Juma'ah Reflections on Masaud Khan

I visited the Islamic Center of Maryland (Gaithersburg) for juma'ah prayers today. Political prisoner Masaud Khan and his mother, Elizabeth Khan attended here. She still visits time and again. I thought of them, as I stood distributing the New Trend (anti-imperialist Muslim newsmagazine), about how he, incarcerated as a young man, and now in his thirties, lost his youth to an incredibly unjust System. And- I thought about her, a mother, fighting desperately to get her son out of the clutches of that System.

In the last four weeks, I've visited four different masajid in the Baltimore-Washington area) for juma'ah. Three of the four masajid had political prisoner associations to them. That is, either a Muslim locked up on political (bogus) charges attends/ attended there, or the family of a political prisoner attends/ attended there. I realized what a tragic commentary this was on the state of affairs and suffering of the Muslim community: Many, many communities have been devastated by the targeting of political dissidents, or at least operate in fear. They dare not exercise basic First Amendment protected freedoms, not even in the House of Allah. Muslim-on-Muslim snitching is pumped as a solution to the "extremist problem," all speakers/ imams, other than government-approved ones, are excluded from most masajid; even imams on the government's "approved" list must sign agreements not to speak on certain topics, or to approach topics in ways objectionable to the authorities. While local and national government officials and candidates are welcomed into the mosque, dissident Muslim speakers are excluded. Literature from Democratic and Republican candidates for office is welcomed, while Islamic literature is frequently banned (or rules greatly impugning its distribution are enacted).

In the course of the FBI's "War on Terror," completely innocent men and women from communities across the U.S. have been locked up on the words of informants, or harassed and hounded by federal agents, often to justify intelligence budgets. All of this is meant to keep the public in fear of approaching "Muslim Hoard," which have replaced the "Reds Under the Beds," or to justify support for Israel and various dictators ruling Muslim lands.

Under such a climate, we have the choice of becoming apolitical, mindless drones, who question nothing, and swallow any nonsense directed at our people. Or we can speak, write, and go forth for that which we know to be just- at the peril of becoming political prisoners ourselves.

We then cannot afford to be silent. I encourage everyone to help the families of those unjustly detained; to write to Muslim political prisoners (as well as other political prisoners) so that they know they are not forgotten; to join a committee to free a political prisoner; and to educate others on the reality of political imprisonment in this country.