Sometimes I think that the attack on Barack Obama and the fact that his father was a Muslim from a Muslim country is not the real reason of all this hatred to Obama. Some times I feel that some of this hatred goes to the fact that Obama is a black man and there is still race issue in America , a strong race issue.
You know why I am saying this because after spending sorry wasting nearly an hour yesterday in Republicans’ blogs I found out that it is not about his Islamic origins , I mean he denied that he was Muslim and so they tired to find something new “He is a socialist ,He is a communist” ,they are over that he used to know Palestinian professors in Chicago and now they are concentrating on Ayres !! From Islamic terrorism to Domestic leftist terrorism !!!
Yes I understand the fear of Islam and the fear of Socialism but I think there are some people in America who are still inside them hate the fact that a black man will be a president of the United States, they do not want this to happen and they do not want to say it because they know that they will be labelled as racists by their follow Americans and the world , the same world who got sick of the claims of the Republicans about democracy and equity , those people are the basis of the Republican party. And thus they are trying to attack other aspects in him ,his African and Islamic roots and his past relations.
As Republican, I can say there is plenty to be concerned about Senator Obama. He is my state senator. Most of his time in senate he has been campaigning for president (I think I may have even voted for him!) and he has not represented me well. He is a member of the New Socialist party, he is not truthful about the depth of his associations. I love his message, but not his means of implementing it.
ReplyDeleteRacism is still alive and well in America, sad but true. Hatred exists everywhere, but there is now a social and legal structure to combat racism. There will be people who won't vote for him on that basis, but not many. Look who his most energized base is: young white democrats.
Look here in the Arab world: slavery was only made illegal in Saudi fifty years or so ago, and people still use the word 'slave' for African Americans. Worse yet, a persons' value is directly graded by their skin color.
Americans had a civil war over the importance over ending slavery. My relatives died defending the rights of racial equality. Please be just as careful of broad generalizations of political spectrum as well. If he held my values, I would vote for him in a heartbeat, probably OVER a white man with the same qualifications, for the joy of having a Black American President.
Kinzi,
ReplyDeleteI resent the fact that you are pushing right wing talking points as truisms and fact, when disputing 'the junior us senator from your state' [he is not your state senator, but i digress.]
yes we had a civil war, but the reconstruction was sloppy and we've struggled to right many wrongs in the intervening years. you mention saudi arabia, i don't know if you're a hyphenated american, originally from the middle east. but the arabs were never as cruel and brutal to their slaves as western europeans. islam forbade the from being cruel and draconian. so it took the arabs a little longer to come in line with the rest of the world due to the simple fact that slaves were never brutalized!
as for obama being a socialist, you being a denizen of illinois, know very well that obama's economic team hails from the univerisity of chicago THE HOME OF MILTON FRIEDMAN---yes austen goolsby et al. so calling them socialists is like calling bill gates lenin!!!!
please pay attention to the issues and not the propaganda on TV!
Very well put, guy in the US!
ReplyDeleteKinzi, I suggest you get a book!
Media propaganda is just pathetic, and those who adhere to it, far worse!
Guy, hhhmmm, what to say? If talking points fit, wear them? Oh, I get it, only if they are your talking points. I don't watch TV, period.
ReplyDeleteI'm a 5th generation American, long term expat living in the Middle East. Speak three languages, read five, lived on three continents, one quasi-socialist country and traveled extensively in former communist countries. Worked in a UN refugee camp, from people fleeing the very forms of guv Sen. Obama is pushing. Were you even alive then?
As a writer, I often cover Philippinas who work essentially as modern-day slaves of Jordanians, and even GASP, Egyptians who are treated no better. Indians in Dubai, same thing.
Anon, I am WRITING the books on it (not Milton Friedman, tho, I'm only Illini by marriage).
I think perhaps your history study has been a bit revisionist. Slaves never brutalized under Islam? Please. Next you will tell me Islam played no role in the American slave trade.
I forgot, your kind are one of the the reasons I don't often visit Zeinobia's blog. Ciao.
well kinzi,
ReplyDeletei wasn’t the one that took the personal stab and surly you can’t blame z for the antics of her readers.
but please enlighten me on how obama will turn the us into a socialist big brother state? other than the ‘spread the wealth’ out of context 30 second sound bite that plays incessantly on fox, hannity and limbaugh?
ps i commend your work with unhcr, the world needs more people like you, sans your party leanings of course :D
Arab has been the new black since 911. Being both Arab and muslim makes it worse, and worst of all is of course:
ReplyDeleteArab Muslim Woman
Not that I agree with the above, this is just what I see.
Kinzi,
ReplyDeleteWe'd be lucky to get even 50% of the democracy in the type of gov obama is pushing, and some socialism is a good thing. I mean Americans still don't have free universal healthcare which even their much poorer Canadian neigbours have. Isn't that more important than say an international space station, or sending troops to Iraq to die for no apparent reason?
About the filipinas and Egyptian workers here, it is simply false to call them slaves based on some employers misconduct. Last month, we sent home our maid for the past 10 years! She wanted to stay with us, but her parents insisted they want her back.
The point is, they come here willingly, they get paid, they have the right to leave whenever they want. You are comparing this to the plantation slaves in pre-civil war America who were often forcibly kidnapped from their native countries, forced to work for food and board, whipped, chained, and bought and sold for crying out loud! I'm sorry but there's no comparison here.
"there are some people in America who are still inside them hate the fact that a black man will be a president of the United States, they do not want this to happen"
ReplyDeleteSure there are some. There is "some" prejudice everywhere. But a majority of Americans are about to elect THIS black man leader of the country. There are many countries where that hasn't happened and probably couldn't happen.
hani 2 wrongs don't make a right! we are not sweden (nothing wrong with sweden, but we are a different animal.) just because the pendulum swung all the way to the right in the late 90's by the repeal of the glass stiegel act, does not mean that we should subscribe to a mommy state. [btw glass stiegel was repealed by the bubba clinton admin cant blame dubbya for that!]
ReplyDeletewhat obama will do is reverse the bush tax cuts to the top one percent and correct the wrongs of the past eight years and for that he has been deemed a socialist by the right wing.
btw hani thanks for clarifying the status of the laborers in the middle east, yes getting paid for a days labor is a far cry from the antebellum south!
Ok this is one hot topic for sure
ReplyDelete@Kinzi , I do not see too how Obama will turn America in to a Socialist country ,I mean this is totally untrue for God Sake
about slavery and Islam , my dear I think you read wrong book about this because we have in Islam if you free a slave then you will be free from hell ,this is what the religion says , if the people does not comply then it is their fault not the religion fault after all those who enslaved the Africans in America were Christians
It is not about religions ,it is about people themselves
Here I speak about some not all the Americans , some of the republicans who can't stomach Obama ,I was clear in my post
@a guy in the us, anonymous#1 and Hani, I agree with you ,
@Hani,unfortunately some westerns got this idea about the workers and maids suffering in the Middle East thanks to unfortunate incidents in the Gulf from abuse
@anonymous #2 , Yes most of America seems to elect a black man and Yes many countries this seems impossible in it ,for instance Europe
Egypt was ruled by two great black presidents till now they are popular "Sadat and Naguib"