__________________________________________________________________________ The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 23 February 2001 Vol. 5, Number 13 (#516) __________________________________________________________________________ Action Alerts: Aleksander Kwasniewski (Warhead), "Solidarity Needed For Polish Anti -Fascist" Obituaries: Khalid Abdul Muhammad: "New Black Panther Party Leader Dies" Fascism In the News Burt Herman (AP), "Germany Creates Police Units," 20 Feb 01 Reuters, "German Jews Threaten Suit Over Internet Hate Sites," 19 Feb 01 Nicholas K. Geranios (AP), "Aryan Lawsuit Changes Keenan Family," 18 Feb 01 News On the Religious Tax AA News, "'Religion Tax' Office Opens As Fringe Groups Poised to Demand Cash," 20 Feb 01 ACLU, "ACLU Says Bush Initiative Represents Faith-Based Prescription for Discrimination," 29 Jan 01 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACTION ALERTS: Solidarity Needed For Polish Anti-Fascist Aleksander Kwasniewski (Warhead) Dear comrades! We need your solidarity actions with Tomasz Wilkoszewski. He is a militant anti-fascist from Poland, sentenced in 1996 for 15 years, charged with the murder of a nazi bastard. This unfortunate accident happened during a street fight which was a response to non-stop Nazi harassment of Tomasz and his friends. Till this day it is not known if it was really Tomasz who killed the nazi or someone else. He needs our support! His appeal was rejected by the high court and his only chance now is an act of mercy from the President. Write him urgent letters demanding the release of Tomasz Wilkoszewski! Aleksander Kwasniewski Prezydent RP Wiejska 10 00-902 Warszawa Poland [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thank you very much! Send copies of your protest letters to Warhead at the address above. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- OBITUARIES: New Black Panther Party Leader Dies Justin Bachman (AP) 17 Feb 01 MARIETTA, Ga. -- Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a black militant known for harsh rhetoric about Jews and whites but revered as a heroic revolutionary by his followers in the New Black Panther Party, died Saturday after a brief illness. "Minister and Dr. Khalid Abdul Muhammad has made his transition to the ancestors," party spokesman Malik Zulu Shabazz said at a news conference outside Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, where Muhammad had been taken earlier in the week. He would not say how the 53-year-old Muhammad died, saying only that it was of "natural causes." Muhammad, who split his time between New York and Atlanta, had shown no sign of illness before he was hospitalized Tuesday, he said. Citing the wishes of Muhammad's family, the hospital would not release any information about him, spokeswoman Elaine Morgan said Saturday. Shabazz was surrounded by some of Muhammad's family and eight party members wearing black uniforms, combat boots and berets. They chanted "Black Power!" and "Long live Khalid Muhammad!" "Our hearts are aching. We are sad but at the same time we are happy because we know that his place is secure," Shabazz said. Muhammad had spoken Feb. 10 in New York and attended the NBA All-Star game last Sunday in Washington, Shabazz said. On Thursday, The New York Times and Newsday reported that Muhammad had suffered a brain hemorrhage at his Georgia home. Muhammad led a "Million Youth March" in New York City in 1998. The rally, attended by about 6,000 people, ended in a clash between police and marchers in which dozens were injured. He organized a second and third "Million Youth March," but the most recent one drew a crowd of only about 100, police said. Muhammad blamed the "devil white media" and government officials for the low turnout. James Muhammad, a spokesman for the Nation of Islam and editor of its The Final Call newspaper, said the organization mourned Khalid Muhammad and sent prayers to his family and followers. "We remember the good that brother Khalid did in helping the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan in the rebuilding of the Nation of Islam," James Muhammad said. "May Allah be pleased with him, and we call on those who follow him and benefitted from him to double the pace in the struggle for complete liberation of black people in America and throughout the world." Some of his critics said Muhammad would be remembered for his divisive views. "Khalid Muhammad will be remembered for his anti-Semitism, racism, bigotry and hate-mongering. This is his legacy," said Myrna Shinbaum, spokeswoman for the Anti-Defamation League. In 1981, Muhammad was named one of Louis Farrakhan's top lieutenants in the Nation of Islam. He served at Nation of Islam mosques in New York and Atlanta and in 1991 became Farrakhan's personal assistant. It was Farrakhan who gave him the name Khalid - meaning warrior - but he was born Harold Moore Jr. in 1948. In his public speaking engagements, Muhammad quickly became known for virulent attacks on Jews, homosexuals and whites. Farrakhan ousted him after a 1993 speech in Union, N.J., in which he referred to Jews as "bloodsuckers" and