FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

AIFD today joined a broad based coalition of American Muslim leaders of the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) to send a letter to President Barack Obama urging immediate action to protect the Syrian people. We urge you to forward this to your contacts in order to prompt the immediate attention of the Obama adminsitration and its need to act to help stop the atrocities in Syria.

— AIFD

Full PDF version here

Syrian calls for Liberty demand immediate U.S. attention

Assad’s continued attack on the people of Syria is barbaric

Washington, DC (August 9, 2011) – In the wake of continued violence against the Syrian people by the Assad regime, the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC), a diverse coalition of over 25 liberty-minded Muslim groups and activists, drafted the following letter to President Barack Obama.

August 9, 2011

President Barack Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Ave

Washington, DC 20500

RE: American Islamic Leadership Coalition calls for U.S. action to protect the Syrian People

Dear President Obama:

The American Islamic Leadership Coalition calls upon your administration to take immediate action to end the Assad dictatorship in Syria. We believe that American credibility and our moral mandate to stand for universal human rights requires us to do everything possible to enable the democratic uprising in that unhappy country to succeed.

The death toll has climbed above 2,000. As you have said, the ‘true character’ of the Assad regime is now clear and it is appalling. On the other side, the citizens of Syria have mustered extraordinary courage to stand up to this evil.

We must stand with them. We must help the liberal opposition. We must say clearly and repeatedly that all of the Assad regime must go now. You have called for the downfall of the Mubarak dictatorship in Egypt and the Qaddafi dictatorship in Libya. Logic, consistency, and morality all require that you do the same regarding Assad in Syria.

The end of the Assad tyranny will greatly help America throughout the turbulent Middle East. A free Syria will significantly weaken Iran, Hizballah, and other radical Islamist interests and could shake the power structures in the Middle East for generations.

A broad spectrum of Muslim leaders in the U.S. and Canada calls upon you to do the following:

1. Clearly and consistently state that Assad must go;

2. Bring full and intense economic sanctions against all trade with Syria, including the energy sector, except for food and humanitarian relief;

3. Remove our diplomats in Damascus and dismiss all Syrian diplomats on our soil, as Italy has done. If Assad is truly “no longer legitimate” then his diplomats are also no longer legitimate and our diplomats can no longer legitimize him;

4. Demand the opening of Syrian society to media, NGO’s and international observers for accountability instead of Assad’s lies;

5. Support the legitimate, pro-democracy opposition, both inside and outside Syria. In this effort the full weight of U.S. support must be focused on the correct alternative to Assad and not on organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood or other groups that are not committed to the principles of genuine liberty.

Syria stands at a crossroads. The defeat of Assad would be a double victory, for both the Syrian people, and for the free world.

About the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC)

The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) is a diverse coalition of liberty-minded, North American Muslim leaders and organizations. AILC’s mission advocates for defending the US Constitution, upholding religious pluralism, protecting American security and cherishing genuine diversity in the faith and practice of Islam. AILC provides a stark alternative to the Islamist organizations that claim to speak for what are diverse American Muslim communities. For more information on AILC, please visit our website at http://www.americanislamicleadership.org/.

AILC Coalition Signatories

Bahman Batmanghelidj, Founding Member, Alliance for Democracy in Iran, Virginia, USA

Khurshed Chowdhury, Ph.D., Maryland, USA

Manda Zand Ervin, President, Alliance of Iranian Women, Maryland, USA

Tarek Fatah, Founder, Muslim Canadian Congress, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jamal Hasan, Council for Democracy and Tolerance, Baltimore, MD

Farzana Hassan, Ed.D., Past President, Muslim Canadian Congress, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D., President, American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Phoenix, AZ

Hasan Mahmud, Member, Advisory Board, World Muslim Congress, Dallas, TX

C. Holland Taylor, Chairman & CEO, LibForAll Foundation, Winston-Salem, NC

Malek Muhammad Towghi (Baluch), Ph.D., Liaison, Baluch Human Rights International

Jalal Zuberi, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA