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They Came For The Muslims, and I Didn't Speak Up...

ith their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect. Then they came to prosecute noncitizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a noncitizen. Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peak" searches, and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide. Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn't speak up because I no longer participated in any groups. Then they came to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without any charges and without access to lawyers, and I didn't speak up because I would never be arrested. Then they came to institute TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) recruiting citizens to spy on other citizens and I didn't speak up because I was afraid. Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it only aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies, and I didn't speak up ... because I didn't speak up. Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up.

Forum Column (from the Daily Journal, 11/20/02). Stephen Rohde is an attorney. He edited American Words of Freedom and was president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Does Rohde's text seem familiar? It should. He based it on one of the web's most widely-circulated texts about silence in the face of evil:

In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a protestant.

Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me. Rev. Martin Niemoller (1892-1984)

That text appears in several slightly varying forms but is always attributed to the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöeller (1892-1984), who was several times jailed by Hitler in the mid-thirties, then spent eight years in Sachenhausen and Dachau. He survived to become an important anti-nuclear pacifist. He was, from 1961-1968, President of the World Council of Churches. One source says that he frequently ended his speeches with that text, so the several variants may simply reflect transcriptions of those different events.

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