DOJ and FBI love their racial profiling

The Department of Justice and the FBI are teaming up to racially profile every citizen in America . The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing

relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups

At the moment the FBI needs probable cause before investigating any American Citizen. Profiling is not considered a factor that can be used (even though it often is). Under the new program that is due to take effect later this summer ethnicity and religion are will become more than enough justification for investigating citizens and permanent residents.

The new policy, law enforcement officials told The Associated Press, would let agents open preliminary terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.

Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person’s race or ethnicity.

One FBI official had stayed up late the night before watching “Pulp Fiction” before giving this quote to the associated press:

“We don’t know what we don’t know. And the object is to cut down on that”

We will be presumed to be terrorist because of the language we speak and the religions we hold. They will not look in other places for other suspects, their eyes are firmly planted on the Muslim and Arab citizens of this fair nation. Nevermind that both groups do better than the average citizen when it comes to literacy, income and voter turn out. Because of our heritage we are automatically the least patriotic and therefor more inclined to incite terrorism against the state. (Revolution?)

Has America learned nothing from the days of Timothy McVeigh and Theodore Kaczynski? Did they ‘bug’ the phones of every white male who fit their description? What the FBI and DOJ intend to do is not profiling but merely state sponsored racism.  

What is becoming more upsetting to me is the lack of response by the African American community to this news. I do not hear Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton speaking out against racial profiling in this instance? What is so different between the presumed guilt of a young African American man and the presumed guilt of a young Arab American man?

Perhaps I should count my blessings knowing that Bruce Willis won’t be in charge of the internment camps.

Edward Said is rolling in his grave

As is their wont, hard-line supporters of Israel have been pushing Barack Obama quite hard. He is, to them, an unknown commodity with questionable ties. Progressive Jewish opinion, on the other hand (and Arab Americans, as well), finds Obama appealing both because of his messages of hope and change and, specifically, because of comments he has made that indicate openness to a more nuanced discussion of Arab-Israeli peace-making. They latched on to, for example, comments he made to Jewish leaders in Cleveland on February 24th, where he appeared to reject identifying being pro-Israel with “adopting an unwaveringly pro-Likud view of Israel,” and his statement to a Jewish reporter that “in order to make progress in Arab-Israeli talks…both sides should be held accountable to previous agreements.”

There was, therefore, keen interest in how Barack Obama would address these concerns in his remarks before AIPAC’s policy conference today. For the most part, his speech pushed all the “right” buttons. It included a personal narrative that connected his story with that of the Jewish people, including his uncle’s role in the World War II liberation of a concentration camp at Buchenwald, and the larger narrative of the historic bonds between the African American and American Jewish communities based on a shared commitment to liberal values and forged in the American civil rights movement.

In addressing matters of foreign policy, the nub of the matter for AIPAC, Obama did his fair share of genuflecting and oath-taking, most of which is expected before an AIPAC audience that insists upon such displays. But, on the whole, Obama’s speech was less troubling than many others delivered before AIPAC, and contrasted favorably with the AIPAC “talking point” litany delivered one hour later by Senator Clinton.

He was properly tough on Iran, but correctly took on John McCain’s refusal to criticize the central role that the debacle in Iraq has played in destabilizing the Middle East while emboldening Iran and extremism. He repeatedly emphasized the need for principled diplomacy as the way to move forward. He smartly contrasted his commitment to peace-making with the neglect of the Bush administration by pledging active involvement in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, and Israel and Syria, and noting the responsibilities of all parties in the Middle East to contribute to that process. He specifically called on Israel to “take appropriate steps — consistent with its security — to ease the freedom of movement for Palestinians, improve economic conditions in the West Bank, and to refrain from building new settlements.” He urged support for Palestinian President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad, and emphasized that “Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive, and that allows them to prosper.”

“Most Israelis and Palestinians want peace,” Obama noted, “we must strengthen their hand. The United States must be a strong and consistent partner in this process — not to force concession, but to help partners avoid stalemate and the kind of vacuums that are filled by violence.”

If he had stopped there, it might have been an acceptable speech to all sides, but he went further, including a deeply troubling reference to Jerusalem which he said “will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” Left unexplained, this was both unnecessarily provocative and contradictory. If the U.S. is not to “force concessions,” then why predetermine the status of Jerusalem, one of the more sensitive and complicated issues in the negotiations, in a speech to AIPAC? And if Palestinians need a state that is “contiguous,” “cohesive” and “prosperous,” how does that occur when one has cut the heart out of the center of the West Bank? (Note: it has been a Palestinian position that Jerusalem can “remain the capital of Israel” and can “remain undivided” as long as that does not preclude the Palestinians from also having their capital in a “shared” city.)

The AIPAC audience may have cheered, but Arabs, who called me from East Jerusalem, where they were watching the speech on TV, were deeply disheartened, as were Israeli peace activists with whom I spoke.

Better than McCain? Of course. More thoughtful than his predecessors? Clearly. But for those who have embraced Obama’s “change we can believe in” slogan, a few doubts have now crept in.
-James Zogby

Arab Americans leaning towards Obama

Most Arab-Americans support Obama

Many feel a kinship with the Democrat, who they say can repair America’s reputation abroad.

By Tamara El-Khoury, Times Staff Writer
Published March 10, 2008

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Saleh Mubarak is Syrian-American. He’s 49, a Tampa engineer, a former longtime Republican.

And he supports Democratic Sen. Barack Obama for president, following a trend in the country’s Arab-American community.

“The American image in the outside world has been damaged, and we want someone who will reach out to others and say, ‘Let’s sit at the table and talk,’” said Mubarak, who emigrated from Syria in 1981. “That’s what attracted me to Obama. He said, ‘I will sit with Iran, I will sit with anyone.’”

Polls by Zogby International show that Arab-Americans overwhelmingly support Obama. Although Obama is Christian, he lived in predominantly Muslim Indonesia for a few years with his mother and stepfather.

Obama’s campaign had to defend against attacks on his patriotism and deflect repeated false reports spread on the Internet that he is Muslim.

“The biography, the empathy factor, they feel Obama understands the community,” said James Zogby, a senior analyst for Zogby International and founder and president of the Arab American Institute, a Washington, D.C., organization that researches politics and policy in the Arab-American community.

Arab-Americans also remember a line in Obama’s speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Zogby said.

“If there’s an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process, that threatens my civil liberties,” Obama said.

The 3.5-million Arab-Americans are not a uniform community. They are a complex group of immigrants from Arabic-speaking countries in southwest Asia and North Africa who share a common cultural heritage. More than 50 percent are Lebanese. The majority of Arab-Americans are Christian, Zogby said.

They make up about 1percent of the national vote and 11/2 percent to 2 percent of the vote in Florida.

In 2000, George Bush won the Arab-American vote. Today, far fewer say they will vote Republican, a result of the war in Iraq and Bush’s support for Israel. Antiterrorism measures like the Patriot Act, which have been criticized at times for unfairly targeting law-abiding Muslims and Arab-Americans, have further eroded support.

Twenty percent of Arab-Americans said they had been discriminated against since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and two-thirds said they were afraid that they or their children would experience discrimination if the current trends continue, Zogby said.

Civil liberties are among Mubarak’s main concerns. Arab-Americans, he said, have noticed an erosion of freedoms and less due process since Sept. 11. He said it took a year of humiliation and paperwork to get his name off a list that made it difficult for him to travel.

Samer AlGhafari, 39, an American of Syrian and Indian descent living in Tampa, echoes those feelings. His reflex is to look over his shoulder every time he wants to say something.

“Some of the recent policies made internally seem to have lost quite a bit of what made America America, which is the personal liberties and due process,” he said. “Many of the stuff that we see and hear about remind me of the similar things that made me leave Syria.”

AlGhafari was a fan of former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But he will not support John McCain, who won the Republican nomination, because McCain supports keeping troops in Iraq.

And although AlGhafari said he likes former President Bill Clinton, he won’t vote for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton for fear of creating a dynasty of two ruling families.

“It’s only a matter of 30 years, and we become a copycat of Syria or Egypt or Libya,” he said.

Fares Francis, 50, a Lebanese-American living in Lakeland, supports McCain. He said he thinks the Arizona senator will continue a Bush policy that forced the Syrian government to leave Lebanon after 30 years of occupation.

“I believe that President Bush did a lot for Lebanon,” Francis said.

