Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October/November 1998, page 111

Human Rights

Chicago Arab and Muslim Americans Support Mohammad Salah

The first in a series of demonstrations in support of Mohammad Salah was held Aug. 14 in front of the federal building in Chicago. Salah, a Palestinian-American resident of Chicago, was arrested by Israeli authorities and served five years in an Israeli prison on charges that he funneled money collected in the United States to the Hamas organization in Palestine.

In June, the U.S. government, in an action that has outraged the Chicago area’s huge Muslim community, moved to seize both the personal assets of the Salah family, including their home, and the assets of the Qur’anic Literacy Institute, with which Salah was affiliated. According to its directors, the Institute is a non-political center whose only purpose is to translate the Qur’an, the Islamic Holy book, into standardized English.

The unprecedented Justice Department action has drawn criticism from around the United States. In Chicago, community leaders banded together to form a new committee, Muslim Americans for Civil Rights and Legal Defense, under auspices of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago.

The new committee held a rally Aug. 23 to raise funds for the legal defense of Salah and the QLI. More than a thousand supporters turned out to hear former Illinois Republican Congressman Paul Findley, Arab-American Institute President James Zogby, and President Rafeeq Jaber of the Islamic Association for Palestine express their commitment to justice for Salah and his family.

“Our country is in trouble,” Findley said. “This is a critical issue involving the basic rights of U.S. citizens.” He urged the Muslim community to mobilize. “U.S. Muslims are potentially a political giant, but most of you are asleep,” Findley said. “You are still a sleeping giant.”

Zogby committed his organization to stand by Salah and the QLI and to oppose this case of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination. “We must fight politically,” he told the crowd.

Rafeeq Jaber told all justice seekers, “It is your duty to support and defend the accused Muslims, and it is your right to do so as Americans.”

An interview with Mohammad Salah revealed the effects of this arbitrary action on his family. Not only was he named in the civil complaint filed in federal court that led to the seizure of the family home, car and savings, but his pregnant wife, who already has three other children to care for, also was named. The silver lining to the cloud that has settled over his family’s future, Salah said, is the outpouring of support generated not only within Chicago’s Islamic community, but from outside as well.

The media, which he had expected to tilt toward the Israeli position, have in fact been very fair, he said. A number of editorials have been written denouncing the high-handed government move, including one in the Chicago Tribune.

—Raeed Tayeh