Rev. Justin Osterman, minister of the Mainline Unitarian Church in Devon, Pa., lost a parishioner in the tragic attacks of September 11, 2001. His fate took an unexpected turn when he served as a translator at the Guantanamo Bay detention center, using Arabic language skills he'd learned in the military. A member of Osterman's church who was representing two detainees at Guantanamo Bay asked him to interpret for him. Today, Rev. Osterman is a huge critic of the detention center and a huge supporter of its closure. You can read or listen to his sermon, "Our Cuban Nightmare," and learn more about his experiences.

Learn more about UUSC's work against torture

On January 22, 2009, UUSC and its partners National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) and Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) celebrated the President Obama's executive orders to ban torture and close down the detention center in Guantanamo Bay.

Still, the executive orders are only the beginning of a long process to achieve justice for the prisoners at Guantanamo and restoring our values and our standing in the world.

UUSC has joined NRCAT and TASSC to push for a commission of inquiry that would investigate whether members of the Bush administration violated U.S. laws against torture. As the process of closing Guantanamo unfolds, UUSC will be vigilant and continue to work with its partners and allies to press the new president and the administration for accountability in Afghanistan, Iraq, and wherever illegal detention, torture, and other inhumane treatment of prisoners by the United States continue.

On Sunday, March 29, I attended the Boston Bazaar — a project put together by two UUSC partners, Barakat and HAMSA, and co-sponsored by UUSC.

Watch a short video about the bazaar.

The well-attended multicultural bazaar featured food, dances, henna-painting, and other activities from across the Muslim world. It was great to see two of our Boston-based partners, introduced by UUSC, enjoying such synergy and embarking on their third event together.

Leading up to the bazaar, from March 15-25, the American Islamic Congress held a speakers series on cultural diversity in the Muslim world and in the greater Boston area. Panels explored the cultural richness of Muslim communities, from Russian Tatars to Berber Shi'ites to Sufis who go on hajj to Senegal instead of Saudi Arabia.

I was a speaker for the March 23 panel on The Near East: the Muslim World's Original Melting Pot. I shared details from my experience of growing up in Dubai, a melting pot of immigrant Muslim cultures, where Arabic is not always the first language.

Events and partnerships like these are an example of efforts by UUSC's Civil Liberties Program to provide our constituents an opportunity to "build bridges" between Muslim and Arabs, in the United States and abroad, and help the larger American public gain a better understanding of the Arab and Muslim worlds, as we work together to protect civil liberties.

In the first week of his presidency, President Barack Obama gave his first formal interview to Al Arabiya, one of the biggest Arabic-language news channels, to signify a bold change in America's relations with the Arab and Muslim world. Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief of Al-Arabiya, was the interviewer.

"My job is to communicate to the American people that the Muslim world is filled with extraordinary people who simply want to live their lives and see their children live better lives," Obama told Al Arabiya. "My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy." In the interview, Obama also expressed his commitment to tackling the Middle East peace process immediately.

After hearing former President George W. Bush's rhetoric to the Arab and Muslim world about democracy and freedom, it was refreshing to hear Obama speak about mutual respect. He also talked candidly about how many members of his own family are Muslim, how he respected Islam, and how he can serve as a bridge builder between the United States and the Arab and Muslim world. "I have Muslim members of my family. I have lived in Muslim countries," the president said.

It was interesting to see how many times Obama used the word "respect" in his interview. The Daily Show produced a brilliant piece on how humble and different Obama's conversation was compared to his predecessor's, and how Obama emphasized that his administration was going to be more open to listening to voices from the Arab and Muslim world, rather than just dictating to them. He also confirmed that he was planning to address the Muslim world from a Muslim capital during his first 100 days in office. No details are available yet, but observers and analysts have speculated that it will likely take place in Indonesia, the biggest Muslim country in the world, where Obama spent part of his childhood.

During the interview, Melhem remarked that unlike Bush, Obama did not use phrases like the "war on terror" or "Islamic fascism," but rather was very specific to refer to terrorists or extremist groups as Al Qaeda and collaborators. Obama agreed, explaining that how one frames language is important:

"What we need to understand is, is that there are extremist organizations — whether Muslim or any other faith in the past — that will use faith as a justification for violence. We cannot paint with a broad brush a faith as a consequence of the violence that is done in that faith's name."

You can watch or read the interview here.

As a result of post-9/11 laws, policies, and fear, our democracy has experienced a quantum shift in freedom that has reduced civil liberties, particularly for law-abiding Muslim and Arab Americans. UUSC's Civil Liberties Program will soon embark on a "Building Bridges for Civil Liberties" project to raise awareness about the gravity of these issues, as we begin to roll back some of the damaging policies of the past eight years. UUSC is very excited to start this project in the new environment of the Obama administration.

