Washington DC – A group of American Muslims, joined by interfaith leaders, have launched an initiative to get thousands of Americans to take part in a march in Washington DC on July 23, in what they call a stand against bigotry, “extremism”, and gun violence.
The American Muslim March will take place at the National Mall – home to various large-scale historical gatherings – to also condemn “terrorism” and vocally eschew the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), organisers said.
Rally sponsors include more than 20 organisations representing the three monotheistic regions, as well as the Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, and Bahai communities.
The initiative comes at a time when anti-Muslim sentiment is high, in part driven by the rhetoric of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who has called for the banning of foreign Muslims from the United States.
Trump has made his Muslim ban a centrepiece of his candidacy: he recently reiterated his proposal following an attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, which left 49 people dead. He also suggested profiling Muslims, citing Israel as an example, and implied that US President Barack Obama was complicit or sympathetic to radicalised Muslims.
Some Muslim groups have been more vocal about terrorism, gun violence and Islamophobia, since a married couple, inspired by ISIL ideology, killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California.
“We were motivated to take action after San Bernardino,” said Khaled al-Mufti, a member of the rally organising committee. “We wanted to denounce ISIS as an ideology that claims to be representative of Islam, but it’s not. That’s not the religion we practise. We want to make it loud and clear to all the world: This is not Islam.”
‘Hostility towards minorities’
The rally is being organised by the Islamic Society of Central Florida, and the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in Washington DC, which recently hosted Secretary of State John Kerry and Hollywood actress and activist Angelina Jolie with Syrian refugees in recognition of World Refugee Day.
For the event, organisers are reaching out to renowned Muslims such as Yousef Islam, previously known as Cat Stevens, retired basketball legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and influential Islamic scholar Hamza Yusuf. They are hoping to attract about 100,000 people from the Muslim and immigrant communities and anybody “affected by the recent surge in hostility towards minorities”, Mufti told Al Jazeera.
“The rhetoric going on in the presidential campaigns is creating an atmosphere of bigotry,” he said. “This is not only towards Muslim, but also towards immigrant communities. We therefore wanted to provide a platform for everyone to speak about those issues.”
The Southern Poverty Law Centre, which tracks hate groups, said anti-Muslim attacks rose sharply in 2015, “egged on by a steady drumbeat of propaganda from Islamophobes and given a megaphone by the press and a presidential frontrunner given to racist and Muslim-hating oratory”. Last year, three young Muslim Americans were shot dead by a man known for his hatred of Islam in the university town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Also in 2015, there were approximately four times as many attacks on mosques than the previous year, according to a recent report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Centre for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley.
The 78 instances where Muslim houses of worship were targeted – via arson, vandalism or other methods – partly show the pervasiveness of Islamophobia in all aspects of society, according to Hatem Bazian, the centre’s director of the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project, who contributed to the report.
“The report gives the widest view of the situation facing Muslims today in America and we are still speaking about 2015 and not yet accounting for the full impact of Trump’s campaign and the shift that he made in making Islamophobia acceptable and patriotic,” Bazian told Al Jazeera.
‘Muslim-free zones’
The report highlights the various methods in which Islamophobia is manifested, including the rise in anti-Islam groups, armed demonstrations outside of mosques, hate crimes against Muslim Americans, and private businesses declaring themselves ‘Muslim-free zones’.
In 2014, there were 74 Islamophobic groups, the report found – 33 whose primary purpose is to promote prejudice against Islam and Muslims, and the rest whose “work regularly demonstrates or supports Islamophobic themes”, such as Fox News Channel and the Rush Limbaugh Show.
Islamophobia is also driven by a political elite, Bazian said, who, “facing trickle down economic failure and dead-end domestic policies they championed over 40 years since the Reagan administration … offer the Muslim subject as the springboard to avoid all issues and thus win seats”.
This year, it’s not about what Keystone State “Skinheads” has planned. We already know they really don’t want to see us and are going to do everything they can to avoid us. We have already won that battle. This year, it’s about coming out on our time to say there is still work to be done.
From Antifa Philadelphia:
It’s that time of the year again.
Every October, The Keystone State “Skinheads” attempt to hold a public rally along boathouse row in Fairmount Park. This rally is billed as a “Leif Erikson Day Celebration.” It is, in reality, the one time a year that KSS tries to hold a space in Philly, if only for an hour. This grants them some measure of legitimacy as “activists” and represents their last foothold of a street presence in Philadelphia. They have encountered opposition most of the past 10 years. Last year, in order to avoid Anti-Fascists, KSS held their event in the middle of the night after announcing they would be in the park at noon.
