The Washington Post is reporting on planned events to be held at the national demonstration against the war in Iraq planned for Saturday:
A week of events meant to crank up a national demonstration against the war in Iraq is set to begin Saturday, with a 1,000-person “die-in” at the U.S. Capitol led by current and former American troops and accompanied by taps and a mock 21-gun salute. The die-in will be the culmination of a march and rally. ….Daily antiwar events are planned from Saturday through Friday. War opponents are scheduled to go to Washington area military recruitment centers Monday to try to shut them down. On Wednesday, “Pentagon Outreach Day,” Iraq veterans plan to walk through the Pentagon wearing antiwar T-shirts and talking about the conflict.
As previous posts have discussed, the Muslim American Society (MAS) is one of the initial sponsors of the upcoming demonstration. The MAS is a less well-known part of the Muslim Brotherhood network in the U.S. that first came to national attention when the Chicago Tribune did a feature story on the group in September 2004. ANSWER, in turn, was the creation of former attorney general Ramsey Clark and his International Action Center and has its roots in the far left Worker’s World Party. The MAS has participated along side ANSWER since 2003 and it is common for Muslim Brotherhood groups in the U.S. and Europe to be found in coalitions with left-wing and far left political groups who also support Palestinian causes. Commenting on the march, MAS leader Mahdi Bray was reported to have stated “The antiwar movement ‘is far from where Bush would like you to think we are, that we are the fringe. They are the fringe. We are the mainstream.'”