JUDICIAL EQUALITY FOUNDATION, INCORPORATED
HISTORY AND PROPOSAL SUMMARY
March 28, 2006
Our History
On August 2, 1993, after twenty years of expungement of juvenile arrest records in Illinois and Pennsylvania, William S, Scott, with a group of other concerned citizens, formed Winners Win Foundation, Incorporated, a Florida not-for-profit corporation (“Winners”) to provide similar services to young people in Florida.
On September 11, 2001, we began to work to eliminate terror committed in the name of religion. We applied the methods used to correct the poor judgment that leads to juvenile crime to analyze the causes of religious motivated violence. We found that unscrupulous leaders of organized religions engage in practices that are detrimental to their members and innocent third parties. Religious indoctrination usually begins at a young age. Young minds can be corrupted to commit abuse. We further found that religious abuses often enjoy protection by the law. For example, religious exceptions permit parents in some states to refuse medical attention for their children and allow children to be taken out of school after the eighth grade.
On July 22, 2004, The 9/11 Commission issued a report of the United States Government’s official position of the cause and how to prevent a recurrence of the 9/11 attacks. Our independent study of the Commission’s findings concluded that the Commission failed to list the abhorrent religious beliefs that formed the basis of the indoctrination of the attackers or to identify corrective measures that would eliminate religious based terror.
On November 2, 2004, controversial filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, born July 23, 1957, in The Hague, Netherlands, was shot in a busy street in East Amsterdam by Mohammed Bouyeri, born on March 8, 1978 in West Amsterdam, Netherlands. Because Theo survived the gunshots, Bouyeri used a knife to brutally slit Theo’s throat. Bouyeri pinned a pre-written note to Theo’s body to say that the murder was in retaliation for a Theo’s release of a fictional film in August, 2004, titled “Submission” about an Islamic woman who was beaten and sexually abused.
Bouyeri, like many religiously motivated killers, once caught; showed no remorse for what he had done. He explained his killing of Theo in open Court on July 12, 2005 with: “I acted purely in the name of my religion. I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same”. And, he said to Theo’s mother, Anneke, who was sitting in the Court gallery: “I have to admit I don’t have any sympathy for you. I can’t feel for you because I think you’re a non-believer.”
On July 29, 2005, in memory of Theo and in recognition of our new purpose to promote free speech and rid the World of religious motivated abuse, Winners changed its name to Theo van Gogh Society, Incorporated. On September 2, 2005, the IRS confirmed our right to continue to receive tax deductible contributions under section 501(c)(3).
On March 15, 2006, the Board of Directors recognized that the problems with peace around the World begin and end with actions within the United States. To be more recognizable in the United States, the Foundation changed its name to Judicial Equality Foundation, Incorporated. And its web and email handle to jefound.org.
Statement of Purpose
9/11 made us aware that militants want to violently overthrow our way of life. But we have a confused picture of how we should respond. The belief that all religion is good impedes us from doing battle with this enemy. But the threats to our way of life continue to be called to our attention by events such as the Madrid and London train bombings and the brutal killing of Theo. Our purposes are to: identify and eliminate the beliefs that unscrupulous religious leaders thwart to teach that abhorrent behavior in the name of God is acceptable and research the issues and implement communication methods to guide policy decisions so that organized religion produces only good works.
Islam and Iraq Today
An overwhelming majority of Islamists want peace. President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan made a stirring speech to the American Jewish Congress in New York on September 17, 2005. He praised Jews for their relief efforts in Bosnia and urged tolerance by Muslims toward Israel. We must give peaceful Islamists support and direction. Our response to President Musharraf’s speech should be to provide the same remedies in Iraq as we did in Germany and Japan. After World War II, we rewrote the Japanese Constitution to separate its monarch and his religious beliefs from the Japanese government. We also participated in the removal of the Nazi Quasi Religious beliefs from the German government. We must bring the same reforms to Iraq.
The original justification to invade Iraq was to take weapons of mass destruction from the hands of the religious bigot, Saddam Hussein. He had used poisonous gas against the Kurds in Northern Iraq in 1988. That coupled with intelligence of additional weapons in his possession, motivated our government to invade. Either the weapons were removed or they were never there. In either event, Saddam Hussein’s government has been removed and no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. Why are we still there? What are we fighting for?
Our expectation when the US wins a war is that it will demand total surrender, and establish a government based upon democratic principals that include freedom of religion and speech, equal justice for men and women, and elections by popular vote. Those elements taken together form our definition of democracy. The currently proposed Iraqi Constitution falls short of that expectation. It provides:
Article (2):
1st - Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source
of legislation:(a) No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.
(b) No law can be passed that contradicts the principles of democracy.
