we effed
792 posts
@WeAreEffed
American against stupid wars. Jewish guy against Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing, and near-daily atrocities. Human against AI destroying all of us.
A beloved community leader, Salah Sarsour, was abducted by ICE on Monday, March 30th. Salah serves as the President of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee (ISM), board member of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), and has been a community advocate for over three decades. He is a father, a grandfather, a dear husband, and a kind and principled role model for countless people in Milwaukee and beyond. As an American Muslim community that believes in justice and equal rights for all people, we condemn this abduction and usurpation of our community leader’s rights. Salah has been a lawful permanent resident in the United States for over 32 years. He is a pillar of the community and a law-abiding Milwaukee business owner. Yet, he was pulled over while driving by over 10 ICE agents with no cause. He was taken out of state to a detention facility in Chicago before being transferred to a detention center in Indiana. His family was left scrambling to determine his whereabouts and his condition. We must be clear that Salah is being targeted on the basis of his Palestinian and Muslim background. Salah grew up in the Occupied West Bank in Palestine, where he faced oppression and torture at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces as a child. After marriage, he moved to the United States and built a strong and loving family. Along the way, he has supported dozens of community members, hiring countless Milwaukeeans who needed a job, and building up advocacy and educational organizations to bring a greater voice to immigrants, Palestinians, and Muslims across Wisconsin and the country. Salah’s story represents precisely the immigrant-refugee success story that should be celebrated, not demonized, as the cornerstone of this country’s professed values. Structural racism against Palestinians and Muslims, especially immigrants, weakens our democracy and erodes human rights for all. DHS targeting a community leader like Salah must raise alarms for all of us. His detention reflects a troubling trend we’ve seen with Mahmoud Khalil, Leqaa Kordia, Mohsen Mahdawi, and other voices critical of Israeli oppression: this administration is weaponizing the U.S. justice system to advance the interests of a foreign state, Israel, at a time when it is carrying out a genocide in Gaza. Recognizing that it has lost American public opinion, the Israeli lobby is now leveraging the justice system to undermine our constitutional rights and suppress dissent. Salah’s arrest also reflects deeper threats to our democracy from an administration that disregards American values and treats constitutional and legal limits as optional. We stand against this coordinated attempt to wield U.S. immigration courts to silence Palestinian voices and advance a racist anti-Muslim agenda. We write to affirm that we will fight for him. We will fight for his release just as we have fought as a community against all attacks on immigrant, Black, Palestinian, Somali, Latino, and Muslim civil and human rights. We understand what it feels like to be othered, racialized, and exceptionalized as victims of state violence, and we refuse to let go of our rights and our values. We invite you to stand with us and stand with Salah Sarsour. This injustice has become too common across this country. The baseless allegations leveled against Salah are nothing more than a smokescreen to justify his detention and silence his advocacy. However, we know this fight for Salah is part of a larger trend: leveraging attacks on immigrants and on Palestinians, particularly, to build new precedents that whittle away at democratic norms and legal protections for everyone. That is why this fight is a fight for all of us. #FreeSalahSarsour. With hope, AMP - American Muslims for Palestine ISM - The Islamic Society of Milwaukee MLFA - Muslim Legal Fund of America USCMO - US Council of Muslim Organizations CAIR - Council on American-Islamic Relations MAS - Muslim American Society Islamophobia Studies Center Palestine Center for Public Policy Islamophobia Studies Journal Northern California Islamic Council
More on the bombing of the B1 bridge and the Stone Age. “The U.S. defense official told Axios the bridge was attacked because it was used by the Iranian armed forces to try to secretly move missiles and missile parts from Tehran to launch sites in Western Iran. “The official claimed the missile parts were sent in large boxes and crates across the bridge and assembled at the launch sites. “According to the official, the bridge was also used to send logistical support to Iranian military forces in Tehran. “A second defense official described it as a ‘planned military supply route for sustaining Iran's ballistic missile and attack drone force’ but did not say it was currently being used for those purposes.” The first official may be misinforming Axios since according to Ghodratollah Seif, the deputy governor of Alborz province, and many others, the bridge was not complete or yet being used. The second official is openly advocating attacks on all transport routes as legitimate since they are potential dual use targets. Who knows whether first official knowingly lied or the second official has read the Geneva Convention. Seven dead on a nearby picnic. Above all this is not the route to de-escalation.
Next week will mark 6 months in ICE detention for Yaakub Vijandre over social media posts. After the Washington Post called Leqaa Kordia the "last pro-Palestinian protester detained by Trump" we wrote a letter to the editor, which the Post did not publish. Don't erase Yaakub!
New from President Trump:
A truce only on paper… on the ground, shelling and violations have not stopped since October 11. The painful toll: 1,943 injured, 713 martyrs, and 756 bodies recovered.
RT if you miss having a President with empathy
