Updates on what has been happening in the past week
Contents
1. Intro
2. Alerts
3. Campaigns
4. IHRC in Media
5. Briefing
6. Event Report
7. Upcoming Events
8. Shop
1. Intro
Join IHRC and Sandew Hira in London or Birmingham this September. Following the success of last year’s course, IHRC is delighted to be holding more Decolonising the Mind courses led by Sandew Hira from the International Institute for Scientific Research in the Netherlands. As well as the Visionary Exhibition Launch on Wednesday 18 September 7-9pm book your place now.
We launched the Aafia Siddiqui campaign for her release, find out how you can below in the campaigns section.
Please remember us in your duas, and consider giving us a donation by any of the methods below. We rely on your contribution to enable us to support victims of hatred and violence.
The IHRC newsletter is here, and below you can find details on how to download it and distribute it. Other facets of IHRC’s work have been reported on including our hate crime monitoring activities and research in the UK and USA.
If you would like to donate you can:
Visit us on-line and donate here
Or call the IHRC office on +44 20 8904 4222 between 9am – 5pm UK time, Monday to Friday and 10am – 6pm on Saturdays
Or download a copy of our latest newsletter and fill in one of the donation forms and return to us.
Don’t forget you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter @ihrc or on Youtube.
2. Alerts
Action Alert: UK – Reminder 1 week left until Visionary Awakening
Visionary Awakening – Exhibition Launch Wednesday 18 September 2013, 7pm – 9pm
IHRC is delighted to host visionary photographer and artist Nasreen Shaikh Jamal al-Lail’s work at its gallery in Wembley, northwest London.
Jamal al-Lail’s work has been exhibited in England and Saudi Arabia. Her main areas of interest lie in the connection between space and self-identity; for example, being a Muslim in Britain and also, being raised partly in Saudi Arabia has deeply shaped the way she perceives cultures and the dynamism inherent in their movements. Jamal Al-Lail’s focus has been on developing an understanding of how an interaction between different ‘collective memories’ has created a unique set of problems about who one is and what one can become. She attempts to weave alterity into a form which can be understood by those who find themselves amidst the confluence of ever changing, constantly evolving global artistic forms.
Action Alert: USA – Aafia Siddiqui must be repatriated now
Dr Aafia Siddiqui has been languishing in US custody for several years now. Hers is a depressing tale of how a promising future of an aspiring and intelligent frontrunner is destroyed at the hands of barabaric collaborators under the pretext of the ‘war on terror’. It is a story of indescribable torture, and painful separation from her young children and loved ones that has taken a huge toll on her physical and mental health which continues to deteriorate as days go by. Indeed IHRC hopes that it is the answer to Aafia’s plight and becomes the reason for her release. We need all our campaigners to write to the foreign secretary of their respective countries to call on the UN to intervene in her case.
Help IHRC – Become a Newsletter Distributor
From just a few copies to a few thousand, help get IHRC’s message heard
Free Advice Surgeries – London, UK
Islamic Human Rights Commission offers free weekly Information and Advice surgeries every Wednesday. Our professional caseworkers can provide people with information and advice on a whole range of issues.
Our service is confidential, independent and free.
3. Campaigns
Don’t forget this notorious case of US injustice
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui languishes in a US jail after a harrowing ordeal of kidnapping in Pakistan, detention in the notorious Bagram airbase, a prolonged period where no-one knows where she was followed by a sham trial and sentencing, over a period of almost a decade. More information on her case can be found on the Justice for Aafia page.
Send a pack to a prisoner this Eid
Following the successful distribution of Eid packs to 600 prisoners for the last two years (see below), IHRC is organising to send more packs for Eid ul Adha 2013. If you would like to donate please call us on +44 20 8904 4222 or email advocacy[AT]ihrc.org or donate on-line here.
You can pay for 10 packs at £50, 20 packs at £100 or 100 packs at £500. If you want to donate a different amount please call us.
Know Your Rights: Schedule 7 Resources
A compilation of resources and links from IHRC in relation to the Schedule 7 and know your rights.
4. IHRC in Media
Let the Right One In: Britain’s Invitation to Narendra Modi
It has been a long summer in the north London borough of Brent, one of the areas chosen for the government’s “racist van” advertising campaign pilot and the subject of “heavy-handed”immigration checks at train stations by the Borders Agency. Not all the political controversy has been provided by central government, however; one local politician has been doing a good job of stirring up contention. In August, Brent North MP Barry Gardiner invited the chief minister of the west Indian state of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, to speak on “The Future of Modern India”, before an invited audience at the House of Commons. Barry Gardiner is the Chair of Labour Friends of India and his constituency includes a large Indian Gujarati community, both Hindu and Muslim. A few days later, this invitation was backed up by Shailesh Vara, Conservative MP for Cambridgeshire North West, and from the Conservative Friends of India. The invitation is a clear reflection of the UK’s trade interest in India and disregard for basic human rights.
Protest in UK over invitation to Modi
Various organisations picketed outside Brent Civic Centre in London against invitation to Narendra Modi by Barry Gardiner.
In a rare display of unity representatives of various socio-religious and human rights organisations picketed today outside Brent Civic Centre in London against the invitation sent to the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi by a group of British MPs led by Barry Gardiner.
