The campaign of Barack Obama, who many Americans think is Muslim, took on a volunteer Muslim lawyer, Mazen Asbahi, to help the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee improve his election support among Muslim American voters.
It's not that Muslims don't support Obama. Let's face it, a guy whom most Americans think is Muslim is probably going to be more understanding of Muslim and Arab concerns than a candidate like John McCain, whose entire existence has been a lap-dog-like association with a political party that routinely trashes Muslims. Rather than fight the absurdity of the attacks, Asbahi decided to resign as an Obama volunteer.
But, Obama has been waffling back and forth on issues of importance to Arabs, who are mostly Muslim so some outreach is necessary to that voter bloc.
Well, last week, the Wall Street Journal decided to investigate (I would call it defaming and mud-raking, which is what the Wall Street Journal seems to do best when it comes to Arabs and Muslims) through Asbahi's background. And low-and-behold, they discovered he has many Muslim friends.
I would say that Asbahi is like every Arab and Muslim in the United States. If you dig far enough in, you will find at least one person - probably more - who they are associated with, related to, work with and know, who is on the Federal "No Fly List."
I would even say that you will also find that they are some how related to or attend a Mosque - an Islamic church - which also has one or more people that have been slandered, defamed, attacked and demonized in the hateful anti-Arab anti-Muslim mainstream American news media.
In fact, you might in find that many Arabs and Muslims, through the principle of "Six Degrees of Separation," can be linked to someone who has been accused of either being a terrorist, knowing a terrorist, or who knows someone who knows a terrorist, or who knows someone who knows someone who knows a terrorist.
You get my drift.
What's really remarkable is that ALL that the Wall Street Journal discovered in their smear campaign -- err, investigation -- is that Asbahi once worked or served on a board that also had another board member who is mildly controversial, Imam Jamal Said.
Jamal Said is the Imam of the very controversial Palestinian mosque in Bridgeview, Illinois, a southwest suburb of Chicago. He has some tough views against Israel, but not against America.
It's the same mosque where Mohammed Salah prayed. You remember Salah? He was the guy the Justice Department and former U.S. Justice Department vigilante John Ashcroft alleged, on the morning after Sept. 11, 2001, was directly involved in terrorist activity against the United States.
But after years of persecution, and after Ashcroft was replaced with a fellow vigilante, Alberto Gonzales, who was succeeded, also, by Michael Mukasey, the "terrorism charges" were dropped. They had a tough time even proving Salah was associated with a terrorist organization. A jury later convicted Salah on the sole, un-terrorism related charge of "perjury."
Come to think of it, many of the alleged terrorism cases have ended the same way, exposed as exaggerated, politically motivated harassment of individuals whose only "crime" was to have unpopular views critical of Israel -- not the United States.
The Bridgeview Mosque has several other shady characters in its midst, but far more who are not so controversial, from the founder of the extremist Islamic Association for Palestine to Ali Ata, who in the face of corruption charges flipped to become the Justice Department's chief witness against Tony Rezko, Obama's pal and a chief fundraiser for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
But the worst you can say about all of those controversial folks is that they do not like Israel. Despite all the lawsuits, the unending media slander, and the incessant political attacks, no one at the Birdgeview mosque HAS EVER been convicted or proven to be anti-American or supportive of any anti-American violent groups or religious zealots.
The real tragedy here is that Asbahi is most likely a very decent person who is very American, opposes the Islamic terrorists and just wants to see Muslims and Arabs become more active in American politics. Instead of being able to do that, he has now been forced to quit as one of Obama's volunteers because of the Wall Street Journal's and the other media's smear campaign.
So the next time you hear some typical American ask, "Hows come Moosleems and Ay-rabs dint denounce da terrorists and da extremists? Hows come? Hows come?"
You might respond by explaining Muslims and Arabs want to spend their time denouncing extremists like Osama Bin Laden, but they are TOO BUSY defending themselves against media defamation, slander, name calling and stupid attacks.
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The only other thing that might qualify him to 'understand' Arab concerns more would be that he looks like the people of North Africa - Berbers who call themselves Arab. In an interview with CNN's Zakaria who questioned Obama on Islam - Obama seemed much more animated when talking about African issues.
Some of the concerns about Islam in the US and in politics do have some legitimacy.The 'anti-American' label might not capture the sentiment being expressed by many on the right. It is not difficult to see the way Muslim countries are run is very different from the US and other western nations. Could then an Islamic person honestly believe that they love their new country - but think that it might be run better if it were to adopt a more Islamic way of life or even politics?
Like many who honestly believed that communism was 'good',there were those who worked to challenge the belief that communism was right for America. In this sense, the challenge to US Muslims - in the time when many European Muslims are pushing for Islamic law - may be a necessary evil.
1) The majority of Arab-Americans are CHRISTIANS, not Muslims, who immigrated from Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan primarily. The conflation of Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans needs to stop!
They don't share many issues or concerns, nor are Muslims monolithic in their concerns or issues. Do you think that the daughters of Malcolm X or 3rd generation African-American Muslims share the same socio-economic concerns as Syria-American Muslims? Nope!
2) I'm sick of this "Islamic terrorists" jargon. Islam and terrorism are diametrically opposed as the vast majority of Islamic scholars will tell you just as Christianity is opposed to terrorism. Do we hear of "Christian kidnappers" or "Christian human traffickers" in regards to groups in Chad taking children to Europe to make them house sevants? How about "Christian extremist clergy" who blessed Serbian figthers before committing genocide on Bosnian Muslims? How about the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka, the world's most profilic suicide bombing organization, being referred to as "Hindu terrorists"?
As much as Ray makes a valid point within his article, the frame in which he's operating from is a big part of the problem when discussing Muslims to begin with.
The media plays a role in this as well. If everytime some idot spouted some anti-Muslim garbage the MSM called them out and made them look stupid, it would stop. Instead, they allow the hate-mongering to continue unabated.
So once again, I ask you, do you blame Sen Obama for that?