Today, a courageous Gambian student with a strong humanist predisposition, Momodou Taal is suing the fascists and homophobes in Washington DC led by Pres. Trump and his Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and her Department in a New York Court. Taal with a fellow student and their professor are challenging the constitutionality of Trump’s executive orders which are weapons being used to arrest, detain and deport foreign students and professors who stand with Palestine against the genocidal regime in Tel Aviv.
Already one such student, Mahmoud Khalil is under illegal detention facing the risk of deportation. Some professors have already been deported, while Trump has cut federal funding to some universities where students led protests against Israel’s gross human rights violations including genocide in Gaza which are being aided and abetted by the US Government itself.
These executive orders are autocratic tools which, if not challenged and dismantled do not only threaten the lives of innocent students and professors but also, quite seriously, destroy freedom of expression and assembly as well as academic freedom. The right to free speech including academic freedom and freedom of assembly is guaranteed by the US Constitution in its First Amendment. This right is so protected that no person, authority or institution has the power to deny, restrict or otherwise stifle it in any way. But this is what the Trump fascist regime is precisely hellbent on doing.
Momodou Taal and his colleagues are on the right side of history in defending fundamental rights and freedoms. All peoples of the world, especially human rights organisations, universities, and the United Nations and other bodies, must wake up to the emerging dictatorship in Washington DC. Just as these organisations would condemn the dictators in Africa, similarly the dictators in Washington DC should not be spared. Ignoring the Washington DC Autocracy would only validate the claim of double standards and hypocrisy.
Since assuming office, Donald Trump has assembled a team of unelected oligarchs, fascists, homophobes and racists into the White House to launch an unprecedented onslaught against democracy and human rights in total disregard of both the US Constitution and established international laws and orders. The world cannot afford one more dictatorship especially from a powerful country like the United States of America. It is indeed concerning and disappointing that American politicians under both the Democratic and Republican parties have drifted away from the principles, ideals and vision of their founding fathers.
The founding founders of the US envisaged a democratic republic founded on the principles and standards of human rights and the rule of law. They crafted the US Government as an institution that embraces democracy and good governance principles as its modus operandi. It is indeed disappointing that subsequent US leaders from both parties have instead turned both the US Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution on their head. Instead of upholding the US as a beacon of freedom and democracy, sadly they have made the US Government into a purveyor of injustice, violence and violations at home and abroad. They must be stopped. ASAP.
Forward with Momodou Tall, Mukoma wa Ngugi and Sriram Parasurama.
Madi Jobarteh
Kembujeh
