Letter to the Editor: Stand With Our Neighbors

Dear Editors,
Your coverage of the Kurds in last week's issue was awesome! Equally awesome were the sixty EMU students who turned out for the meeting at Common Grounds on Monday (3/27). EMU students, you have again demonstrated an important characteristic that makes me thankful to work here: your commitment to peace and justice.

In the Intensive English Program, we are acutely aware of the unjust treatment sometimes received by newcomers in our land. One of the Kurdish men who is awaiting sentencing— Amir Rashid— is a former IEP student.

Because Amir Rashid has pled guilty, he will not have a chance to tell the court about his mother in Iraq who needed his financial support for thyroid surgery and then kidney problems. He won't be able to tell them that the $100 he was able to send each month was enough to support the entire family who remained in Iraq.

Amir's brother-in-law, Pishdar Mirawdali, was also our student. Pishdar's home was raided by the FBI. He was roughed up and cursed at by the FBI agents. Why? He is more fluent in English than some of his countrymen and able to speak up for his rights.

This gives us pause: the mission of IEP is to empower people by giving them a voice, yet the authorities responded by insulting Pishdar and shutting him up. It is ironic that our society tells immigrants "speak English or go back where you belong," but won't tolerate it when one of them lifts up his voice for justice and fairness.

What more can you do? If the courts, the FBI, or even their court-appointed attorneys won't listen to their voices, you can join your voices to turn the volume up.

(1) Learn more about this complex case by attending meetings that feature their stories because sympathetic listeners show our Kurdish neighbors they are not alone.

(2) If you'll be in the 'burg on May 3rd or 30th, you can show your support for two of the wrongfully prosecuted men by attending the sentencing hearings or by participating in an organized demonstration and press conference after the hearings.

(3) Look for announcements of a phone-a-thon to call your legislators and protest the sweeping provisions of the PATRIOT Act that have made it difficult for Kurdish and other immigrants to send money to their needy families in their home country.

Keep standing by your Iraqi Kurdish neighbors,
Dr. Mike Medley, Director IEP