If you take the time to actually read the quotation from Obama's book, provided by tutstar above, you will see that Obama's last sentence ( "... and that I will stand with them..." ) the word "THEM" refers to the group of people mentioned in the 2nd sentence of the quotation where he talks about his meeting with "Arab and Pakistani Americans". If you read the quote provided by tutstar carefully, you will see that nowhere in the whole paragraph does Obama mention anything about the Muslim religion.
People immigrate to the U.S. and Canada for many reasons. I personally know a Syrian family who left Syria to come and live in my country, Canada, because they are Christians, and Syria is 95% Muslim. It was getting too dangerous for them, so they left. However, this Syrian family "looks" very "middle-eastern" and some North Americans, who have a bad habit of jumping to hasty conclusions, might mistakenly think by their appearance that they were radical Muslim Jihadists. Obviously, in the case of my dear friends, this conclusion is wrong.
So, I think, from the data [words] provided in tutstar's paragraph, we might also conclude that Obama was talking about the persecution of immigrants based on false assumptions, and he stated that he would "stand" by them when the false accusations turned into "ugly" persecution. I would do the same thing, especially in the case of my Syrian friends.
LucyT has read that same paragraph and assumed (incorrectly, I think) that Obama was talking about siding with Muslims. From the incorrect quotation she provided, she obviously thinks all Arabs and Pakistanis are Muslims. In my opinion, the paragraph does not offer us sufficient information to draw that conclusion. To me, "Arab and Pakistani Americans" [immigrants] could mean atheists, or Buddhists, or Christians, or any number of religions, that are held by Arab and Pakistani Americans who come to North America to escape the persecution at the hand of fanatics in their home country. It is with these religiously unidentified, and possibly persecuted, immigrants that I think Obama refers to when he states, "...that I [he] will stand with them...." should unwarranted persecution escalate and turn ugly.
Do you understand my logic as applied to this ONE paragraph? Can you follow the conclusions I have drawn based on the evidence contained in this ONE paragraph? I am not assessing his entire book, nor commenting on all of Obama's twisted philosophy,......... I am simply drawing logical conclusions based on the word evidence contained in this ONE paragraph, and that one paragraph alone. I don't think there is anything wrong, or evil, or leftist, with the interpretation I have made. To me, it is just common sense to support humans who are wrongfully persecuted.
Please don't call me a damned liberal, or a troll, or a democrat, or pro-Obama, or something dumb about border security, because you would be wrong.....I haven't given you sufficient information to jump to that conclusion.
Point taken. But.... stop blaming LucyT. Google that phrase. It’s been all over the internet for 2 years. All of the other quotes are precisely as he wrote them. Have you read his books? He’s crystal clear about his disdain for whites and his affection toward Muslims.