The question of Arab and Muslim identity in America has been radically transformed in the last eight years. Can one be both Muslim and a decent family man? Of course, but the message coming from the McCain campaign suggests otherwise. Palestinian-American poet Suheir Hammad says that there is a long tradition of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry in this country. While Colin Powell's comments on Meet the Press about Muslim soldiers were welcome, they reveal just how skewed the discourse has become. There was, of course, no mention of the tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. What about those Muslims?
Hammad, born in Jordan to Palestinian refugees moved to Brooklyn at the age of five. She reads from her new book of poems, Breaking Poems, and discusses her role in the film Salt of This Sea.
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I wake up every day and feel ashamed of what my country has done to Iraq. Every day I pray for the innocent people who have been killed in this immoral and illegal war based on a “pack of lies” I often wonder how different are most Americans from those who were silent during the massive murders of Jews, Poles, Gypsies, handicapped etc by the Hitler regime. How different are Americans as they push their pedals to the metal and live their lives everyday ignoring the consequences of what the Bush administration has done in Iraq and many of them supported or sat idly by as the invasion was implemented.
I am ashamed of my country, I am not proud (as Sarah Palin) tells us we should be as she hides behind her faux Christian cover with a little cross around her neck. People like Palin are disgusting to me, because they do not value the lives of the Iraqi or the people of Afghanistan, Palestine or anywhere else as much as they do as an American fetus. Palin and McCain are not Pro-life…they promote death and destruction in other lands so that we can maintain a standard of living here in the states that is long overdue for close examination. They support unfair and destructive U.S. policies controlled by the Israeli Lobby that promote death and destruction for the Palestinian people who deserve the land that they have lived on for a very long time.
I am ashamed of my country and many of us are doing everything that we can to take responsibility for what the Bush administration has illegally done in Iraq and elsewhere.
Hopefully the INternational community will hold the Bush administration accountable for their war crimes because the majority of the American people are far too much like Sarah Palin and are unwilling to be honest about what has taken place in our nations name.
FAIR AND ISLAMAPHOBIA
http://www.fairuk.org/intro.htm
http://www.smearcasting.com/index.html
In the “smearcasters” they fail to point out the next 10 smearcasters. Micheal Ledeen, Reul marc Gerecht, John Bolton, James Woolsey, Senator Lieberman, Bill Kristol, etc etc.
This is a great website for issues that are not talked about even in the progressive blogosphere
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/
“Admit it, recognize it” Mustard Faith Incredible Thank you Suheir Hamaad. Thank you Laura. Thank you for picking up on this important issue.
Iraqi body Count
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
The Last Lancet report (that the Bush administration discounted) and tossed aside
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01442.html
How about how Daniel Pipes via Campus Watch and other organizations have kept the I/P conflict from being discussed in a serious way on Campuses.
http://www.campus-watch.org/
How Camera has attacked Jimmy Carter,
http://camera.org/index.asp?x_.....ticle=1463
Norm Finkelstein or anyone else who wants to discuss the I/P conflict honestly is attacked and can lose their jobs
http://www.camera.org/index.as.....rticle=985