Letter to the editor

Outrage should be directed at the true human rights
violators

It is noble of Noor Hashem to point out that human rights in our
own country are being trampled in her column “Paranoia is
getting out of hand” (Dec. 6). It is wrong that U.S. citizens
are being treated as criminals in their own country, or being
shipped off to prison without being allowed to exercise the rights
to which every human being should be entitled.

But there is something hypocritical about painting, in the same
article, a rosy picture of organizations that allegedly support
terrorist organizations, be it monetarily or symbolically, when
these organizations have no other aim than to deprive others of
their human rights. Where is it put forward to Hamas to stop
depriving Israelis and Palestinians of their inalienable
rights?

While Hashem characterizes Islamic charities and organizations
as the victims of a paranoid government, never examined is the idea
that these charities and groups acted wrongly. With all the weight
the article places on human rights, I was surprised to see little
condemnation of charities that fund organizations that rarely fall
in line with the U.N. charter. Human rights seem to be the last
thing that organizations like Hamas, allegedly funded in part by
American Islamic charities, concern themselves with.

If I discovered that there was a remote possibility that money
donated to a charity was being used to purchase weapons or train
fighters, I would cease support for that organization immediately,
since I am opposed to the idea of a charity funding violence.

Likewise, if it were clear that an armband represented, among
other things, solidarity with a violent terrorist organization, I
would not wear that armband. It would be difficult to argue for
human rights while wearing an armband representing a group whose
primary aim is to deprive another group of their rights.

Claiming it is “paranoia” that makes the U.S.
government freeze assets and “overreact” to charities
that may be funding a group whose objective is the destruction of
Israel and the United States is indicative of a greater problem: It
isn’t paranoia if they want to destroy you.

Jonathan Cannon Fifth-year philosophy
student