Joe Rached, a Lebanese-American living in Lutz, said if it were not for the Iraq war, there would have been a dozen terrorist attacks in the United States. He said he will vote for whoever becomes the Republican nominee. National security is a top concern for him, and he thinks a Democrat would weaken the Army.

While many Arab-Americans keep a watchful eye on events in the Middle East and North Africa, polls show their other chief concerns are similar to those among the rest of the country: education, health care and the economy.

Husam Amin has stopped looking for a U.S. president who will end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The 48-year-old Palestinian-American and Tampa real estate agent said he has seen too many road maps to peace and heard too many promises from politicians that ended in disappointment.

Amin, a registered Republican who is undecided on which candidate he will support, said he is focused on the economy and education.

“I feel my immediate issues are more domestic,” he said.

Laurice Hachem, a Lebanese-American living in Tampa, doesn’t know whom she’ll vote for. She’s a registered Republican with enormous respect for McCain but is leaning toward Obama. Hachem, in her mid 50s, said Obama is inspirational and reminds her of former President John F. Kennedy.

Arab-Americans are concerned with America’s damaged reputation abroad, polls show. Hachem thinks the next president should talk to Cuba’s new leader.

“I like the fact that he is willing to talk with other nations, not just people that we consider our allies,” she said. “I believe strongly that you should talk to your enemies.”

McCain’s Arab American problem

John McCain’s Arab-American problem

Arab-Americans are concentrated in swing states like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. And the early signs are not good for McCain.

By Juan Cole

May. 28, 2008 | Not long ago, the John McCain campaign dropped a prominent Arab-American businessman from its Michigan state finance committee because of allegations that the man was an “agent” of Hezbollah. The charges, made by a right-wing blogger, were unsubstantiated, but fears of being associated with Arab terror caused Republican knees to jerk, and cost Ali Jawad his position. All politics, even national politics, is local, and Jawad’s abrupt dismissal may cost McCain many votes among Southeastern Michigan’s large Arab-American community. But more important, Arab-Americans across the country are looking for changes in domestic and international policy that McCain seems unwilling to pledge — and they are concentrated in swing states that he will need to win this fall. Does John McCain have a problem with Arab-American voters?

Recent polls show a tight race between either Democrat and McCain in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Ohio, all states where Arab-Americans account for an appreciable percentage of the vote. Such polls have limited utility with November so many months away, but that it will be a close election in those key states seems clear. In a tight election, the votes of a well-placed minority — Arab-American votes — can be crucial.

Arab-Americans are a highly diverse group of up to 3.5 million persons, according to Arab American Institute figures. About three-quarters of them are Christian and a quarter Muslim. Eighty percent are U.S. citizens. Many are from families that have been in the U.S. for decades or even a century. They come from all over the Arab world, from Morocco to Egypt and Iraq to Yemen, but the traditional core of the community is Lebanese and Palestinian.

Because of their diversity, Arab-Americans face challenges in organizing as a coherent political force. They tend not to give money to political campaigns in the name of Arab-American causes. One activist in the community estimated that since 1990 pro-Israeli groups have outspent pro-Arab ones on political campaigns by about 60-to-1, with the pro-Arab organizations having given less than a million dollars in all that time.

Arab-Americans do, however, have some distinctive concerns in common. They are more likely to care about the Iraq war and the Arab-Israeli peace process than other Americans. They are also particularly sensitive to racial profiling and assaults on civil liberties.

That has put them at odds with the Bush administration and the Republican Party, and has contributed to a hard swing toward the Democrats. After a plurality voted for Bush in 2000, the community favored Kerry in 2004 and has been increasingly trending Democratic. About 40 percent have been consistently Democratic since 2000, but the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans nationally has fallen in the past eight years from 38 percent to 26 percent.

Arab-Americans are both very likely to vote — their turnout is 20 percent higher than that of the general population — and they are concentrated. Two-thirds of them live in just 10 states, including the swing states of Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Arab-Americans have made up 2 percent of the electorate in recent elections. That sounds like a small proportion, but in a close race it can make a difference. In 2000, Bush won the Arab-American vote over Gore by 7.5 percentage points. Bush took Ohio that year by only 165,000 votes. He and Gore virtually tied in Florida in the popular vote.

The Arab-American presence is most significant in Michigan. An estimated 300,000 Arab-Americans reside in the southeastern portion of the state. More than a third of Michigan’s Arab-Americans have Lebanese ancestry; most of that population is Shiite. Another third of the state’s Arab-Americans are Iraqi, and many of those residents are Christian.