Antifa Philadelphia intends to be in Fairmount Park on October 9th, Leif Erikson Day. We will gather at the Thorfin Karlsfeni statue on Boathouse row and rally against Racism, Colonialism, and KSS organizing in our city and state. We are calling on all Anti-Racists and Anti-Fascists to join us in confronting KSS and showing them that they are (still) not welcome in Philadelphia.
Giant Hamburger presents:
punx and skins united against fascism fest
With
Barra Brava (mexico)
Revolucion oi (texas)
The Loveless (ohio)
Sober Hate(anaheim)
Malditas Drogas(anaheim)
Sufre (anaheim)
In the past few months, there has been an uptick in fascist propaganda in the Seattle area. Predominantly in the form of posters and stickers, but including graffiti and physical confrontations, local fascists affiliated with American Renaissance, Identity Evropa and The Right Stuff seem to be trying to spread their propaganda across many neighborhoods in Seattle. We began receiving emails with pictures and accounts of physical confrontations and have been mapping these out for the past couple of months. If you are the Pacific Northwest and see something, please feel free to (safely) document and email to us at antifa206 (at) riseup (dot) net. If you are outside of the Pacific Northwest, hopefully this project serves as some inspiration for creative work for other antifascist networks.
Whitefish, Mont, – It’s been two years since the Whitefish City Council adopted a resolution supporting diversity and tolerance in the community, taking a stance in support of community values that promote inclusion and acceptance for all of the city’s inhabitants and visitors.
“I was very proud of Whitefish that day,” said Councilor Frank Sweeney, who moved to adopt the resolution. “The chamber was packed with people and citizen after citizen spoke out in favor of the measure. In essence, our community was collectively saying that ‘all are welcome in Whitefish.’”
In recent weeks, individuals and groups espousing white supremacy, the so-called “alt-right,” have inserted Whitefish into state and national media coverage, claiming they have “roots” in the town.
Community leaders are pushing back on this idea, citing the resolution as documentation that Whitefish celebrates the dignity and diversity of all its citizens and visitors, and rejects such hate-based ideologies. The Resolution adopted December 1, 2014 reads “The Whitefish City Council declares its support of Whitefish community values that recognize and celebrate the dignity, diversity, and inclusion of all of its inhabitants and visitors, and condemn ideologies, philosophies and movements that deny equality of human rights and opportunities and challenge our Constitutional freedoms granted by the United States and the State of Montana, and protect and safeguard the right and opportunity of all persons to exercise their civil rights, including the rights of free speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from discrimination.” It continues: “Nothing in this Resolution is intended to alter or abridge other rights, protections, or privileges secured by state or federal law, including state and federal constitutional protections of freedom of speech, assembly, and exercise of religion.
“Our community cannot be defined by one person’s extreme ideologies. As Mayor let me assure you, all are welcome in Whitefish.” said Mayor John Muhlfeld. “It’s the people who live and work in Whitefish every day, those who run local businesses and volunteer their time to help make our town better, that represent our shared sense of community values.”
Love Lives Here, a non-profit organization committed to creating caring, open, and welcoming communities throughout the Flathead, led the charge on the 2014 Resolution and continues to take an active role in organizing against hate-based extremism in the area. On December 9, 2016, the group will “Celebrate the Light,” to honor the fact that, for only the fourth time in the last 100 years, Christmas and Chanukah will fall on the same day. All are welcome to the event of music, singing and celebrating diversity.
“Whitefish is blessed to have dedicated faith leaders that are committed to bringing light to the darkness,” said Ina Albert, a founder of Love Lives Here in Flathead Valley. “Separatism can only grow if the soil is receptive to prejudice. Truth, love and kindness will always win out if our community can find ways to accept and validate each others’ liberties and freedoms.”
Love Lives Here is also encouraging local businesses to display “Love Lives Here” signs in their store windows to show their patrons that Whitefish businesses support a diverse and unified community based on mutual respect.
“An open and accepting community draws visitors, welcomes everyone, and keeps Whitefish a place where we all love to live,” said Kelly Marchetti, owner of Sprouts, a children’s clothing store located in downtown Whitefish. “Hate can only hurt us and we have to stand up to it.”
