Call Against Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Bigotry and War Hysteria

For immediate release:

We stand in sympathy with the people across the country who have relatives and friends or who have themselves suffered in the attacks in New York and Washington.

As leaders of the new civil rights movement, we call on all people to oppose and stand against anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry, xenophobia, and national-chauvinist backlash in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We must oppose all chauvinist hysteria, all racist attacks, and all scapegoating. Remembering the attacks on Arab Americans in the wake of the Oklahoma city bombing, we in particular condemn all bigotry and attacks against Arab, Islamic and Middle Eastern people. Within months of the attack on Pearl Harbor, racist hysteria against Japanese Americans led to the internment of nearly one hundred twenty thousands people solely on the basis of race-we must never allow anything like that to happen again. We call on people of all races, ages and religions across the country to speak out against racist and bigoted responses to the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

We also call on all people across the country to oppose war hysteria and any US military retaliatory escalation. US military and foreign policy has reaped hatred, any US retaliation will escalate the hate of the US and worsen an already bad situation.

It is the duty of everyone who stands against racism, every progressive and every person who supports basic democracy to oppose xenophobia and national-chauvinist war hysteria in response to these attacks.

- Shanta Driver and Luke Massie,

National Organizers of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)

Contact information:
Luke Massie, letters@bamn.com