Posted on 09/04/2004 1:39:22 PM PDT by pilgrim
Pro-Bush Booth Stirs Anger at Convention
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) -- They stop abruptly when they see the 5-foot-tall photo of President Bush, with "muslimsforbush.com" above his head.
Then come the outbursts.
"Disgusting," said one onlooker. "Take that down," said another.
At the largest annual convention of American Muslims, a pro-Bush booth has stirred anger among attendees who believe the president's actions since Sept. 11, 2001, have hurt more innocent Muslims than terrorists.
"I think President Bush has misled not only the United States, but the world," said Noor Maciael, an educator who called the booth "disgusting" and planned to vote for Democrat John Kerry. "He has put us in a situation where the whole world is hating this country."
The display was funded by Muhammad Ali Hasan and his mother, Seeme, who recently created the group "Muslims for Bush." Seeme Hasan said in a phone interview that she and her husband Malik, a Colorado physician who earned his wealth in the health care industry, have donated more than $1 million to Bush and Republican causes since the 2000 campaign.
"The reason we are doing this is that Muslims don't have a lobbyist," Seeme Hasan said. "We want to be there. We are going to give contributions at the highest level."
Bush has other supporters in the Muslim community. Some are Iraqi-Americans overjoyed that Saddam Hussein has been ousted. Others are entrepreneurs who view the GOP as more friendly to business interests. And many devout Muslims prefer the Republicans' conservative stand on social issues such as gay marriage.
But many Muslims at the nonpartisan Islamic Society of North America convention were not grateful for the Hasans' activism.
An older man gawked at the photo of the president with his arms wrapped around Muhammad and Seeme Hasan, and said, "I'm numb. I'm speechless." He then joined a group that had cornered a conference official, demanding that the display be taken down. A volunteer staffing the booth said some people were taking campaign material and throwing it out.
Asma Gull Hasan, the elder Hasan's daughter, who was also at the booth, said she had expected negative remarks. However, she said she was encouraged that some passers-by had quietly told her they would vote for the president.
Bush has a complex relationship with American Muslims.
He declared Islam a peaceful religion when some other U.S. leaders were condemning the faith, and honored Muslim holidays in the White House.
After Sept. 11, the president made a gesture of enormous significance for the community when he visited a Washington-area mosque and warned the public that anger over the suicide hijackings should not be directed toward U.S. Muslims.
However, his subsequent policies have caused deep resentment.
Muslim leaders say the domestic war on terror and the USA Patriot Act, which extended controversial law enforcement powers, have cast so wide a net that all Muslims and their institutions have become suspect. Many also saw the war in Iraq as the extension of a misguided U.S. policy in the Mideast that foments terrorism instead of stopping it.
Leading American Muslim organizations endorsed Bush in 2000 over Democrat Al Gore, expecting the Texas governor would be more sympathetic to their concerns. But Muslims have said since that they regretted their decision.
Surveys of U.S. Muslims indicate a majority will vote for Kerry, even though they fear he will not go far enough in repealing parts of the Patriot Act. Volunteers at a Kerry booth at the convention, in a far corner of the vendors' hall away from the Bush display, were busily distributing campaign stickers.
Both candidates have been reaching out to Muslim voters. Muslims are concentrated in some battleground states, such as Ohio, Michigan and Florida, and they hope their presence in those areas will help them gain political visibility.
Muhammad Hasan said that since the convention began Friday evening, critics who have approached him have been more open to hearing his views. He said he was not discouraged by the response so far.
"I have a lot of faith in the fact that the Muslim vote is up for grabs," he said.
I've wound up on a few of those threads and got into flame wars with the "Nuke 'em all, nits make lice" crowd.
Yeah, and both Licoln and FDR should have been prosecuted for curtailing liberties during the Civil War and WWII.
I just can't help but think that in some dark corner of Hell Hilter is smiling.
The rule says that, if you're not quite stupid enough to be a Scientologist, you have to be a Moo.
That's not creativity. That's the sort of work that makes any criminal profiler tracking a serial killer stand up and take notice when they find it when they find it while searching some out of the way house.
It's only "celebrated" because the Pan Arab word doesn't have anything else to push onto the public. When studying a culture, you don't just study their politics, you study their literature, humor, artwork and music. No original humor, literature, artwork or music has been produced by the Pan Arab world. And to the Islamophiles out there, no, the occaisional "invention" of motifs doesn't count.
Pan Arabism (it's now al Qaeda) is a farce, a lie, a fallacy, a foreign culture superimposed on the ancient cultures subsumed by Muhammad's was of attrition against the world. The only way to keep control is through dictatorship, the total control of the physical lives, hearts and minds of the conquered. Because it's not a real cuture, it's already stagnated and now we're suffering through it's death throws. Unless the Islamic world is allowed the freedom to evolve and grow by being able to speak without fear and represent their own interests in their government, it's dead. Done. Dust. I support the president's plan to spread freedom and representative government to the Islamic world.
I've been listening to Iraqi and Pakistani rock groups, some of which are VERY good. THESE represent are the true hope of the Islamic - NOT THE SO-CALLED PAN ARAB - world. They want freedom. The freedom to create, to sculpt, to play IN PEACE, without being banned, shot or tortured.
Pay attention to people like them. They want the same things as you and me. They deserve your encouragement and your insight, not your contempt.
Muslims care about the future of their children just like Christians do. The one big difference is that Muslims want their children to grow up as Muslims--living in a Muslim world--not one dominated by infidels.
So Muslims who "care about their children will decidedly NOT vote for George W. Bush. They will vote for the guy who gives their side the best chance for victory--kerry.
Thanks for posting a photo a Osama Bin Laden. The clock is ticking, and future photos of him will be hard to find when we kill him. It will happen shortly. Remember, you heard it here first!!
Too bad his art isn't as good as his sentiment.
Exactly. I'd like to ENCOURAGE not only American Muslims, but Muslims throughout cyberspace to visit FR and see the REAL AMERICA, not ideas they got from Hollywood, the media and the Clinton administration.
During the Clinton administration, they kept saying how all Americans were drunks and liars who would have sex with anything that had a pulse. NOW, the Democrats, Hollywood and news media is making them think all Americans want to kill them all. And if they DO come here to find out the truth...they discover there are FReepers saying we should kill them all.
What kind of sauce would you serve with that?
I know how you feel. It's sickening, but people who post things like that don't represent the mainstream.
Personally, I feel that when a man or woman makes the decision to murder and terrorize children and blow up hospitals and pregnant women on busses, they've sold their souls to the leader of that same dark corner of Hell. They're no longer human when they're shooting naked, fleeing children in the backs. They're cholera and need to be exterminated for the health and welfare of humanity. Presuming ALL Muslims enjoy committing such atrocities is just downright stupid.
Other activities at the convention:
1) Jew-dunking (by the ha'dith and qur'an)
2) Bowling for Infidels (by the ha'dith and qur'an)
3) Whack-A-Burka
sorry, I'm just sick of hearing them. I don't trust any of them, especially since 9/11.
How about a vat of kosher cooking oil?
The Constitution has NOT been suspended and Padilla is SCUM who should be in prison for trying to build a dirty bomb and set it off here, NOT President Bush, who wants to PROTECT us from the Padillas of the world.
hmmmmm....do we need to know anything else?
Yeah. "WE" need to know there's a brave minority out there risking possible reprisal by terrorists to fight FOR President Bush.
Muslims -- yet another "victim" group whose individuals are not allowed to think for themselves and stray from the liberal reservation.
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