Chicago takes a stand against Islamic terrorism and slavery in Africa The effort to bring the matter to a major American city was led by a coalition of human rights and abolitionist groups.Charles Jacobs Ben Poser
https://www.jns.org/chicago-takes-a-stand-against-islamic-terrorism-and-slavery-in-africa/
Charles Jacobs is president of the African Jewish Alliance and recipient of the Boston Freedom Award from Coretta Scott King for helping to liberate black jihad slaves in Sudan.
Ben Poser is executive editor of White Rose Magazine and research director for the African Jewish Alliance.
Less than a week after 70 Christians were beheaded by terrorists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Chicago City Council resolved, on Feb. 19, to stand with the African victims of Islamic terrorism and modern-day slavery. It is the first American polity to take such a stand.
The effort to bring the matter of jihad massacre and the enslavement of blacks to a major American city was led by a coalition of human rights and abolitionist groups: our African Jewish Alliance, the International Committee on Nigeria (ICON), the Simon Wiesenthal Center, StandWithUs and the Abolition Institute.
Chicago City Alderperson Raymond A. López (D-Ward 5) was the driving force behind a groundbreaking condemnatory resolution against jihad and slavery in Africa. He eloquently promoted it among his colleagues and persuaded 41 of the other alderpersons, out of 50 members, to sign on.
The resolution’s final, adopted text expressed the Chicago City Council’s denunciation of the “ongoing enslavement of Africans within some Arab states by radical terrorist organizations,” calling it a “violation of international humanitarian law and a crime against humanity.” It included a statement calling for America’s third most populous city to “stand in solidarity with all victims of slavery including the people of Sudan, South Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania, who have endured centuries of oppression and enslavement.”
The day before the full city council vote, African eyewitnesses testified before the Committee on Health and Human Relations. The presentations were raw and emotional.
Stephen Enada, director of ICON, the leading Nigerian American organization in the United States, described how terror has spread throughout much of his country. “Nigeria may be the worst place on Earth to be a Christian, yet the world remains mostly silent,” he said after his testimony.
Simon Deng, who was enslaved as a 9-year-old child during one of Sudan’s genocidal jihads, shook as he described his life under his Arab master.
Also testifying was Gloria Puldu, head of the LEAH Foundation, which champions the case of Leah Sharibu, a Nigerian Christian woman who, exactly seven years to the day of the vote, is a captive of Boko Haram jihadists for refusing to convert to Islam. Puldu held up a picture of Sharibu (like the posters of Israeli hostages) and begged the committee members to demand her return.
Chukwuemeka Offor of the American Veterans of Igbo Descent and Reverend Zamani Kafang, both from Nigeria, detailed the vicious assaults against their people.
Two African Muslims also testified: Hacen El Khair from Mauritania, where around 149,000 of its black underclass (4.6% of the total population) are still owned as chattel slaves, and Daowd Salih, a Muslim from Darfur, who explained that his African tribal people are being slaughtered and enslaved, mostly for racist reasons.
The African Jewish Alliance was formed one year ago when ICON’s Enada asked me (Charles Jacobs), in light of my past helping to liberate slaves in Sudan, to help today’s victims of an Islamic jihad that has spread to his country.
The issue of jihad slavery in Nigeria came to national attention in 2014, when, in response to Boko Haram’s abduction of 276 Christian schoolgirls from the village of Chibok, Michelle Obama called on Americans to act with her endorsement of the #BringBackOurGirls Twitter campaign.
Ironically, it was the proud Chicago native and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan who decades ago was caught denying that slavery existed in Sudan. Since then, jihad violence has spread, and villages of Christian and un-Arabized Muslims are regularly plagued by constant attacks in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and in Darfur, Sudan.
It was the determined effort of López and the testimony of the Africans, whose people back home cry out for help and justice, that won the day.
After the vote, López said, “These ongoing African atrocities have been called a ‘silent genocide’ because they have been ignored and under-reported in the Western media. Today, we in Chicago, are proud to have broken a shameful silence.”
The African Jewish Alliance views this as a watershed victory: For one thing, it gives authentic human rights advocates hope that a city as “progressive” as Chicago would condemn Islamic holy war. It also shows that a coalition of highly motivated activists can convince even the most unlikely of audiences to so impressively support their cause.
Given this success, we are seeking to spread the resolution to other cities and states.
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