Testimony of an Arab-American to the Democratic Platform Committee

[Time for change]

I heard this testimony yesterday, on the radio while driving to a meeting. I was very moved by it – not only because it was an excellent speech on a very important topic and right on target, but also because after almost seven years of George Bush’s “War on Terror”, I had not previously heard such a speech given by an Arab-American.

The parallels between the situation of today’s American Muslims and American Communists during the Cold War are remarkable, and should hold an important lesson for those willing to look.

Both are identified by an ideology. Both are minorities that face (or faced) a great deal of prejudice and hatred against them in our country, with tragic consequences.

Communism (or “Totalitarian Communism”) provided the focus for the Cold War. Islam (or “Radical Islam”) provides the focus for the “War on Terror”. In both cases, the perceived danger was/is way out of proportion to the actual danger. In both cases, those who held power in our country greatly exaggerated the danger. Both ideologies have served as an excuse for massive expansion of our Military Industrial Complex, to the great detriment of the American people and to the great benefit of a small few.

Communism served as an excuse for us to overthrow or help to overthrow dozens of governments throughout the world, replacing many a democratically elected government with a brutal, repressive dictatorship. It also served as an excuse for our long involvement in the Vietnam War, which resulted in 58 thousand American dead and the deaths of over two million Vietnamese. Under the guise of defending freedom we destroyed many a sovereign nation and destroyed or ruined the lives of many millions of people.

“Radical Islam” served as an excuse for the Iraq War, which has been similarly destructive of the lives of Americans and innocent foreign peoples – though the number of lost lives is not yet as great as during the Cold War. If the “War on Terror” continues in its present form it will spread to many more countries and eventually take more lives than did the Cold War, possibly leading to a holocaust such as the world has not yet seen.

Within our own country, during both wars the civil and Constitutional rights of our despised minorities were greatly curtailed. Many thousands of American Communists lost their jobs or suffered indignities during Cold War. Although a lesser percentage of today’s American Muslims have suffered serious abuse, such as loss of a job or violence committed against them, than American Communists did during the Cold War, thousands have been detained indefinitely and without charges in U.S. sponsored prisons and suffered repeated torture. Thus, abuse against yesterday’s American Communists was more widespread, whereas abuse of today’s American Muslims is more severe.

I am neither a Communist nor a Muslim. But I am greatly disturbed by the abuse that my country has heaped on both of these groups of people. It is un-American in the deepest sense of the word. And as such, it will eventually ruin our country if it continues.


Testimony of James Zogby to the Democratic Platform Committee – August 1, 2008

Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), an organization that serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. through voter registration, education and mobilization.
Here are some excerpts of Dr. Zogby’s testimony:

I am Arab American. My family came to this great country from Lebanon almost a century ago. They, like hundreds of thousands of other Arab immigrants, came because of the freedom America promised, and the opportunity it provided… Arab Americans fanned out across the country… Despite the hardships they endured and because of the sacrifices they made, they were able to provide their children with the better life they had hoped to find when they arrived on our shores… Today there are almost four million Arab Americans… Though a diverse community, we share two core beliefs: a love and appreciation of the greatness of America, and a respect for and an attachment to the heritage of our ancestors.

Domestic failures of the Bush administration

We approach this election, profoundly aware of its importance. Like most Americans, we believe the past eight years have been devastating for our nation. The recklessness and neglect demonstrated by the Bush Administration have taken a toll. At home we face a shrinking economy. Our industrial base continues to erode, leaving broken communities in the wake of factory closures and the exportation of jobs overseas. Confidence in our financial institutions is at an all-time low as a result of corporate scandals and financial crises that threaten the pensions and homes of millions. In the broader economy, the rising costs of healthcare, education, energy – and, now, even food – coincide with the decline in income for the middle class. And in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, we lost confidence in the ability of our government to care for our people’s most basic needs.

As a result, for many, the American dream that inspired millions is in danger of becoming out of reach. And many Americans are no longer confident that their children will be able to match their standard of living.

In the face of these great challenges, the Bush Administration has displayed the characteristics that have become their hallmarks: neglect when action might have made a difference; ignoring reality and, instead, imposing ideologically-based policy when they do act…

Foreign policy failures of the Bush Administration

Nowhere has misguided Bush Administration policy been more evident than their behavior in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. In the wake of this horror, the American people were united, and the world community rallied in support. But in response to this crisis, the Administration undertook domestic and foreign policies that have shredded our Constitution and squandered international goodwill, while engaging in an ill-conceived unilateral war that has left us at greater risk in a world that has rejected our leadership.

