PROGRAM

On October 27, 2012,  Hunter College’s Asian-American Studies Program and Human Rights Program hosted a panel discussion on the lasting impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Arab, Muslin and South Asian communities in the United States. In the aftermath of the attacks a decade ago, these communities faced mistrust, violence, discrimination, and racial and ethnic profiling. Since that period, fears of homegrown terrorism, fueled by irresponsible congressional rhetoric, have provided cover for bigotry and Islamophobia, leaving some members of these communities feeling targeted and besieged. What strategies can be used to vindicate their human and civil rights?

About the Speakers:

Talat Hamdani is an active member of 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and has traveled to Guantnamo to observe the 9/11 defendants military commissions proceedings there. Her son Salman was a New York City police cadet who died attempting to save lives at the World Trade Center.

Ramzi Kassem is Associate Professor of Law at the City University of New York where he directs the Immigrant and Refugee Rights Clinic. With his students, Professor Kassem has represented prisoners of various nationalities presently or formerly held at American facilities at Guantnamo Bay, Cuba, at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, at so-called Black Sites, and at other detention sites worldwide. Professor Kassem also supervises the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project, which primarily aims to address the unmet legal needs of Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and other communities in the New York City area that are particularly affected by national security and counterterrorism policies and practices. He is a graduate of Columbia College and holds law degrees from Columbia Law School, where he was a Senior Editor for the Columbia Law Review, and from the Sorbonne University.

Umair Khan is Counsel to New York State Senator Kevin Parker. He previously served as the Assistant Counsel to Senator Parker in the office of the Majority Whip. A graduate of Albany Law School, he published a law review article titled “Tortured Pleadings: The Historical Development and Recent Fall of the Liberal Pleadings Standard.” His work was cited by the House Judiciary Committee in hearings on the Iqbal decision. He has also worked for U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn, U.S. Magistrate Judge Randolph Treece, and the Albany County District Attorney’s Office, where he was first chair in two successful prosecutions. Khan was also a founder of the Congressional Muslims Staffers Association, and received a BA in Government and Near Eastern Studies from Cornell University in 2003.


Arab, Muslim and South Asian Communities Ten Years after 9/11 | Posted on October 27th, 2011 | Human Rights Program News