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700 Muslims arrested in California

  
 
Brigade du jour
02:10 / 20.12.02
Arrested in their hundreds, on potential suspicion of possible contemplation of harbouring the notion that terrorism might not be absolutely the most horrendous thing in the whole world.

Anybody out there not disgusted by this? More to the point perhaps, anybody out there disgusted by this?
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
02:15 / 20.12.02
Links useful.

BBC.
Guardian.
California Crime Times.
 
 
cusm
02:19 / 20.12.02
More on the story here.

It sounds like the justification is a crack down on illegal aliens and the like, rounding up folks with expired visa etc, but the real intentions are quite clear.
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
06:05 / 20.12.02
There's already a thread on this here

If no-one has any objections, and no other mods get there before me, I'm gonna look in tonight, see which one's going best and vote to delete the other one. If that makes any sense.

And yes, it is fucking disgusting. The world is getting frightening. There's a move in Italy to try to rewrite textbooks to make them more anti-Left (I'll sort a thread about it when I've found more out), they're rounding up Muslims in California... kinda makes me wonder if all those tales of internment camps across the US are true.
 
 
Brigade du jour
19:40 / 20.12.02
Well, to quote Basil Fawlty, this is exactly how Nazi Germany started.

Except the USA isn't loaded down with impossible war reparations. Although it should be.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
01:59 / 21.12.02
I don't even know what to say anymore except it's not really a surprise is it? I mean it's been going this way for the past year and is this really going to stop or is it just going to carry on getting more and more ridiculous?
 
 
Mister Six, whom all the girls
02:35 / 21.12.02
Well isn't nice that we can post our responses to an internet message board instead of freezing in a cell?

I don't know about you guys, but I feel pretty disgusted to be free and very ashamed that I'm white... the only reason nobody's threatening to break my door down is because I'm not brown-skinned or Muslim. It's a fucky disgrace and I'm not mad at anyone here because I'm doing the same thing, but... doesn't this all seem fucking absurd?

People are getting shipped to camps and we're saying, "Well.. new world I suppose." If it were any of our friends and loved ones in there, even a vague friend from university, we would not be so slight.

We should all think on that.

Won't do a fucking thing, but we should be aware of the horror we allow to go on every day. Well, I do, anyhow.
 
 
Brigade du jour
03:17 / 21.12.02
Well at least we're talking about it. I can't imagine this sort of shit being brought up at a masonic lodge meeting or anything.

But if you're implying we should be doing something about it, then you're absolutely right. I just hope one of us (us being the vast majority of people who would be disgusted about this sort of thing if they only knew about it) comes up with a plan to prevent this from happening.

Until then, for fuck's sake let's keep the debate going. It's the very very least we can do.
 
 
Taliesyn
03:38 / 21.12.02
I agree, "we" should be doing something about this... I have wanted to for a long time... the problem is... what can "we" do??? I have no experience with this kind of thing, and it seems to me that individuals no longer have a voice. Our politicians are certainly not representing my veiws... I dont want to make war on a country/religion that has never threatened me - and I dont count the acts of few as the will of many... fundamentalists are "the axis of evil" not countrties. Bush is finishing the war his father started... just imagine the brainwashing that poor boy endured. "muslims are evil son. one day god will punish them" and now this boy thinks god has given him the power to do it. I hate religion. I hate violence. America will slaughter Iraq, just like before.
 
 
Brigade du jour
04:49 / 21.12.02
I keep thinking, I wonder what people who have commented on huge human rights abuses in the past are making of all this? Are they picking up on it at all? Is Spielberg planning California: The Movie yet?

Seems to me the problem here is foresight. Prejudice and a lack of foresight often seem to co-exist in the same person. And that's what this loathsome episode amounts to - prejudice. Something every one of us is prone to, but then again some of us have the wisdom, or courage, or decency, or whatever to overcome it, or at least subdue it. Otherwise all of us would go round rounding up people we didn't like and locking them up for our 'safety'.
 
 
rizla mission
10:07 / 21.12.02
agree, "we" should be doing something about this... I have wanted to for a long time... the problem is... what can "we" do???

Stand outside yr. nearest govenment institution kicking up a fuss sounds like a good start.. or printing leaflets outlining the facts? Not that I'm trying to go all Socialist Worker on yr. ass, but as The Felicia Hardy TB says, actually spreading word of what's happening is half the battle.. and, er, in general, doing something is something I reckon we should all do more of..
 
 
Tryphena Absent
11:41 / 21.12.02
What's the point of feeling shame because you're white? That's not going to achieve anything, half the problem here is the differentiation between race and colour, that's just you furthering the distinction. Yes we should be doing something about this, there's very little we can do, I'm sure the lovely Tony is still licking his friend George's arse, 'major human rights violation- what's that between mates?'