urged mob murder of white South Africans. In April 1994, before a cheering audience, Muhammad denounced Jews as "honkies." "I am going to be like a pit bull. That is the way I am going to be against the Jews. I am going to bite the tail of the honkies," Muhammad said. He remained unrepentant about his rhetoric. "I was born to give the white man hell, and I will give him hell from the cradle to the grave," he told an Atlanta crowd in 1995. Shabazz said Muhammad and Farrakhan had mended their rift and that Farrakhan called several times during the week to check on his condition. The Rev. Al Sharpton of New York City visited on Thursday, Shabazz said. "There is no division in the black nation. The Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense are one," Shabazz said. Members of the New Black Panther Party call themselves anti-capitalist and believe in socialism and nationalism among blacks. The organization says it has 35 chapters, including Atlanta, Dallas, New York, Philadelphia and Washington. Muhammad is survived by his wife, three sons and three sisters. Shabazz would not give their names. A funeral was set for next Saturday at Mount Olivet Church in Harlem. Another memorial service will be held later in Atlanta, Shabazz said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FASCISM IN THE NEWS: Germany Creates Police Units Burt Herman (AP) 20 Feb 01 FORST, Germany -- Plagued by a sharp rise in hate crimes, Germany is forming special federal police units to counter neo-Nazis and is considering a program to turn skinheads into informers. Germany's top law enforcement official on Monday visited a federal police station in eastern Brandenburg state with one of the new teams. The government is paying $1.9 million to fund 80 additional officers for the eastern border region, the largest of several such units recently put in place across the country. "We hope to rattle the extreme-right scene in this area," Interior Minister Otto Schily said, adding that he's talking with other states to broaden the program. Earlier this month, Schily said the number of hate attacks rose dramatically to 13,753 crimes between January 2000 and November, an increase of 45 percent from the year before. On Monday, a synagogue in the northern German city of Luebeck was evacuated after receiving a bomb threat and finding a suspicious briefcase. The briefcase had wires and a red light but contained no explosive. In March 1994, Luebeck became the site of the first attack on a Jewish place of worship in postwar Germany when young neo-Nazis firebombed the synagogue. That was followed by a May 1995 arson fire that began in the synagogue's storeroom, prompting police to put constant patrols around the building. The new federal police units won't take over regular patrols handled by state police but will help combat neo-Nazis in their normal area of responsibility - in train stations and at borders. The officers will also be available to help in special cases if local police need it. In the first month the unit has been operating in Forst, on Germany's border with Poland about 95 miles southeast of Berlin, officers identified more than 100 members of the extreme right and helped patrol during a demonstration of the far-right National Democratic Party. Along with the new officers, Schily also said he was in discussions about a "dropout program" for neo-Nazis allowing them to leave skinhead gangs and possibly get leniency in exchange for helping authorities. State authorities reported 553 far-right attacks on foreigners between and January of last year and November, including killings, bodily injury and firebombings - 156 more than during the same period in 1999. The issue has become more visible since last summer's still-unsolved bomb attack in Duesseldorf injured a group of recent immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Despite media speculation at the time that the extreme right was involved, police have since said they think it "unlikely" the bombing was a hate crime. - - - - - German Jews Threaten Suit Over Internet Hate Sites Reuters 19 Feb 01 BERLIN -- Germany's main Jewish organization said Monday it was preparing to take legal action against Internet firms that host neo-Nazi and far- right Web sites. The Central Council for Jews vice president Michel Friedman said the group was consulting lawyers and would file suit against Internet companies that give access to Web sites carrying anti-Semitic or racist content banned under German law. Friedman said the German government was acting too slowly in applying strict national laws that ban any material seen to glorify Nazis or the deeds of the Third Reich. "We're looking at all (Internet) providers in Germany that provide hate information on the spot," Friedman told Reuters. "The point is to motivate the government." The council estimates that more than 800 hate-related home pages are already on the web. Friedman said Germany's Jewish community wanted courts to take a tougher line against hate sites and pointed to a recent French ruling against portal Yahoo (NasdaqNM:YHOO - news), which was ordered