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By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
The American Muslim Voice, a leading community building and civil rights group, held its fourth annual peace convention on December 9, 2007 at the Chandni Restaurant in Newark , California . The convention was held under the theme: Assimilation and integration, how about a new inclusive nation?
Rabea Chaudhry, Adeel Iqbal and Mohammad Saqib Ocean were Master of Ceremony. Master Omar Raza did a fantastic job performing and explaining the Muslim call to Maghrib (sunset) prayer to our fellow Americans.
Congressmen Mike Honda and Pete Stark sent special messages commending the  AMV’s efforts to promote the acceptance of diversity in communities across the United States .
Five year old Faisal Tanveer inaugurated the convention with the recitation of the Holy Quran. It was a moment of great spiritual experience to watch a little “angel” performing a sacred duty with all his innocence and sincerity. His recitation captivated the audience.
Khalid Saeed, National President of AMV, welcomed the guests on behalf of the organization. He also presented a report card of the organization. Mr.Saeed said that the AMV believes in diversity and strives to create a culture of peace, acceptance, mutual respect and harmony. He pointed out that the best example of AMV’s community building effort can be seen in our today’s event which has attracted people from various religious and ethnic backgrounds and civil rights groups. In his view this was the best example of community building in action.
Milpitas Mayor, Jose Esteves and Santa Clara County Supervisor, Pete McHugh shared their thoughts on diversity and protection of civil rights for all.
Milpitas Mayor said every citizen enjoys equal right in his town. He said that “we respect everybody regardless what your religion or ethnic background is.”
Santa Clara County Supervisor, Pete McHugh  said that we have to stand up to protect the rights of all people. Santa Clara County is recognized as one of the most culturally diverse counties in the nation and is a leader in protecting everyone’s rights.
“This is a wonderful country and if we will not accept diversity and live in harmony then it will not happen anywhere in the world.” In 2007 Pete McHugh recognized AMV’s leading role in building an inclusive community and honored AMV with “Unity in Diversity award.
The convention was divided in two sessions. The first session was titled “Fighting for the American Constitution.” Peace mom, Cindy Sheehan was the opening speaker.
Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan was welcomed with a standing ovation. Ms. Sheehan said events, coalition building and groups like the American Muslim Voice are very important to her, because they allow her "to tear down the boundaries whether they are real or fake. These boundaries prevent us from having true and authentic relationships with each other."
In April 2004, Sheehan's son was killed in Iraq . She has protested and expressed her disgust about the U.S. 's involvement in the war and with government officials. "We elect our representatives to protect our rights and not to take them away from us," she said. 
"We have to stand up for the people that do not have voices. Ignorance is a wall and we break down the walls to build bridges with each other." Sheehan added that changing the way people think about each other is a way of improving relations among different people in the world.
Sheehan said that we are occupying Iraq , we were not invited by them. "This occupation of Arab-Muslim land shows how racist we really are," she said. "If we can justify it by saying it's OK to kill a million Iraqis, but at least my family is safe. ... No, that is not OK!"
About the collaboration of Pelosi with the Bush administration, Sheehan said that since 2002 Pelosi knew about water boarding torture. “Even before becoming Speaker of the House of Representative, she said that impeachment of Bush is out of question because then she would be impeached for knowing about torture which dehumanize us all, she added.
Interestingly, Washington Post reported last week that in September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrat Rep. Jane Harman, was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Sheehan lauded the work of American Muslim Voice in educating the people about their civil rights. Particularly, she praised the community building efforts of AMV Executive Director, Samina Faheem Sundas, who had joined Sheehan in Mother’s Day peace rally outside White House in May 2006.
Neal Katyal
Abdus Sattar Ghazali, author and journalist, introduced the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld famed lawyer Neal Kumar Katyal who was the keynote speaker of the first session. He is the Georgetown University Professor of Law and victorious lead counsel in the Supreme Court case Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, which held that military commissions set up by the Bush administration to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay .
Katyal related hardships in visiting his client Salim Ahmed Hamdan in Guantanamo Prison as the government was telling him that he doesn’t need to meet Hamdan personally to file a brief for him. “When I told the government to give this in writing the stance was changed and I received a call that I can visit him,” Katyal said.
In April, 2004, Hamdan, a Yemeni national, who was captured in Afghanistan , filed a petition for habeas corpus to challenge his confinement in the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base. Hamdan, who admits that he served as Osama bin Laden's personal driver, has been charged with several counts of terrorism and was designated for trial before a military commission. The petition had been filed on Hamdan’s behalf by Neal Katyal of Georgetown University Law Center and Lt. Commander Charles Swift of the U.S. Navy, an alumnus of the Seattle University School of Law. The case was argued before the Court on May 28, 2006. 
On June 29, 2006, the Court issued a 5-3 decision holding that it had jurisdiction, that the federal government did not have the authority to establish special military commissions, and that the special military commissions were illegal under both the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the Geneva Convention.
Legal experts consider the Hamdan case as the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law. This ruling could prove to have several long-term implications: first, other detainees being held at various facilities may use this ruling to challenge their treatment. Second, the decision may prove to have implications for other disputes relating to the extent of executive power.
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld was described as the decision of the year by Laurie Levenson, professor of criminal law and procedure ethics and evidence at Loyola University , and Thomson West author of Federal Criminal Rules Handbook.
“Hamdan is simply the most important decision on presidential power and the rule of law ever. Ever,” according to former Solicitor General and Duke Law professor Walter Dellinger.
Not surprisingly, Katyal was named Lawyer of the Year in 2006 by the Lawyers USA Magazine. He was named one of the top 500 lawyers in the country by the Law Dragon Magazine in 2006 and again in 2007. And this year the American Lawyer Magazine listed him among the top 50 young litigators in the nation.
Katyal, who was commissioned by President Clinton to write a report on the need for more legal pro bono work, he accumulated nearly US$40,000 of personal debt for travel and other expenses while working on Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. He is well-known for his pro-bono work and was awarded the 2004 Pro Bono Award by the National Law Journal.
Katyal pointed out that Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision challenges law schools, courts, the President, and Congress to rethink their practices of the past several years.
He believes that in its decision, the Supreme Court said something profound about America . “A man with a fourth grade education from Yemen, accused of conspiring with one of the world’s most evil men, sued the most powerful man in the nation, if not the world, took his case to the highest court in the land, and won.”
“The Court’s profound commitment to the rule of law is a beacon for other countries around the world. In no other country would such a thing be possible,” he added.
Neal Katyal commended the concern of American Muslim Voice on the erosion of constitutional and civil rights of all Americans.
Continued on page II
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