Stay tuned for more details!

As we usher in 2009, millions of Americans are excited and hopeful that an Obama administration will correct the many wrongs we have endured over the last eight years. One of them is the restoration of civil liberties eroded by irrational post-9/11 policies, which have been directed largely at law-abiding Muslim and Arab Americans.

Just last week, nine Muslims were kicked off a New Year's Day flight on AirTran to Florida after other passengers reported hearing a suspicious remark about airplane security. The confusion started at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., when one of the Muslim passengers, Atif Irfan, talked about the safest place to sit on the airplane.

Irfan said that when he boarded the flight Thursday, he mentioned something to his wife and sister-in-law about having to sit in the back. His sister-in-law replied that she believed the back of the airplane was the safest, but Irfan believed it was better to be by the wings.

These innocuous comments, however, were reported as a national security threat, and shortly after boarding, members of the family were approached by federal air marshals and taken off the plane. They were detained for a few hours while being questioned. However, although they were cleared by the FBI, AirTrain refused to allow the family to reboard the plane or any other later AirTran flight.

Although this incident, a clear example of racial and religious profiling, is shocking, it is not surprising. Post-9/11 hysteria and long-held stereotypes have created a fundamental misunderstanding and fear of Islam, Muslims, Arabs and anything "Middle Eastern."

Unfortunately, since 9/11, what most Americans see on television or read in the papers are examples of Arabs and Muslims responsible for terror attacks, repression of women, and riots over things like political cartoons. The demonization of Arabs and Muslims in mainstream American media is a not a new phenomenon. Films over the past decades have reiterated stereotypical images from crazy oil "sheiks" to violent, angry, chauvinistic men committing acts of terrorism, from oppressed women veiled in black to savage tribes roaming the desert, as depicted in the popular Disney film Aladdin.

According to a 2007 poll conducted by the Pew Forum, 54 percent of the American public does not know a Muslim personally. The 2007 Pew poll concludes that 45 percent of Americans believe that Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence.

UUSC's Civil Liberties Program will soon be launching a Building Bridges for Civil Liberties project that seeks to challenge the rhetoric and unfair and illegal targeting of Arab and Muslim Americans in the post-9/11 United States and to remind us all that the erosion of civil liberties for any one group threatens the rights of all Americans. Stay tuned for more details!

On Wednesday, November 12, the lives of several young girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan, were changed forever. While they were walking to school, they were attacked by two men who sprayed acid on them, blinding at least two of the girls. It is suspected that Taliban militants are responsible for the act. Under the Taliban regime from 1996-2001, women and girls were forbidden to attend school. Since the fall of the Taliban, women and girls have had the opportunity to attain education, much to the distress of Taliban leaders and militants. In the past few years, several school girls have been threatened, attacked, and even killed for going to school.

Unfortunately, acid attacks on women is not an uncommon phenomenon in South Asian countries like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh; however, it is usually practiced by men taking revenge against women who refuse to respond to a man's romantic or sexual overtures. The recent horrific acid attack in Afghanistan seems like a new tactic being used by the Taliban in their ongoing assault on girls and women practicing their right to education.

UUSC has four program partners in Afghanistan — Afghan Center, Afghan Women Judges Association, Barakat, and Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan. All of them have reported a worsening security situation that makes their work more challenging. Anyone following the news knows that over the past couple of years, many of the gains in establishing security and advancing rights for marginalized populations in Afghanistan have been lost.

One of UUSC's newest program partners, Barakat, is an organization that creates educational opportunities for women and children in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. What began as a weaving project in the late 1980s has since developed into an innovative strategy for helping local communities shape their own future.

Barakat's programs in Afghanistan are an attempt to fill the void and expand opportunities for girls and women. Barakat's educational programs include schools, literacy programs, and women's empowerment programs. In particular, UUSC supports Barakat's efforts to raise awareness about citizens' rights under the constitution, which guarantees human rights, women's rights, and civil liberties. To achieve this, Barakat provides human-rights training to Barakat School and Literacy Course teachers, who can then introduce these topics in their classrooms.

We asked Barakat's Program Manager, Arti Pandey, on her thoughts about the acid attacks and here is what she had to say:

"It is just appalling...it really chills the heart that someone could so callously, easily, and willfully destroy the life of another individual — a stranger to them but a symbol of something they oppose! I can't imagine how much hatred they must carry in their hearts to actually perform an act like this...