Amnesty International must be giving birth to ponies by now??!
 
 
Brigade du jour
20:06 / 21.12.02
Convincing GWB not to use all those letters Amnesty people must be writing to him as toilet paper might be a start anyway.
 
 
Tryphena Absent
23:28 / 21.12.02
I doubt he uses the letters themselves, they're still inside the envelopes and that's only when our PM isn't there!
 
 
Brigade du jour
00:10 / 22.12.02
Oh now be fair Janina, Bush may not be a very good reader but I'm sure he can wipe his own ...

didn't really think that one through did I?
 
 
Mister Six, whom all the girls
02:20 / 22.12.02
No solution yet mates, but I am working on options.

For now, an image.

A big fish in a pond, eating all the little fishies.

Behind it is an even larger fish, made up of little ones, its collective mouth open.

Organize.

We can think of a solution, or we can sit and worry at our desks, watching people suffer (I'm mostly thinking of myself here). Come on, we're so smart individually, why can't we do something together?
 
 
Brigade du jour
20:33 / 22.12.02
What can I say Mister Six? I suggest bloodless coup but that doesn't usually lead to the anarchist utopia I would envisage as a fairer world, it would probably just lead to another big smelly old pile of corruption.

Same problem with benevolent dictatorship - how can you guarantee a benevolent dictator? Followed by another benevolent dictator when the first one dies?
 
 
rizla mission
10:54 / 23.12.02
Well that's not a terribly constructive attitude.

In fact, it's my Dad's attitude; "all this protesting, when ya knock it all down, what're you going to put in it's place, eh? eh?"

I think we can all agree there's a pretty big distinction between trying our best to stop supposedly democratic governments indiscriminately fucking over the whole world in the name of their own interests, and blathering on about "bloodless coups" and "anarchist utopias".
 
 
STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK
11:54 / 23.12.02
Hmmm... I see what y're both (FHTB and Rizla) saying- I kind of agree with both of you. Yes, good intentions generally lead to bad shit. But bad intentions ALWAYS lead to bad shit.

There's a fundamental flaw in humanity that means we will (as I believe in my more pessimistic moments) fuck everything up REALLY BADLY. But there's always the possibility that, just once, we might score BIG. And that's gotta be worth fighting for.

We MAY be able to make things better. We may not. But how can we tell unless we try?
 
 
Punji Steak
15:04 / 23.12.02
Agree 100% with you there Chairman.
 
 
grant
16:15 / 23.12.02
So how do 20-odd people on a message board take on the US Immigration and Naturalization Service?
 
 
yawn - thing's buddy
21:10 / 23.12.02
make friends with them until they beg for mercy?
 
 
dlotemp
22:45 / 23.12.02
FYI - Saw a newspaper article on Sunday that said most of the detainees were released with only 40 left in custody. Can anyone confirm or deny?
 
 
Ria
19:17 / 26.12.02
Michael Moore pointed out in a pre-recorded interview I watched last night that fifteen of the nineteen hijackers came from Saudi Arabia and yet the US government has not put any restriction on Saudi nationals who live in the US.
 
 
Wyrd
12:11 / 30.12.02
For those of you wondering what you can do to make a difference then check out Vote No to War: http://www.votenowar.org

They're organising a big demo in Washington on January 18, 2003, so the more people who turn up the better.

If you want info on transportation from your area, then go to:
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/j18/j18contacts.html#transp

Apparently the rumour mill is that Bush has leaked plans to start the Iraqi war (insanity!) on January 27, 2003 - though that's just a rumour I think. so, if you want to make a difference, show up at the demo!
 
 
L__H__X
09:47 / 06.01.03
Please don't support International ANSWER, they are a front of a stalinist group who has absolutely no interest in people but just want to use the war opposition to advance their agenda. We don't need these people.
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
14:39 / 06.01.03
Not that I'm doubting what you say but have you some proof to back this up oh-person-who-has-only-posted-three-times or why people shouldn't work with these people just to demonstrate against the war?
 
 
HCE
19:25 / 06.01.03
I've been told I'm being paranoid about this but I'm frankly terrified of being either deported or held in detention. It recalls to mind efforts to round up Iranians around the time of the hostage crisis in the 80's. The mood among Iranians I know is awful -- families tell each other not to respond to government invitations to "register" and lo and behold, those that did are snapped up. If somebody has a good argument as to why this has very little potential of turning into a concentration camp situation I'd very much like to hear it.
 
  
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