| IIC Signs on Letter to Pres. Obama |
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On December 15, 2011, IIC, along with 40 other Muslim and South Asian organizations, signed on to a letter to President Obama, urging him to veto the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Here is an excerpt from the letter: "The NDAA, as currently drafted, will endanger the fundamental civil rights and liberties upon which this country was founded. Subsection D of the NDAA may be read to authorize the indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens or other persons seized within the United States whenever the executive believes that they are “affiliated” with al Qaeda. Even more alarmingly, we fear it will be interpreted to require such detention in many cases. Whereas Article III of our Constitution remits similarly serious charges to the federal courts and installs stringent evidentiary rules, the NDAA allows for mere allegation to strip a citizen or lawful permanent resident of core constitutional rights, including (but not limited to) the right to remain silent, the right to a jury trial, the right to counsel, the right against self-incrimination, and the right to confront witnesses. Another section of the NDAA turns this option into a mandate—perhaps forcing the executive to treat suspicion as sufficient to snuff out constitutional rights. This bill places all Americans at risk. But the burden of these provisions will be predictably felt by a discrete minority – American Muslims. This is not the first time since the terrible events of 9/11 that lawmakers have reacted to the threat of a small group of violent extremists by imposing systematic and onerous deprivations of core American liberties on all Americans and all members of a community based on their religion. The NDAA opens the gateway to indefinite detention without official charges, allegations, or the guarantee of a trial. Accordingly, provisions of the bill flout the basic principles of both liberty and equality upon which the Constitution rests."
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