Tarik Shah Update: July 2006

As a brief reminder, American-born Harlem bassist Tarik Shah, an African-American jazz musician of Muslim faith who has played and recorded with Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, Ahmad Jamal, and countless others, has been accused of “conspiracy" to abet terrorism and has been held in solitary confinement for more than 14 months as of now -- without trial, without having been convicted of anything, without any criminal record. For a full background on this tragic case, please see http://tariksfriends.faithweb.com.

Yesterday I had a wonderfully inspiring email from Marlene Jenkins, Tarik's mother. She wrote that Tarik's new attorney, Joshua Dratel, has been hard at work on Tarik's case and has now filed many motions with the court -- over 5OO pages' worth! It's so good to know that he finally has a lawyer making a serious effort to help him.

With unfailing humor, Marlene added, “We have a great deal of reading to do, no time to be bored. When this is over, I'll probably know as much law as his attorney. It's definitely a learning process. Never thought I would be doing this in my senior years. But you never know what life has in store for you."

A while before that, Tarik's wife Zakkiyyah told me that in solitary confinement (it's been 14 months now), Tarik is grateful. “How can he possibly be grateful?" I demanded. “He is grateful because he has a roof over his head and food to eat, and he knows that many others do not," she said.

I hope this conveys something of the courage and grace of these people.

I'm sorry to report that I don't know of any new articles about the case in the press lately. I haven't seen the August issue of JazzTimes yet, but if there's anything more about Tarik there, I'll let you know.

By the way, you might find this article interesting and valuable.

Please note that it was written by someone who used to be with The Wall Street Journal and was assistant Treasury Secretary under Ronald Reagan.