Spencer: Pols Pander at Arab American Institute Conference

My column this week in Human Events:

The Arab American Institute held its national conference in Detroit over the weekend, and presidential hopefuls Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul were there. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards addressed the conference via video hookup. Obama also sent an adviser, Tony Lake, and Edwards sent his campaign manager, David Bonior. Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean was there as well.
A Detroit Free Press article noted how much this was indication of changing times: “In 1988, Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis rejected the endorsement of a major Arab-American group.” But now? “This year, Democratic party leaders gave the candidates permission to address the conference despite a campaign boycott of Michigan because legislators moved up the date of the state’s primary.”

The candidates lined up to prove they were More Antiwar Than Thou. “This is a war that I have opposed from the start, and I still do,” said Obama on his video. “Our neglect of the Middle East peace process has spurred despair and fueled terrorism.” Kucinich pledged to end the war in Iraq immediately: “We as a nation must take a new direction,” he said. “We must stop telling people ‘It’s my way or the highway.’ It’s time for American to get out of the Middle East and stop trying to dominate the politics of the region. My plan is to end the war now. It is the occupation of Iraq that is feeding the insurgency.” Edwards declared: “I want to be the president who is going return America as keeper of peace in the region. America needs to return to the position in which it is the moral leader in the world.”
Listening to them, a visitor from a distant planet might be forgiven for thinking that the entire problem between the West and the Islamic world stems from the United States’ unprovoked invasion of Iraq. The wisdom of that invasion as a truly effective means to limit the advance of the global jihad is debatable, but none of the candidates took into account the 9/11 attacks that brought that jihad to the United States. They didn’t seem to make any recognition of the fact that Islamic jihad terrorism and Islamic supremacism exist.

Thus they took a similarly dim view of domestic measures to protect Americans from another jihad terror attack, expressing empathy over the alleged erosion of the civil rights of Arab-Americans, and a determination to redress it. “I will follow the Constitution of the United States,” said Richardson. “The erosion of our civil liberties is not just something that is felt by minorities -- it affects all Americans.” He also said: “I will protect these values we have compromised through unwarranted surveillance and ethnic profiling.” Obama, according to the Detroit News, “reminded the potential voters that he has introduced legislation to make police profiling illegal,” and Kucinich emphasized his consistent opposition to the Patriot Act.

But it was Howard Dean played to the galleries most shamelessly, telling the conference attendees: “You have been singled out unfairly and unjustly...by politicians who hope to have a cheap electoral trick.” He then referred to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and Apple CEO Steve Jobs as successful Arab Americans, adding: “It is important for us to stand and recognize these leaders at a time when this community is under siege by those who would divide America in order to win elections.”

The Democrats apparently believe that the Patriot Act was an unprovoked racist measure designed to rob Arabs of their civil liberties. The fact that America faces a threat from Islamic jihadists – who come in all races, colors, and ethnicities – who have vowed to destroy this nation never seems to enter into their calculations. After all, it was Edwards who said that the terror war was just a “bumper sticker.”

The candidates could have used the occasion of the AAI conference to exhort Muslims in America to support anti-terror measures instead of fulminating against them, and institute comprehensive programs in American mosques and Islamic schools teaching against the ideology of Islamic supremacism.

Instead, they pandered.

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9 Comments

jcom972 | October 31, 2007 8:26 AM

You can best judge a person by the company they keep.

Look at the AAI itself to tell the tale...
http://www.aaiusa.org/
Of that, look at its personnel...
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/groupProfile.asp?grpid=6174

Chairman, George Salem
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1478
(who also is legal rep for HLF!)
(and no, he's no Republican, despite his registering as one-his record of aiding and abetting shows anything but)

james zogby, president
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=763
hmmm, nice bunch he allies with, isn't it?
Not the first time Robert has dealt with this rabid parasite:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID={39ECDFC4-6FE2-4F05-B442-39A9A3B3EA27}

(his brother john zogby is the so-called poster of those bogus and unmistakably leftist shills he call polls. Also a board member & backup hatchetm...errr, I mean spokesman)

peter timko
his henchman, and former staff of the US Embassyies in Kuwait & Iraq...in 1990 during the saddam invasions. (gee, what a coinkadink!)

helen samhan
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1456
supporter of sami al-arian

The rest are a dead giveaway by their credentials.
One would think that the prospective candidates would avoid such conflicts-of-interest like the plague...but not only did they NOT, they kissed up to these islamists so badly they needed to wipe that brown stuff off their noses when they were done. That was beyond pandering.

So much for the bumper sticker bits...now we know why. These "candidates" keep some pretty nefarious company.
Case-in-point...you can best judge a person by the company they keep, as well as whose side they're on...but that's another thread...
Vote wisely.

Stendec | October 31, 2007 8:39 AM

If these lefties were really liberal, they would be standing firm with us against the fascist supremacist ideology of Islam.

Instead, they search among the Muslims for more "victims" of the evil Western culture; more victims they can "defend from persecution." If they had any liberal sense at all, if they had any education worth a damn, if they had any intellectual integrity whatsoever, they would fully understand that the Muslims are indeed all victims--victims of Islamic brainwashing. They would make every effort to free these victims from the grips of the fascist death cult called Islam.

