VTMBH Article: Body
When President Bush launched the bombing attacks on Afghanistan, he declared that the war against terrorism was about upholding and defending American values. These American values were broadly defined as justice, freedom, human rights, and the rule of law.
Conversely, the Taliban were identified with bigotry, intolerance, injustice and absence of any democratic norms promoting the rule of law. However, in the last few weeks, with the Taliban on the run, it seems that some of the recent changes altering the character of the American state and its attitudes toward civil liberties may be inspired more from a Taliban-like mindset than two centuries of tradition rooted in the American Revolution.
A series of changes in the laws have given arbitrary powers to the American president and U.S. law enforcement institutions to violate long-established traditions, with a Clinton cabinet official, Robert Reich, expressing alarm that we can find ourselves in a police state step by step since the president is by emergency decree getting rid of rights that we assumed that anyone within our borders legally would have.
Some of the new developments that have caused justifiable concern are:
·Some 1,182 people living in the United States, almost all Muslim, continue to be detained without any charges and without being told what their crime is since the Sept. 11 attacks.
·Under the post-Sept. 11 U.S. Patriot Act, suspects can be indefinitely detained without charges for up to six months, with the police and FBI given wide-ranging powers to conduct searches of homes and offices, intrude into the privacy of financial transactions and intercept phone, mail and Internet communications.
·Some 5,000 young men between the ages of 18 33 who legitimately entered the United States from Muslim countries in 2000 will be questioned by the FBI for possible connections or links with the terrorists who hijacked the four planes on Sept. 11, thereby spreading alarm and fear since they could be treated as suspects or even potential terrorists.
·Applicants for visas from 25 Muslim countries will now have to face special scrutiny and a longer waiting period.
·To top it all, on Nov. 13, President George W. Bush, declaring an extraordinary emergency, decreed the establishment of special military tribunals to try non-Americans within the United States and overseas who may allegedly be involved in committing acts of terrorism, and these handpicked military courts could even impose a death sentence through a two-thirds majority decision, without even the right of appeal.
One prescient observer of the American scene has even termed this loss of civil liberties and ethnic profiling as the repackaging of latent racism. The New York Times editorially criticized Bush that with the flick of a pen he has essentially discarded the rulebook of American justice painstakingly assembled over the course of more than two centuries (with) a crude and unaccountable system that any dictator would admire.
Denouncing these proposed tribunals as military kangaroo courts, Americas premier conservative columnist, William Safire, otherwise a staunch Republican supporter, said: non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner.
The Muslim world, particularly the OIC, and enlightened opinion within the international community must raise their voice to challenge such powers being assumed by the Bush administration in the name of combating terrorism because these are Muslim-specific and violate universally accepted standards of basic fundamental rights. In any case, Americas own interests in the Islamic world would be damaged by such actions.
For instance, the moral high ground claimed by the United States as the repository of freedom and human rights and its image as a country where the rule of law is supreme would be gravely undermined.
Then, what kind of country will emerge from this Talibanisation of the United States where millions of citizens (at least the seven million Muslims, for starters) would be living in constant fear of the midnight knock that can come at any time? Fear and paranoia would extend to the citizenry at large, creating a virtual permanent state of siege within the United States.
Finally, these actions are a recipe for disaster in terms of the American relationship with the Muslim world. It would only confirm what many Muslims, in the words of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, are feeling: It is beginning to look more and more like a war against Muslims.
The author is a former information minister of Pakistan.
Conversely, the Taliban were identified with bigotry, intolerance, injustice and absence of any democratic norms promoting the rule of law. However, in the last few weeks, with the Taliban on the run, it seems that some of the recent changes altering the character of the American state and its attitudes toward civil liberties may be inspired more from a Taliban-like mindset than two centuries of tradition rooted in the American Revolution.
A series of changes in the laws have given arbitrary powers to the American president and U.S. law enforcement institutions to violate long-established traditions, with a Clinton cabinet official, Robert Reich, expressing alarm that we can find ourselves in a police state step by step since the president is by emergency decree getting rid of rights that we assumed that anyone within our borders legally would have.
Some of the new developments that have caused justifiable concern are:
·Some 1,182 people living in the United States, almost all Muslim, continue to be detained without any charges and without being told what their crime is since the Sept. 11 attacks.
·Under the post-Sept. 11 U.S. Patriot Act, suspects can be indefinitely detained without charges for up to six months, with the police and FBI given wide-ranging powers to conduct searches of homes and offices, intrude into the privacy of financial transactions and intercept phone, mail and Internet communications.
·Some 5,000 young men between the ages of 18 33 who legitimately entered the United States from Muslim countries in 2000 will be questioned by the FBI for possible connections or links with the terrorists who hijacked the four planes on Sept. 11, thereby spreading alarm and fear since they could be treated as suspects or even potential terrorists.
·Applicants for visas from 25 Muslim countries will now have to face special scrutiny and a longer waiting period.
·To top it all, on Nov. 13, President George W. Bush, declaring an extraordinary emergency, decreed the establishment of special military tribunals to try non-Americans within the United States and overseas who may allegedly be involved in committing acts of terrorism, and these handpicked military courts could even impose a death sentence through a two-thirds majority decision, without even the right of appeal.
One prescient observer of the American scene has even termed this loss of civil liberties and ethnic profiling as the repackaging of latent racism. The New York Times editorially criticized Bush that with the flick of a pen he has essentially discarded the rulebook of American justice painstakingly assembled over the course of more than two centuries (with) a crude and unaccountable system that any dictator would admire.
Denouncing these proposed tribunals as military kangaroo courts, Americas premier conservative columnist, William Safire, otherwise a staunch Republican supporter, said: non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner.
The Muslim world, particularly the OIC, and enlightened opinion within the international community must raise their voice to challenge such powers being assumed by the Bush administration in the name of combating terrorism because these are Muslim-specific and violate universally accepted standards of basic fundamental rights. In any case, Americas own interests in the Islamic world would be damaged by such actions.
For instance, the moral high ground claimed by the United States as the repository of freedom and human rights and its image as a country where the rule of law is supreme would be gravely undermined.
Then, what kind of country will emerge from this Talibanisation of the United States where millions of citizens (at least the seven million Muslims, for starters) would be living in constant fear of the midnight knock that can come at any time? Fear and paranoia would extend to the citizenry at large, creating a virtual permanent state of siege within the United States.
Finally, these actions are a recipe for disaster in terms of the American relationship with the Muslim world. It would only confirm what many Muslims, in the words of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad, are feeling: It is beginning to look more and more like a war against Muslims.
The author is a former information minister of Pakistan.