In other words, up to 5 percent of Michigan’s vote is Arab-American. The Democratic candidate has won the state in each of the last two presidential elections by no more than 200,000 votes. Recent polling suggests that in a head-to-head contest between John McCain and Barack Obama, the two would split the state down the middle. Many analysts believe that the Democrats cannot win in November without winning Michigan.

Prior to the Bush administration and the invasion of Iraq, the state’s Arab-American voters had traditionally split their vote, with slightly more voting Republican than Democrat. In 1990, they solidly supported Republican gubernatorial candidate John Engler and may have helped give him the margin of victory. But in this decade, like much of the Arab-American population nationally, they have had disagreements with the Bush administration.

John McCain has now exacerbated his problems with Michigan voters by offending the large Lebanese Shiite community. Ali Jawad, president of Armada Oil & Gas and founder of the Lebanese American Heritage Club, had been invited to a $2,300 a plate fundraiser for McCain in Orchard Lake, Mich., in late April, when alarmed calls started coming in for him from the McCain campaign inquiring about his alleged activities on behalf of Hezbollah, activities that he denies.

The blogger who made the accusations, Debbie Schlussel, did so on grounds of guilt by association. She charged, without proof, that Jawad was a “key agent of the terrorist group in the Detroit area.” She said that Jawad had met with Hezbollah party officials on a trip to Lebanon, and had visited Shiite villages like Bint Jbeil and Nabatiya that are politically dominated by Hezbollah. Jawad replied that he had met with a cross section of Lebanese politicians with the knowledge of the U.S. Embassy. Schlussel provided no evidence that Jawad had provided material support to Hezbollah.

Jawad is a native of Southern Lebanon and, like virtually all Lebanese Shiites, sees Hezbollah as a legitimate political party. As a Michigan-based contributing editor at Daily Kos has noted, “Lebanese in Dearborn view Hezbollah with much the same mix of distrust mixed with nationalist pride and identity that Catholic residents or former residents of IRA-controlled neighborhoods in Belfast or Derry view the IRA.” Indeed, Hezbollah has large numbers of seats in parliament and will form part of the national unity government under the just-concluded Doha accords. There is a difference between such a stance on Hezbollah’s role in Lebanese politics and support for terrorism. Jawad said in 2003, “Killing innocent people — we reject that … Hezbollah does not fit this category. It has protected its people.” In other words, Jawad, who says it is important to follow U.S. law, rejects terrorism.

When the McCain campaign threw Jawad under the bus, it admitted that it had done so because of the unsubstantiated “Hezbollah rumors.” Osama Siblani, president of the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC), reacted angrily to Jawad’s dismissal at a recent press conference in Dearborn. “The Michigan Republican Party and the McCain campaign,” said Siblani, “need to be reminded that the blood of Arabs is red and the color of their money is green.” He emphasized the extensive philanthropy of Jawad, who came to this country in 1976 from southern Lebanon. “We do not want a president,” Siblani said, “who makes a decision … based on false information … This is an insult to every Arab-American and Muslim-American in the country.”

The dumping of Ali Jawad was hardly the first point of friction between McCain and the Arab-American community. The incident demonstrates the way in which the embrace by the GOP of elements of the Zionist right and fringes of Evangelical Christianity have made it hard to hold on to the growing Arab-American and Muslim-American vote. The minority of Arab-Americans who are Muslim have been disturbed at McCain’s constant use of the adjective “Islamic” when referring to terrorists. (Muslims use the word “Islamic” to refer to the ideals of their religion, and so might refer to a “Muslim criminal,” but an “Islamic criminal” would be a contradiction in terms.) McCain’s campaign says he will continue to use the word. (This obstinacy recalls his vow in 2000 to continue to use the word “gook” when referring to the Viet Cong, a term that offended Asian-Americans. At length McCain relented and dropped the slur.)

