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Arabs Shouldn't Have to Apologize (Editorial)
San Antonio Express-News ^ | July 29, 2005 | Mansour El-Kikhia

Posted on 07/29/2005 7:12:56 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin

Mansour El-Kikhia: Arabs shouldn't have to apologize

I am fed up with the ceaseless requests by columnists, religious personalities and other American public figures for Arabs and Muslims to apologize for terrorist acts committed by thugs and murderers in the name of Islam.

As far as I am concerned, the final straw came a couple of weeks ago when the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, paid for a national advertisement repudiating terrorism in the name of Islam.

As soon as the advertisement was broadcast on America's media, I read a column by one of the nation's most ardent Islam-phobic columnists, Cal Thomas, now also a FOX News personality, which plowed into CAIR's reconciliation efforts. Long before 9-11, Thomas' writings were full of venom for Arabs and Muslims. He represents a despicable and ignorant attitude that, unfortunately, a sizable segment of America has come to share. There is nothing American Muslims can do to satisfy this group short of packing up and leaving the United States.

I disagree with what CAIR did, and I also disagree with this groveling and begging for forgiveness, as though American Arabs and Muslims are responsible for those atrocities. CAIR knows better, and those running it know that Islam rejects all acts of violence outside self-defense. Arab and Muslim Americans are responsible for neither the twin towers nor the London subway bombings, and as Americans they should never accept responsibility for actions they did not instigate, commit or condone.

Furthermore, in spite of the fact they are constantly condemned for one thing or another, they — like other Americans — are victims of these murderers. Does anyone think they are pleased to have their movements and telephone conversations monitored or that coercive and freedom-depriving laws are tailored for them? Does anyone in his or her right mind really believe that being an Arab American or a Muslim is pleasant in America today?

The United States has lost 3,000 souls to terrorist thugs, but that figure is miniscule compared to the 60,000 Algerians or the 25,000 Iraqis who also have died at their hands. These thugs don't differentiate between Muslim and non-Muslim, Arab and non-Arab when they plant a bomb or enter a village at night and murder everyone.

It is rejection of U.S. and British policies in the Middle East, not Islam, that has promoted terrorism against America. And for the benefits of those who do not know, 95 percent of Middle Easterners are Muslims. Hence, it is only natural that those opposing the United States and Britain in the region would be Muslims. In India, they would have been Hindu; in Latin America or Northern Ireland, they would have been Catholic.

More important, it was the British and the United States that drew first blood. The Middle East didn't come to America or go to Britain; rather, America and Britain went to the Middle East. Both powers used and abused regimes, toppling some and keeping others in power. They never thought that the people they were helping suppress were human beings with needs, beliefs and emotions. They didn't care as long as their interests were served.

America's experience in the Middle East is no different from its Southeast Asia stint, and look at the mess it left in that region.

However, while the calamity of Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea might be rationalized by the Cold War or even a domino theory, there is nothing to rationalize the invasion of Iraq except ideological stupidity. The United States illegally invaded and decimated a country that did not threaten its security and, in the process, unleashed one of the most vile and ruthless insurgencies the region has ever seen. And as it did in Vietnam, when the going got tough, it is planning to pull out. The result will be a protracted instability and turmoil that no country in the region can escape.

Future turmoil in the region is exactly what the instigators of the Iraq invasion have planned all along. They had made their desire for strife in the Middle East known long before the invasion of Iraq. Yet they underestimated the consequences of their lunacy and set into motion processes and events that will make the United States less secure and threaten the lives of Americans for many years to come.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections; US: Texas; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: islam; islaminazis; islamisevil; muslim; nomoderatemuslims
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1 posted on 07/29/2005 7:12:56 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
...as though American Arabs and Muslims are responsible for those atrocities.

So tell me--what communities did these terrorists live in before they committed their atrocities? Who should have--and could have--spotted them first?

2 posted on 07/29/2005 7:15:43 AM PDT by ShadowAce (Linux -- The Ultimate Windows Service Pack)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Duplicate - http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1453045/posts


3 posted on 07/29/2005 7:15:53 AM PDT by surely_you_jest
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Needs long dirt nap.


4 posted on 07/29/2005 7:16:37 AM PDT by ncountylee (Dead terrorists smell like victory)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
It is rejection of U.S. and British policies in the Middle East, not Islam, that has promoted terrorism against America.

This guy's near-sighted. Every country bordering an islamic country is in a fight for it's life with the islamics. Jews are killed in France and their sites desecrated by islamics. Britain and America are full of hate-preaching islamics.

These folks want no less than world domination. They could care less what our "political policies" are. They'll attack anyway.