to block surfers in France from auctions where Nazi memorabilia are sold. In response Yahoo earlier this month banned any items that promote or glorify the Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, though it is still fighting the ruling. There have been previous calls for Germany to follow such a move and supporters of restrictions welcomed a ruling in December by Germany's highest civil court that Yahoo was subject to German law since it was accessible by Germans. Germany's Bavarian courts have also investigated allegations that a Yahoo auction site sold copies of Hitler's banned book, "Mein Kamp" within the country. The federal Supreme Court has ordered the retrial of an Australian for denying the World War Two Holocaust on the Internet. The man, Frederick Toeben, had previously been acquitted of spreading the so-called "Auschwitz Lie" on the basis that his Web site was run on computers outside German jurisdiction. - - - - - Aryan Lawsuit Changes Keenan Family Nicholas K. Geranios (AP) 18 Feb 01 COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho -- In two years, Victoria Keenan went from victim to victor over the Aryan Nations. Her lawsuit bankrupted the neo-Nazis, and last week she took possession of the hate group's 20-acre compound, which housed and trained some of the nation's most violent racists and anti-Semites. "We hope to get the evilness out of there and turn it around to something positive," said Keenan's son, Jason. They said they plan to sell the compound, perhaps to a human rights organization. Keenan, 45, and Jason, 21, were chased, shot at and terrorized by Aryan Nations security guards in 1998. Last year they won a negligence lawsuit in civil court, getting a $6.3 million judgment against Aryan founder Richard Butler and his organization. Life has not been easy for them since. "There is fear around you all the time and you're watching your back all the time," Keenan said. The Keenans still live in the Coeur d'Alene area - she won't say exactly where - and the lawsuit has made them celebrities. "Everywhere I go people know me and compliment me and hug me," Keenan said. The court victory was hailed by many in Idaho as proof that the state's reputation as a haven for racists is undeserved. But there are those who support the Aryan Nations' white supremacist philosophy. "I've gotten some bad responses from people, evil-looking people," said Keenan. "It's been mentally draining." The trial last summer drew numerous supporters of Butler to Coeur d'Alene. The Keenans were reviled on web sites maintained by neo-Nazis. Last October, Keenan and her husband were trailed in a supermarket parking lot by a van with Aryan Nations stickers. They asked the driver, who wore an Aryan Nations cap, what he wanted. "You will see soon," he replied. The Keenans did not set out to be activists. Victoria Keenan had worked as a food server and bartender, and lived quietly in a rural area. Jason had just returned from a stint in the Job Corps when they were attacked. The mother and son were driving home from a wedding the night of July 1, 1998, when they drove past the Aryan compound in her 1977 Datsun. Something - a car backfire, a firecracker - made a noise like a gunshot. Three Aryan Nations security guards, thinking someone had fired at them, jumped into a pickup and chased them. They fired a rifle repeatedly at the Keenans, eventually shooting out a tire and forcing their car into a ditch. One of the guards grabbed Keenan by the hair, jabbed her ribs with a rifle butt and put a gun to her head. She pleaded for their lives. Then another car approached. The guards stepped back, gave a "Heil Hitler" salute and drove off. Their lawsuit contended Butler, his organization and his second-in-command were negligent in hiring and training the guards. It was essentially a personal-injury case, with Butler and his group penalized for hiring ex- convicts, giving them little training, allowing them to carry weapons and filling them with rage. "The Keenans are very heroic people," said Peter Tepley, a lawyer for the Montgomery, Ala.-based Southern Poverty Law Center who helped represent them in the lawsuit. "They stood up against the Aryan Nations and brought it down." Jason Keenan recalled the discussions with their local lawyer, Norm Gissel, about whether to proceed with the lawsuit. "You have to look at who you are going up against. It was not like taking on a next door neighbor for slipping on a sidewalk," Jason said. "This is actually a person who could be considered crazy." He hoped Idaho history books would record the moment when the Aryan Nations compound ceased to exist. "This is pretty much a work of history," Jason said. The compound contains numerous buildings, including Butler's home, a bunkhouse, a guard tower and the chapel of Butler's church. It cost the Keenans $250,000 to buy the compound - Butler's sole asset - from a U.S. Bankruptcy Court auction. The $95,000 cash the Keenans needed to complete the purchase was lent to them by the SPLC. Butler, who founded the Aryan Nations 30 years ago, was in the small room with the Keenans as the