segregated and Only Permitted to Sit in the Back of the Room

On World AIDS Awareness Day, The Jakarta Globe reported that “Ahead of World AIDS Day on Tuesday, members of the group Hizbut Tahrir took to the streets in several major cities, including Jakarta, Solo, Yogyakarta and Makassar in South Sulawesi. ‘We urge everybody to support the application of Shariah in an Islamic caliphate so that, God willing, all of us will be free from the threat of HIV/AIDS,’ Hizbut Tahrir spokeswoman Febrianti Abassuni said in a statement.” Calling “homosexuals the agents of immorality,” Hizb ut-Tahrir called for an end to programs providing condoms in Indonesia.

World AIDS Day: Hizb ut-Tahrir Demonstrates Against Homosexuals, Calls for Global Extremist Caliphate (AFP/File/Bay Ismoyo) — World AIDS Day: Hizb ut-Tahrir Demonstrates Against Homosexuals, Calls for Global Islamic Caliphate (AFP/File/Bay Ismoyo)

On the Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia web site, Hizb ut-Tahrir contributors condemned World AIDS awareness day on “every December 1st as the International AIDS Day was not to eliminate AIDS, but to preserve and nourish AIDS promiscuity.” The Hizb ut-Tahrir web site also stated that “So in addition to the state must pay the state AIDS drug research mencarian shall take firm action against any perpetrator punished adultery with stoning to death for those who are married and whip a hundred times for the adulterer who had never married. Also ta’zir law for drug users. In the guarantee people will think a thousand times to do similar things so that transmission of HIV / AIDS can be prevented.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir Web Site on World AIDS Day - Calls for Stoning and Whipping (Hizb ut-Tahrir Indonesia Web Site)

On June 22, 2010, Hizb ut-Tahrir held another major demonstration calling for stoning, during its protests against “liberalism” on the Internet. AFP reported that: “About 1,000 protesters led by radical group Hizbut Tahrir shouted ‘Allahu akbar’ (God is greater) and brandished black flags and banners with slogans such as ‘Arrest those who commit promiscuous sex’….”Hizbut Tahrir spokesman Mohammed Ismail Yusanto said the Internet was a threat to Islamic values in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country. He said Islamic or sharia law should be applied across the archipelago of some 240 million people, including the stoning to death of adulterers. ”

“Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia coordinator Fadilah Karimah, 32, said she would like to see adulterers buried up to their necks in public places and pelted with stones until dead. ‘Those people who have sex before marriage should be caned with a stick 100 times in public. Adulterers should be half-buried and stoned to death,’ she told AFP at the rally.”

Anti-Democracy Group Hizb ut-Tahrir Protest in Indonesia (Photo: AFP)

At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on July 11, 2010, human rights protesters opposed to stoning also condemned these repeated calls by Hizb ut-Tahrir in support of the barbaric practice of stoning. Some of the human rights protesters had been working together in calling for an end to the stoning of Iranian woman Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani, who was condemned to stoning by the Islamic Republic of Iran, before international human rights pressure has impact Iran to consider changing its verdict. R.E.A.L.’s Jeffrey Imm told of one of a case of stoning of a 13 year old girl in Somalia who had been raped, that was also convicted for “adultery.” The human rights activists view the barbaric practice of stoning to be inhumane and a violation of human rights anywhere in the world, and unequivocally reject stoning and those groups that promote stoning.

Human rights volunteers condemned the demonstrations by Hizb ut-Tahrir supporting calls for barbaric stoning of individuals.

Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: R.E.A.L. and Human Rights Supporters Challenge Hizb ut-Tahrir and Stoning

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For additional reports and human rights activism challenging Hizb ut-Tahrir, see http://bit.ly/htwatch

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Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) supports the unqualified, universal human rights for all people everywhere, including the rights and dignity for women and people of every identity group. R.E.A.L. support for our universal human rights includes our commitment to freedom of religion, freedom of worship, freedom of conscience, and freedom of expression. We support democracy and democratic values not as “Western values,” but as values that are the right for every human being of every identity group and every religion around the world.

We believe that such support for our universal human rights begins with love for our fellow human beings.

We urge all to Choose Love, Not Hate – Love Wins.

What We Believe - Responsible for Equality And Liberty's Jeffrey Imm Demonstrating Outside Hizb ut-Tahrir America's July 19, 2009 Chicago Event

UK: Five Years After July 7 Terrorist Attacks – A New Direction of Hope

Five years after the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, the UK government is no longer holding any public remembrance of the victims, other than a wreath being sent to a memorial in Hyde Park. The Global Post’s Michael Goldfarb states that “Wednesday’s anniversary is being marked, well, it’s being marked by nothing.”

But while there may be no official remembrance activities, there are many whose lives and passion for democracy and freedom are living memorials to the July 7 victims, and whose efforts represent a new hope for the United Kingdom in the struggle of ideas.

We have been seeing increasing signs of hope and progress among British Muslims who are taking the lead in supporting secular democracy and human rights as a counter-message to extremists who seek to deny democracy and human rights. While some analysts believe that fighting terrorism can be measured by tactical achievements or failures, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) believes that solutions will come from a consistent support for democracy and our universal human rights from the public, including British Muslim and pro-human rights groups in the struggle of ideas.

We believe that it will be stories such as Tehmina Kazi’s, the director of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy (BMSD), that will make the difference. We urge you to read the interview with Tehmina Kazi posted on R.E.A.L.’s website today at http://bit.ly/tehmina

While groups such as Anjem Choudary’s Islam4UK and the Hizb ut-Tahrir United Kingdom groups denounce democracy and equality, and on the other extreme, groups such as the English Defence League and the Stop Islamisation of Europe groups are protesting Muslim houses of worship, there are alternatives from those such as the BMSD and its supporters who provide an example in consistent support of democracy, human rights, and human dignity for rest of the United Kingdom and the world.

We urge others in the United Kingdom to follow the example of groups such as BMSD and choose to consistently be responsible for equality and liberty.