(2/26) At the Annual CommUnity Dinner, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago awarded four individuals who are at the forefront of the struggle to protect the civil liberties Americans. The Community Awards are given to those standing up for justice and fairness. “Given that KindHearts, a Muslim Charity in Toledo, Ohio, has [recently] had its assets frozen without due trial or process, these awards have become even more meaningful,” said Council Chairman Mujahid.

Executive Committee member Mr. LaDale George presented the award to Republican Senator John Millner for his leadership in the House regarding the Charity without Fear resolution. The bill was adopted by the Illinois House on May 30, 2005, in the 94th General Assembly. Senator Millner has also served as a member of the Governor’s Commission on Discrimination and Hate.

Council Vice-Chairman, Dr. Zaher Sahloul, introduced the audience to Senator Jacqueline Collins, the chief sponsor of legislation for Charity without Fear in the Illinois Senate. “People shouldn’t be penalized for practicing the tenets of their faith,” she said, receiving her award. Senator Collins, a Democrat, has a background in journalism and holds three Master’s degrees, including one from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is the chair of the Financial Institutions Committee, the Vice-Chair of the Appropriations Committee.

Council Treasurer, Mrs. Tasneem Osmani presented the next award to Mr. Don Wycliff, the outgoing public editor of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. Mr. Wycliff said that the Tribune strives to represent as many diverse voices as possible across its pages. While much of the media has neglected causes such as Muhammad Salah’s, Mr.Wycliff did not shy away from this controversial case, writing the column “Secrecy's corrosive effect in a terrorism case” last month.

Mr. Wycliff writes,“Muhammad Salah has been on my conscience for the last 13 years. What has troubled me about the Salah case from the beginning was the secrecy of it all. He and a couple of colleagues were arrested by Israeli military authorities during a trip to the occupied territories back in 1993. They were held incommunicado from the beginning, and the U.S. government seemed strangely lackadaisical about the whole business.” Further he asserted that the Op-Ed pages of most major American newspapers tend to be biased, not always because they are pro-Israel, but rather for lack of a Palestinian perspective. The entire column can be read here.

The president of the Muslim Civil Rights Center (MCRC), Mr. Rasheed Ahmed, introduced the final award recipient, Mrs. Maryam Salah. Echoing Congressman Rush, Mr. Ahmed pointed out that it’s not any one government party that is out to water down or revoke our civil rights. Rather it is the unceasing efforts of certain individuals in both parties, and non-government organizations that stoke the fires of civil inequality.

Mrs. Salah, who holds a Master’s degree in Literature, voiced the personal ramifications and dire losses endured when unethical policies are tolerated. Her husband Muhammed Salah, a Palestinian-American, was arrested by the Israeli military in 1993 while visiting Occupied Palestine. In 1995, after secret detention, interrogation and a closed military trial, Salah was found guilty and imprisoned until late 1997 when he was returned to his home in Bridgeview. The US government then seized all of Mr. Salah’s property without trial, upon designating him a terrorist.

During the last 13 years of turmoil, Mrs. Salah held her family together. She helped develop a Chicago coalition that challenges the admissibility of confessions obtained under torture. Today, two of her sons have been accepted to Northwestern University on a full scholarship, while her husband continues to live under house arrest. Reading from her son’s college application essay, Mrs. Salah’s words moved the audience to realize how families are shattered when justice is not served, when citizens turn a blind eye to government atrocities. Mrs. Salah represents the hundreds of families that are irrevocably damaged when American citizens quietly accept questionable government policies. Her experiences are a grim reminder that the struggle for civil liberties must go on.

Chairman Mujahid later thanked those whose support was integral to the Charity without Fear resolution passing in both houses of the Illinois legislature last year. Mr. Moon Khan worked tirelessly to garner support for the resolution, as have United Power for Action & Justice (UPAJ), the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs. Senators who supported the Charity Without Fear Resolution included Senators Collins, Christine Radogno, Martin Sandoval, Carole Pankau, Adeline Jay Geo-Karis, Dave Sullivan, Kirk W. Dillard, Larry K. Bomke, Pamela Althoff, Susan Garrett, Louis Viverito, Dan Rutherford, Dan Cronin, Donne Trotter, Edward Maloney and Mattie Hunter.