5 posted on 07/29/2005 7:16:53 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It!)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
>Future turmoil in the region is exactly what the instigators of the Iraq invasion have planned all along. They had made their desire for strife in the Middle East known long before the invasion of Iraq

If that were true then
why would all the terror groups
play along with them?

Couldn't terror groups
foil, say, Karl Rove's evil plan
just by being nice?!

6 posted on 07/29/2005 7:17:02 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

The Excuse, er, Express News has some losers in its editorial stable. What was once the conservative, business related newspaper in SA became another liberal rag when the San Antonio Light went out of business.


7 posted on 07/29/2005 7:17:09 AM PDT by Felis_irritable
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Yehuda; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; ...
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

..................

Skip the apologies, stop targeting civilians.

8 posted on 07/29/2005 7:18:27 AM PDT by SJackson (America...thru dissent and protest lost the ability to mobilize a will to win, Col Bui Tin, PAVN)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
Arabs don't need to apologize as much as Islam needs to fundamentally reform.
9 posted on 07/29/2005 7:18:50 AM PDT by JCEccles
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
Why shouldn't the Aeabs have to apologize?!
The Germans still have to and will CONTINUE to "have to" until the end of time.

Mind you, the Japanese, Italians, Russians, Koreans, Sudanese, etc., don't have to, but, then, they aren't Germans or Arabs.
Details, details.

10 posted on 07/29/2005 7:18:55 AM PDT by starfish923
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I don't know that any public figure asked for an apology from muslims or Arabs.

But what would be nice is substantive aid in rooting out extremists. You know, the ones who shelter in your community Mr. El-Kikhia: the ones who design hateful tracts and websites; spew venom in your languages; seek converts and train them.

How about a hand in actually, you know, fighting terrorists, instead of signing petitions?


11 posted on 07/29/2005 7:18:57 AM PDT by Gefreiter ("Are you drinking 1% because you think you're fat?")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

CAIR knows better, and those running it know that Islam rejects all acts of violence outside self-defense.
-----
Yeah, right. Like Hitler was a human-rights advocate...


12 posted on 07/29/2005 7:19:06 AM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
There is nothing American Muslims can do to satisfy this group short of packing up and leaving the United States.

You said it Mansour, not me. Oh and also... Cal Thomas is far from a racist towards Muslims. Apparently, one can't be critical of Muslims without: a) drawing the ayre from groups like CAIR or b) getting your head cut off.

13 posted on 07/29/2005 7:19:20 AM PDT by soundandvision
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To: ncountylee
Needs long dirt nap.

What is a "dirt nap"?
I never heard that expression before.

14 posted on 07/29/2005 7:19:54 AM PDT by starfish923
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
There is nothing American Muslims can do to satisfy this group short of packing up and leaving the United States.

If you insist.

15 posted on 07/29/2005 7:21:43 AM PDT by Founding Father (one of a bevy of white supremacists, JDLers and John Birchers from San Joaquin)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

"Future turmoil in the region is exactly what the instigators of the Iraq invasion have planned all along"

That's utterly asinine.

How does the US gain by working to ensure that the core of the global energy market is in "turmoil"?


16 posted on 07/29/2005 7:22:13 AM PDT by Gefreiter ("Are you drinking 1% because you think you're fat?")
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To: starfish923
What is a "dirt nap"?
I never heard that expression before.

dirt nap = burial.

17 posted on 07/29/2005 7:23:05 AM PDT by KarlInOhio (Bork should have had Kennedy's USSC seat and Kelo v. New London would have gone the other way.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I think it is perfectly reasonable to expect that Muslim leaders will unequivocally condemn all the violence that is being carried out in the name of Islam. It is not a matter of apology, except to the extent anyone has actually aided and abetted the terrorists.


18 posted on 07/29/2005 7:23:27 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
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To: soundandvision

I'm curious how it would be "racist" if someone demonstrated enmity toward Islam or its adherents.

Muslims are a race...?


19 posted on 07/29/2005 7:23:55 AM PDT by Gefreiter ("Are you drinking 1% because you think you're fat?")
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

I guarantee you the presstitutes would be singing a different tune if Christians were the ones committing these atrocities! The OMwhores would be hunting down Christian believers like animals the way they have Carl Roves 24/7 and enjoying doing so like they did watching children been burn to death in Waco!! I remember how giddy the mediasses were and quickly extinguished that story from the front pages! But God has a LONNNNNNNNNNNG memory! Helen Thomas watch out!


20 posted on 07/29/2005 7:23:55 AM PDT by RoseofTexas
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