Saturday, August 23, 2008, 1-5 PM,
ALBANY LAW SCHOOL, ALBANY, NY, Matthew Bender Room

Muslims have been unfairly treated by the Bush Administration since 911. There have been many unjust prosecutions involving guilt by association, innuendo and twisted sting operations designed to entrap those the government has decided it doesn’t like. These cases have trampled the constitutional rights of the defendants and put us all at risk. Come learn about a few of these cases and participate in discussion of where to go from here.

Speakers will include:

LYNNE STEWART will speak about her experiences as an attorney and then a defendant unfairly charged and convicted for standing up for her client in the proudest legal tradition.

SEAN MAHAR, Attorney for SYED HASHMI and

ABU YOUSEF, Cleric, will speak about that case. www.freefahad.com

KATHERINE HUGHES, Writer, will speak about the case of DR. RAFIL
DHAFIR. www.dhafirtrial.net

STEPHEN DOWNS, One of the attorneys for YASSIN AREF, and

DR. SHAMSHAD AHMAD, President of the Masjid As-Salam Mosque, will speak about the AREF/HOSSAIN case. www.yassinaref.com and www.nepajac.org/Aref&Hossain.htm

After these presentations, we will have workshops on how to identify these cases and put together a nationwide database; how to reach out to the public, the media and other groups; and generally how to move forward from here.

For more information, e-mail Kathy Manley at mkathy1@hotmail.com

CONFERENCE AGENDA

10- 12 Informal meeting among early arrivals.

12-1 Lunch

1 PM LYNNE STEWART

2-3 Brief Presentations on the cases of Syed Hashmi, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, and Rafil Dhafir

3-4 Workshops on Individual Topics:

A. Identifying and Memorializing Unfair Prosecutions Against Muslims – Compiling the list and the data base.

B. Who should we be trying to Reach and Convince? Taking our case to the media, to the government, to Muslim groups, to pressure groups, to academic institutions, others.

C. Resources for Muslims trying to defend against Unfair charges – Financing and organizing an organization

D. Organizing to deal with the repressive and discriminatory conditions at the Communications Management Unit at the Federal Prison at Terre Haute, Indiana, where many unfairly convicted Muslims are placed.

4-5 Report of the workshops, discussion and final report

5 onward. Dinner and further discussion.