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[ Presenting plain-text part of multi-format email ] Friends, I think this is a constructive coming together - best. f. ----- Original Message ----- From: PeaceNowUK@aol.com <mailto:PeaceNowUK@aol.com> To: info@peacenow-uk.org <mailto:info@peacenow-uk.org> Sent: Tuesday, May 21, 2002 3:12 PM Subject: Amnesty Int'l UK advert: Jewish Chronicle & Al-Quds - for signing from Asad Rehman of Amnesty International UK Dear Friends Following is an Amnesty International UK statement which will be appearing in next weeks Jewish Chronicle and Al-Quds newspaper. The advert will highlight the rise in the Far-right and Fascist parties across Europe as well the increase in Islamaphobia, racism and anti-semitism. We are asking people if they would agree to sign their names to the statement which will then appear as a list of signatures in the advert. However copy deadline for the Jewish Chronicle is Monday 5pm... so we need all names in by then. Could you please send out this request to any of your contacts. If they want to add their name please ask them to send an e-mail to Asad.Rehman@amnesty.org.uk <mailto:Asad.Rehman@amnesty.org.uk> or ring on 0207 417 6375 Please circulate to anybody who you think would be interested in signing. We are particularly looking for members of Jewish community, Muslim community, celebs, politicians, trade unionists etc.... (anybody basically) (We require peoples names and organisation if applicable) thanks asad UNITED AGAINST RACISM, ISLAMAPHOBIA AND ANTI-SEMITISM As members of all communities including Jews and Muslims we are gravely concerned at the sharp increase in racism and anti-semitism across Europe. We note with concern the recent electoral success of far-right and Fascist parties in France, Austria, Belgium, Italy, Holland, Denmark and Norway, as well as the British National Party in the UK. Mainstream parties across Europe are also increasingly adopting the agenda of the far-right by demonising refugee and asylum communities so legitimising racism and xenophobia. Since September 11th Muslim communities in particular have become the focus for vilification with a huge increase in racist violence and attacks. Mosques and other Muslim property as well as members of the Muslim and Arab communities have increasingly become the targets of hostility, hatred and attacks. In Brussels recently, a Moroccan immigrant couple were shot dead and two of their children wounded in a racist attack. Mosques and Islamic schools have been firebombed in the UK, Poland, Denmark, Ireland and Holland. Whilst in the UK a young Muslim woman was attacked for wearing a Muslim headscarf. In Europe there are now attempts to use the current conflict in the Middle East to legitimise anti-semitism. Synagogues, Jewish cemeteries and other Jewish property as well as members of the Jewish community have become the target for hostility, hatred and attacks. In France the Synagogue in Marseilles was burned to the ground, as were ones in Brussels and Antwerp in Belgium. In the UK an attack on a synagogue saw a swastika scrawled on the lectern, whilst in other attacks members of orthodox or Hasidic Jewish communities have been hospitalised. In Germany a young Jewish woman was attacked for simply wearing a Star of David pendant. We call on all governments not to let the far-right set the agenda and to redouble their efforts to combat racism in all its forms and to bring to justice the perpetrators of hate crimes. We also reiterate our determination to stand united as one community in the struggle to combat racism and anti-semitism wherever it occurs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Asad Rehman Ethnic Minority & Religious Affairs Office Outreach Team Campaigns Dept Amnesty International UK 99 Rosebery Avenue London EC1R 4RE 0207 417 6375 tel 0207 713 0190 fax 07930 869895 mobile Asad.Rehman@amnesty.org.uk <mailto:Asad.Rehman@amnesty.org.uk> _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk