There are less than couple days to go to our November 21 rally, which will be
held from 1200-1400
at North Carriage Drive in London’s Hyde Park
to mark Universal Children’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of
Violence against Women.
Please take into consideration underground closures on the day
The rally aims to raise still further our opposition to Sharia and
religious-based laws in Britain and the world, including the imposition of
Sharia this year in Somalia and Pakistan’s Swat region and of the ‘rape
laws’ in Afghanistan. It also aims to show our solidarity with people
standing up to political Islam everywhere, including in Iran, and our
support for universal rights and secularism. The rally will also defend the
right to asylum for those who have fled Sharia and calls for an end to
racism and cultural relativism.
Please try to come if you can. It is important for decent people everywhere
to stand up to the right-wing political Islamic movement and defend
humanity. Doing so will also help push back the far right in its attempts at
hijacking the issue of Sharia law to advance its anti-immigrant and racist
agenda.
Tell others about the rally and encourage them to join. Also please sign our
petition calling for a ban on Sharia law if you haven’t. Over 17,000 people
have done so already and they represent only the tip of the iceberg of
opposition.
Also don’t forget about our art competition, which is open to all artists.
We have already received some exciting pieces and hope to show them at a
gallery exhibition. The deadline for submitting any work exposing the
discriminatory nature of religious – based tribunals and encouraging equal
rights is November 1.
You can find out more about the rally, art competition, petition, our media
coverage, speaking engagements and other activities on our new and improved
website, thanks to Nick Djgrubson: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/.
Please also sign up to the International Coalition for Women’s Rights if you
haven’t already done so. This is particularly important given that women
face the brunt of Sharia law. You can find out more here:
http://www.equalrightsnow-iran.com/discriminatory_laws.html
Another important initiative to support is Iran Solidarity. The suppression
of a 1979 people’s revolution by the Islamic movement changed the face of
the world; a revolution against the Islamic Republic of Iran will help to
break the back of the political Islamic movement internationally and herald
a new dawn. It is crucial for people everywhere to support the people of
Iran in their battle ahead. You can find out more and sign up to it here:
http://www.iransolidarity.org.uk/. If you are able to, please volunteer half
an hour in the upcoming year to do an act of solidarity with people of Iran
in Trafalgar Square from 1730-1800 hours. This has now been going on for
nine weeks. You can see the various acts here:
http://www.iransolidarity.blogspot.com/.
And do contact us if you would like to volunteer to help organise the rally,
submit art for the competition, invite us to speak at an event you are
organising or for more information. We also need help in supporting the
right to asylum for those who have fled Sharia law. You might have heard of
our success in securing the release from immigration detention of an ‘apostate’
ex-Muslim but he and others like him need more assistance to
gain their right to asylum.
And finally, don’t forget to donate to One Law for All. We urgently need
money to do all that still needs to be done to get rid of Sharia. Every bit
helps so please do take the time to send us a cheque made payable to One Law
for All or by donating via Paypal by visiting
http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/donate.html.
As this is Universal Children’s Day, I hope there will be a distinct focus on the treatment of children under Islam. Girls and boys, of course, do have rather different experiences, and arguably there is more suffering inflicted on girls. But I would like to see more attention given to the treatment of children in madrassas, the effects of Ramadhan fasting on children, and ‘custody’ decisions which do not make the welfare of the child primary.
What about indiscriminate bombing of our innocent women and children who are in their homes by gritish and american government, when will you use your minds??????for example today in Pakistan women and children are being killed because your governments are fuelled by your lack of tolerance for religious system of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammad (PBUT)
Statement of Support For Universal Children’s Day and the International Day For The Elimination of Violence Against Women
The Peace and Freedom Party of San Francisco fully supports the International Day of Action on November 21, 2009 to oppose religious laws in Britain and elsewhere. We are in solidarity with people living under and resisting Sharia, and we defend universal rights and secularism in the US and in every country of the world.
The growing effort of religious fundamentalists around the world in many countries to impose religious laws as the law of the state is an attack on democratic and human rights. The efforts to impose religious education in the US school system by Christian fundamentalists who demand that creationism or “Intelligent Design” be taught as “science” is part and parcel of the danger worldwide of these political religious movements. The Peace and Freedom Party supports the complete separation of religion and education in the public schools and opposes the imposition of religious laws in the laws of civil society.
The US government and US imperialism in fact supports religious laws in states that it supports politically such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. These laws threaten in particular the rights of women, in many countries living under religious law. Women are subject to criminal penalties for their dress and also for personal relationships in and outside their religious marriages. The San Francisco County Peace and Freedom Party defends all women and prisoners who have been jailed for opposition to Sharia laws and calls for the establishment of secular laws that protect democratic rights for all residents in every society.
We support and congratulate the organizers of this day on Universal Children’s Day and the International Day For The Elimination of Violence Against Women and stand in solidarity with those human rights and political activists who are also taking a stand on this day.
Tom Lacey, Chair, SF Peace and Freedom Party