TIME FOR FREEDOM



Miru Kim was profiled and questioned by the NYPD for no other reason than that she was wearing the WE WILL NOT BE SILENT in Arabic language t-shirt. She spoke out and let the public know and Friday people came out in public, in solidarity and to stand against this absurd use of authority.

The WE WILL NOT BE SILENT project continues the work that originated a decade ago in 2006 at the height of the Bush Regime. The Arabic language shirt was created in 2006 in NYC by a group of artists and activists called The Critical Voice. The mandate WE WILL NOT BE SILENT was inspired by The White Rose, a student resistance group active in Nazi Germany from 1942-1943. The Arabic language shirt gained worldwide attention when an Iraqi man, Raed Jarrar, was stopped by Homeland Security from boarding a Jet Blue, early-morning JFK flight because he was wearing that same shirt. He was harassed and refused entry to the flight until he was forced to cover the Arabic language on the shirt with another shirt they bought for him. Courageously, Raed Jarrar went public, the media story spread and like a wild-fire, support spread as well, and tens of thousands of people all over the world demanded to wear the message WE WILL NOT BE SILENT in solidarity. The intolerable conditions of racism, xenophobia, specifically Islamophobia and abuse of power that inspired us ten years ago to act and to embody the statement WE WILL NOT BE SILENT in the Arabic language, as well as in five other languages, are still present today.

We will not look away. We will carry on.

  

WE WILL NOT BE SILENT is an artist/activist collective that has been in existence since 2006. Through the creative use of language embodied on shirts and emboldened on signs held up in public spaces, we respond to current social justice issues, encouraging creative, direct public actions where many people can participate.

 

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