On Wednesday, June 20, CAIR-Philadelphia and Historical Society of Pennsylvania co-hosted a panel and a concert at HSP to recognize the histories of Muslims in the Keystone State. The panel was organized and moderated by CAIR-Philadelphia’s Outreach and Education Director, Dr. Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu.
The press conference and rally was organized by the New Sanctuary Movement, and included speakers from over a dozen social justice organizations, including CAIR-Philadelphia.
The Supreme Court of the United States finally announced its ruling in the long-awaited decision in the case of “Trump v Hawaii,” better known as the “Muslim Travel Ban” case. By a narrow vote of 5-4, the Court in essence supported the bigoted efforts of the Trump administration to view Muslims as a separate class of persons before the law, thus turning back the clock of history to other such nefarious Supreme Court decisions as the Fugitive Slave Law (1850), the Dred Scott case (1857), the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882), and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. CAIR and its many supporters believe the Supreme Court decision in “Trump v Hawaii” is both legally and ethically wrong.
Audio of Full Press Conference: Media Coverage: CBS Philly: Video of Full Press Conference: CBS Philly: CAIR Philadelphia Condemns Supreme Court Ruling To Uphold Travel Ban (video) CBS Philly: Trump’s Travel Ban Moves Forward, Impacting Thousands Of Immigrants The…
On June 26, 2018 the Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision in support of Trump’s bigoted Muslim Ban. This is bad but we will keep fighting. It’s more important than ever to know your rights despite this decision. Since December 4, 2017, the Muslim Ban has been in full effect for certain individuals from: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. All are facing difficulty in their applications for visas to be united with family, study in the U.S., get medical treatment, or visit for tourism.
Essay by Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu
Published in Pennsylvania Legacies Magazine (Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 2018).
It has been one of the foundational principles of democratic nations that the law exists as a guarantor of liberty. From the Magna Carta to the American Declaration of Independence, from the French Declaration of Rights of Man to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the march of history can be seen as the expansion of freedom to ever greater numbers of the Earth’s inhabitants.
Timothy Welbeck, a civil rights attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations and a Temple University Africology professor, said that history is the reason he, his wife and three children attended the festival.
