PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Special Registration Protest
by Corey Ballantyne Friday, Feb. 21, 2003 at 5:29 PM
cjbst57@pitt.edu (email address validated) 412 687 3996

A small crowd protested INS's “special registration” of Arabs, at 12:30 this afternoon (Friday, February 21, 2003) at the Federal Bldg. at Liberty Ave. and Grant St. After speeches, Muslims were led in prayer. No violent confrontations arose.

Pittsburgh, PA---

A small crowd protested Immigration and Naturalization Services’ “special registration” of Arabs in America, at 12:30 this afternoon (Friday, February 21, 2003) at the Federal Building at Liberty Ave. and Grant St. After speeches, Muslims were led in prayer. No violent confrontations arose.

WHAT SPECIAL REGISTRATION IS
Special registration is required of nonimmigrants in the U.S. from certain Middle Eastern and South Asian countries. Specifics are available from the INS at http://www.ins.gov/graphics/lawenfor/specialreg/index.htm. Discussion of the issue can be found in the Pittsburgh City Paper’s January 8, 2003, issue (http://www.pghcitypaper.com/archives/covarch/cov03/cv010803.html)as well as the very recent Pgh. IMC article announcing that today’s protest was coming up (http://www.indypgh.com/news/2003/02/1398.php ).

ABOUT THE PROTEST’S ORGANIZERS
The protest was organized by Jamaat for Justice, “a Pittsburgh-based activist group working within the Muslim Community” (http://www.jamaatforjustice.org/). Jamaat in Arabic means a “congregation,” “coming together,” or “congregational prayer,” said Saleh Waziruddin, one of the group’s leaders. A major activity of Jamaat for Justice is the coordination of free legal representation provided by volunteer lawyers for those affected by special registration. 30-40 persons have thus far registered to receive this service, said Waziruddin.

Jamaat for Justice member Nazeeh, responding to questions by another reporter before the rally, said, “Profiling people based on their nationality and background is not gonna help anyone…it just makes a lot of tension grow in the community.” He pointed out that “the aggressiveness of the [INS] office” is a criterion in their end-of-year performance evaluation.

CROWD SIZE, POLICE PRESENCE AND PASSERSBY
I counted 50 people (give or take no more than 6), including police and about five reporters, at 1:00. About 3-4 police or security guards were visible throughout the rally. One officer instructed protesters and reporters not to block the sidewalk/entrance. A clear path was left along which people entered and exited the building freely (although during the prayer some passersby appeared to opt for the handicapped ramp as an alternate path from the door to the street, keeping a greater distance from the group). The only hostile interactions apparent were comments by two different passersby while exiting the Federal Building during the rally: “Why don’t you people get jobs?” and “Get a life.”

PROCEEDINGS IN DETAIL
Shortly before the rally commenced, Jamaat for Justice leaders distributed posters. Examples read, “Profiling Is Terror,” and, “The Only Evidence is My Passport.” Speakers included Waziruddin; Vic Walczak, Executive Director of the Greater Pgh. ACLU; Michael Bartko of the American Muslim Council; and Rev. Linda Theophilus of Emmanuel Lutheran Church.

---SOME OF SPEAKERS’ STATEMENTS
Waziruddin compared special registration to the confinement of Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II. He reported that Representative Howard Coble, of North Carolina Sixth District (http://www.house.gov/coble/), has commented that internment camps were good for Japanese Americans for their own protection because they were an “endangered species.” Coble, according to Waziruddin, then stated that special registration is similarly good for Muslims now.

Walczak criticized Attorney General John Ashcroft (who, according to the City Paper, ordered the FBI to conduct interviews of thousands of recent Middle Eastern and South Asian arrivals) as not knowing the consequences of profiling-type actions as demonstrated by history. “John Ashcroft, read a history book,” was his refrain as he described past periods when other groups were profiled, such as communists in the 1920’s. At those times, he said more than once, “…innocent people got screwed.” Walczak called special registration “misuse of resources” and stated that Muslims/Arabs have been “very patient and very cooperative. They’re gettin’ tired.”

Rev. Theophilus reported that since 1996, certain people become “subject to deportation” following any conviction carrying a maximum sentence of 1 year or more.


Audience members were invited to speak. “Etta,” who gave her last name as Cetera, chanted a poem criticizing the INS, Ashcroft, and the special registration program they have created. The poem included the line, “Get your head out of your Ashcroft!”

---PRAYER
Adel Fergany led six people in Muslim prayer. First, the six participants—including one blond, blue-eyed, Caucasian woman with a scarf on her head—stood in a row facing east. A plastic covering had been rolled out over the damp concrete, and two participants laid prayer rugs on it in front of them. Nazeeh sang in Arabic a call to prayer. Fergany began a brief sermon with the words, in Arabic and then in English, “Peace be with you all.” “We are all the same in the eyes of Allah,” he said. He alternated musical chants in Arabic with silent pauses. At the end of the prayer, the participants performed two cycles of standing, bowing, prostrating, and kneeling (standard parts of the salat, the Muslim prayer ritual; for more info. see http://www.muhajabah.com/intro.htm#pillars .)

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