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a major Muslim-American lobbying group, slammed McCain for having said last year that he wanted the U.S. presidency to be in Christian hands, complaining that he was attempting to introduce a religious test for high office. Muslim-Americans were also disturbed that McCain sought the endorsement of evangelical preacher Rod Parsley, and that McCain had referred to him as a “spiritual guide.” Parsley has called for Christians to make war on Islam and terms Islam “a false religion.” Last week, when McCain repudiated both Parsley and John Hagee over their hate speech, CAIR applauded the Arizona senator, noting that he specifically complained about Parsley’s comments on Muslims. Whether McCain’s having distanced himself from the two hate-mongering reverends will be enough to repair his strained relations with Muslim-Americans has yet to be seen.

Ultimately, though, issues are more likely to drive Arab-Americans’ voting decisions than McCain’s missteps with the community. McCain is dedicated to keeping U.S. troops in Iraq and to fighting on until “victory.” He displays obvious partisanship toward the Israeli right, making clear his inability to play the role of honest broker in Israel’s negotiations with its Arab neighbors. His GOP has become hostage to anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate-mongers among the televangelists. These considerations disturb many American voters, but Arab-Americans above all.

My own conversations with some Facebook friends suggest Arab-Americans are already looking elsewhere. Hazem Tabbaa, a Michigan native now studying at the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, slammed McCain for “criticizing Senator Barack Obama’s ‘negotiating with the enemy’ tactic.” He calls McCain a “war first politician.” He also has lingering resentments over McCain’s willingness to seek an endorsement from Hagee. He views McCain as “pretty much the same” as Bush. Laila Shereen, an Arab-American poet and digital artist, told me, “I think anyone concerned about social justice in the Middle East must necessarily support Obama.” Maybe that’s why Zogby polling has found that a strong majority of Arab-Americans now favor Obama.

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Arabs and Autophobia: II

Sousan Hammad, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2008

The Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour (www.ipcomedytour.com)

Four comedians recently came together in Houston, Texas “to promote peace through comedy” under the banner of the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour. However, rather than promoting a just end to the conflict, their material exploits it in a disturbing manner.

“We rely on the conflict; peace would ruin our show,” co-founder Ray Hanania said in an interview. When asked by the author if they considered performing for an audience in the West Bank, Hanania joked that he doesn’t want to get shot at by Palestinians angry at him for performing with Israelis.

Ray Hanania, a Palestinian-American journalist and Charles Warady, an American Jew who moved to Israel 12 years ago, say the group breaks the taboo of Palestinians refusing to appear and perform with Israelis. However, there are numerous artistic and non-profit organizatins (for example, the Freedom Theatre and the Palestinian Circus School) in the West Bank which have culturally collaborated with Israelis while taking a stance against the occupation, unlike how Hanania’s xenophobic image of Palesitnians would lead one to believe.

The other comedians in the group — Aaron Freeman, a Black, Jewish convert and Yisrael Campbell, an Orthodox Jew who was born a Catholic — each made their dire and desperate attempt to make people laugh. The show moves through individual acts from the comedians, each one peddling their version of a peace formula.

At the center of Freeman’s act is his description of himself as both a Black person and a Jew — a subject of constant harassment, he said. He was the first to perform on stage, and after a brief sarcastic introduction of stating his goal to end the Palestine-Israel conflict in six years, he went into a musical frenzy, emulating the dramatic singsong approach of The West Bank Story, the Academy Award-winning short film that purports to satirize the conflict but ends up reinforcing stereotypes instead.

Freeman sang the story of a patriotic Palestinian woman who falls in love with an Israeli settler, using an anti-Semitic pun to reference the phonetics of the Arabic and Hebrew languages (dramatically coughing each word in reference to the phonetics of the Arabic and Hebrew languages). Of course the Palestinian is illustrated as precarious and violent, while the Israeli is the rational actor.

In the following act, Warady describes the Arabic script as “backwards” and “tough to read,” the basis of his nonsensical explanation as to why Palestinians voted for Hamas. “They must have read ‘Hamas’ as ‘hummus’ and ‘Fatah’ as ‘pita,’” he said. Warady then goes on a tangent of how beautiful it is to live in Israel. He insists Israeli women are the world’s “hottest” and talks about this to some extent. The audience laughed, apparently not bothered by his bigotry and sexism. Meanwhile the act goes on for a dreadful 20 more minutes as Warady continues to fragment his stories about the “great life” in Israel.

