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Freedom to drug is now an international priority
By yaman | July 10, 2006
Last week, an R&B producer named Dallas Austin was arrested at an airport in Dubai for attempting to smuggle in small amounts of cocaine, most likely for use at the birthday party of Naomi Campbell. Austin was sentenced to four years in a Dubai prison, followed by deportation back to the United States.
What happened? Numerous celebrities mobilized themselves and their legal teams to secure his release, even lobbying Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, who in turn contacted Dubai’s ambassador in Washington. Shortly thereafter, Austin was pardoned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.
The United States has a responsibility to look out for the welfare of its citizens abroad, especially when they are in danger of falling prey to the brutal prison systems of the Middle East. However, the disproportionate and shameful amount of influence exerted by celebrities and our Congress to secure the release of a drug smuggler is baffling, disappointing, and reveals a serious shortcoming in moral priorities.
At this same time, ordinary citizens without fancy Hollywood connections are being persecuted daily. Dr Kamal al-Labwani, a human rights activist in Syria, was arrested at Damascus airport simply for visiting human rights organizations and government officials in Europe and the US. A number of individuals were arrested for signing the “Damascus Declaration,” which was a renewed call for President Assad to use his inherited power to implement democratic reform. One man, Muhammad Ghanem, was arrested for running a website that “insulted the President.”
In Egypt, two journalists were issued one year prison sentences in June for defaming the President’s character. In Saudi Arabia, the religious police raided an apartment to arrest four Africans who were violating the law—by conducting Christian prayer services, apparently a crime. Just one month prior to that event, a Catholic pastor was deported for leading Easter services. Last April in Iran, two teenagers were arrested for kissing in public.
Enough: this is daily life in the Middle East for civil rights activists. There are domestic movements in every country in the region fighting for the liberties we often take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom to assemble. At a time when the US tries to espouse democratic ideals throughout the region, would it not have been more fitting for Senator Hatch and other government personnel to have called for the release of these political dissidents, rather than a man arrested on legitimate drug charges?
Is it not shameful that our government mobilized over a hundred thousand troops in Iraq to topple a dictator, but when it came to something as simple as calling a few foreign friends or taking a firm public stand, our efforts went to a celebrity drug user, and not civil rights activists abroad?
Last Sunday, seven of Egypt’s most prominent independent newspapers refused to go to press to boycott government censorship and intimidation of journalists. In this and the many movements that are sure to follow in the coming months, let America and its government publicly stand by those civilian activists who will suffer while fighting the good fight before near impossible odds. If we fail to empower or assist the domestic opposition by all means necessary, then we have by no means done everything possible to avoid future military entanglement.
Will our Congressional representatives offer us a reassurance of their foreign policy priorities, at the very least?
Topics: Comment |
April 3rd, 2007 at 4:01 pm
Hi Yaman,
I’ve been reading your LiveJournal for a while and then I found your site here. It won’t let me comment on your “Antiepiphany” article for some reason. I don’t really have much to say, besides that I hope you don’t give up on God and that I will try to make du’as for you to come back to Islam. I think Muslims in the West have lost one of the most intelligent brothers we may have had. But there have always been intelligent people who saw through religion and fought for what was right, such as Edward Said, so maybe we haven’t lost you after all.
Anyhow, you wrote once about facebook being a silly place to have serious conversations and I have to disagree. I think facebook is pretty democratic, in that it’s just more people voicing their honest opinions and understandings of the world. I actually thought of what you might say when I was reading one of those anti-war groups, “If you support the Iraq war, go fight it” haha. It’s strange how people you merely read about over the internet can seriously infect your mind like regular people you see everyday.
Anyhow, I wish you the best. Take care.
April 3rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Hi anonymous. The anti-Epiphany article has comments disabled right now because I’m still in the process of restoring the old ones–maybe I’ll get to it today, or maybe some other random time in the future.
Anyway, that I am no longer Muslim does not mean that I will abandon any just cause. I think it has no bearing on this.
I actually don’t think it’s silly to have good conversations on Facebook. Facebook has the potential for a lot of projects–but I think the danger of Facebook is that people might mistake joining, creating, or writing on a group as “activism” that will absolve them of other responsibilities. I join/create/write on groups all the time, but I also try to make sure I don’t confuse this for anything substantive.