sale was completed Tuesday. The two sides did not speak or look at each other. "If he was a true Christian, it seems to me he would apologize to us," Victoria said afterward. Two of the guards who attacked the Keenans were convicted of aggravated assault and sent to prison, while the third was never caught. One of the guards has already been released; another soon will be. "It makes me nervous and scared," Victoria said. "But there are enough people on our side." Butler, who moved to northern Idaho from California in 1973 to found his sect, has vowed to keep preaching from a house in nearby Hayden purchased for him by a wealthy supporter. He has announced an unprecedented series of public events this year, including marches in Coeur d'Alene and two other towns. His annual Aryan World Congress, which used to draw more than 100 neo-Nazis to Butler's compound, will be held instead at a park nearby. Victoria Keenan said it is time for others in northern Idaho to stand up to the Aryans. "It's up to Coeur d'Alene and Sandpoint and everybody to make that stand," she said. "Don't be afraid." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS ON THE RELIGIOUS TAX: 'Religion Tax' Office Opens As Fringe Groups Poised to Demand Cash AA News 20 Feb 01 As President George W. Bush's White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives opened today, reports proliferated that fringe religious sects including those affiliated with cultist Rev. Sun Myung Moon and a project run by the Church of Scientology will apply for public funds in order to operate social services. The story leads the afternoon banner on the Drudge Report, and follows reports earlier in the day from the New York Times and the St. Petersburg Times. Scientology will reportedly be asking the White House for cash to fund its drug rehab programs and a literacy outreach. Last week, in covering the marital split between actor John Travolta, a high profile Scientology member and wife Nicole Kidman, we mentioned a church-sponsored program known as Applied Scholastics. The outreach incorporates the teachings of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. We added that the church-linked magazine "Freedom" ran a photograph of President George H. Bush and wife Barbara at the President's Summit for America's Future flanked by Travolta and Church of Scientology International executive Karen Hollander. Bush created his new White Office by Executive Order, and denied that it would either promote religion in general, or one denominational creed over another. "We welcome all religion," said Mr. Bush. "We do not impose any religion." While the Bush plan is aimed at mainstream denominations, many of which already receiving government grants and other public funding, the possibility that less popular, even extremist sects may demand equal access for their faith-based programs is now emerging as a real possibility -- and a vexing problem. During the presidential campaign, George W. Bush was queried by the New York Times over his faith-based partnership program, and whether, for instance, he would approve of public funding for a Church of Scientology drug rehab outreach. "I have a problem with the teachings of Scientology being viewed on the same par as Judaism or Christianity," Bush replied. "That just happens to be a personal point of view. But I am interested in results. I am not focused on the process." Another potential suitor for the White House office could be the church operated by Korean cult evangelist Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Moon has been active on the religious right for nearly two decades. A 1977 congressional investigation tied Moon's Unification Church to the "Koreagate" scandal which involved influence buying within the U.S. government. It also revealed that following the 1961 coup, the Korean Central Intelligence Agency began subsidizing the Moon organization to "organize and utilize" the resources of the Unification Church in the U.S. "Moonies" landed key jobs in Washington, DC think-tanks, and in congressional offices. Moon and his satellite fronts were also involved with key religious right projects such as the World Anti-Communist League, and the Korean preacher worked closely with conservative leaders like direct mail wizard Richard Viguerie. Now, Moon and his church -- re-christened the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification USA -- are reportedly making preparations to obtain funding to promote abstinence programs in schools. Stories in both the New York and St. Petersburg papers also note that the Hare Krishna sect has already received "millions of dollars in government contracts" to operate homeless shelters and halfway houses for parolees over the last twenty years. The participation by these non-mainstream religious groups could raise problems for the new White Office, and its director John DiIulio. The administration has gone to considerable lengths to assemble a coalition of ecumenical groups, and welcomed Jewish, Christian and Islamic leaders into photo opportunities with Mr. Bush to convey a "picture of strength and