The saddest portion of the night, however, had to go to Hanania, a guest columnist for Israeli publications such as The Jerusalem Post and Ynetnews. Almost every single one of his jokes focused on himself as a Palestinian Muslim, despite being an Orthodox Christian. He joked how as a child, instead of playing with a GI Joe he played with a “GI Abdallah” action figure, while his sister played with a “Fatima” doll instead of a Barbie. He then pointed at different Arab men in the audience, asking them how many wives they had.

Hanania said that after he joined the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, he had gigs cancelled by five Arab-American organizations because of his performance alongside Israelis. But what Hanania doesn’t mention is his problematic perspective on the Palestine-Israel conflict. In December 2007, Hanania wrote an article for The Jerusalem Post titled “Getting past normalization,” in which he states Palestinians refuse to accept reality (i.e. normalization of Israeli occupation) and is critical of Palestinians for refusing to work with Israelis even when doing so would undermine their struggle against the occupation.

Ironically, this is a man who says through his comedy he is “defining the moderate Palestinian Arab voice, offering reason to the American, Israeli and Arab public,” according to his website. Yet in the same Jerusalem Post article, Hanania calls the Israeli occupation of Palestine, a “self-imposed imprisonment.”

Sixty minutes into the night, the concluding performance was finally underway with Campbell appearing on stage in his Orthodox garb. He starts off by making fun of his appearance and then going into a maelstrom narrative of his life, relating anything he said with being a convert to Orthodox Judaism. Campbell, like Warady, also decided to live in Israel and become an Israeli citizen.

The group finished with a performance once again invoking The West Bank Story and reinforced the racist characterization of Palestinians and Israelis through the Orientalist contextualization of the Arab and anti-Semitic illustration of the Jew. Both the short film and the Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour claim to promote hope and peace. However, instead of bringing new clarity to this increasingly bloody conflict, they only reinforce the misunderstandings that allow it to rage on.

Sousan Hammad is a senior in journalism at University of Houston. She is the opinion editor of The Daily Cougar and a staff writer for Free Press Houston. She can be reached at sousan D O T hammad A T gmail D O T com.

How Muslims are treated in America

Props to Sabbah.biz

Sgt. Raghead’s Lonely Arab Club

M. Idrees at Fanonite

‘Recruiting Arabs still tough for Army’, reports AP. Makes me wonder why it is only ‘tough’ and not ‘impossible’.

“The idea that people have here, as soon as they see me in uniform is: ‘Oh, you’re in the U.S. Army? You’re in Iraq killing your own people?’”

Bless those people. At least they remain lucid. So, who are these patriots and what lofty ideals drive them to join the US military?

At a recent recruitment event, some potential translators declined to speak publicly out of concern for their safety. But a few acknowledged that money would be a key factor in their decision.

And then of course there is the endearing story of ‘Sgt. Raghead‘.

In boot camp, he was called a “raghead.” Comrades have questioned his patriotism. Last year a staff sergeant greeted him by calling out, “Here comes the Taliban!”

He remembers a day in 2002 when the comedian Drew Carey visited a base in Saudi Arabia where he was working. During a skit, Sergeant Murad recalled, Mr. Carey dropped to the ground to mimic the Muslim prayer. As the troops roared with laughter, Sergeant Murad walked out.

“I thought about my mom when she prays, how humble she is,” he said.

Yet, day after day, Sergeant Murad sets out to sell other immigrants on the life he has lived…

According to Sgt. Raghead, joining the military offers ‘a path to assimilation, a way to become undeniably American’. It kind of reminds me of some Asian Uncle Toms who had gathered at the Guardian Book Festival to have a discussion on their ‘britishness’, or the American reality show where aspiring Latino immigrants to the United States were made to eat worms and perform other acts of ‘daring’ in order to get a green card.

“It’s almost like Superman wearing his cape,” said Gunnery Sgt. Jamal Baadani, 42, an Egyptian immigrant with the United States Marine Corps. “I’ve got my uniform on, and you can’t take that away from me because I’ve earned it.”

Yes, I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw this particular egyptian eating his own excrement on TV for a green card.

So whats it like wearing the Superman cape for Sgt. Raghead?

“To put on that shirt and keep a face free of blush — it’s just an impossible thing for me to do,” he said…

Sergeant Murad wanted to prove his loyalty. He got his chance when the United States invaded Iraq…

In Bahrain, he was elated to learn that he would be sent to southern Iraq on a top-secret mission with the Navy Seals. But several days into the voyage, he heard a sailor on his ship whisper, “Cam [a.k.a Sgt. Raghead] is one of them [Muslims].” …

That month, he changed his name…“I am an American, I am Cam, I am a naturalized citizen.”…Kamaran became Cameron. Muhammad was dropped for another, less conspicuous family name, Murad.

