Spare Ten Minutes a Day to Defend Your Bill of Rights

Stand up with America

Against Indefinite Detentions without Trial
The National Call In Week
To Mark the Bill of Rights Day

America was silent until ACLU and Muslim Peace Coalition USA started mobilizing against the indefinite detention without trial provision of NDAA. Now thousands of people are calling President Obama to do what Congress failed to do: to protect the US citizens from indefinite detention without a trial.

In New York, Boston, Chicago and many other cities there are demonstrations and actions planned for Thursday December 15th, 2011 which is an official Bill of Rights day. If your city, school or communities are planning an action on that day please add that information here so the others know about it as well. You can find other action ideas hereand here.

The NDAA bill passed by Congress is worse than the PATRIOT ACT. This bill contains some of the most dangerous provisions we’ve ever seen: it would allow the government to imprison anyone “suspected” of an offense deemed “terrorism-related” indefinitely and without trial or charges—even US citizens.

The president, the Department of Defense, the FBI, and a bipartisan block of senators all oppose this bill. Why is Congress trying to give the government powers it doesn't even want?

This is America. We have rights, and we demand that our government respects and protects them.

Call Your President Week:

1. Call President Obama to fulfill his promise to veto indefinite detentions in NDAA 2012 bill: 202-456-1111. Tell him on this Bill of Rights Day he must defend our rights of trial by vetoing this bill
2. Call ten friends, colleagues and relatives to call President Obama as well. Do it every day.
3. Forward this action alert to your friends. 
4. Your school:
   • Have your school assembly (fulltime as well as weekend) do a reading of bill of rights on December 15
   • Ask all students to write a letter to President Obama to veto it
5. Your Masjid: Ask your Imam to
   • Give Khutba this Friday on the importance of justice, Bill of Rights & the Indefinite detention without trial
   • Make Dua after each Salat to guide our leaders towards justice
   • Get your interfaith partners to forward this alert to their lists

What is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)?

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a bill passed by the Congress in early December. It contains provisions that, if made law, would order the military to arrest, and indefinitely detain, even US citizens merely accused (but never proven) of involvement in terror-related crimes. Americans who care about liberty and freedom must take immediate action.

Whether concerned about communities vulnerable to racial profiling in the war on terror, or the ideological profiling apparent in the FBI’s investigation of dozens of peace & justice activists around the country, or simply preserving the right to trial or the longstanding prohibition on domestic military deployment, all Americans share a stake in this struggle.

Why are the NDAA’s detention provisions so bad?

1. The indefinite military detention of US citizens violates the Fifth and the Sixth Amendments, as well as the fundamental Posse Comitatus Act, on which democracy relies. A society is not free when its citizens are subject to arbitrary detention.
2. The NDAA’s detention provisions would authorize the indefinite military detention of activists. The FBI has long treated peace, environmental, and anti-tax activists as terrorists. Legalizing indefinite detention for anyone accused of a terror-related crime would give any future federal government the unchecked power to silence critics, deny the right to trial, and override the presumption of innocence.
3. Transforming America into a police state would do the work of our nation’s enemies.Throwing our rights and liberties to the wind is what terrorists want.
4. The NDAA’s detention provisions would undermine national security. The FBI director, the secretary of defense, the director of national intelligence, President Obama, and the chairs of the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees all recognize that expanded military detention harms national security. They understand that detention would not only threaten constitutional rights but also force the military to perform a mission for which it is ill suited, and erode trust in our justice system.
5. Congress is supposed to check and balance the Executive Branch, not expand it. The NDAA would give the Obama administration unprecedented power to detain US citizens without judicial review. Rather than checking and balancing the Executive Branch, Congress passed a bill giving the Executive Branch even more power than the administration wants.

5 Reasons NDAA's Detetion Provisions should Scare You:

1- The indefinite military detention of US citizens violates the Fifth and the Sixth Amendments, as well as the fundamental Posse Comitatus Act.

2- The NDAA’s detention provisions would authorize the indefinite military detention of activists.

3- Transforming America into a police state would do the work of our nation’s enemies.

4- The NDAA’s detention provisions would undermine national security.

5- Congress is supposed to check and balance the Executive Branch, not expand it.