Thread: Unbelievable!!

Classes aid men new to the U.S.

Immigrants learn about laws

Sunday, July 6, 2008
By Sara Foss (Contact)
Gazette Reporter


CAPITAL REGION — Artan Serjanej understands how difficult it can be for new immigrants to navigate the thicket of unfamiliar laws they encounter when they move to America .

Now 43, Serjanej fled the Eastern European country of Albania as a young man, arriving in the United States in 1990. He earned his GED, attended law school and is now an immigration attorney at Tulley Rinckey PLLC in Albany .

Serjanej is leading a series of workshops to help male immigrants understand laws regarding domestic violence, child abuse and animal abuse. He has already held two workshops, one for male Congolese refugees living in the Capital Region and another for Arabic-speaking Iraqi male refugees, and more are scheduled for later this summer.

The workshops are part of a new program sponsored by the Albany field office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, which educates immigrants about their legal rights and obligations in the United States . Future workshop topics include how to handle encounters with law enforcement and how to recognize and report discrimination in housing and job hiring. Workshops for women will also be offered; by the end of the summer, the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants will have offered workshops for Burmese, Congolese, Iraqi and Afghan clients of both sexes.

The new program, called Legal Rights and Responsibilities in the United States , began two months ago. The workshops have been organized with help from local community groups, such as the Capital Region chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union and Equinox Inc. Last month, Melanie Trimble, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, and Serjanej conducted basic civil liberties training with the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants staff.

Refugees and immigrants often ask for advice on how to deal with law enforcement, said Una Hardester, outreach coordinator for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, which aids refugees who are taken in by the United Nations and approved for resettlement by the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security.[b] “Many of our clients come from countries where they were fleeing from law enforcement,â€

This is what I have been saying all along. You cannot allow millions of people to come here legally or illegally with questionable backgrounds and expect to educate them all. This trend will set this country back a hundred years or more. At least now we're getting people to admit that the cultural differences of other countries is very dangerous to our citizens in this country.

How about teaching them that mores and customs to be good neighbors, trash issues, noise issues, and the right to let others live in quiet enjoyment of their homes and neighborhood. How about respecting lines at the stores, and being courteous?

This is what I have been saying all along. You cannot allow millions of people to come here legally or illegally with questionable backgrounds and expect to educate them all. This trend will set this country back a hundred years or more. At least now we're getting people to admit that the cultural differences of other countries is very dangerous to our citizens in this country.

I 100% agree with you on this. Granted, maybe our immigration rules weren't fair in regards to those in poor, uneducated countries, and that needed a look at......but we have been bombarded with millions and millions of people with the mentality we have spent decades and decades trying to overcome, only to have it all back again in huge un-controlled numbers. I mean in just my lifetime, we finally started addressing and seeing strides in illiteracy, womens rights, racism, child abuse, spouse abuse, alcoholism, animal abuse, health and hygiene issues, prostitution, child porn, rape, un-wed parenthood, on down the line.......then bam, the moment we started getting people educated and seeing some strides......we're right back to square one, but back even further than where I picked up at.

Except what I see as bothersome now is there's this push to "respect their culture". Oh well.....so they sell their girls off at 8.....that's their "culture". Ya, it's horrible to have such sexist attitudes and actions....but it's part of their "culture". Ya 12 is considered too young to have sex here, but in their culture they do. They were telling some refugee Somalie men that here it was illegal to hit your wife and the man said....well, how will she know I love her? Please.....this was a long row to hoe before......don't want to go through it again. And the numbers are so huge it's not something easily addressed when they can continue to live in huge numbers together continuing the behavior and all the support to maintain it......hiding behind "culture" as permission to do it.

We are directly affected by it. Except they have more relegion, language and "culture" excuses to hide behind for their actions and we're stuck with the fall-out. I can understand lude words or personal threats or illegal planning for a crime spoken in English....not so positive in another language. Keep an eye out and report suspicious behavior.....ya right....it's all suspicious to me anymore. LOL Except to report it means I might be charged with "racism" or something else. Who knew dragging a young girl off screaming was foreplay in one culture, and a girl in distress in another. Sex with a baby is a crime here, yet it's supposidly a cure for aids in parts of Africa. Torturing animals is wrong here and a "sport" in others. Instead of educating them, it seems there's more a push for us to "understand", which I'm concerned will go to being accepted. And I don't like the idea of going back to that time again.

In the workshops, Serjanej talks about the age of consent and rape laws and how it’s illegal to kick or otherwise abuse dogs and cats.

How can you 'teach' the basic tenets of morality and ethical behavior to a culture of lawless, amoral, inhuman, sub-human beings? If they have been raised in a culture where beheadings are normal; rape is normal; murder is normal; beating your wife and children is normal; animal cruelty is normal...how can anyone expect them to magically adjust to a society that condemns these acts???

We have already seen heinous crimes of mass murder and killings by Somali 'immigrants' in recent times. We now have Somali and Albanian gangbangers...children of immigrant parents...sound familiar???

