press release

Progressive activists have made comprehensive immigration reform a top legislative priority in the 2010 Congress. A key reason is the rapidly increasing harassment of immigrants. Different cultural communities are being targeted by governmental officials as well as nativist activists. Arab and Muslim peoples have experienced such discrimination since 2001, of course, but it is expected to increase in the wake of recent terrorism threats to the U.S.

Last week in Washington, new strict screening regulations against travelers from 14 so-called "terrorism prone nations" were enacted. To be carried out by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Obama administration's decision was condemned by Muslim Public Affairs Council as "religious and ethnic profiling at its worst."

We members of the Interfaith Gaza Satyagraha international peace delegation to Gaza beseech President Mubarak to let all the members of the Gaza Freedom March enter Gaza and walk in solidarity with the Palestinian people on December 31, 2009. We are deeply distressed by the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the ongoing blockade of goods and services into Gaza. As clergy, religious leaders, and people of faith from the traditions of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism, we are called not to stand idly by, but to walk with those who are crying out for help.

Opening the borders is a righteous act, as it is written in the Qur'an, "Those who believe in Qur'an and those who follow the Jewish scriptures and the Christians ... and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear. (Surah 2, Ayat 62)"

On December 31st, the Gaza Freedom March will bring together more than 1,400 people from across the globe to march alongside Palestinian peoples living in Gaza. This nonviolent demonstration to break the siege of Gaza represents the largest gathering of international solidarity activists in the Middle East in history. The Interfaith Gaza Satyagraha is an affinity group of the march: more than 40 participants from a dozen U.S. states plus Canada and Australia have already signed up to give religious witness to the need to open the borders and break the siege.

"Our common ground is a deep concern about the disastrous impact of the blockade of goods and services upon the people of Gaza," said Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, co-founder of the Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence.

On September 20, Dr. Hildegard Goss-Mayr of Vienna, Austria, will receive the Pacem in Terris 2009 Peace and Freedom Award in Davenport, Iowa. Goss-Mayr, often nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a preeminent teacher of nonviolence. The Honorary President of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, she has taught the theory and practice of active nonviolence throughout the world. Her books and articles have been widely translated and used by social change movements and communities.

Religious and Grassroots Leaders Urge Clinton to Suspend Military Base Talks with Colombia

Bases deal “presents enormous dangers for entire hemisphere”

July 16, 2009: Oakland, CA: In a stunning development, the United States is negotiating for the use of five military facilities in Colombia in an agreement whose objectives include “filling the gaps left by the eventual cutting of [military] aid in Plan Colombia,” according to sources in Washington and Bogotá cited by an explosive article published in this week’s Cambio magazine.

The five bases, which replace a U.S. base in Manta, Ecuador, closing in September, would expand the U.S. military mission to include counter-narcotic operations, involvement in Colombia’s counterinsurgency war, and combating “other international crimes,” according to Colombia’s Foreign Minister.

June 24, 2009

FOR press contact: Ethan Vesely-Flad, Communications Director, 510-701-5267 (c)

To the Iranian Leadership: End the Violence Immediately

Oakland, CA - For Immediate Release: The United States is planning to establish a new military facility in Colombia that will give the U.S. increased capacity for military intervention throughout most of Latin America. Given the tense relations of Washington with Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, as well as the Colombian military’s atrocious human rights record, the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) believes the plan should be subjected to vigorous debate.

“This base would feed a failed drug policy, support an abusive army, and reinforce a tragic history of U.S. military intervention in the region,” said John Lindsay-Poland, Latin America Program Co-director for FOR. “It’s wrong and wasteful, and Congress should scrap it.”

Media Contacts:           
* Mark Johnson, FOR Executive Director
* John Lindsay-Poland, FOR Colombia Program

The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and more than 45 other national and regional human rights organizations and faith-based institutions today released a letter to President Barack Obama calling for a major change in U.S. policy toward Colombia. Responding to the President’s first address to a joint session of Congress – in which he stated the need to “go line by line through the federal budget in order to eliminate wasteful and ineffective programs” and to “act boldly and wisely” – the groups urged the President to end a failed drug policy in Colombia and to invest in drug treatment for U.S. citizens and aid for the millions of Colombians displaced by war.

Media Advisory

Contacts:

• Ethan Vesely-Flad, editor@forusa.org, 510-701-5267
• Samina Faheem Sundas, samina_faheem@yahoo.com, 650-387-1994

National Interfaith Gathering to Honor Dr. King Birthday & Obama Inaugural