On December 14, 2001, the Federal government imprisoned Rabih Haddad and shut down and seized the assets of the Chicago area Muslim charity he co-founded, Global Relief Foundation. Almost a year later, without any criminal charges, Brother Haddad remains imprisoned in solitary confinement in a Michigan jail.

The unconstitutional attack on Haddad is emblematic of the wholesale erosion of our civil liberties, with Arab, Muslim and immigrants facing the brunt of the assault. The Chicago area’s Benevolence International Foundation, its co-founder, Enaam Arnaout, and others have joined a steady parade of citizens and non-citizens facing officially sanctioned racial profiling and flimsy charges by John Ashcroft’s “Justice” Department.

Rabih Haddad, Enaam Arnaout and others are political prisoners held hostage to a domestic policy which considers all Arabs and Muslims suspects, and a foreign policy overwhelmingly opposed by most people in the world. Both policies tear at the heart of what a democracy should be.

With our civil rights under attack, we will work to defend them in the same manner they were won in the first place – organizing people to demand that government leaders respect EVERYONE’S rights. Please join a community march for freedom on the one-year anniversary of the illegal imprisonment of Rabih Haddad.