Sunday, September 24, 2006

Fast from SUN UP to SUN DOWN

FAST FROM SUN UP TO SUN DOWN on your designated days.
You do not have to be from Michigan to join the fast.


MARK YOUR CALENDARS and check back for directions & details.

UPCOMING IFTAR DINNERS:
  • Wednesday, October 11th in Detroit 7-730 p.m.
Detroit solidarity fasters would like to announce the
DETROIT Iftar
Detroit Summer/CCNDC community space
7-8pm @ 3535 Cass
off the corner of MLK Jr blvd
It's a POTLUCK so please bring a dish to pass.
Featuring performances from
HARDCORE DETROIT BREAKERS
JITTERS
DULAB
BIG A
live painting by members of
OTHER collective, and more...

____________________________________________________
  • Thursday, October 19th in Ann Arbor 7-7:30 p.m.
Sponsored by Muslims Students' Association and NOWAR committee
If you are attending the Iftar in Ann Arbor, sign up for
this fastathon
The 2006 Fast-A-Thon Iftar dinner will be held in the
WEDGE ROOM at WEST QUAD
on the UM -Ann Arbor campus
approximately 7:00 P.M.

Please sign up so MSA will have an accurate count of attendees.
_____________________________________________________________

We had more than fourteen people for this dinner on Sunday. It was a wonderful gathering. Thanks for joining us!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2006
after SUNDOWN
BintJbeil Cultural Center
6220 Miller Rd
Dearborn, MICHIGAN 48126


COMMENT SECTION ON THE FAST IS OPEN.
Feel free to contribute and start a conversation!

List of Participants and Calendar for Fast (so far)

THOSE WHO ARE FASTING THE WHOLE MONTH
Mary Assel, Rabie & Farouq Shafie, Kim Redigan, and Wadad Abed


Sept 25-27
Kim Redigan, Nazih Hassan,
Anassa Elizabeth Mullens,

Sept 28-30
Mary Assel, Jan Newman, Megan Williamson,

Detroit Chapter of International Jewish Solidarity Network:
Ben Chodoroff, Mike Medow, Rick Feldman, Max Sussman,
Carinne Silverman-Maddox
, ilana Weaver

Oct 2-4
Nadine Naber, Pedro San Antonio,
Joe Namy, Ibn Bint Jbeil, Sheryl Yengera

Oct 5-7
Wadad Abed, John Fiscella, Ginan Rauf,
Sairah Husain, Huda Karaman Rosen and Jeffrey Rosen

Oct 9-11
Paul Rodgers, Shirley Chalmers, Debbie Alkamano
Dean Saranillio, Marie Cotera

Oct 12-14
Rabie & Farouq Shafie, Hend Alomari, May Seikaly,
Franceska Wilde, Laurie White, Rachel Kirkland

Oct 16-18
Paulette Childress, Patricia Dunn, Aida Bamia,
Sharon Heijin Lee, David Pitts & Joanna Hanks

Oct 18-20
Margaret Al-Aboudi, Shadia Kanaan, Hildy Kerney
from Women in Black-Kalamazoo

Oct 19-21
Peter Putnam, Patricia Dunn, William Secrest,
Khaled Mattawa, Reem Gibriel

Monday, September 18, 2006

JOIN US!!

Dear friends of the Muslim communities,

Please join us, the Arab American NOWAR committee, in a solidarity fast. Say NO TO WAR AND RACISM by fasting with Muslims during Ramadan.

Read the NOWAR statement and if you agree with the statement and wish to participate in the fast, contact us via email at solidarityfast at comcast.net

1. You are committing to abstain from food --sunup to sundown-- for a minimum of three days during the month of Ramadan which begins on September 23.

2. We will assign dates to participants and create a public calendar.

3. Your signature will be added to the list of fasters and made public on our blog and to media contacts.

4. Throughout Ramadan, we will gather for two Iftar dinners to break our fast, one in Ann Arbor at the beginning of Ramadan and one in Dearborn near the end of Ramadan.

Regardless of which days you have been assigned to fast, we who are fasting in Michigan in solidarity with Muslim communities, will attend these two Iftar dinners. Both dinners will start at sundown.


BintJbeil Cultural Center
6220 Miller Rd
Dearborn, MI 48126

TEL: (313) 584-0011

UM campus/Ann Arbor/
student co-sponsored event

****DATES/TIMES WILL BE ANNOUNCED as soon as possible****


Visit OUR BLOG for our statement, the list of signatures, and other important information related to the solidarity fast.