Love Lives Here is a non-profit organization located in northwest Montana with it’s headquarters in Kalispell and serving communities like Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell and the surrounding areas within the Flathead Valley. Love Lives Here is committed to co-creating a caring, open, accepting and diverse community, free from discrimination and dedicated to equal treatment for all our citizens.
For more information and to download a Love Lives Here sign to display in the window of a home or business, visit: www.loveliveshereflathead.org.
For current events, follow: www.facebook.com/LoveLivesHereFlathead/
We must state for the record: We are not sure if the Daily Stormer’s Andrew Anglin is actually going to pull of his armed anti-Jewish rally in Whitefish, Montana on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This is a guy who does not make public appearances, only talks trash from behind his computer and has not even filed the application for a permit to rally in Whitefish on that or any day in the near future (we called the city clerk and they confirmed to us that the application had not been received). But screw HIS timetable. Anti-Racist Action isn’t going by that. See, Anglin keeps wanting to be an asshole screwing with people with his Nazi BS from afar, but he is in the Columbus, Ohio area and Columbus is not only the home of one of the strongest chapters of ARA, but it’s also where we called home for a year and a half. To that end antifa is making other plans – zeroing in on his disreputable father Greg who seems to be a kind of silent partner of his son’s and just so happens to own an office building just outside town! So Andrew now has a choice: Go out and posture thousands of miles away from where people back home are calling him and his Daddy out, or stay home and deal with the mess he is making of his life that is now being dealt with in more offline scenarios.
WOMEN’S MARCH ON WASHINGTON- JANUARY 21st, 2017
OFFICIAL STATEMENT, National Organizers
On January 21, 2017 we will unite in Washington, DC for the Women’s March on Washington. We stand together in solidarity with our partners and children for the protection of our rights, our safety, our health, and our families — recognizing that our vibrant and diverse communities are the strength of our country.
The rhetoric of the past election cycle has insulted, demonized, and threatened many of us–women, immigrants of all statuses, those with diverse religious faiths particularly Muslim, people who identify as LGBTQIA, Native and Indigenous people, Black and Brown people, people with disabilities, the economically impoverished and survivors of sexual assault. We are confronted with the question of how to move forward in the face of national and international concern and fear.
In the spirit of democracy and honoring the champions of human rights, dignity, and justice who have come before us, we join in diversity to show our presence in numbers too great to ignore. The Women’s March on Washington will send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office, and to the world that women’s rights are human rights. We stand together, recognizing that defending the most marginalized among us is defending all of us.
We support the advocacy and resistance movements that reflect our multiple and intersecting identities. We call on all defenders of human rights to join us. This march is the first step towards unifying our communities, grounded in new relationships, to create change from the grassroots level up. We will not rest until women have parity and equity at all levels of leadership in society. We work peacefully while recognizing there is no true peace without justice and equity for all. HEAR OUR VOICE.
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This is an INCLUSIVE march, and EVERYONE who supports women’s rights are welcome.
PLEASE SHARE, we need to spread the word everywhere! And there are groups forming for EVERY STATE, so search for your local group as well!
We especially need HOSTS and ORGANIZERS from marginalized communities for this to be truly inclusive, please DM your state administrator to get involved! ♥
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INDIVIDUAL STATE PAGES
Alabama: https://www.facebook.com/
Alaska:https://www.facebook.com/
Arizona: https://www.facebook.com/
Arkansas: https://www.facebook.com/
California: https://www.facebook.com/
Colorado: https://www.facebook.com/
Connecticut: https://www.facebook.com/
Delaware: https://www.facebook.com/
Florida: https://www.facebook.com/
Georgia: https://www.facebook.com/
Hawaii: https://www.facebook.com/
Idaho: Coming Soon
Illinois: https://www.facebook.com/
Indiana: https://www.facebook.com/
Iowa: https://www.facebook.com/
Kansas: https://www.facebook.com/
Kentucky: https://www.facebook.com/
Louisiana: https://www.facebook.com/
Maine: https://www.facebook.com/
Maryland: https://www.facebook.com/
Massachusetts:!https://www.facebook.com/
Michigan: https://www.facebook.com/
Minnesota: https://www.facebook.com/
Mississipi: https://www.facebook.com/
Missouri: https://www.facebook.com/
Montana: https://www.facebook.com/
Nebraska: https://www.facebook.com/
Nevada: https://www.facebook.com/
New Hampshire: https://www.facebook.com/
New Jersey: https://www.facebook.com/
New Mexico: https://www.facebook.com/
North Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/
North Dakota: https://www.facebook.com/
NYC-Downstate: https://www.facebook.com/
NYC-Upstate/Hudston Valley: https://www.facebook.com/
New York/Western New York: https://www.facebook.com/
Ohio: https://www.facebook.com/
Oklahoma: https://www.facebook.com/
Oregon: https://www.facebook.com/
Pennsylvania: https://www.facebook.com/
Rhode Island: https://www.facebook.com/
South Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/
South Dakota: DM Nat’l State Coordinator Evvie Harmon to get involved!
