This year's Ramadan has witnessed in Ethiopia, Syria, Burma and elsewhere the beating, torture, indiscriminate attack and murder of innocent civilians whose sole crime was demanding their Allah-endowed inalienable rights from governments who are violent, hypocritical and anti-democratic. In the Ethiopian case, the Muslims simply demanded their right to elect their own representatives into the office of the institution that is supposed to run their affairs in the country. They peacefully and legally demanded that the government cease interfering in their religious practices. The government's response was unleashing its police forces to brutally beat, maim and kill innocent civilians while arresting their leaders and scholars and torturing them in prison.

Ramadan is a solemn period of introspection, self-evaluation and self-restraint. Those that have been deprived of this blessed interlude to spend with their families and their loved ones during this reflective period were not only robbed of their rights but also of their freedom of worship. The unprecedented scope and immediacy of these universal challenges demand concerted action and response by all. As citizens of the world, we are bound in our response by a common heritage of caring for the ill-treated and the suffering by applying the wheels of justice and the clarity of truth to counteract powerful threats by autocratic governments.

After all, the Declaration of Human Rights dictates that every government should respect human life and the dignity of every subject under its jurisdiction, and refrain from committing crimes against humanity as such acts will invite universal condemnation.

We, the Diaspora, hear the lamenting voices of those in prison and distressed cries of their families in Ethiopia. With the greater force of Allah and the spirit of Ramadan, we will spare no time or effort to legally and peacefully prove their innocence and tirelessly work towards their freedom and eventual release from prison. Please keep them all in your prayers. We wish you Eid Mubarak.

Badr Ethiopia
www.badrethiopia.org
Washington DC

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Badr Ethiopia believes that mankind in general is imbued with basic goodness and inalienable rights as the pursuit of freedom, justice and peace. The fulfillment of these rights requires the serious pursuit of vigilance that encompasses spiritual empowerment and social justice through mutual understandings and cooperation that will engender knowledge, tolerance and peaceful coexistence