Posted on 09/03/2006 7:00:27 PM PDT by voletti
WASHINGTON: Ihsan Saadeddin is proud to be an American. But he's tired of having to prove it just because he's a Muslim too.
The Palestinian grocery store owner in Phoenix has called the United States home for 25 years and feels as American as the next guy. He met his wife in Arizona, sent his three children to public school and has a weakness for McDonald's.
But Saadeddin says the September 11 attacks were a tragic watershed which turned US Muslims from ordinary citizens into objects of suspicion and discrimination overnight.
He believes it is why he was questioned at the airport for 45 minutes last month and asked repeatedly if he supports terrorism.
"Being born in another country does not make me less American than the secretary of homeland security," Saadeddin said.
Estimates of the number of Muslim Americans vary between three and seven million, including Arabs, Iranians, South Asians, African Americans and many other communities.
News of domestic wiretapping, monitoring of mosques, immigration crackdowns, public support for racial profiling and bans on some Muslim scholars visiting the United States has made many Muslim Americans feel like targets of racism.
Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi from Dearborn Heights, Michigan, speaks for many when he complains that officials including President George W. Bush use terms such as "Islamo-fascism" to describe the militant threat. They say such terms are inflammatory and liken their faith to dictatorships.
"This type of thing really hurts," said Elahi, an Iranian-born Shi'ite religious leader.
Outreach efforts
US officials deny they unfairly target Muslim Americans and say community leaders have better access to top US officials than ever before. Outreach efforts include townhall meetings with law enforcement officers and training courses for officials by community members.
"It's obvious that Muslim Americans face civil rights challenges now that they never faced before," said Daniel Sutherland, who heads the civil rights and civil liberties office at the Department of Homeland Security.
"As the government, we need to engage better with Muslim Americans. And we're trying hard within our department and you'll see it with state and local governments," he said.
I'm beginning to think Chena's real desire is the attention, even the negative, that she has attracted. Whether she is shrewd or naive, any attempt to enlighten this person is a waste of time. I, for one, am done with it.
England now boasts an active Jihadi fifth column, thanks to immigration and multicultural practices reflecting this Pollyanna attitude. On the Continent, the full spectrum of Jihad is at work, from daily intimidation of infidels up through the occasional mass murder....courtesy of this "most are patriotic Swedes/Dutchmen/Belgians/etc" mentality.
My only close encounter with a Muslim extremist: Three days after 9/11, a Muslim waiter at a restaurant sat down at my table and argued the case FOR Bin Laden. He was a regular waiter for months, and I was a regular customer, so he thought he could sway me. He went on passionately about how Bin Laden "loves" the children of Iraq, and how Bin Laden was only trying to stop their deaths and starvation from sanctions by attacking the U.S. He believed Bush was pure evil, and that Clinton was a great president, etc. A MOST unpleasant conversation.
He was completely sold on Islamic extremist propaganda, and nothing I said could sway him. Nothing except this - when I said there was no telling what Bush would do now, especially if another terrorist attack occured, he visibly reacted. He was afraid of what could happen. In short, the threat of violence was the ONLY argument he respected and understood. No other reasoning worked.
A long story short, the FBI investigated him but he had already left the country. And that was my crash course in Islamofacist mindset 101.
So you may well be right in your general assessment about Islam, as the threat of violence seems to be the only thing to penetrate the extremist mind.
You said it all. Thanks.
I have to offer a correction to the way you formulated this idea.
You should have put it like this: "Incidentally, I don't see that you've defended all Muslims here, just the ones who haven't resorted to violence yet."
Because - when push eventually comes to shove and they have to prove their Muslim credentials to some flint eyed murderous SOB or lose their lives, does anyone REALLY think they will side with US?
Tks for providing the 'minority report' to this debate. You seem to set a a lot of faith in store by the muzlim folk you happen to know who possibly couldn't be evil jihadists etc. fair enough. The problem is izlam permits the ummah to LIE to advance izlam/ in the service of izlam. And this comes from the personal example and verbal approval (as reported in the Sunnah) of the profet himself. Now, that would gimme pause, I would say. I owuld take muzlim protestations to innocence, sweetness and reasonableness etc with a pinch of salt, if ya get what I mean.
