Despite the pouring rain, over 300 concerned citizens, representing a diverse group of political, religious, ethnic, and racial groups, convened in New York City's Times Square on Sunday, May 3, to attend a rally sponsored by the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam. The HRCARI is a grassroots global action movement dedicated to educating people of all backgrounds to the inherent dangers of the burgeoning radical Islamic movement and mobilizing them to support freedom, democracy, and tolerance.

Among the multitude of organizations represented at the rally were the Jewish Action Alliance, the Hindu Human Rights Watch, ACT for America, Muslims Against Sharia, the Alliance of Iranian Women, the Indian American Intellectuals Forum, the 9/11 Families for a Secure America, the Chinese Community Relations Council, the Namdhari Sikh Foundation, the American Coptic Union, AMCHA--Coalition for Jewish Concerns, and Americans for Peace and Tolerance.

"We must stand up to the evil that radical Islam represents," declared Pastor Gerald Bell, a Southern Baptist minister who had traveled to the Sudan to rescue African slaves from their Muslim captors. "The barbarism that I personally witnessed was simply indescribable, and I tell you that amongst radical Islamists nobody is safe. Their agenda is to enslave, rape, kidnap, and murder Christians, Jews, Hindus, Sikhs, and anyone who does not subscribe to their baneful credo."

Arish Sahani of the Indian American Intellectuals Forum enlightened the attendees to the heinous and systematic slaughter of Hindus throughout Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Quoting from a report issued by the Hindu American Foundation that was endorsed by members of the U.S. Congress and Senate, he said, "For the last 18 years over 300,000 Hindus have been living in squalid camps because in one area of India where Hindus are a minority, namely the Kashmir valley, they were driven out by radical Islamists who used rape, murder, and intimidation against them. In the year 1947, in what is now Bangladesh, Hindus comprised 30 percent of the population. Today they are less than 10 percent of the population because of the heinous acts of mass murder perpetrated against them by radical Islamists."

"We all know that Israel has been on the front lines of encroaching Jihadism for decades," said Beth Gilinsky of the Jewish Action Alliance. "Radical Islam, Islamic supremacy, Sharia law, jihadism--call it what you will--but we all know what it is about: the killing of 'infidels' and 'apostates,' the slaughter of innocents because of their faith, their political beliefs, or just because of who they are." She lambasted both the mainstream media and purported human-rights organizations such as the United Nations that have failed to cover and address the brutality of radical Islam. "We also must know that the mainstream media have been AWOL and Dead on Arrival when it comes to covering this issue. This is the scoop of the century, and the media has ignored it," she declared.

Among the victims of radical Islamic violence, according to Gilinsky, are the Jews of Europe and elsewhere; Sudanese Christians and Sudanese of indigenous religions; Lebanese Christians; the persecuted Coptic Christians of Egypt; and Christians, Jews, Hindus, and others living in the Arab and Muslim world, or in Europe or elsewhere.

Shlomi Azulay, an Israeli survivor of a Hamas suicide bombing attack in downtown Jerusalem in 2002, also took the podium at the rally. Having barely escaped with his life at the time, Azulay now says, "There is not a day or night that goes by that I don't have flashbacks and nightmares of that horrific evening. I watched my friend be blown to smithereens. I saw body parts flying around," he said with tears in his eyes. "The terrorists of Hamas must not be appeased by the U.S. government or the powers-that-be in Israel. We must call upon our governments to assume a flinty posture in their regard and to not provide support to them, either financially or politically. The day that the U.S. recognizes and deals with Hamas will be the day that we surrender in the war on terror," he said.

Phyllis Chesler, professor emerita of psychology and women's studies at CUNY and a Jewish Press op-ed contributor, could not attend the rally but offered these remarks concerning Islamic gender apartheid through a spokesperson: "Muslim women are being buried alive (literally, not merely under face and body veils) in Algeria, in Pakistan, and under Taliban and al-Qaeda rule. Muslim women are being sexually stalked by 'wilding' parties in Egypt and Algeria, and gang-raped and then lashed almost to death in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Algeria. They are being normatively beaten at home all over the Muslim world--in such places as Gaza and the West Bank as well as in Jordan and Egypt--and normatively killed in honor/dishonor killings."

Also speaking at the rally were Michael W. Cutler of the Center For Immigration Studies, a Washington-based think tank. Mr. Cutler was an INS special agent for over 30 years and has testified before 14 congressional hearings since 9/11 on the dangers of allowing Islamists to enter the U.S. Bruce DeCell, a former New York City police officer representing the 9/11 Families organization, spoke of the loss on 9/11 of his son Greg, also a New York City police officer. Other speakers were Tawfik Hamid, Simon Deng, Joy Brighton, Bhupinder Singh Bhurji, and Rajinder Singh Khalsa of the Sikh movement.

By Fern Sidman
www.5tjt.com