Dr. Aafia Siddiqui

Bismillahirahmaniraheem
Alhamdulliah I have started my CELTA course and because of it I will be busy the entire month therefore many, if not all, my posts will be articles. Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is a Muslim woman who is on trial in NYC. This article is about how only one Muslim showed up to her hearing (the author is that one Muslim). Living in NYC I must say that her story has not been giving a lot of press or attention. Unlike other recent stories, like the Bronx Muslims and the CUNY Brooklyn graduate Fahad Hashmi, which both Muslims and non-Muslims were both aware of, I never heard of Dr. Siddiqui's case. We should make it a point to not just give our attention to cases that receive hordes of media coverage but also the ones that do not. Who knows how many other Muslims need our support and we have never heard their story. The best support we can give them is dua and we should make dua for the people we know and don't know. We should make dua for those who are innocent and have been wrongfully imprisoned, those who are innocent and have not been imprisoned because in this day and age they can be imprisoned at a drop of a hat, those who are guilty and been imprisoned so they realize what they have done is wrong and change and those who are guilty and have not been imprisoned so they do not do anything illegal and change their ways and become peaceful before they hurt themselves and others.

Article

HE PEACE AND JUSTICE FOUNDATION

11006 Veirs Mill Rd, STE L-15, PMB 298

Silver Spring, MD. 20902

Rajab 1430 AH

(July 6, 2009)

Assalaamu Alaikum (Greetings of Peace):

I received this eyewitness report later in the day after placing a call to one of our Muslim contacts in New York City. I felt sick to my stomach when I learned that Muslims were not present in large numbers in the courtroom. (Shame on those of us who knew about the proceeding yet failed to respond appropriately!)

I'm not sure if there will be continued proceedings tomorrow and Wednesday (at the courthouse located at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan), but I do hope that those Muslims receiving this in the New York metro area will make an attempt to find out; and if so, attend. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow that I cannot break; but I do intend to be in New York on Wednesday and Thursday, insha'Allah (God willing) - and if there is a court proceeding for my sister on those days, I will be front and center!

Later in the day I will be making my rounds at a number of masajid in the New York area BEATING THE DRUMS FOR SUPPORT from the Muslim community.

THIS IS OUR SISTER-IN-ISLAM. With all that she's already been through, she should not have to look around a courtroom anywhere in America (esp. in one of the largest cities with one of the largest Muslim populations) and not see her brothers and sisters in representative numbers.

May ALLAH (SWT) fortify her and us! Ameen.

El-Hajj Mauri' Saalakhan