DhafirTrial

Criminalizing Compassion in the War on Terror:
Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir

By Katherine Hughes Published in the Nov/Dec issue of Fellowship magazine

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But … the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” Martin Luther King, Jr. (more…)

His wife and brother arrived at Fairton FCI to visit him and were told he had been moved.Please write to him to let him know that he is not alone and not forgotten:

Rafil A. Dhafir
11921-052
P.O. Box 33
Terre Haute
IN 47808

36th Annual Plowshares Craftsfair and Peace Festival
Saturday December 2 (10 am-5 pm) and Sunday, December 3 (11 am-5 pm)
Nottingham High School, 3100 East Genesee Street, Syracuse

I will be there selling my pots and sculptures, and giving out information about Dr. Dhafir’s case. (more…)

Fellowship of Reconciliation are the original publishers of a slightly shortened version (with photographs) of my article, “Criminalizing Compassion in the War on Terror: Muslim Charities and the Case of Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir,” in their fall 2006 issue. I am very grateful to them and I strongly encourage people to visit their site.

The government is currently contesting the Appeal Court decision to grant Dr. Dhafir transcripts at the expense of the court (a cost of around $22,000 before any lawyers fees are taken into account). Transcripts are essential to an appeal process and without them (more than a year after sentencing) the appeal process cannot begin to move forward.

Please help us achieve justice by sending a donation for any amount, no matter how small or large, to Dr. Dhafir’s Appeal Fund (more…)

I am currently working on a piece that I hope will illustrate why I don’t believe the government proved its case against Dr. Dhafir. I plan for it to be the first in a series of pieces where I take a specific charge from the Grand Jury Indictment of 60 counts and then illustrate with the text from my court notes why I don’t think the government proved their case.

In October 2005 I began addressing the charges in the indictment and always hoped to return to the project but there was never enough time. This original piece is available here: Case Not Proven

[A slightly shortened version of this article with pictures was first published by Fellowship of Reconciliation in the Fall edition of their magazine Fellowship. The article is available here.  If you republish this article please do it with full credit to FOR and a link to the original article on their site and please let them know.]

By Katherine Hughes

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But … the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” Martin Luther King, Jr.[1] (more…)

Dr. Dhafir’s case is highlighted:

The human toll in the so-called “war on terror” has a much broader reach than the deaths of those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, the tortures, indefinite detentions and extraordinary renditions. The U.S. government is also responsible for human rights abuses throughout the U.S. You’ll recognize some of these from your own community, yet others you may never have heard about before. (more…)