Join With Refuse & Resist! To Discuss Azam Hussain's Fight for Justice
With Patricia Eng-Hussain
Thursday, April 14th - 6:00 pm
New World Resource Center 1300 N. Western

Contact:
Refuse & Resist! Chicago
ChicagoRNR (at) Yahoo.com


For the last six months Azam Hussein has been in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, charged with having lied on his citizenship papers. As federal prosecutor, Jake Ryan's first case against Azam ended in a hung jury. Ryan has fought against Azam's bond and has demanded a second trial.

The federal prosecutor has used the media to smear Azam and his wife Patricia. They have fed several stories to the newspapers and tried to paint Azam with the wide brush of "terrorism."

Azam came to the US ten years ago as an immigrant, he is a legal resident, and like many believed that becoming a citizen would give his family security. Azam worked hard as a restauranteur, cab driver, and carpenter. He started a family, got married and had a daughter, Alicia. Last August the suburb that Azam lived in gave him a citizen hero's award for putting his own life at risk to stop an armed robbery. They thought the American dream was so very close.

As it did for many Muslim and Arab immigrants the dream crashed. The US Global War on Terror has put Muslims, Arabs and South Asians in the crosshairs. As a humanist that stands for civil rights, Azam is directly in the line of fire.

On Devon Avenue, Chicago's predominately Indian and Pakistani neighborhood, thousands have been forced to flee. Some were deported during the "special registrations," others crossed into Canada leaving family and friends, businesses and homes behind. Shops on Devon are closed and many more are closing soon.

After failing to prove their case once, the federal prosecution team have turned to pressuring an already fearful community. The prosecutors are using Grand Jury Subpoenas in order to coerce testimony against Azam. Many of the supporters present at the first trial have now had to appear in front of the Grand Jury.

His wife, Patricia Eng-Hussain, was a Chicago Police Department police officer. She was fired on her fourth day amidst a cloud of suspicion. The prosecutor alleged in the press that she was somehow caught up in a pack of lies and innuendo. Daniel Pipes and the Freedom Forums have both used this case as a clarion call to mobilize Christian fascists to spread fear. In today’s America not only are you not innocent until proven guilty but your spouse is also guilty until proven innocent.

Here is an administration that has lied about the war in Iraq, simply made up the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Causing over 100,000 deaths the government committed the ultimate in fraud and deception. Now this administration has the gall to prosecute an immigrant for inaccurately answering one question on the very form that would enable him full citizenship.

Jake Ryan's case is really about Azam's crime of being a Pakistani and a Muslim. This prosecution is about casting a cloud of fear and suspicion onto an entire community, opening the door for more widespread abuse of civil liberties. As Congress debates the Patriot Act renewal bill a little girl sits at home without her poppa.

Our goal is for the Hussein family to be reunited, with justice for Azam and Patricia. Our demand is to end the humiliation, manipulation and paralyzation of whole communities. No more dividing families, seizing businesses, bank accounts and charities. No more injustices served in our name.

Azam's second trial starts April 18th, and much work needs to be done between now and then. Refuse & Resist! calls all activists and progressive minded people to attend the Azam Hussein informational meeting to learn more.


New World Resource Center 1300 N. Western, 6:00 Thursday, April 14th