So how does this man convince other Middle Easterners to join the same military that is oppressing his kin and racially abuses him?

He is careful to tell potential recruits about the military’s zero tolerance policy on discrimination, and urges them to file complaints should harassment occur.

Still, Sergeant Murad has never filed a complaint of his own. During several interviews, he was reluctant to talk about his negative experiences, saying that he did not want to “whine” and that all immigrants endure hardship before they are accepted.

Last year, when an instructor at an Army base referred to Sergeant Murad as “the Taliban,” he laughed along.

“I laughed not to cause trouble,” he said. “…I laughed because I know it’s a hopeless situation. What do you do? You just have to laugh.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think of me,” he said. “Like it or not, I’m your brother in arms.”

Such self-esteem!

“In the end, when somebody gets to know Cam the soldier, Cam the citizen, they always take my side,” he said. “That’s where my triumph is. The hurt goes away.”

Aw! Now isn’t that touching?

According to reports up to 12,000 Muslims are serving in the US military, and about 10,000 have served in Iraq. All I can say is that whatever amount of contempt and derision is heaped on them, is too little.

The American Government has abandoned its arab citizens

US warns Palestinian Americans of delays in Israel

State Department says Israeli authorities may question US Palestinians on arrival in Jewish state, require them to obtain PA travel documents. US Arab groups: Bush administration saying in effect that Arab Americans are second-class citizens

Israeli authorities may question Palestinian Americans on arrival in Israel and require them to obtain a Palestinian Authority travel documents, the US State Department said on Wednesday.

The comments drew quick criticism from an Arab American group that argued the Bush administration was acquiescing in Israel’s treatment of Palestinian Americans as second-class US citizens.
“American citizens whom Israeli authorities judge may be of Palestinian origin are likely to face additional, and often time consuming, questioning by immigration and border authorities,” the State Department said in a “travel warning” to US citizens.

“If judged to have, or judged to have a claim to, residency status in the West Bank or Gaza, such American citizens may be required by the Government of Israel to use a Palestinian Authority travel document to transit Israel to enter the West Bank or Gaza,” it added.

“In addition, American citizens considered to have or to be eligible for a Palestinian Authority ID who entered Israel via Ben-Gurion Airport might be required to depart via the Allenby Bridge to Jordan,” it said, advising such people to ask Israeli authorities where they are required to depart.

‘A pattern of discrimination’
James Zogby, the president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said the State Department had accurately diagnosed the problem for Palestinian Americans traveling to Israel but had not done enough correct it.

“What they are in effect saying is that Arab Americans are second-class citizens,” Zogby said in a telephone interview.

“The State Department is allowing Israel to define how they view the American citizenship of persons of Arab, and in particular, Palestinian Arab, descent. That is not the right of the Government of Israel. It is our government that defines what American citizenship is.”

The State Department said it “seeks equal treatment for all American citizens regardless of national origin or ethnicity” and urged Americans who encounter difficulties to contact the US embassy in Tel Aviv or the consulate in Jerusalem.
The Arab American Institute on Monday released a letter it sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to ensure Israel treats Americans of Palestinian descent fairly.

“The treatment of American citizens traveling to (the West Bank and Gaza Strip) frequently involves burdensome bureaucratic requirements, if not outright harassment and humiliation, and indicates a pattern of discrimination and practices intended to deter visitors,” the letter said.

Reuters: Published: 03.20.08, 06:58 / Israel News

Where is the uproar about this? American Citizens being racially profiled when entering an allied nation!

American Citizens being forced to leave through another country!

Should we next sew a yellow A on our shoulders and carry special ID cards?

We henceforth proclaim 3/16 as Kiss an Arab day

Mark today on your calendars, we have taken over.

Walmart: An Arab American Store

 

As Arwa Hamad strolls a new Wal-Mart, an eight-foot display of olive oil stops her in her tracks. “Oh, wow,” she says, marveling at the sight of so many gallons of Lebanese extra virgin. “We could go through one of these in a week in my house.” Around