Tancredo wants one tongue - Candidate confronted by Arabic speaker

Concord Monitor ^ | November 18. 2007 | SARAH LIEBOWITZ

[3AngelaD]

Describing the United States as "the last best hope" for carrying on the ideals of western civilization, Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo called last night for an end to the nation's "bilingualization" and "Balkanization."... Tancredo's comments didn't go unchallenged...."I speak the same language as the people that flew into the towers; I speak the same language as all the Iraqis we are killing; I speak many languages, and I'm proud of it," said Siham Elhamoumi, 22, who recently graduated from St. Michael's College in Vermont..."Am I the enemy?" Elhamoumi then pulled her shawl over her head, so it covered her hair....

"Do you take us for idiots, for people who have no appreciation of our history?" she asked. "Perhaps you don't have an understanding of your country right now, of its composition."

Tancredo repeatedly broke in, asking Elhamoumi to pose a question. He finally asked her a question of his own: "Do you believe that we should replace the Constitution with Sharia law?"

"That is below me," Elhamoumi replied. "Do not belittle people's opinions and people's beliefs and people's religions. Do not put one religion above the other."

Tancredo repeatedly insisted that his views on immigration have "nothing to do with race or ethnicity or anything of that nature." His concern, he said, is national cohesion, whether Americans share the same fundamental principles, whether there is "a singleness of purpose about the idea of America."

Increasingly, he said, immigrants are failing to assimilate - to learn English and embrace American values - as they did in years past. As evidence, Tancredo cited the existence of a bilingual newspaper in Iowa. "We are seeing the Balkanization of America and the bilingualization, which I do not think is a good idea," he said....

[sheik yerbouty]

She needs to be given a refurbushed room in Manzanar..