diversity." How far will the warm and fuzzy glow of religious cooperation really go? Already, there are reports of conflict, and potential problems. On February 12, representatives from the Anti-Defamation League met with faith-based funding czar John DiIulio, and were reportedly told that the White House would not be providing grants the Nation of Islam, which has a variety of potential outreaches hungry for subsidies, including a security service which has won contracts for guarding Chicago housing projects. The ADL has been at odds with NOI head Louis Farrakhan, and considers the black Islamic sect to be anti-Semitic. During his presidential campaign, Bush also expressed doubts concerning the Nation of Islam, saying "I don't see how we can allow public dollars to fund programs where spite and hate is the core of the message." * Evidence continues to emerge that some religious groups have every intention of stepping up their proselytizing efforts, and blending their doctrinal message into faith-based social programs as the Bush funding pours in. Times reporter Laurie Goodstein described a halfway house operated in Philadelphia, Pa. by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, where there appears to be a minimal religious presence. David D. Dobson, executive director for the group's programs in the area, noted "Being a Krishna organization, in the early days there was a lot of prejudice and there was pressure to tone down anything religious. We certainly put in the closet a lot of our religious philosophy." A house supervisor described the program as "totally secular," and contrasted it with a Salvation Army program which also took public funds, "There were chapel services every Sunday," he said, noting that residents were required to attend devotions and Bible study daily. "They were trying to get you back to God." One might ask where any controls and oversight were on the Salvation Army at the time. Dobson told the paper, though, that thanks to the new White House funding initiative, he "expects to add Krishna spirituality to his programs" by hiring clergy and "teaching about the history of non-Western religions." Dobson added: "We're not just here to educate and feed people, we see people as spirit souls. Our goal is to help them spiritually develop." * Strangely, groups that are already at the public trough but operate what are described as "secular" programs are raising concerns over the Bush faith-based initiative. "Lutheran, Catholic and Jewish groups are raising concerns about potential religious discrimination and coercion, echoing arguments from civil libertarian quarters," notes a dispatch on the afternoon Associated Press wire. One example is the "thicket of questions that we look forward to discussing," according to Diana Avi, vice president for public policy for United Jewish Communities. Joanne Negstad, president of Lutheran Services -- a nationwide umbrella for 280 groups -- voiced concerns about religious discrimination in both hiring and services. "That really bothers us," she told AP. * Religious and political groups, even the news media, still reflect confusion over the whole issue of government aid to faith groups. For decades, public money has been pouring in to the coffers of denominations which operate a wide range of social services. Groups with religious affiliation have largely circumvented legal problems, though, by establishing spin-off, non-profit corporate entities; minimizing or eliminating an explicit religious message; adhering to anti-discrimination statutes in issues of hiring; and, at least on the surface, have avoided using religion as a litmus test for eligibility for those wishing to receive help. The 1996 welfare reform act provision sponsored by then-Missouri Senator John Ashcroft began undermining those few facile protections governing religious groups that received government funding. The measure made it easier for churches and other faith-based organizations to compete in obtaining public money in order to operate social programs without having to compromise or diminish their "religious character." * Many religious social programs such as Catholic Charities are already married to the public treasury. According to Independent Sector, a coalition of non-profit and philanthropic groups, nearly 90 percent of the nation's 353,000 churches, synagogues and mosques already operate "community programs" of some sort. Most are on a modest scale, and only about 1% receive government funding. That could change, especially if the Bush initiate proves too tempting, and enforcement of any funding violations is lax. In defending his program, Bush has said that the money could not be used for overt religious worshipping or proselytizing, those seeking help could not be turned away for religious reasons and that "secular alternatives" must be available. Critics charge that enforcement of existing anti-discrimination policies is already lax, and that current funding promotes religion. They also point out that many of the faith-based groups the Bush initiative is targeting see their social service outreach as a religious, not