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Arab Americans turn to Kerry in 4 key states
Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | Mar. 30, 2004 | Thomas Fitzgerald

Posted on 03/30/2004 1:51:02 PM PST by rogueleader

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To: Heff
> I remember my sister telling me it was in the papers the next day. I witnessed it myself when I was driving thru Journal Square on 9/11.

Witnesssed! How many evil 'celebrants' were there? What were they doing? Were there cops? Anyone in a dark suit taking pics?

61 posted on 03/30/2004 6:00:33 PM PST by Dialup Llama
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To: paul51
In the same vein that moderate blacks don't speak out against the race baiters lest they are accused of being "oreos, Uncle Toms" etc, moderate Arabs and/or Muslims will not speak out because they might be branded "heretics" or "apostates".

The left and their ilk hold strong positions of power in this country. Cross them, and you are demonized. This also explains the "silent majority" in this country. They don't speak out in public for fear of ridicule and endangerment, but their votes speak loudly.
62 posted on 03/30/2004 6:05:29 PM PST by Killborn (I'd rather have Big Bizniz than Big Guvmint.)
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To: Piranha
The entire US Muslim Community Leadership is akin to the Black Leadership, a scam dedicated to granting the bosses power and money. CAIR and other organizations are mostly Wahhabist terror institutions. The one place to not look for moderates are the mosques. You are better of going to the suburbs and making house calls than interviewing the patrons of these mosques. Just because we don't hear any moderates doesn't mean they don't exist.
63 posted on 03/30/2004 6:11:33 PM PST by Killborn (I'd rather have Big Bizniz than Big Guvmint.)
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To: Piranha
These so-called "Arab-American" groups are really Muslim groups. They may hire a Christian spokeman like Zogby, but that's only out of neccessity for now. Whenever I read these type articles the majority of the people interviewed have Muslim names, certainly not 20-30%.

There simply is no Arab-American voting block. Most Middle Eastern Christians in the US look to themselves as Maronites, Copts, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians, etc. not Arabs. The only ones that seem to take to being called Arab-Americans are the Greek/Antiochian Orthodox (I have an opinion about this that I'll keep to myself to avoid a flame war).

I can't claim to speak for anyone but my myself & my family. But, from what I see with at least the Coptic community is this. The ones who came here in the 60s & 70s are either Republicans or very conservative Democrats. Its the ones that have come during the 90s "boom" that lean more toward the Democrats. The media has done a good job of making Bubba appealing to the uninformed. They're also generally poorer & less educated. They'll shift Right as they move up the socio-economic ladder.

The Copts are not a voting block & really have no political clout whatsoever. There are no get out the vote campaigns or anything like that. Our Church is very strict about staying out of politics & our community for the most part too inward looking. We do not, as a group, have much contact with the Egyptian Muslim community here i.e they don't as a group come to our Church festivals and we don't go to their gatherings as a group. So, even within just the Egyptian community there is no voting bloc.

To answer your question, we don't have slick media groups like CAIR, etc. & therefore slip under the media's radar.

Out of the Copts who actually vote, I would guess we're probably 70% pro-Bush. I find the ones against him usually don't vote & are still too new here to really understand this country.

I hope this helps.
64 posted on 03/30/2004 6:12:16 PM PST by Keme (Bush Contra Mundum)
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To: Hamza01
No prob. :)
65 posted on 03/30/2004 6:13:00 PM PST by Killborn (I'd rather have Big Bizniz than Big Guvmint.)
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To: rogueleader
Four years ago, he was frustrated with the slow pace of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and he cast his ballot for George W. Bush.

"I figured it would be good to have some new blood - and it turned out to be worse," said Mustafa, 28, a registered Democrat from Northeast Philadelphia who works in his family's supermarket business

Sorry, but this guy is not how you start out an article with the intent to show Bush is in trouble. This guy wasn't going to vote for Bush unless the conflict between Israel and Palestine was solved. The stories start is a red herring...

