Muslim Solidarity Committee, Project SALAM and the Capital Region NCPCF Presents
11th Anniversary Commemoration of the Arrests of
Yassin Aref &
Mohammed Hossain
With Rally, Speakers, Dinner, March,
And Movie
Monday, August 3, 2015
RALLY, SPEAKERS, DINNER: 5:30 pm Masjid As-Salam Mosque,
280 Central Avenue, Albany
MARCH: 6:45 p.m. to the Linda,
339 Central Avenue, Albany
MOVIE: 7:00 pm at the Linda
339 Central Avenue, Albany
A screening of the documentary
“The Newburgh Sting”
The Newburgh Sting, which won a Peabody Award in 2014, is a detailed look at the use of FBI informants through the Newburgh 4 case, which turned four innocent African American men into terrorists. The same informant was used in Albany’s Aref-Hossain case. Alicia McWilliams, aunt of one of the defendants, and others will speak after the film.
Free admission or goodwill donation
For information contact Lynne Jackson at lynnejackson@mac.com or
Kathy Manley• mkathy1296@gmail.com • 518-596-3851
Download the flyer
Dinner will be served at the Masjid As-Salam after the rally and speakers.
The Muslim Solidarity Committee has held a commemoration event each year since 2006 to remember the men and show support for their families, and will continue to mark the anniversary of their arrests annually until Aref and Hossain are released, in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
Area peace and justice groups co-sponsoring the August 3 events are Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, Capital Area Against Mass Incarceration (CAAMI), Dr. Dhafir Support Committee (Syracuse), Jewish Voices for Peace/Albany chapter, Masjid As-Salam, New York Civil Liberties Union/Capital Region Chapter, Saratoga Peace Alliance, Save the Pine Bush, Solidarity Committee of the Capital District, Upper Hudson Peace Action, Veterans for Peace/Thomas Paine and Saratoga Chapters, Women Against War.
The Aref-Hossain case is one of hundreds of preemptive prosecutions, mostly against Muslims, throughout the country. Two studies and two documentaries were released that focus on other such cases (and on Aref-Hossain) and sharply criticize the FBI and the government for these prosecutions.
In June, 2014, Albany-based Project SALAM and Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms jointly published a study, Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution, the first study to examine, define, and analyze 399 terrorism cases prosecuted since 2001. A lengthier study, Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in U.S. Terror Prosecutions, was issued this week by Human Rights Watch through the Human Rights Institute at Columbia University.
The Newburgh Sting, a 90-minute documentary about the 2009 sting operation that convicted four men from Newburgh, New York and that used the same informant as Aref-Hossain, premiered on HBO and at selected New York theaters.
Al Jazeera English debuted a 50-minute TV documentary by Trevor Aaronson, Informants, which examines the FBI’s questionable use of informants in counterterrorism tactics. The attention brought to the cases and government tactics through these efforts reflects a growing awareness in the U.S. that the government has twisted and often ignored the law in terror prosecutions and is creating “terrorists” where none exist.
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Rally, Speakers, Dinner at the Masjid As-Salam:
"The Newburgh Sting" at the Linda, 339 Central Avenue, Albany: