ederal and city authorities are hunting down local Muslim and Arab immigrants who ignored deportation orders long before Sept. 11.Posted on 04/27/2002 3:14:44 PM PDT by sarcasm
ederal and city authorities are hunting down local Muslim and Arab immigrants who ignored deportation orders long before Sept. 11.
In the last two weeks, at least two dozen men have been picked up at their homes.
One of them, local Palestinian activist and regular WBAI-FM guest Faruk Abdel-Muhti, was arrested about 6 a.m. yesterday at his Corona, Queens, apartment, according to his 24-year-old son.
While not claiming his father was in America legally, Tarek Abdel-Muhti said, "My father is not a criminal, he's not a terrorist — my father is an activist.
"I even tried to hug my father, and the NYPD wouldn't even give me the chance to hug my own father," Abdel-Muhti said at a hastily organized news conference in front of the Federal Plaza offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Although Abdel-Muhti's lawyer, Gilma Camargo, said his client was singled out for his opinions against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, INS spokesman Mike Gilhooly said a final deportation order had been issued.
The latest round of arrests has provoked alarm in some of the city's immigrant communities, such as Midwood, Brooklyn, home to many Pakistanis. About a dozen men were arrested there last week.
Wrong Targets, They Say
Their advocates said the practice is singling out Muslims and Arabs, not terrorists.
"We should be going after people suspected of terrorism, not people who have immigration violations," said Margie McHugh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.
Russ Bergeron, an INS spokesman in Washington, said the agency is getting tougher on all known immigrant fugitives in the U.S., estimated at 300,000.
Those picked up by authorities "have been arrested not because of their nationality or religion, but because they are a fugitive from justice," he said.
Nationwide, more than 413 immigrants have been picked up since U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the roundup of some 6,000 people who come from countries with suspected links to terrorist groups.
It's been a while since I had a peaceful, Islamic cab driver....
Well, if it's affection he's lacking -- he can kiss my ass, if that would help.
Semper Fi
It can't be long enough. I have a friend who got into a dispute with one who was screaming in Arabic on his cell-phone while he drove, just after the Passover massacre. She asked him to please stop talking on the cell phone while he was driving, and then, when he wouldn't, she asked to be let out. He snatched the money out of her hand, screamed at her that she was a dirty Jew and that he hoped that America would be destroyed. She was so freaked out that she didn't even get his license number. Not, of course, that any of the people driving are the same as the person in the picture on the hack license.
No, it's singling out lying criminals that overstayed their visas.
Semper Fi,
MI
Get out of my country you sicko bastards!!!
"Activist", isn't that what Reuters and AP call homicide bombers? Or is an "activist", just someone, who shoots people?
Oh really? Let's look at the facts:
Tariq "Biff" Raja attended the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui, the suspected 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attack.
The men who used passenger jets to attack America on Sept. 11 were Muslim extremists.
Last year, our warship, the USS Cole, was attacked by Muslim extremists.
In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim extremists, killing 212 people and wounding thousands.
In 1996, Muslim extremists exploded a truck bomb outside an Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring hundreds more.
In 1995, five Americans were killed in a car bomb explosion executed by Muslim extremists.
In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by Muslim extremists, killing six and injuring thousands.
Also in 1993, Muslim extremists plotted to assassinate former U.S. President George Bush. (Intriguingly, the word "assassin" comes from a Muslim sect active in the 11th to 13th centuries known as "the Assassins" for their religious practice of murdering infidels.)
In 1988, another passenger jet, Pan Am Flight 103, was bombed by Muslim extremists, killing 270 people.
In 1986, Muslim extremists bombed a West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen.
In 1985, Muslim extremists seized an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, and murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old, wheelchair-bound American.
In 1983, Muslim extremists blew up U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen.
In 1982, Muslim extremists bombed the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 49 people, including 17 Americans.
In 1979, Muslim extremists stormed the U.S. Embassy in Iran and held American Embassy staff hostage for 444 days.
I would say it is far past time to fumigate the rats nest.
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