66 posted on 03/30/2004 6:21:24 PM PST by RedWing9 (No tag here... Just want to stay vague...)
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To: Piranha
How are there 550,000 Arab American voters when there are fewer than 2 million Arab Americans?

Well. a lot of them are democrats.

67 posted on 03/30/2004 6:36:25 PM PST by San Jacinto (Now is the right time for another campaign contribution to Bush/Cheney '04)
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To: Dialup Llama
Witnesssed! How many evil 'celebrants' were there? What were they doing? Were there cops? Anyone in a dark suit taking pics?

It was about 20 or 25 of them chanting in the street, waving their hands...cops were there, I understand some fighting broke out...I will look for the story.

68 posted on 03/30/2004 8:23:29 PM PST by Heff (NJ Needs Auto Insurance reform!!!!!)
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To: Dialup Llama
Found this story and link...still working on the local one.

London Muslims “Celebrate” 9/11 Jihadist mullahs urge 1,000 followers to learn the murderous lessons of the WTC attack. | 11 September 2002

An obscene spectacle took place in North London earlier today. A thousand Muslims gathered at the Finsbury Park mosque to “celebrate” the bombing of the World Trade Center. The Metropolitan Police deployed a force 500 strong to protect the meeting, called “A Towering Day in History,” from disruption.

A dozen or so menacing-looking men with kaffiyehs over their faces stood on the mosque’s steps to prevent unfriendly journalists from entering.

The “celebration” began promptly at 1 PM, so that participants could applaud the action of the WTC bombers at exactly 1:46 London time—the exact time, a year earlier, when the first plane hit its target in New York. Chairing the meeting was Abu Hamza, an Egyptian-born engineer turned Muslim mullah, who presides over the notorious Finsbury Park mosque, where several of the detainees in Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay, captured fighting for the Taliban and al-Qaida, received their theological training. Hamza also reportedly recruited to the jihad Richard Reid, the would-be shoe-bomber who failed to blow up an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami on December 22, 2001. The good Imam is implicated as well in the training and instigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, under arrest on suspicion of conspiring with the 19 murderers of September 11.

The FBI has applied for Hamza’s extradition from the U.K for questioning in the U.S. (the mullah has been a British subject since 1985), but he is still at large in London, free not only to address his congregation but to “celebrate” the events of 9/11. He told the press that Saudi Muslims financed the “celebration” in the hope that from it will arise an organization that represents “the real views of Muslims in Britain.”

EXCERPT -

http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_9_11_02fd.html

69 posted on 03/30/2004 8:30:18 PM PST by Heff (NJ Needs Auto Insurance reform!!!!!)
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To: Killborn
Sorry, Killborn, I don't buy it. Where are the Arab Condi Rices, or Colin Powells, or Clarence Thomases. There's Fuad Adjami and nobody else. I have no reason to see moderate American Muslims as anything other than a literary construct, an article of faith rather than reason for those who believe in the innate goodness and brotherhood of all men.
70 posted on 03/30/2004 10:42:16 PM PST by Piranha
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To: Keme
Apparently, I wasn't clear about my point, because everyone who responded to it took it differently from the way that I intended it.

I agree with everything that you wrote.

There is not a lot of news about the Copts (or the Marronites, the Assyrians, the Chaldeans, etc.), but what I read makes me wish the best to you and your community. I do know several Assyrians, and those whom I know are among the most patriotic, unbigoted Americans I have met.

What I was trying to say above was this: I would expect that a poll that purports to reflect the views of Arab Americans as a group would show a right-wing, Republican, pro-Bush tilt, since 70-80% of Arab Americans are Christians and not Muslims. That being the case, articles that describe an Arab American bent toward Kerry are confounding to me, because they indicate one of two things: (a) my assumptions about the broad group of Arab American Christians are incorrect, and they actually dislike President Bush as a group; or (b) the article is incorrect because the group polled did not reflect all Arab Americans, but merely the 20-30% who are Muslims.
71 posted on 03/30/2004 10:47:59 PM PST by Piranha
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To: Stillwaters
Ping

"A recent poll suggests Arab American voters in these states have soured on the President because of the administration's unwavering support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the invasion of Iraq, and the government's crackdown on Arab and Muslim immigrants in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks."

