U.S. Muslims claim victory over recent Judiciary Committee vote

By: iViews   Source: iViews Sep 27, 2000 No Comments


A U.S. Muslim advocacy group announced yesterday the Congressional Judiciary Committee passed a compromise version of the Secret Evidence Repeal Act. The ammendment would give alien detainees the same rights as defendants in criminal cases.

Under the legislation, the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) would be applied to immigration cases that involve classified information.

In the bill sent to the House, a detained person would be given an unclassified summary of the classified information. This summary would give the alien "substantially the same ability to make his defense as would disclosure of the...classified information." It would be the only part of the classified information given to the immigration judge. The judge would therefore not be prejudiced by information not shared with the detainee, said the Council on American Relations (CAIR)in a recently released statement.

There would be no "secret evidence" because the immigration judge would base his decision on the same information that is shared with the alien.

The bill is now available to the full House for a vote. It still has to be passed in the House and in the Senate.

"This is a significant advance in civil liberties for the American Muslim community. We thank all those who contacted their elected representatives to press for passage of this legislation. But the fight against secret evidence is not over. We must keep up the momentum produced by today's vote," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

On Monday, CAIR officials met with House staffers, as well as representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, to discuss the proposed amendment to H.R. 2121.

Many American Muslims and civil libertarians believe secret evidence is unconstitutional and that it is used disproportionately against members of the Muslim and Arab-American communities. A number of Muslim detainees have been held for up to four years based on evidence that is not revealed to them or their attorneys.

  Category: Faith & Spirituality
  Topics: Council On American-Islamic Relations
Views: 964

Related Suggestions

The Islamophobe who cried Islamist
Islamic civil rights group calls for release of all hostages in Iraq
Condemnation of Israeli assassination of Religious Leader
National Baptist leader makes 'hate-filled' Islamophobic remarks
Canadians Must Oppose Discriminatory Legislation
Book on Islam Further Aggravates Muslim-Jewish Relations
Muslims Excluded from Capitol Hill Meeting on Sudan
Mosque Fire Suspected as Hate Crime
Election 2000: October 20 News Briefs
U.S. Arabs and Muslims condemn Israeli use of excessive force
U.S. Muslims Differ from Jews on SCOTUS Abortion Ruling
Muslims Make History in Washington
 
COMMENTS DISCLAIMER & RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The opinions expressed herein, through this post or comments, contain positions and viewpoints that are not necessarily those of IslamiCity. These are offered as a means for IslamiCity to stimulate dialogue and discussion in our continuing mission of being an educational organization. The IslamiCity site may occasionally contain copyrighted material the use of which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. IslamiCity is making such material available in its effort to advance understanding of humanitarian, education, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.


In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and such (and all) material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.