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Homegrown terrorists: We're
Gonna Get You
Aref Assaf , November 20, 2007
Is
it 2001 all over again? Remember how the infamous PATRIOT ACT, with its 245 pages,
was passed through Congress in less than a week? While our nation was dealing
with last month's California's fires, a very sinister bill was passed by
404 congressional representatives.
Interestingly, little media
fanfare has been focused on this latest attack on our civil liberties. The bill,
HR 1955
is to be known
the 'Violent Radicalization and Homegrown
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007'. First let's take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and
homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill. The definition
of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term of
promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist
agenda. Since the bill does not specifically define what an extremist belief
system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government.
Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution,
they could even, as an example, define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief
system. Literally, the government according to this definition can define
whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have
defined violent radicalization as a thought crime. Even the mere writing of
this note here can now be considered a thought crime.
HR 1955, as I understand
it, provides a basis for subjective interpretation of dissident speech that
allows those in power to criminally penalize anything they considered to be
particularly effective in terms of galvanizing an opposition that might
conceivably disrupt or destabilize the status quo, so it is to
keep everything in that nice sanitized arena where the citizen is actually a
collateral functionary of the state by participating.
Truthout's
Matt Renner reports: "A month ago, the House of Representatives
passed legislation that targets Americans with radical ideologies for
research. The bill has received little media attention and has almost
unanimous support in the House. However, civil liberties groups see the bill
as a threat to the constitutionally protected freedoms of expression,
privacy and protest."
We at the AAF have serious
reservations about the bill and an official statement is due out next week. We
hope all Arab and Muslim organizations review the bill and take appropriate steps
to state their positions.
Related article:
Bringing war on terrorism home |
