Civil Rights

National Babar Ahmad Day – Let’s Get Justice!

Published

October 28, 2011

A British man has been held in prison for SEVEN YEARS without a trial to prove his guilt. Not in a secret prison in a far away land ruled by an oppressive dictator: right here, in merry old, democratic, rule of law, innocent till proven guilty, England. It doesn’t matter your religion, or skin colour: if you believe in due process, you will sign this petition. Simple as.

Who is Babar Ahmad?

Babar Ahmad is a British Citizen who has been detained in the UK for 7 years without trial fighting extradition to the USA under the controversial no-evidence-required Extradition Act 2003.

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He was arrested on unfounded terrorism charges and subsequently released with no evidence to support the claims at all. He was then re-arrested on extradition orders from the USA.

In June 2011, the Houses of Parliament, Joint Committee on Human Rights urged the UK government to change the law so that Babar Ahmad’s perpetual threat of extradition is ended without further delay. Since all of the allegations against Babar Ahmad are said to have taken place in the UK, we call upon the British Government to put him on trial in the UK and support British Justice for British Citizens.

A time line chronicling his case can be found here.

Why should I sign it?

This is an official government e-petition (read more about them here): we need 100,000 signatures and the petition will debated in British Parliament. It’s not one those flaky e-petitions we’ve been asked to sign a million times before for countless causes… this one can make a difference, insha’Allah, so please do not ignore it!

Further, your signature will not be publicised on search engines – so your boss will never find out (but why that should worry you is another matter entirely).

But I can’t help everyone…

…but it will only take two minutes to go online, sign the petition with your email address and click on the confirmation link sent to your email in-box.

What happens if I don’t sign it?

If he is extradited to America, Babar will be detained in solitary confinement in a supermax prison…for life.

Secondly, this is our brother in Islam and it is our duty as an Ummah to help him in whatever way we can. This is a very small act which could have a huge impact on his life and on his family.

In a hadith narrated by ibn Umar (radiAllahu ‘anha), the Prophet (salallahu ‘alayhi wasallam) said “A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim”.

Babar is our brother. If it was your dad, your brother or your son, you would want people to sign the petition for a fair trial…so why not for Babar?

For the non-Brits, unfortunately, only UK citizens can sign, but your prayers are needed, and I am sure you have some British friends and relatives knocking about that you can encourage.

PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/885

You can learn more about Babar Ahmad here.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YusA6iPxEfY&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]

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8 Comments

Yasmin

October 28, 2011 at 2:57 PM

Jazakallah khair for introducing the tragic story of brother Babar Ahmad to those of us who have never heard it before. Inshallah I’ll keep him in my duas since I’m not a British citizen so I can’t sign it!

Reply
Abu Nusaybah

October 28, 2011 at 3:10 PM

You don’t gave to be British to sign, you just have to vbe living in the UK.

Reply
MR

October 28, 2011 at 3:11 PM

Their campaign needs to make more connections with other grass roots organizations not just Muslims and Muslim ones. If they really want to help him they need to reach out to non-Muslim organizations. In America, it is organizations like the ACLU and other non-Muslim organizations that help organizations like CAIR assist American Muslims that are denied their rights.

Is there an ACLU in the UK? Maybe the Babar Ahmed campaign should reach out to similar organizations. Focusing on Muslims is good an ideal, but realistically the guy that didn’t want to sign it has a lot of valid points. Muslims are scared to be associated with anyone who is linked to any type of extremism or terrorism charges. It’s unfortunate but a sad reality.

I pray to Allah that he brings justice in this case. Ameen!

Reply
- Umer Siddique
  
  October 28, 2011 at 3:50 PM
  
  The organisers already have alhamdulillah. Many prominent civil rights campaigners, journalists, writers and even Hollywood actors have been supporting him for the past 7 years and during the campaign.
  
  But they are only a faction of Brits.
  
  As for the Muslims, how many do you think of the odd 50k have been Muslims? My guess is around 40k. 100,000 Muslims in the UK easily know about Babar Ahmad, but many are umming and arring about whether to risk their cushty lives by sacrificing two minutes of their time in front of a PC.
  
  May Allah make the campaign a success and may He put the love of the ummah back into us all.
  
  Reply
  - MR
    
    October 28, 2011 at 5:32 PM
    
    Are there media showing the celberities, prominnent figures and other moves and shakers of the UK supporting this petition?
    
    Edit: Like this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15351357 <- This is something good. InshaAllah more articles that discuss the case, the legality and the petition. MashaAllah.
    
    Reply
victoria

October 28, 2011 at 3:53 PM

Assalamu alaikum,
both me and my husband have signed but they do not have a lot of signatures and the petition ends soon. I hope this will reach more people and they will get more signatures but i fear the worst. nevertheless, of course the brother is in all of our duas, and we ask Allah to help him and deliver him from injustice and oppression, ameen.

Reply
Sister

November 2, 2011 at 5:00 AM

Alhamdulillah this is the first post I actually appreciate from Muslim Matters and agree with. It is the duty for the Muslims to free every prisoner. Jazakumullahu khairan for all those who signed.

Reply
Umm Sulaim

November 2, 2011 at 6:17 AM

Muslims are among those who call other Muslims terrorists and extremists.

Up until five years ago, I used to send letters to detained brothers in the UK and elsewhere. I resumed that when I first read this post with a letter to Babar Ahmad. As usual, I included my full name, cell phone number, mailing address, email address, twitter and facebook accounts.

I do not prevent governments from penalizing my brothers, but they CAN NOT STOP ME FROM INTERACTING WITH MY OWN PEOPLE.

Umm Sulaim

Reply