Solidarity march with Muslim community

A solidarity demonstration with the Muslim community of Albany, N.Y., on July 25 immediately followed the last session of a national anti-war conference held in this city. Nearly 300 people showed their support for the Muslim Solidarity Committee, chanting as they marched a mile from the State Capitol through Albany’s inner city to the Masjid As-Salam Mosque on Central Avenue.

The committee was originally formed to support local residents Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, who were prosecuted for alleged terrorist acts in 2002 and sentenced to long prison terms, based completely on the testimony of informants. The committee has now become the local chapter of Project SALAM (Support and Legal Advocacy for Muslims), which itself grew out of the committee’s four-year advocacy for Aref and Hossain.

Project SALAM has taken up many similar cases in which Muslims have been framed up, such as the case known as the Fort Dix Five. Hanging on a wall inside the mosque are the names of many Muslims victimized by the post-9/11 “war on terror,” which many experience as a war on Muslims. The families of some of the victims of this persecution participated on the march and spoke emotionally of their relatives at a rally in the mosque. Representatives of local and national anti-war groups attacked the FBI and other police agencies’ role in framing Muslims. (For more information see projectsalam.org.)