I don't know how widespread it is in Afghanistan. It has been happening in India and Pakistan but most often [it] is a case of "punishing" some woman/girl for not responding to (or breaking off from) a man's romantic overtures. It is the ultimate manner (and very safe too because it is done from a distance) in which to finally humble and reduce a woman (short of rape) without actually killing her... Plastic surgery is expensive and most of these women/girls will not be able to afford it.

I do believe that the Taliban act with more impunity and openness in the southern districts like Kandahar where this attack happened... The Pashtoon population is dominant in Kandahar — there are also Hazaras and Tajiks there, though as minorities. But an incident like this has repercussions for everyone across the country. After all, even our own Country Director sends his daughters to school in Kabul (they walk to school) and something like this would chill his heart for fear of his own children's safety — that is a natural reaction — isn't it? How can it be such a curse to simply be born a girl?"

We at UUSC are committed to working with our partners in Afghanistan to create a fair and just society that protects the rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls.

To learn more about UUSC's Civil Liberties Program and how you can get involved, visit www.uusc.org/civilliberties.

 

Today I will cast my first ballot ever. I could not even vote during the primaries because I was not yet a citizen. When you cast your ballot today, remember that you are not only exercising your right to vote, but you are participating in a civic activity that is denied to thousands of people around the world who cannot choose who leads them.

Furthermore, as a citizen who had to undergo a long and tedious naturalization process, I urge you never to take your right to vote for granted. Many immigrants who are residents choose not to become citizens because it costs too much. When I applied for citizenship last year, my application cost $400. Today, an application costs more than $600. To top it all, many applicants will hire lawyers to ensure that their applications are filled out accurately and won't be denied due to technicalities that are sometimes overlooked. The process ends up costing applicants thousands of dollars. Many immigrants can not afford that or run into debt in order to become citizens.

So, do the right thing by voting today and always remember what a sacred right voting is.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that one of our program partners, the Afghan Women Judges Association (AWJA), will be suspending its activities on December 1, 2008, due to the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

AWJA was established in 2003 after the ousting of the Taliban, when Afghans had new hopes and dreams for the future of their country. Funded by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the organization aimed to ensure the active participation of female judges and lawyers in Afghanistan's newly established judicial system and promote quality and reliable legal advice for vulnerable Afghan women.

UUSC has three other program partners in Afghanistan — Afghan Center, Barakat, Humanitarian Assistance for Women and Children of Afghanistan. All of them have reported a worsening security situation that makes their work more challenging. Anyone following the news knows that over the past couple of years, many of the gains in establishing security and advancing rights for marginalized populations in Afghanistan have been lost.

It is no secret that the Bush administration's misadventure in Iraq came at the expense of devoting vital resources to rebuilding Afghanistan. During the vice presidential debate last month, Senator Joe Biden poignantly explained that the United States has "spent more money...in three weeks on combat in Iraq than we spent on the entirety of the last seven years that we have been in Afghanistan building that country."

This is particularly disheartening because after the United States successfully defeated the Taliban regime, President George W. Bush said, "I can promise, too, that America will join the world in helping the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country." Not soon after that statement, he made yet another promise: "We're helping Afghanistan to claim its democratic future, and we're helping that nation to establish public order and safety...We will stay the course to help that country develop."

Just last week, a foreign aid worker, Gayle Williams, was brutally killed by the Taliban on her way to work because she was accused of proselytizing, which is illegal in Afghanistan. Her crime apparently seems to have been working for SERVE Afghanistan, a Christian charity registered in the U.K. Williams was the latest victim in a string of recent deadly attacks against aid workers, even in Kabul, which has long been considered a safe haven for international workers compared to other areas.

"While aid organizations are tightening their security in the wake of the killing, SERVE has not yet decided whether to withdraw its workers from the country. We need time to catch our breath. The safety of our people is very important," said Mike Lyth, a SERVE board chairperson.

As the Bush administration counts its final days, it can add "rebuilding Afghanistan" to its list of failed policies. One can only hope that the new administration and Congress will pay more attention to Afghanistan and work with the international community to devote the resources needed to rebuild this important Central Asian country

On my part, I proudly participated in Barakat's Walk for Literacy on Saturday to take a step forward for girls' education in Afghanistan. As we celebrate U.N. Day and the upcoming 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rigths, I want to take a moment to reflect on the innocent lives lost and the continual denial of basic rights to the most vulnerable populations in Afghanistan. Even if the international community — the United States in particular — has fallen back on its promises, we at UUSC are committed to working with our partners in Afghanistan to create a fair and just society that protects the rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls.

To learn more about UUSC's Civil Liberties Program and how you can get involved, visit www.uusc.org/content/civil_liberties.