But they are not liberals at all. They are totalitarians. Their utopian end--to employ the power of the state as a permanent bludgeon to remold society and human nature in their image--justifies their means.

sounder | October 31, 2007 8:44 AM

Schmoozing with Terrorists.

ThackerAgency | October 31, 2007 10:08 AM

So, they decide to boycott an American state, but break the boycott for this event to show how 'progressive' they are?

These people have no idea what 'integrity' means.

duh_swami | October 31, 2007 10:11 AM

Birds of a feather stick together...

CTYankee | October 31, 2007 10:32 AM

Iran warns U.S. of "quagmire"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071031/ts_nm/iran_nuclear_dc_11

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would find itself in a "quagmire deeper than Iraq" if it attacked the Islamic state, and Russia stepped up efforts for a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear row with the West.
================================================

I find it amusing that the Iran Revolutionary Guards are using the Dhimmicrat talkings points, referring to Iraq as a Vietnam-like "quagmire".

rational | October 31, 2007 10:37 AM

“We must stop telling people "It’s my way or the highway." - Kucinich

Isn't that what we told Hitler and Tojo, "It’s my way or the highway?"

These Democratic candidates are a perfect reflection of our age of moral relativism: there's no right or wrong. There's just opinions, and one opinion is as good as the other, and There's nothing worse than being "judgemental" about what others believe."

Thank God we had leaders in the past who had the moral confidence to tell our enemies that it's our way or the highway.

flowerknife_us | October 31, 2007 4:51 PM

There is a reason they are called Demoncrats. One of the few call signs hard to deleat.

The only people who have lost any Constitutional protections are Smokers. Demoncrats are leading that charge. The Thought and Behavior Police are out in full force.

flowerknife_us | October 31, 2007 4:52 PM

There is a reason they are called Demoncrats. One of the few call signs hard to deleat.

The only people who have lost any Constitutional protections are Smokers. Demoncrats are leading that charge. The Thought and Behavior Police are out in full force.

FrontPageMag.com

Books by Robert Spencer

The Muslim Brotherhood in America, by Robert Spencer

Islamophobia: Thoughtcrime of the Totalitarian Future

Muslim Persecution of Christians, by Robert Spencer

The Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks

“My comrade-in-arms, my pal, my buddy.”
— Oriana Fallaci

“Robert Spencer incarnates intellectual courage when, all over the world, governments, intellectuals, churches, universities and media crawl under a hegemonic Universal Caliphate’s New Order. His achievement in the battle for the survival of free speech and dignity of man will remain as a fundamental monument to the love of, and the self-sacrifice for, liberty.”
— Bat Ye’or

“Robert Spencer is indefatigable. He is keeping up the good fight long after many have already given up. I do not know what we would do without him. I appreciate all the intelligence and courage it takes to keep going despite the appeasement of the West.”
— Ibn Warraq

“America's most informed, fearless, and compelling voice on modern jihadism.”
— Andrew C. McCarthy, Senior Fellow at National Review Institute

“Robert Spencer is the leading voice of scholarship and reason in a world gone mad. If the West is to be saved, we will owe Robert Spencer an incalculable debt.”
— Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

"The consummate Islam critic and expert." — Bruce Bawer

“Over the years, we have become friends, and I have received his assistance on several pieces of legislation I proposed.”
— Former Congressman Tom Tancredo

“Few people are capable of applying scholarship, analytical reasoning, and objectivity to their topic -- while simultaneously being readable and witty -- as can Robert Spencer.”
— Raymond Ibrahim

“A national treasure...The acclaimed scholar of Islam.”
— Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy

“I am indeed honored to call him my friend.”
— Brad Thor, novelist

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— Daniel Pipes

“A brilliant scholar and writer.”
— Douglas Murray

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— Ashraf Ramelah, Voice of the Copts

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— Kathy Shaidle, Five Feet of Fury

“I read people like [Mark Steyn] and Bob Spencer and the rest of them, and I say, ‘Boortz, you’re pretending you’re an author. These people really are. They really write some entertaining, some standup stuff.’”
— Neal Boortz

“Robert Spencer is the Stephen King of Jihad.”
— Chris Gaubatz, Muslim Mafia

“Armed with facts and fearlessness, Spencer stands up for Western civilization.”
— Michelle Malkin

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— New York Times

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— Washington Post

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— New York Magazine

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— Salon Magazine

“Robert Spencer is an Edward Said turned upside down.”
— Stephen Suleyman Schwartz

“One of the nation's most notorious Islamophobes.”
— Hamas-linked CAIR

"Geller and Spencer are probably the most important propagandizing Islamophobes in the world. These people's voices speak very loudly — not just here in the United States but overseas."
— Heidi Beirach, Southern Poverty Law Center

“Satanic ignoramus.”
— Khaleel Mohammed

“The Likud anti-Christ.”
— Dar al-Hayat newspaper (Saudi Arabia)

“Zionist Crusader, missionary of hate, counter-Islam consultant.”
— Al-Qaeda’s Adam Gadahn, “Azzam the American”