(c) No law can be passed that contradicts the rights and basic freedoms
outlined in this constitution.2nd - This constitution guarantees the Islamic identity of the majority of the
Iraqi people and the full religious rights for all individuals and the freedom of
creed and religious practices.Article (3):
Iraq is a multiethnic, multi-religious and multi-sect country. It is part
of the Islamic world and its Arab people are part of the Arab nation.
Multi what? What Arab Nation? No protection for Jews, Christians, Hindus or Others in this draft. If Iraq is permitted to continue with the same Islamic law that produced the intolerant Hussein government, our two wars with them will have meant nothing.
The Present Crises
Winners of wars have the right to demand reformations to be certain the same war is not again fought for the same reasons. If the Iraqi Constitution is adopted in its present form, Iraq will continue to operate as a single religion state poised to contribute its share of religious bigots willing to stop at nothing to force their beliefs on non-believers.
The present Iraqi leaders have refused to provide for peaceful co-existence among all religions in their Constitution. We must move all World governments to a high moral purpose. President Musharraf’s speech was a step toward tolerance of other religions. The US must respond to cause Iraq to have a pluralist, secular, and free government so that Pakistan has continued support for its leadership for tolerance.
There are no Muslims to protect women from Sharia law in Iraq. Nor does the proposed Iraqi Constitution and the law protect the Jews, Christian, Hindu and Baha’i in Iraq. The US must require Iraq to adopt a Constitution and laws to separate Church from State to protect women and religious minorities.
Granted the US Constitution existed for 144 years before women were permitted the right to vote. But we now know that equal treatment of women produces a more civilized society.
Accordingly, the people of the World who want peace must reject the proposed Iraqi Constitution. It must be reformed to protect all religious beliefs to the same extent as the followers of Islam. Women must have equal rights under law as Men. The courts must be secular and unbiased by Sharia or any other religious law or political affiliation. And, once these reforms adopted, no amendments to remove them can be permitted.
Successful Endeavors by Others
Grass roots projects such as ours have been successful elsewhere. Most recently, the Canadian Province of Ontario rejected the inclusion of Sharia Law to resolve disputes. Ontario had allowed Catholic and Jewish faith-based tribunals to settle family law matters on a voluntary basis since 1991. The religious decisions were enforced by the Courts. The practice got little attention until Muslim leaders demanded the same rights. Officials in Canada - where multiculturalism is a deeply held value – had to decide whether to exclude one religion or to scrap religious family courts altogether. Through the efforts of Alia Hogben, of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress, the Federation of Iranian Refugees, and Homa Ar-Jomand, a Muslim women activist who organized protests, the decision was to eliminate all religious settlement of family disputes.
Other examples of negative trade-offs the law has imposed are: French Nuns must take off their cowls for identity card or passport pictures because of anti-hijab legislation. French schoolchildren may not wear crosses or Stars of David to class. Large populations – British underground riders, American airport passengers, Russian theater-goers – must undergo extensive security checks. Danes marrying foreigners face extensive restrictions to bring them into Denmark because of immigration abuses. Santas, Menorahs, Nativity plays, Christmas carols, Bibles and other religious symbols have been banned on public property.
What We Do
The purpose of our work is to educate the American people by questionnaire and other means of the relationship between religious tolerance and non-violent behavior. Attached is an example of a questionnaire we currently have in use to create public awareness of the lack of religious freedom proposed for Iraq in its draft Constitution. We will also use the same questionnaire to determine if Americans accept the concept that all faiths pray to the same God. As we collect the questionnaire, we will be neutral and respectful of all beliefs.
Our first goal is to provide research to justify the separation of Church from the State in Iraq. We have used the questionnaire to conduct a limited number of interviews. Thus far, the responses have disclosed that the American people are: (i) uninformed about the contents of the proposed Iraqi constitution; (ii) overwhelmingly in favor of either the demand for separation of Church from the State of Iraq or the immediate withdrawal of US troops. Our goal is to inform the public of the issues and allow opinion to be shaped as a result of our contact. Once the use of a questionnaire validates public acceptance of our conclusions, we will raise sufficient funds to use mass media to inform the public of what we believe the research has proved.
We have a staff of two. For every $45,000 we can recruit 100 volunteers to collect questionnaires for three days per week for two months at a location where the volunteers reside. It is impractical to attempt to move volunteers from a location where they reside. An interviewer can contact an average of 10 questionnaires per hour at a busy location such as a sporting event or street fair. The key to success is to keep the interview brief. Although we do not ask for their name, we do record the location, physical characteristics and awareness of the issues of persons interviewed.
Please support our plan of action by your tax deductible donation either by mail to: Justicial Equality Foundation, Incorporated, P. O. Box 380341, Miami, FL 33238 or by email through Paypal to: contribute@jefound.org
©3-28-06 Justice Equality Foundation, Incorporated.
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