^{"War on Terrorism Hits L.A.," screamed the next day’s headline Banner of the now defunct, Los Angeles Herald Examiner. President Reagan had declared his “war on terrorism”. He needed a pretext to push his anti civil rights legislation so he created the Los Angeles 8, as the media dubbed us.}  

^{The charges against us evoked provisions, never used before, in the 1952 McCarthy-era law, the McCarran-Walter Act: "You have been a member of or affiliated with an organization that advocated the economic, international and governmental doctrines of world Communism through written and/or printed publications.”}

^{It wasn't that we had done anything against the law, but that we distributed literature, and that literature advocated ideas deemed undesirable by the government.}

^{The most incredible part about all of this is that the case persists even after 18 years of the government's failure to produce a shred of evidence of any wrongdoing on our part.}

^{Arab Americans dubbed The Los Angeles 8 the mother of all cases, because of the many political cases against them that followed. This case changed the legal climate for immigrants. Immigration law in the early 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy hysteria incorporated Anti-communist ideological grounds of exclusion and deportation. In the 1990s, this has changed to reflect new global realties; The Soviet Union collapsed, and Soviet Communism no longer presented immediate challenge. Therefore, Terrorism replaced Communism as the great enemy, and US Laws started to develop accordingly.}

^{Because of litigation in the Los Angeles case, Congress acted to repeal the infamous McCarthy era McCarran-Walter Act provisions and enacted in its place the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1990. In this Act, new anti-terrorism provisions replaced the anti-Communist provisions in the McCarran-Walter Act.  One could no longer be deported for advocating "world Communism," but one could still be deported for membership or affiliation with a designated terrorist organization. The Los Angeles 8 were again charged retroactively under this new law. There is no end in sight because the pertaining laws are still changing.}

^{After the first World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, Congress swiftly passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 ("AEDPA") This Act curtailed our civil liberties tremendously by authorizing the use of secret evidence in courts in violation of our basic right to due process.}

^{All of the secret evidence cases monitored by civil rights groups have unraveled as soon as the targeted individuals either got a glimpse of the government's evidence or were granted a retrial in which the government was legally forced not to use secret witnesses or documents.}

^{The government's evidence has always crumbled when the principles of due process, on which the American legal system was founded, was applied. The rights to rebut evidence, confront one's accusers, and meaningfully cross-examine witnesses are all principles that lie at the heart of the liberties the Constitution seeks to protect. Yet these principles have been sacrificed in the name of national security without any proven benefits to security, and have resulted in a chilling effect on constitutionally protected activities of various American groups.}

^{Nevertheless, nothing in our recent history curtails our civil liberties more than the Patriot Act that was enacted after the tragic events of September 11. The horrific murder of innocent civilians in the Twin Towers, and the attacks on the Pentagon and Pennsylvania by terrorists, were politicized by the administration to produce the Patriot Act. This Act provides a perfect example of legislation that sacrifices constitutional rights and protections made under the guise of national security. It has terrible implications for US immigrants, but virtually no implications for right-wing militia groups and terrorists on American soil.}

^{After the terrorist acts of September 11, all the American mosaic, including Arab Americans, felt the need for greater security. But to pit Security against Civil Liberty is false and dangerous. We can enhance our security, while in the same time preserve and protect our civil liberties, it is never either or. Our civil rights and liberties were achieved through many generations of struggles and sacrifice. There is a major threat to these rights today. We faced a similar situation right after the attack on Pearl Harbor when our government detained one hundred and twenty thousand innocent Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Everyone today admits, sixty years later, that that was an awful mistake. We must work hard and diligently to reverse this threat today, so we’ll never face the same situation again.}

^{We must not fall into the trap of those who are dividing the world into two sections, one for the rebels and the other for the officers of the law, one of absolute good and the other of absolute evil, or one for the believers and another for the infidels. All of these “clash-of-civilizations” arguments have the same logic. The Bush administration started this war on terrorism in Afghanistan, but no one knows where it will end, and what it will produce. Simple solutions and military force will not stop the terrorists. The best weapon to eradicate terrorism resides in the cooperation of the international community, in respecting the rights of all peoples. It lies in the reduction of the ever-increasing gap between the rich geographical North and the poor Geographical South. The most effective way out of all is to defend freedom through fully realizing the meaning of justice for all.}

^{The president asked once, "Why do they hate us?" That question is deceitful and precarious. It assumes a collective "they" which, lumps all Arabs and all Muslims together. It does not make a distinction between the terrorists and the vast majority who condemn violence and injustice. It presupposes that Arabs and Muslims do not appreciate the great ideals and values of justice, peace, security and freedom. Many have been denied these rights, and often as a direct result of American policies. Whenever anyone tries to explain the reality, to provide a context, to fill the vacuum left by the paralysis in the US media, about events and conflicts taking place in the Arab and Muslim worlds, they are accused of condoning or justifying terrorism and silenced.}

^{Therefore, as our country searches for a rationale to explain the animosity towards its foreign policies, (an animosity, not held towards the American people or culture), it must distance itself from the "conflict of cultures" concept. It should also give up to always needing an ever-present enemy to justify our government’s policies. Instead, we should move into a political arena, where Americans can consider the honesty of our foreign policies. In particular, we should reexamine our failure in the Middle East, where the American values of freedom, democracy and human rights, have been crushed--especially in Palestine where the Israeli occupation is blatantly violating international law, and where the U.S. provides full diplomatic, economic, and military support for this brutal occupation.}

_{^{Those who preach, "clash of civilizations” are looking backward to the dark ages of history. While peace-loving people are working to guide humanity in an opposite direction; a direction of a universal value system which doesn't differentiate between one people and another; a direction toward tolerance and mutual respect. We must struggle to assert our common humanity because human civilization is the result of global communities working together towards a global heritage of justice and peace.}}