Tennessee: https://www.facebook.com/
Texas: https://www.facebook.com/
Utah: https://www.facebook.com/
Vermont: https://www.facebook.com/
Virginia: https://www.facebook.com/
WashingtonState:https://www.facebook.com/
Washington, DC: https://www.facebook.com/
West Virginia: https://www.facebook.com/
Wisconsin: https://www.facebook.com/
Wyoming: Coming soon!
Pureto Rico : https://www.facebook.com/
Canada: https://www.facebook.com/
Mexico: Coming soon!
London: https://www.facebook.com/
Zurich:https://www.facebook.com/
Showing Up For Racial Justice, Northern Virginia (SURJ-NOVA), is planning a rally to protest white supremacist Nazi Richard Spencer, who coined the term “Alt Right” and was most recently famous for a viral video where he was punched in the face.
He’s moving to Alexandria Virginia, setting up a home office to spread his genocidal ideas. Fascism is on the rise, and good allies throughout the country are working together to defeat it.
Alexandria should be a sanctuary city for immigrants and refugees, not white supremacy!
Join us to demonstrate support for marginalized communities against the white supremacist hate of Richard Spencer and his National Policy Institute.
Please bring signs expressing support for making Alexandria a sanctuary city and liberating Alexandria from white supremacy.
Hashtags for this event include #sanctuaryALX, #sanctuarycities, #AlexandriaVA, #inclusiveALX, and #dismantlewhitesupremacy.
ROAR aka Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism Conference is a FREE two day event, organized by Northern California Anti-Racist Action, that will be held on March 11th at OMNI Commons in Oakland and March 12th at California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. ROAR will be a space to gather, build, and learn from each other’s struggles and continue to build an anti-racist front in the Bay Area and beyond. During these times more and more attention is being paid to those of us who use direct action and hold liberatory and revolutionary politics. We can use this moment not only to inspire others through our actions, but to also inspire with our ideas. To draw a line not just against this or that politician, or this or that alt-right figure, but to construct revolutionary positions such as returning land to the indigenous, centering black folks and their perspectives, community self defense, taking care of one another, putting women and gender non conforming people to the front, obliterating borders, opening prison doors, and gaining our freedom from the state, capitalism, and all the other damning institutions.
Themes and topics that will be covered at the conference include but are not limited to:
Black Liberation/Black Power
Indigenous Struggles
Police Brutality
Community self-defense
Political Prisoners
Intersections of racism and disability
Undocumented + Immigrant struggles
Muslim struggles
Black + Brown unity
Anti-Patriarchy, Transphobia + Homophobia
Anti-Racism for White people
History Lessons from Movements past
.
ROAR aka Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism Conference is a FREE two day event, organized by Northern California Anti-Racist Action, that will be held on March 11th at OMNI Commons in Oakland and March 12th at California Institute for Integral Studies in San Francisco. ROAR will be a space to gather, build, and learn from each other’s struggles and continue to build an anti-racist front in the Bay Area and beyond. During these times more and more attention is being paid to those of us who use direct action and hold liberatory and revolutionary politics. We can use this moment not only to inspire others through our actions, but to also inspire with our ideas. To draw a line not just against this or that politician, or this or that alt-right figure, but to construct revolutionary positions such as returning land to the indigenous, centering black folks and their perspectives, community self defense, taking care of one another, putting women and gender non conforming people to the front, obliterating borders, opening prison doors, and gaining our freedom from the state, capitalism, and all the other damning institutions.
Themes and topics that will be covered at the conference include but are not limited to:
Black Liberation/Black Power
Indigenous Struggles
Police Brutality
Community self-defense
Political Prisoners
Intersections of racism and disability
Undocumented + Immigrant struggles
Muslim struggles
Black + Brown unity
Anti-Patriarchy, Transphobia + Homophobia
Anti-Racism for White people
History Lessons from Movements past