In solidarity and toward peace,

Arab American NOWAR COMMITTEE
Ann Arbor & Dearborn

Fast in Solidarity with Muslim Communities

SAY NO TO WAR AND RACISM

FAST IN SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIM COMMUNITIES

  • I am fasting during Ramadan in solidarity with peoples from Muslim majority countries and Muslim immigrant communities in the U.S. who have been subjected to harassment, detention, economic hardship and war as a consequence of U.S. imperialist aggressions and Israeli occupation.

  • I fast in solidarity with the people of Lebanon who have experienced the destruction of their country, displacement, and the loss of their loved ones.

  • I fast in solidarity with the people of Palestine who continue to face massive deprivation of land, life and resources and the denial of their right to return to their homeland and their right to full citizenship.

  • I fast in solidarity with the people of Iraq who have lived under siege for over a decade of U.S.-led war and destruction.

  • I fast in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan who have faced a massive U.S. bombing campaign, and a denial of access to hospitals, food and electricity.

  • I fast in solidarity with Muslim immigrants and Muslim Americans who have been harassed, detained, deported, or racially profiled without evidence of criminal activity; those who have been forced to live with the possibility that at any time, they may be picked up, locked up, or detained; and those families and communities who have been forced to separate because of anti-Muslim immigration policies.

  • I fast for the end of all U.S. led and supported occupations and the self-determination of all peoples, including all indigenous peoples, immigrants, and people of color in the U.S.

The “war on terror” is an illegal war that violates international laws and uses “national security” as an excuse to conquer Arab and Muslim lands, oil, labor, and people. The Bush administration has used September 11th as an excuse for increasing military intervention in the Philippines, waging war on Afghanistan and Iraq, and forcing a regime change on Pakistan, among other imperialist acts. Fully supported by the United States, the recent Israeli war against the people of Lebanon aims to destroy the popular resistance movement and to ignite an internal confessional strife. Such has been the US-Israeli design for Lebanon for decades. In its veto on July 12 of the United Nations resolution condemning the Israeli actions in Gaza, the Bush administration is sending a clear message that Israeli conquests complement US policies for the region, as manifested in the occupation and destruction of Iraq. Effectively, three Arab states (Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon) are now simultaneously under a violent siege and are being drawn into internal strife. And the United States seems even closer to implementing attacks on Iran (see arab-american.net)

For many of us, to join a solidarity fast against war and racism is a choice. For those living under U.S. and Israeli military occupation and war, accessing resources and simply being granted the right to exist are privileges that are increasingly difficult to come by. This is why fasting is a form of solidarity. One hundred people die in Iraq per day. Over 4,000 Palestinians and over 1000 Israelis killed since 2000 alone. Over 7.2 million Palestinians have become refugees. Because of the Israeli economic blockade, most the children in Gaza are malnourished, according to a recent New York Times article.

Domestically, the Bush administration has expanded its definition of “immigrant” to “evil terrorist enemy within.” Latino immigrants and other immigrants who have been marked as “potential criminals” have faced increasing forms of targeting and harassment since 9-11. Attacks against Filipinos/as have taken place based on Bush’s designation of the Philippines as an Al Qayeda harboring country. These attacks seek to quell the dissent of anyone who speaks out against the war machine. The silencing of dissent is facilitated by increasing policies that treat anyone who thinks critically of U.S. foreign policy—or believes in national self-determination—is treated as “anti-American” and anyone who thinks critically of the Israeli state as “anti-Semitic.”

The “war on terror” has facilitated the passing of new laws, such as the Patriot Act that give more power to the racist criminal justice system. These laws legalize and give increased power to the institutions of racial profiling, surveillance, sweeps, detentions, and lock-ups. The government pours money into the military, and we are paying this huge bill with severe cuts in the budgets for women’s and family’s social services, including welfare, housing, health, education, and transportation. The Bush administration recruits young people of color and lies to them by claiming that they will be given money for their education. These promises are not kept and young people of color, African-Americans in particular, are positioned on the front lines, used as cannon fodder for an illegal war.

The “Fast against War and Racism” creates an opportunity for people to express their solidarity with Muslim communities. It is also an opportunity for creating links between people who are targeted by the war on terror in their homelands and the people who are targeted by the war on terror, over here, within the U.S

Say NO to war and racism

Join the Fast in Solidarity with Muslim communities

Organized by:

NOWAR: The Arab American “No to War and Racism” Committee, Ann Arbor, Michigan

solidarityfast@comcast.net