From what Iunderstand, izlam competes the freedom of conscience and the freedom of expression in so many ways, I'd be wary of muzlims suddenly experessing conscience and defending first amendment rights all of a sudden. There maybe moderate muzlims buit there is no moderat izlam. And those'good muzlims' willing to accept a sanitized version of izlam wouldn't be muzlims anymore in the eyes of a clean majority of the ummah.
Read Mark styan sometime, just to get a hang of the demographic jihad being waged on the rest of the world by the izlamists. This includes the so-called moderates - apologists, enablers and reservoir for recruitment for the active jihadists.
Do the words "God's gonna take me home if I don't get a million dollars" ring a bell?
But you subscribe to a bloodthirsty religion. Those who question you are entirely justified.
Anything does not,and cannot , be allowed in a civilized world. Every culture has its limits.
Um, I sort of think it does since it means you cannot be president. Of course, you have plenty of opportunity to prove your patriotism and loyalty and then your kids, if they learn that old "assimliation" thing, can reap all the benefits.
Italian American's have it tough, too. Whaddaya gonna do? Maybe after like 17 generations they can both defeat the negative stereotypes. At least the Italians are funny and contribute great restarants and movies! If American Muslims want our respect they can feel free to earn it, the hard way. Try enlisting in the military, for example, and help us exterminate Islamonuts. Now there's a thought...
So are Neo-Nazis.
But I repeat myself.
Um yeah, we've learned a lot. Korimatsu was a raging success, and it still is good law! Hey, that was a war we even won. "Denounce your home country, prove you're not an enemy infiltrator, enlist in the army even and we'll welcome you with open arms." During WWI the Sedition and Espionage Acts helped us get rid of the communist infiltrators and Russian emigres were not exactly handed the welcome wagon. The problem is we have forgotten the lessons of the past. People who are alien to our country- and whose homelands we are at war with!- have the opportunity to prove their fealty. That's all, nothing more.
The enemy truly thanks you "acceptance is an entitlement" types. Bang up job with the Muslim inclusion thing. World trade centers only bombed twice. Wake up!
How? Simply tell them the truth: 'The extremists of our religion believe that all non-believers, who refuse to convert, must be killed. The vast majority of non-believers, do not wish to convert. Some of them feel that killing our extremists first would be the smart thing to do. But, since they can't easily identify our extremists, they have taken the "Kill them all, and let God sort it out!" approach. However, if we put our country first and identify our individual extremists to the FBI, we will receive praise for our actions, and the people who write this on our walls will lose motivation and legitimacy and they will stop. We will have gained self-respect, the respect of our fellow Americans, and pride in our country. We will then live happily ever after.
During WWII, my italian grandparents were required to register as "enemy aliens" with the federal government and report all their movements. They had three sons serving in the US military at the time and they were proud to do it. Had they encountered any fellow Italians involved in espionage or terror activities, they might have reported them, but I suspect my grandfather would have simply killed them. He was a tough old bird and damned proud of his sons.
The real problem is that MUSLIMS are hiding behind the 'hijacked religion' fantasy!
All the 'good', different, Muslims on the planet don't seem to be having an effect on militant Islam. Why is that?
A difference that makes NO difference is useless.
The core point of the article was about TRUST. Giving the benefit of the doubt. Assuming.
Assuming, trusting, believing that all Muslims in this country are harmless, freedom-loving, just-like-everyone-else Americans.
And MY point is that that same sense of 'fairness' that has served America well in the past re. immigrants is SUICIDAL re. Muslims. They HAD that trust, until 9-11. Now they want it DESPITE 9-11, and they are never going to get it again.
I dare ANYONE to argue that our ' they're good until/unless they do something bad' way of thinking did not HELP the 9-11 murderers! A little suspicion BASED ON RELIGION might have saved a lot of lives. When your enemy uses your trust- you stop trusting. If you don't, you are suicidal, and share the guilt of what they do.
People Atta & co. lived and walked among didn't distrust them enough, based on their religion- and thousands died because of it. And the murderers-in -waiting are being trusted right now! They are being smiled at, and defended as nice, pleasant, harmless Muslims, every day, by people who care more about feeling 'good' about themselves, and 'fairminded', than they do about feeling safe- or saving future victims.
Distrust of Muslims in this country is what the article is bemoaning. Trust of Muslims in this country got us 9-11.
Come on- I dare ANYONE to argue that it didn't.
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