Faith in Action Network: Ramadan

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During Ramadan, Muslim communities focus on the practical application of faith in daily life, upholding the rights of fellow human beings, and serving their communities. As Muslims around the world are celebrating Ramadan, faith communities, and all communities, are invited to join AIUSA in taking action to protect the human rights of Muslims.

Many faith communities across the country and around the world come together to strengthen their neighborhoods and serve the needs of their wider communities. Amnesty USA’s Faith in Action Network is open to all faith communities that are interested in grassroots activism for human rights.

Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people – no matter who they are or where they are. Amnesty International’s network of activists work to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied.

Each week of Ramadan, AIUSA will feature cases of human rights abuses of Muslim individuals and communities globally. Join us as a faith community, or as an individual, and take action for human rights this month!

To learn more about the Faith in Action Network, sign up here or email [email protected]!

Pledge to take action and defend human rights DURING Ramadan

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Learn more about our featured cases each week, and take action online for all the Ramadan cases right now.

April 11-17:

Human Rights Defenders in the United Arab Emirates

Prisoner of conscience, Dr Mohammed al-Roken, is a human rights lawyer serving a 10-year sentence in al-Razeen Prison, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The proceedings in the

Mohammed al-Roken, a prisoner of conscience, is imprisoned solely for peacefully exercising his rights to freedom of expression, including his work as a human rights lawyer. Amnesty International calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

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Portrait of Ahmed Mansoor Mansoor is one of the three human rights defenders selected as finalists for the 2015 Martin Ennals Award, and is due to be recognized at a ceremony hosted by the city of Geneva on October 6 2015. Ahmed Mansoor is a member of the Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East and North Africa Division, as well as the Advisory Board of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights. Widely respected as one of the few voices within the UAE to provide a credible independent assessment of human rights developments in the country, Mansoor regularly raises concerns regarding arbitrary detention, torture or degrading treatment, and failure to meet international standards of fair trial. He also draws attention to other human rights abuses, including against migrant workers. As a result, Mansoor has faced repeated intimidation, harassment, and death threats from the UAE authorities and their supporters, including arrest and imprisonment in 2011 following an unfair trial. He and four other activists who called for democratic rights in the UAE were jailed in 2011 on the charge of “insulting officials”. Although pardoned and released later that year, Mansoor has been banned from travel and had his passport confiscated.

Ahmed Mansoor, recipient of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2015, has been in detention since March 20, 2017. He is serving a 10-year sentence solely for exercising his right to freedom of expression. He has been kept in solitary confinement since his arrest.

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April 18-24:

Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

CHITTAGONG, BANGLADESH - 2020/12/29: Rohingya refugees people on a Bangladesh navy vessel relocating Rohingya refugees to the Bhasan Char island in Noakhali district, Bangladesh.
(Photo by K M Asad/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Bangladeshi authorities relocated Rohingya refugees to a remote island called Bhashan Char, despite UN concerns about the safety of the island. The Bangladesh government must immediately halt the relocation of more people to Bhashan Char, return those already on the island to their community in Cox’s Bazar and follow due process for any relocation.

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April 25-May 1:

Detention of Muslims in Sri Lanka

Hejaaz Hizbullah, the lawyer representing the Ibrahims, outside his residence in Hokandara neighbourhood, Colombo.

Hejaaz Hizbullah is a prominent Muslim lawyer in Sri Lanka. On April 14, 2020, he was arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and held without charge or trial for more than 10 months. The government has not produced any credible evidence against him. Amnesty is calling on the government to release him now.

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On April 9, 2020, Ramzy Razeek, a social media commentator and member of Sri Lanka’s Muslim minority, was arrested for a Facebook post in which he called for Sri Lanka’s Muslims to counter anti-Muslim propaganda by Sinhalese Buddhist extremists. He was released on bail on September 17 but the charges remain pending; he could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Amnesty is calling for all charges against him to be dropped.

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May 2-8:

Close Guantanamo Bay

Over the last 19 years, almost 800 Muslim men and boys have been detained at the military prison at the US navy base at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba. 40 Muslim men remain there today. Many were tortured. Most have never been charged with a crime. Now, we have a chance to push for the closure of the detention facility once and for all. Tell President Biden: close Guantánamo now!

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May 9-15:

Detention of Uyghurs in China

 

Yiliyasijiang Reheman, from northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, was among 16 Uighurs students in Egypt who were believed to be deported by the Egyptian authorities to China in July 2017 when about 200 Uighurs were detained in Egypt by order of the Chinese authorities. Chinese authorities have been compelling Uighur students enrolled in universities abroad to return to China since May 2017. Yiliyasijiang was a student at Egypt’s prestigious Al-Azhar Islamic University. His wife Mairinisha Abuduaini, who was then 19 years old and also a student at Al-Azhar, fled Egypt for Turkey when the manhunt started in July 2017 but Yiliyasijiang Reheman never made it onto his flight. Mairinisha’s brother who also studied at Al-Azhar with Yiliyasijiang, said that Yiliyasijiang was targeted likely because he was a bright academic that other students looked up to. Mairinisha, who is now living in Istanbul, Turkey, later learned that Yiliyasijiang was sent back to Kashgar and detained. His exact whereabouts remain unknown. His wife believes that he may have been sentenced to imprisonment without a trial. Or, he may have been detained in a “transformation-through-education” centre.

Yiliyasijiang Reheman was among 16 Uyghur students believed to have been deported by the Egyptian authorities to China in 2017 after being detained at the request of Chinese authorities. His wife, Mairinisha Abuduaini, fled to Istanbul, but he was taken into custody at the airport on July 7, 2017. His whereabouts remains unknown.

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