Dear Friends,
Salaam and Peace.
I would like to thank each one of you for the efforts and assistance in our attempts to seek Shaikh Safdar Razi’s release from detention.
Your support and passionate response to his plight is a measure of the love and respect you hold for him.
Tomorrow, May 2, Shaikh Safdar will have been detained for one full month. A month where a justice and freedom loving person,
like Shaikh Safdar, is yet to receive justice and freedom. A month when his wife and three children have missed him coming home.
A month when the eager congregation at the IILM center continues to miss his sermons and guidance. A month when his friends
from different faiths have missed his affable and understanding company. A month of wasted talent, captive in a detention center
in Heskell, when our nation could use more clerics like Safdar Razi.
Like many of us, Shaikh Safdar came to this great land with a promise of “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. But in the past
month, his life is devoid of liberty and happiness. Yet, when I saw him at Heskell 10 days ago, his spirit was unbroken and his faith
stronger than ever. His prime concern was for his family.
All of us who have been touched by him, continue to work relentlessly for his release. We have left no stone unturned, no door
un-knocked and no channel unused to find out why? why? why?
Regrettably, there is a deafening silence from the authorities who hold him, as to the real reason for his detention. My recent visit
to present his case to the authorities in Washington DC has elicited no response – yet.
What next is a question we all need to ask. Surely, we can not allow another 30 days to go by, as we continue to seek the answer
to the question why is such a positive, civically engaged and well meaning cleric being held so? What has he done to deserve this treatment?
I urge you all to redouble your efforts to bring his plight to the highest office of the great State of Texas as well as the highest office of the Nation
to seek an early resolution to his plight. Please feel free to contact the undersigned if you need to have further information or have any further suggestions
to help the campaign for Shaikh Safdar’s release.
Sincerely,
Hasnain Walji, Ph.D.
Director of Religious affairs
Institute of Islamic Learning in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
(ILM)