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Practice Module on the Need for Alternative Forums

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Soka University Japan - Transcend Art and Peace
Created: October 11, 2002
Latest Update: October 11, 2002
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Alternative Forums Needed

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, October 2002.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Even though I do keep remininding myself and you that this cannot be a news site, I also keep remembering how many of you remind me that during the semester the site often serves as a news forum for you, and many who find it impossible to access the traditional commercial forums continue to write with the request that we make some of what is happening to them known to the public at large. Well, we're a very small piece of the public at large, but perhaps the academy could serve effectively in this regard if enough of our small teaching sites took on such roles to the extent we are able.

On Friday, October 11, Ibrahim Khan wrote to ask that we make his story public, that all of us may recognize the dangers in our current rush to war:

Subject: RE: Orwellian State detainees

Jeanne,
I am writing to make you, your organization, and as many Americans know that my brothers-in-law, Muhammed Bilal and Ahmed Bilal, are being detained without just cause. The government has indicted them on charges of being members of a terrorist sleeper cell. THEY ARE INNOCENT OF THESE RIDICULOUS CHARGES! THEY ARE NOT MURDERERS! Muhammed was taken from my home on the morning of Oct.4th. He has never been to Central Asia. The War On Terrorism is turning this country into a police state. If we, peace and justice loving Americans, sit back and go for this, tomorrow the terrorists will be Native-American activists, radical writers, advocates of sovereignty movements (see Alaska, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii). Me and my family are currently seeking attorneys. We have been summoned before a grand jury in Oregon on Nov. 6th, even though we have not been charged, or indicted, nor are we named as suspects in any wrong doing! Please help me get the message to the rest of the country that-Muslim (Arab, African-American, South-Asians) are being subjected to intense harrassment and detention without just cause. Any advice during this troubling time for my family would greatly be appreciated.

Sincerely, Ibrahim Khan
Dearborn, Michigan

On Friday, March 11, 2002, jeanne responded:

Dear Ibrahim,

I share your concerns about the protection of our constitutional freedoms in a time of terror and war. I have inlcuded your request on our site, in the hope that those who share our interest in peace and social justice will remain alert to such occurrences and do whatever is in their power to prevent them.

As a teacher at a small pulbic college, there is little I can offer in the way of practical help. Though a member of the Bar, I do not currently practice in a formal setting, and so have no access to the tools of investigation that would be needed in such a case. But I can post the issue, and hope that many of those who come to the site will share their knowledge of your case with others, and that illocutionary discussions, discussions aimed at helping us understand one another as humans, caught in the improbable conditions of this present crisis, will grow in the populace as well as in our classrooms.

You offer us a special reminder that in the midst of today's crises we must all hone the skills of public discourse, of listening in good faith, and of respecting the Other, for the kind of manipulation seen in the Enron case is not limited to the purchasing and selling of stocks. The law is no more objective than any other pursuit or science. The law is colored by ideology and by unstated assumptions of solid and trustworthy knowledge. As we begin to find ourselves caught up in global issues, both religious and political, we can longer assume those unstated assumptions valid. We need self-reflexive understanding, self-reflexive sociology, in which we are careful to bring to awareness our own beliefs and assumptions, and to question them, too, in good faith. Such questioning and awareness will lead to reasoned public discourse and legitimate governance, if, and I certainly hope, Juergen Habermas is right.

In peace, jeanne