Saggy Tahir

[12] He was a lead speaker at AMA's March 31, 2001 East Regional Leadership Training Conference in Westborough, Massachusetts.[13] After the Sept. 11th attacks, Tahir attended the Oct. 2001, 6th annual AMA national convention in San Jose, California, where he was a key speaker."Police officers patrolled the hotel's lobby and front entrance, reporters from national and regional media roamed the convention eager to learn how Muslim-Americans have been reacting to both the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the ensuing race-motivated backlash against them.Asked on the American strikes into Afghanistan, Tahir replied, "Pakistan don't want a neighbor to the north that is an enemy."[15] On October 5, 2002, at the AMA's 7th national convention, Tahir was on a panel called "Muslims in Politics: Success Stories".The panel on which Tahir participated was called "The Leaders of Today Meet the Leaders of Tomorrow" and was held at the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. After the panel met and lunch was held, the participants were addressed by the Pakistani Ambassador, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who told them that professionals in the Pakistani-American community need to take action and not just espouse ideas, as "the situation created since 9/11 has underlined the need for the potential of our community to 'take off'.[18] On June 23, 2005, Tahir was on a panel hosted by the Islamic Center of New England to discuss the work of Imam Dr. Talal Eid, Th.[23] After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Pakistan American Association of North America (PAANA) condemned the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation (OPF) led by Tahir."The mayor, the police chief, the attorney general, a Jewish rabbi offered protection or sponsored events to promote public understanding".Tahir's personal goals for the delegation was to combat the sentiments in Pakistan that led some Pakistanis to burn American flags before the media.He hoped the delegation could "turn sentiments around as both Pakistan and the United States are now at the threshold of establishing a more durable and lasting relationship."[25] In a press release by the United States Embassy, Tahir was quoted as saying "Who is teaching Pakistanis about how good America is?As a boy, he said, he spent an hour every morning in the madrassa, learning the Koran, and then went to school, where he studied mathematics and science for the rest of the day."[28] Other members of the delegation were Agha M. Afzal Khan, Khalil-Ur-Reman (Chief Editor of Urdu Times, Awam and Pakistan Abroad), Vakil Ansari Writer/columnist and Co-Chief Editor of "Pakistan Abroad", Asad Abidi (Gov't Hospital, New Jersey), Naseem Akhtar and Masrur Javed Khan (Physicians).The group formed "with the objective of averting a nuclear holocaust and promoting Pakistan's proposals for peace and arms reduction in South Asia."Tahir held that Pakistani Americans should stop hoping for the return of Pakistan's ex-Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto (now deceased) and Nawaz Sharif (who was exiled to Saudi Arabia after Pervez Musharraf's coup).When N.H. State House Deputy Majority Leader Robert Giuda (R-Warren) learned of this he asked if Tahir would bring back some "beautiful shawls and sweaters" for him.I said, 'Do you know there are hundreds of millions of people in India and Pakistan and Kashmir suffering from the senselessness of both governments purchasing weapons for this and that?'"[30] They applied for visas and were "the first U.S. civilians in 12 years to be allowed by the Pakistani military to visit the Line of Control between India and Pakistan."[30] Tahir maintained that this was important "to be fair and objective and honest, we have to go to the Indian side and hear what they are saying, because in the long run, we have to do what is good for the American people."[33] Giuda was so moved by the experience that he authored a concurrent resolution in the New Hampshire State House (HCR 16) urging "the United States to facilitate a just, peaceful, and rapid resolution to the Kashmiri conflict between India and Pakistan; to bring a cessation of atrocities against the people of Jammu and Kashmir; and, as a result, to reduce the threat of nuclear war in Southwest Asia.The resolution was delivered to President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, and the New Hampshire Congressmen and Senators in Washington, D.C.[31] Tahir was credited as "The catalyst behind the resolution" who "had persuaded the Republican deputy majority leader of the house" to join his delegation."[30] The Indian Ambassador to the United States, Lalit Mansingh, wrote the leaders of the NH Legislature "taking exception" to the concurrent resolution.They returned to the Line-of-Control "meeting with everyone from victims of artillery barrages, gang rape, and forced amputation to refugees, orphans, shop-keepers, families, school children, military authorities, and national leaders.[32] The delegation "presented copies of HCR16 as symbols of our commitment to bringing a just and lasting peace to all Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control that now divides them....The people of Kashmir continue to fight against overwhelming and oppressive intrusion into all aspects of their lives, held hostage by an Indian government that denies any culpability for gang rapes of thousands of Kashmiri Muslim women by Indian soldiers, custodial killings of thousands of young Kashmiri men by army and paramilitary troops, deliberate shelling of non-combatant men, women, and children, schools, hospitals, shops, and homes, and the systematic destruction of the economic underpinnings of Kashmir....The days of India keeping a shroud of secrecy over its brutal repression of rights in Kashmir and the persecution of Kashmiri Muslims are numbered.[46] Tahir pledged that the Manchester Republicans would not focus on partisanship and instead concentrate on "issues such as taxes, the senior center and schools".