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.
Precisely. The reluctance of "good Muslims" to enthusiastically and consistently condemn fascist-terrorist Islamists by calling them what they are is quite revealing.
"Here's the rest of the piece: "
You can see from the posts who didn't bother to read any of it.
Being "liked" on this thread is something I couldn't care less about. Being a good Christian, a good American and a good person is what is important. Terrorists want to kill anyone who doesn't believe in their evil, perverted Islamic extremism. That includes you, me, and yes, American Muslims. American Muslims know it, and most people with an ounce of commonsense know it too.
Oh, you must be referring to Fred Phelps.
I agree, and also agree that it didn't hurt me one iota-crumb!
There is NO reason, other than sloth, for a man of good will to remain true to a "religion" that offers up justifications for the subjugation, humiliation and maiming of women, for the denigration, subjugation and forced conversion of whole populations (that's called "genocide", folks), the targeted, intentional killing of innocents to make political points, and the rationalization of child molestation as its central tenets.
Any Muslim that wants to be taken seriously as a patriotic American, or even as a decent human being, ought to forthwith, and with sincerity, strong purpose and resolve, publicly and proudly denounce, renounce Islam and all it stands for. Then I will take pronouncements of tolerance and benign intention seriously.
Until then, it's mere deception and poop.
Not everyone of the Muslim faith believes that they must subjugate or extreminate everyone who is not of their religious faith. It's been said, time and time again, but some prefer not to listen. They, American Muslims and other Muslims are between a rock and a hard place.
Many CHRISTIANS distanced themselves BIG TIME from David Koresh and his Waco Gang. Christians all over the Earth cried out against Jim Jones and the horrible tragedy in Jonestown Guyana. Why can't some of these Muslims stand up and denounce that there Brothers who march in circles around the black rock in Mecca with them have done to the good image of their peaceful faith?
extreminate = exterminate
It shouldn't hurt at all if he would say it's WRONG!!!
I regularly renounce stupid comments made by Christians. The real difference is in my acceptance that some Christians are idiots and then there's the fact that Christians aren't threatening to kill everyone who disagrees.
I don't see why that should be so hard for islamderthals.
Uh-h-h-h ... no mention if these wonderful 'Americans' ever bothered to become CITIZENS!
Maybe because they don't want to have their heads cut off? Just a thought.
There are a lot of nationalities that took there turn being the low man on the totem pole. ie Irish, Poles etc...
But I certainly can't find any besides the muzzies who's faith and life is based on killing Christians.
Excuse me?
You seem to have lost all reason. To argue with you would be as much of a waste of time as arguing with a Liberal. Been there, done that. Sorry, but you have allowed your hatred for Islamic facists/extremists/terrorists to cloud your better judgement, IMHO.
"When large numbers of American muslims are shown to have TURNED IN extremists to the FBI,"
I would think the first thing to enable that is that there would have to be large numbers of extremists here to be turned in - from the looks of the numbers so far, there are simply not that many.
at the Islamic school
And what exactly are they being taught in that school sir?
Then why don't they call him an American grocery store owner?
Izlam is pretty much a one-way street, the way I see it. Like in that Eagles' somg:
"You can check in anytime you like but you can never leave".
And no, unlike what you seem to think, many are distrustful of izlam despite the establishment's whitewashing of evil deeds committed by izlam while expressly following their holy book. If the media for one were half as critical of muzlims as it is of practising Christians, hell would break loose. Anyways, I respect your right to disagree. (Don't expect such disrespect from devout muzlims when you disagree with, say, the koranic punishments for apostasy etc). Just my $0.02.
You are doing what others are doing. You refuse to believe that there are peace-loving Muslims in America and elsewhere. To say they must give up their entire religion to satisfy your Islamophobia is wrong, IMO. They do not agree with the extremists. Much as some of us Christians do not believe in things that are touted as the "only way" by some right-wing-Christian-extremists. Should I have to give up being a Christian because we have some Christian extremists in this world? I think NOT.
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