Skip to main content

Torture is Never Right


Below is a letter sent to me by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NCAT).  I wrote my Congressperson and now I am asking you to write yours. If you are a Christian please remember this --torture is what people do to Christ, not for him.  Even if you are not religious please remember torture neither gets results (it has been demonstrated to produce less true information and more false information than non-coercive techniques.  It's use is primarily about hatred for it's victim.  In fact many who use it will use non-coercive techniques until they have all the information they need, since they know it's not reliable.  Peter King is creating the atmosphere were torture against Muslims will become more acceptable. Please take action.

 
Dear Friends:

As you may have heard, Rep. Peter King (NY-3) has announced that he will hold a series of hearings on the “radicalization of the American Muslim community” and its alleged unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement agencies to stop terrorism. Many people of faith have been dismayed at the singling out of one particular set of Americans and have responded by calling for Rep. King to either cancel the hearings or to change their format to create a constructive dialogue about how people of all faiths can stop terrorism.

Please write to your Representative
 to ask him or her to sign a letter being circulated by Reps. Pete Stark and John Dingell that calls on Rep. King to refocus the hearings on extremism and violence in all forms, rather than focusing on American Muslims.  

NRCAT has believed since its beginning that prejudice toward Muslims was a significant contributing factor that led to U.S. acceptance of torture. NRCAT’s Board has become a member of “Shoulder-to-Shoulder: Standing with American Muslims; Upholding American Values," a coalition of 23 religious organizations that are engaged in efforts to end anti-Muslim bigotry. 
 
We agree with Rep. King that national security is an important value. But we believe that there is a better way to ensure our national security than singling out one faith community. Instead of emphasizing our differences, our safety as a nation would be better enhanced if the government asked all the religious communities in America to work together for our nation’s security. Rep. King’s hearings will increase anti-Muslim sentiment in America without improving American security.  

Please write to your Representative today. Rep. King should cancel these hearings and instead work with leaders of all faiths to make this country more secure from violence and extremism in all forms. 

Sincerely,
Linda Gustitus, President
Rev. Richard Killmer, Executive Director
 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Serenading the Donkey

Over the years I have had many times when I have had to call out others on their words, behavior, or attitudes on race, class or ethnicity and I have used a variety of means to get my point across.  The first  such incident was when I was 13 years old and my sister and a friend were skipping rope to the rope song that uses the "N_" word.   I said we don't use that word in this place and the girls argued with me about it. I just said that if they used that word I would go tell Grandpa, and they complied.  In a high school the teacher had let the discussion degenerate and the topic of "welfare" came up and a girl stated  an old stereotype that my Daddy says "All the blacks go pick up their welfare checks in Cadillacs."  I wanted that direction of the conversation to end immediately, so I blurted out "Well your Daddy is a racist."  There was silence in the room for a couple of minutes and then the teacher changed the subject.  When people have b
 Striking at Bourgeois Values with "Free Stuff"  Why is it that in middle class neighborhoods no one would think anything of it if you are having a "yard sale"  or a "moving sale", spending your entire day selling your possessions at pennies on the dollar, a tenth of what you could get on E-Bay, making less than the federal minimum wage for your efforts, but they would shrink in horror from a "free stuff pile".  What is the world coming from that  they place so little value on material possessions that they would give it away for nothing.  Someone will surely complain that you are doing "illegal dumping", even if you tend the pile and fold things back up.  Fortunately for me, I live in a neighborhood with a heavy student population, north of Seattle's University of Washington campus, and such a pile is welcome.  Having purged the house of unneeded things that aren't worth my time trying to sell (unlike my art, which I will find