Look at the problems we are experiencing with IA's and anchor babies! They bring their culture with them and do not assimilate. And when they reach critical mass, as in the case of Mexico, they rebel against America! The same thing will happen with all the other third world countries once they colonize. Muslims have already started to colonize in the Northeast! I just read that the UK is about to adapt Sharia Law!!!

If you have to teach 'em that murder and rape is a bad thing...they don't belong here. Period! What the hell is wrong with this country???? Don't answer that!

Originally Posted by crazybird

This is what I have been saying all along. You cannot allow millions of people to come here legally or illegally with questionable backgrounds and expect to educate them all. This trend will set this country back a hundred years or more. At least now we're getting people to admit that the cultural differences of other countries is very dangerous to our citizens in this country.

I 100% agree with you on this. Granted, maybe our immigration rules weren't fair in regards to those in poor, uneducated countries, and that needed a look at......but we have been bombarded with millions and millions of people with the mentality we have spent decades and decades trying to overcome, only to have it all back again in huge un-controlled numbers. I mean in just my lifetime, we finally started addressing and seeing strides in illiteracy, womens rights, racism, child abuse, spouse abuse, alcoholism, animal abuse, health and hygiene issues, prostitution, child porn, rape, un-wed parenthood, on down the line.......then bam, the moment we started getting people educated and seeing some strides......we're right back to square one, but back even further than where I picked up at.

Except what I see as bothersome now is there's this push to "respect their culture". Oh well.....so they sell their girls off at 8.....that's their "culture". Ya, it's horrible to have such sexist attitudes and actions....but it's part of their "culture". Ya 12 is considered too young to have sex here, but in their culture they do. They were telling some refugee Somalie men that here it was illegal to hit your wife and the man said....well, how will she know I love her? Please.....this was a long row to hoe before......don't want to go through it again. And the numbers are so huge it's not something easily addressed when they can continue to live in huge numbers together continuing the behavior and all the support to maintain it......hiding behind "culture" as permission to do it.

We are directly affected by it. Except they have more relegion, language and "culture" excuses to hide behind for their actions and we're stuck with the fall-out. I can understand lude words or personal threats or illegal planning for a crime spoken in English....not so positive in another language. Keep an eye out and report suspicious behavior.....ya right....it's all suspicious to me anymore. LOL Except to report it means I might be charged with "racism" or something else. Who knew dragging a young girl off screaming was foreplay in one culture, and a girl in distress in another. Sex with a baby is a crime here, yet it's supposidly a cure for aids in parts of Africa. Torturing animals is wrong here and a "sport" in others. Instead of educating them, it seems there's more a push for us to "understand", which I'm concerned will go to being accepted. And I don't like the idea of going back to that time again.

Once again, Crazybird tells it like it is! I'm proud to have such a strong, intelligent, articulate, and insightful person as yourself representing ALIPAC. If only we had folks like you running our gov't...

Well, I guess this Pakistani guy missed some of the classes on why it's not okay to kill your daughter!

July 07, 2008

Police: Arranged marriage led father to kill daughter

By KATHY JEFCOATS

Published on: 07/06/08

A Pakistani man, apparently upset his daughter wanted out of her arranged marriage, strangled her with a bungee cord, according to arrest warrants revealed Monday afternoon in Clayton County Magistrate Court.

Chaudhry Rashid, 54, is charged with murder in the death of his daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, 25, at the family's Utah Drive home in Jonesboro. Rashid's wife, Gina Rashid, 49, called police just before 2 a.m. Sunday and told them she had been awakened and heard screaming in a language she could not understand. Gina Rashid, who is African-American, left the house out of fear and called police from nearby.

Rashid is being held without bond in the Clayton County Jail. His first court appearance was continued until Tuesday afternoon when Chief Magistrate Daphne Walker learned his primary language is Urdu. Walker said an interpreter will be brought in to help with the judicial proceedings.

Rashid is being represented by Tammi Long of the Begner and Begner Law Firm. Long declined to speak to reporters after the brief hearing. Several of Rashid's relatives attended the hearing but also declined to talk about the case. However, Walker allowed Long to give Rashid a handwritten note in Urdu "of comfort" from his relatives.

Gina Rashid did not attend the hearing. But she told police Sunday Kanwal wanted to end the arranged marriage and had not spoken to her father in two months because of their disagreement on the matter.

Kanwal lived at the couple's Utah Drive home when she was not with her husband, who resides in Chicago, Clayton police Officer Tim Owens said. She hadn't seen the husband in three months, he said.

Police said Chaudhry Rashid owns a pizza parlor in Clayton County, while his daughter worked at a Wal-Mart. Clayton property records show Kanwal owned the Utah Drive home with a relative, Hamayun Rashid.

When police arrived at the family's home Sunday morning, Rashid told them simply, "My daughter is dead," police said Monday. When police asked him how Rashid knew she was dead, Rashid reportedly said nothing and hung his head.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/ ... amn070708e