Muslims United for Justice and the Madelyn Hoffman for U.S. Senate 2018 campaign issue the following joint statement as part of #AntiWarAutumn 2018:

It is 2018 and the United States is involved in military actions in more than 7 countries. None of these classifies as an actual declared war, though the media and elected officials continually call them such. In this #AntiWarAutumn 2018, we wish to draw attention to what is happening today and call for these military actions to end. If we ended these “wars,” we would have far more money to spend on problems here at home, such as education, health care, the environment, housing, jobs creation and public transportation. We would improve our national security and we would decrease the world-wide problem of refugees, currently at the highest level since WWII.

Yemen: We call on the U.S. to immediately stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia; stop refueling Saudi warplanes; remove troops from the Port of Hodeidah who are helping to implement a blockade, keeping food and much need supplies away from the starving Yemenis; and call for a political solution to the conflict and an end to the on-going brutal war. This must happen independent of the results of the investigation into what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Our foreign policy with Saudi Arabia should not be governed by concerns over “losing money from the arms deal,” but by humanitarian concerns.

Syria: We call on the U.S. to close its illegal military bases in Syria, withdraw its troops and stop the dangerous practice of provoking Russia. It’s time to allow the Syrians to heal and to rebuild their country. It is foolhardy to continue to increase the pressure on Russia – the last thing the world needs is a nuclear confrontation between the nations with the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. If the U.S. stops selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, that would also have a positive effect on Syria, by removing some of the Saudi’s weapons from the region.

Afghanistan: The original mission for the illegal U.S. invasion of Afghanistan has been accomplished, the overthrow of the Taliban and the capture/assassination of Osama bin Laden. It is time for the U.S. to leave Afghanistan. As it stands, this is already the longest war in U.S. history. It has cost approximately $1 trillion and several thousand lives, while not bringing about peace. It’s time for all interested parties to sit down and negotiate a political settlement to the conflict. The same applies to Pakistan, with the addition of an end to the U.S. practice of drone strikes on the country.

Iraq: The U.S. has been “at war” with Iraq since 1991 – either through military action or the imposition of crippling sanctions on the country. Sanctions hurt ordinary citizens, not those in power. The March 19th, 2003 invasion of Iraq has continued to destabilize the country and has harmed the nation’s standard of living, while spawning a group, ISIS, that continues to terrorize the entire Middle East. It’s long past time for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Iran: The U.S. should rejoin the parties to the Iran Nuclear Deal, instead of isolating itself from those who worked for years to develop the deal. In addition, the U.S. must stop provoking Iran and instead accept what all international experts have said – Iran is in full compliance with the Iran Deal – leading to stability in Iran. Stability and peace are preferable to chaos and war. Bolton’s bluster notwithstanding, it behooves the U.S. to leave Iran alone. War with Iran would have catastrophic consequences.

Israel/Palestine: It is long past time to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Life for the Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza is extremely difficult today. Freedom of movement is barely existent. In Gaza, electricity is available for only a few hours at a time. Clean water is hard to come by. Since March 2018, approximately 200 peaceful protesters have been gunned down at the fence built between Gaza and Israel, including children, women, journalists and medics. This amounts to a war crime and must stop. The U.S. embassy should not have been moved to Jerusalem, so it can easily be moved back to Tel Aviv – allowing Jerusalem to be the international city is most truly is. The new “nation-state law” which formalizes the Israeli brand of apartheid should be repealed, reestablishing Arabic as one of the official languages and recommitting to the process of creating a democratic state for all. The U.S. should cease providing military aid to Israel until a political solution is found and a true democratic state established.

The Muslim Travel ban: This travel ban should be repealed immediately. The refugee crisis is, in the main, created by U.S. foreign policy, so we cannot have it both ways. In other words, we cannot both destroy countries with impunity and then refuse to allow refugees fleeing their countries due to the violence they are experiencing to enter U.S. borders.

Lastly, we call on all people of good faith in the U.S. to understand and respect religious differences so that we all, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and more alike, can co-exist and hate crimes cease.