Holding placards with messages including, “We will not forget Genocide 2002” and “Killer Modi not welcome here”, protestors shouted slogans, “Barry Gardiner, Shame, Shame! Inviting Modi, Not in Our Name”, “Barry, Barry don’t lie – Modi’s Guilty of Genocide”, “Who killed Ishrat Jahan? Modi did, Modi did”, “Modi is a murderer”, “Barry Gardiner shame on you shame on you”.
Anti-Narendra Modi protest held in London
South Asian human rights campaigners here joined forces to organise a protest against an invitation for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to visit the UK.
The South Asia Solidarity Group led a demonstration along with 10 other groups outside the office of Labour Party MP Barry Gardiner in north London yesterday.
Gardiner, in his capacity as the chair of the Labour Friends of India group, sparked widespread debate last month with an invitation for Modi to speak on “The Future of Modern India” at a special event in the House of Commons.
But the election campaign chief of the BJP has since declined the invitation and said he has no immediate plans to visit the UK.
Protests in London after Modi gets invitation to visit UK
South Asian human rights campaigners here joined forces to organise a protest against an invitation for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to visit the UK.
The South Asia Solidarity Group led a demonstration along with 10 other groups outside the office of Labour Party MP Barry Gardiner in north London yesterday. Gardiner, in his capacity as the chair of the Labour Friends of India group, sparked widespread debate last month with an invitation for Modi to speak on “The Future of Modern India” at a special event in the House of Commons.
Britons to voice support for Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails
British activists are to stage a protest in London to draw public attention to the plight of Jordanian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
According to a press release on the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) official website on Thursday, the demonstration, which is organized by the Innovative Minds (inminds) campaign group, will be held in front of the Royal Jordanian Airlines office in Hammersmith, West London, on September 13.
IHRC urges support for release of Lynn Stewart
The London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has urged British activists to join a campaign for immediate release of imprisoned human rights attorney Lynne Stewart.
Justice for Lynne Stewart Campaign and IHRC urged the campaigners to contact the federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, where she is held, and to Lynne herself to show their support for her release.
5. Briefing
The story of Mumia Abu Jamal and the American justice system by Sana Mushtaq.
Mumia Abu-Jamal’s story is one of utter travesty and highlights the imperfections and fallibility of the American justice system. He is a Muslim African American who has spent the last thirty years in prison on Death Row in Pennsylvania and almost all of this time has been in solitary confinement. His case has attracted national and international attention and caused much controversy.
6. Event Report
Event Report: Protest – Barry Gardiner MP invites the butcher of Gujarat Narendra Modi to the UK
Report from protest against invitation to Narendra Modi by British MP Barry Gardiner.
On a rain drenched Monday, some 100 people turned up to protest outside Brent North MP Barry Gardiner’s surgery at Brent Civic Centre. Modi, is widely held to be the the inciter of massacres of Muslims across Gujarat in 2002. IHRC’s report on the massacres can be read on-line, but read with caution, the contents are quite harrowing.
7. Upcoming Events
IHRC is delighted to host visionary photographer and artist Nasreen Shaikh Jamal al-Lail’s work at its gallery in Wembley, northwest London. Jamal al-Lail is a First class graduate in Photography (BA) from the University of Westminster.
Jamal al-Lail’s work has been exhibited in England and Saudi Arabia. Her main areas of interest lie in the connection between space and self-identity; for example, being a Muslim in Britain and also, being raised partly in Saudi Arabia has deeply shaped the way she perceives cultures and the dynamism inherent in their movements. Jamal Al-Lail’s focus has been on developing an understanding of how an interaction between different ‘collective memories’ has created a unique set of problems about who one is and what one can become. She attempts to weave alterity into a form which can be understood by those who find themselves amidst the confluence of ever changing, constantly evolving global artistic forms.
Join IHRC and Sandew Hira in London or Birmingham this September. Following the success of last year’s course, IHRC is delighted to be holding more Decolonising the Mind courses led by Sandew Hira from the International Institute for Scientific Research in the Netherlands.
London (One Day Course) 22 September (Sunday) 2013
The cost of the course is £23 (full rate) and £18 (concessions). Buy your ticket by clicking here or calling us on 020 8904 4222.
The concessionary rate is available to OAP’s, Students, the unwaged and regular IHRC supporters.
Birmingham (Two Day Course) 28 and 29 September 2013
The cost for the two day course is £40 (full rate) and £25 (concessions). Buy your ticket by clicking here or calling us on 020 8904 4222.
The concessionary rate is available to OAP’s, Students, the unwaged and regular IHRC supporters.
8. Shop
12 September marked the 36th death anniversary of South African activist Steve Biko. He made a great contribution to the black fight for freedom from apartheid. Browse through our collection on Biko:
I Write What I like is a collection of his work. This book covers the basic philosophy of black consciousness, Bantustans, African culture, the institutional church and Western involvement in apartheid.
Biko by Donald Woods is a testimony about the life and work of Steve Biko.
The Steve Biko Memorial Lectures 2000-2008. The annual Steve Biko Memorial Lecture is given by Africa’s foremost scholars and artists, as well as religious and political leaders.
Check out our online shop for many more books
Twitter @ihrcbookshop