Sounds like good news to me!

72 posted on 03/30/2004 10:49:33 PM PST by lonevoice (Some things have to be believed to be seen)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
I was thinking the same thing...."Hi! I'm Mohammad Rhaghed and I'm voting for John F. Kerry this year. He truly has the best interests of us Islamists at heart, unlike Geo. W. Bush who is a tool of the Zionist conspiracy!"
73 posted on 03/30/2004 10:52:25 PM PST by cartoonistx
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To: Piranha
Ok, then. We agree to disagree. I speak from personal experience. The Muslims I grew up with are great people. None of them supported 9/11 and one swore Bin Laden was going to hell.
74 posted on 03/30/2004 11:41:19 PM PST by Killborn (I'd rather have Big Bizniz than Big Guvmint.)
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To: Killborn
......"I speak from personal experience"......

Me too. My daughter had a Muslim friend for several years, and they seemed fine. When my daughter talked of Christianity, her friend would say, she was just born in a Muslim house, but didn't believe one way or another. Her whole family seemed moderate. They moved to New Mexico a few years back and we lost track. Another girlfriend informed my daughter that the Muslim's brother was arrested after 9/11 for links to extreemist groups, but they weren't sure other than that. Also the non-believing moderate sister has become a raving lunatic that hates America.

Your either for us, or against us. It's not politics. The Muslims,(and other ethnic Americans), need to figure this out. I feel the same about the Jews. If you live in this country, THIS is your country and you need to forget the old country. If you would vote for Satan because of his stance on Israel, then you will end up living in hell and Israel will do whatever Israel is going to do anyway, it's not your country anymore. The same with Chinese, Mexicans, Vietnamese, Pak's, etc. Somebody votes for someone they like on the Isralei problem, and we get higher taxes, gun control, homo marraige, etc. Dangerous business voting for the old country you left to get away from the squalor and death to come to the promised land and bring the squalor and death with you.

I had 2 neighbors where I used to live from Yugoslavia. One was Croatian and the other was Serbian. They were both wealthy families with their own businesses. When I moved the Serbian had been arrested for strangling the Croatian's wife in my front yard. Both of them had told me they wanted to get over a million in cash and go back when the fighting was over. They brought it with them. The fighting will never be over. They had been citizens for 20 years, but they weren't Americans yet.

If the Muslims care more about the middle east than America, they should go back. Thats not a bumper sticker, thats just facts. If I didn't love America, I'd be gone. That's also why I'm a Texan. I can't fathom living anywhere else. About 20 minutes living in any middle eastern country would change most of their minds. I think the Iranians have it figured by now. Maybe the new Afghanistan will figure it out. Maybe Iraq will finally get a glimpse. Some dogs just have to have their noses rubbed in it and spanked a couple of times before they figure it out.

75 posted on 03/31/2004 12:35:14 AM PST by chuckles
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To: CalKat
What else did you have in mind? Any culture an Islamist lives in, borders on or has a significant presence in is either AT war, starting a war or so freakin' backwards a war would bring some semblence of order to it.
76 posted on 03/31/2004 12:49:51 PM PST by Safetgiver
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To: CalKat
You think the only thing Arab Americans contribute is death and destruction? How sad for you.

Go ahead, list 5 positive things they have contributed to society. (oil is off the table- we had to go in there and get it for them)

77 posted on 03/31/2004 12:54:49 PM PST by petercooper (It's obvious, common sense is not prerequisite to voting rights.)
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Comment #78 Removed by Moderator

To: MNJohnnie
Liberation of Iraq is a VITAL step in the War on Terrorism. Read Bin Laden's Fatwa.

No. The Iraq War as it was timed, executed, and justified, was a tragic blunder which will bleed us for the next 5 to 10 years. I desperately hope I'm wrong, but that's the way I see it.