secular mission. "Our primary purpose is evangelizing to win souls," says Dan Taylor of the Union Rescue Mission in Cumberland, Maryland. All residents of the shelter must attend evening worship services. "The charitable things we do are like an aside," adds Taylor. "We not only meet their physical needs, we meet their spiritual needs. How you could separate one from other I don't really know." The pressure is more subtle at a Roman Catholic parish outreach in the Philadelphia suburb of Wynnewood. There, Rev. Edward Rix says that he does not see any problem in separating the social and religious activities of his church. Referring to a clothing drive for the needy, Rix declared: "It's a service, but it's also a way of letting people know that our church is here. If they want to come and worship with us, they are invited." Attitudes about the faith-based initiative may change, though, as Scientologists, Moonies and others on the fringes of the American religious landscape step up to the treasury window. Think "faith-based," and most Americans still conjure an image of a mainstream denomination helping the homeless by handing out sandwiches, or providing a bunk bed on a cold night. In fact, many religious outreaches pressure the needy to conform to a religious doctrine. What happens when other, less popular sects become involved? "One of the big issues that people haven't talked about much is that some very controversial religions could get active in this," warns Philip Jenkins, the author of "Mystics and Messiahs: Cults and New Religions in American History." "Running a faith-based program raises the question, what faiths are out of bounds?" Jenkins declared. "Either you fund all faith groups, even groups you radically don't like, or you fund none... How do you distinguish between a Methodist and a Moonie? The answer is, you can't." - - - - - ACLU Says Bush Initiative Represents Faith-Based Prescription for Discrimination ACLU 29 Jan 01 WASHINGTON D.C. -- The American Civil Liberties Union today said that President George Bush's new initiative to give tax dollars to religious organizations would lead to government-funded discrimination in employment and services and a dangerous loosening of licensing and standards for providers of social services. "This new Bush initiative represents a faith-based prescription for discrimination," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington National Office. "What the President is proposing today will open the Bob Jones Universities of the world to receiving federal funds without any civil rights safeguards." The ACLU and others, including the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, say that the Bush faith-based initiative would both violate the separation of church and state and allow taxpayer funds to be used in several discriminatory ways. The initiative would allow for taxpayer-funded discrimination in: **Employment. Because religious organizations are exempt from many civil rights laws, they are allowed to discriminate on the basis of their religious beliefs and teachings about race, religion, sexual orientation, gender and pregnancy status. Under the Bush initiative, for example, a Catholic church receiving public funds for literacy programs could fire a teacher for getting pregnant outside of marriage or an Orthodox Jewish synagogue that operated a food bank could refuse to hire non-Jews or women. **Provision of Services. Under the Bush initiative, there are no restrictions on how religious organizations incorporate their beliefs in the delivery of social services. These groups would be allowed to decide who gets priority for services and what services are actually provided. The ACLU believes that the lack of protections could lead to discrimination against those who most need help. A Baptist church that is running a local housing program could, for example, give preference to low-income people in their own congregation. The ACLU also said that the Bush initiative would not require that religious organizations hire trained and licensed counselors and therapists to deliver social services. In Texas, where then-Governor Bush implemented many elements of his new federal program, a church-based drug rehabilitation program argued that drug addiction was a sin, not a disease, and offered prayer and Bible reading as "treatment." "Priests, ministers and rabbis are the best people to offer spiritual guidance that can be helpful to people in need," Murphy said. "But many individuals faced with drug addiction, mental illness and other problems need more than spiritual advice. They need people who are trained and licensed to address their specific physical and psychological needs." * * * * * In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. __________________________________________________________________________ FASCISM: We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget. (No permission required for noncommercial reproduction) - - - - - back issues archived via: <ftp://ftp.nyct.net/pub/users/tallpaul/publish/tinaf/> _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list