And yes, I've read Bin Laden's fatwas, edicts, pronouncements for years. In 1996, I was on a trip to Pakistan(hunting black buck and wild boar), and I heard a lot about how a group of madressah students(Taliban) and their Arab Ansar(friends) were picking a fight with Ahmed Shah Masood and the old Mujahedin who fought the Soviets. That was my first introduction to the madrassahs, the international Wahabbist movement, and the psychotic mullahs loaded with Saudi cash roaming South Central Asia.

As far as the "link" between Al Qaeda and Saddam. The only demonstrable link between the two is that Bin Laden and Hussein are both ethnic Arabs who hate the US. All the other alleged linkages have failed to meet even the Bush administration's smell test. Even Cheney doesn't push that line anymore.

You seem to be totally sold on the Bush Administration's views and don't seem to appreciate that even our side can occasionally be wrong. But I believe what separates us conservatives from the left is that occasionally, we dare to think for ourselves. So, I'm going to give you the picture as I see it.

Understand this...

The primary mission of Al Qaeda is the destruction of secular or even mildly reasonable Arab/Muslim regimes and their replacement by Wahabbist totalitarian states-- a sort of way-station on the road to a new global Wahabbist Calipate. There is no room for Arab nationalists, Shiites, or even traditional Sunnis on this magic bus. Mubarak, Saddam, Abdallah, Musharraf, etc are the primary targets of Al Qaeda and its sympathizers. Even Palestine(an Islamic cause celebre) is a secondary or tertiary issue to these people.

Bin Laden uses "sanctions on Iraq's children", "US troops in the land of Mohammed", and other grievances as simple pretexts for action, and to tug at the heart strings of the broader Muslim community. But to confuse this obvious propaganda line with any compassion for Saddam is absurd. Bin Laden couldn't give a flying f-ck for Iraqi children or yours.

The fact is Saddam Hussein and his Baathists, correctly understood the Bin Ladenites as a threat to their power. Indeed, they feared Bin Laden and creeping Sunni militancy far more than they feared the US. Saddam knew all too well that assisting or promoting the growth of Sunni radicalism inside Iraq would be like cutting his own throat. He and his sons had one agenda: staying alive and staying in power. Association with Al Qaeda would not further either of these aims.

The thing a lot of people don't realize, or maybe don't want to understand, is that Saddam was evil, but completely rational when it came to preserving his skin. After all, he didn't choose martyrdom, did he?

Bottom line... Saddam was interested in drinking good scotch, butchering his political opponents, and building a dynasty-- not dying gloriously in Bin Laden's jihad.

Now, we come to the brilliant proposition that we're fighting the terrorists on their own soil. I think, rather, we've fertilized the ground for variety of new terrorist groups-- from Wahabbist adventurers to Iraqi nationalists and Baathist dead-enders. We've also opened the Pandora's Box of ethnic strife in old Babylon. 100,000 or so US troops and billions of dollars are now trapped in this effort for years to come.

Ironically, it was harder for Wahabbists to penetrate Iraq when Saddam was in power than it is now-- as they're pouring in across the border.

Finally, it was a really dumb idea to disband all of the Iraqi Army. We should have sifted the ranks for the real Baathists, and kept those (the vast majority) who were Baathists in name only. After all, we used former Nazis to rebuild postwar Germany.

That's all for now, I'll get to the immigration catastrophe next.

Regards, Hamza

79 posted on 03/31/2004 9:00:55 PM PST by Hamza01
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To: Keme
Majority of ethnic Arabs in this country are Christians. As far as Zogby, as i understand it, he's Palestinian Christian, and he's a democrat. His organization began work long before the Muslims in this country began to organize or had any serious size.

I know a couple of Coptic families here in Weschester, NY. Great, industrious, warm people. Unfortunately, Egypt's not been kind to you.

But I disagree that Arabs don't vote. Lots of Arab Americans voted in 96. More in 2000. Most people I know, Arabs/Iranians/Turks/Pakistanis and assorted Muslims tended toward Bush.

80 posted on 03/31/2004 9:19:39 PM PST by Hamza01
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