The plight of Arab Americans

As Arab Americans, we feel the effect of these misguided policies acutely…. We are stung by anti-American anger, and the disgrace brought to our nation by Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and torture. At the same time, recent Arab immigrants have been profiled, detained and deported without due process. The values that we once projected to the world and protected at home, we now see degraded.

We feel personally the trauma of Iraq, as one-fifth of that country’s population have become refugees or internally displaced persons. 25,000 Arab Americans visiting family members in Lebanon were trapped, and waited too long for help in evacuating, during the war that devastated that country in 2006. And Palestinian Americans, who had such great hope in the prospects of peace during the 1990s, saw this Administration neglect that process…

The importance of the 2008 presidential election

This election provides more than a choice between two candidates. What we will decide is whether or not we profoundly change direction, reclaim our values and restore our image around the world. From the incredible excitement he generated during the primaries to the enthusiastic reception he received during his recent nine nation overseas tour, we believe that the election of Barack Obama will send the much needed message that America is back.

The Platform you are writing will send a message, both to the American people and the world. More than just a political document, it will describe the policies we will pursue and the values on which we will stand. It can, we believe, reinforce the hopes of so many that change is on the way.

Recommendations

For my part, I want to focus on some of the critical issues I noted above that uniquely affect my community. Because we have become so deeply concerned by the erosion of basic civil liberties and the loss of civility in our national discourse, we urge you to:

1) Make clear that we will work to restore the balance between protecting civil liberties and national security at home, and that abroad we will honor American values and our treaty obligations. We should specifically call for an end to all racial, ethnic and religious profiling. We must also make clear our commitment to the rule of law including an end to torture, the closure of Guantanamo Bay, and an end to warrantless surveillance.

2) Make clear we will reject the demagogues who seek to divide us, and who specifically target Arab Americans and American Muslims; that hate crimes should be punished; and that efforts must be made to strengthen our sense of national community by promoting respect for all faiths and ethnicities.

Zogby then goes on to make several foreign policy recommendations, including ending the Iraq War and greater diplomatic involvement in an attempt to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, before ending with this:

For generations, millions have been inspired by our great nation and its values. As we acknowledge the damage that has been done, we must remain cognizant of the responsibility that has fallen on our shoulders to restore that hope.

The fundamental difference between the Cold War and the “War on Terror”

I believe that the biggest difference between the Cold War and the “War on Terror” is that: The American elite had (and still has) a deep and sincere hatred of Communism, which they spread downwards to the American masses; whereas they have no intrinsic hatred of Muslims, but they use the fear of terrorism to encourage hatred among the large number of Americans who are susceptible to that kind of bigotry, in order to enhance their power. Thus, hatred of Communism is mostly a top-down type of phenomenon, whereas hatred of Muslims is more of a grassroots phenomenon among those with bigoted leanings. I can attest, for example, that as a subscriber to Ann Coulter’s electronic newsletter, I am continuously bombarded with hate e-mail directed against Muslims.

The American elite hatred of Communism is easy to understand. They believe that it, and anything remotely resembling it, threatens their wealth and power. Thus, their hatred is not by any means limited to pure Communism. John McCain represented their view well when, during the May 2007 Republican Presidential primary debate, he responded to a question about national health care, his voice dripping with contempt, by explaining that the provision of health care by our federal government would constitute “socialism”.

The word “socialism” is so stigmatized in our country that no explanation was needed or given. Of course, socialism is not Communism. But the rabid right wing elite considers it close enough that it may as well be the same thing. And by the same token, liberalism is so close to socialism that it may as well be Communism. Their bottom line is that any government intervention to give the poor or working or middle class a break by leveling the playing field is Communism or at least on the slippery slope leading to Communism.

In contrast, I don’t think that the Bush/Cheney administration or most of the elite cheerleaders for their “War on Terror” particularly hate Muslims. But they do encourage the fear of Muslims in order to enhance their power.


Relevance to the 2008 presidential election

Our country must let go of the idea that it needs a scapegoat to feel good about itself. It must let go of the idea that we must, or even that we have the right, to spread our system and our influence to all parts of the world at the point of a gun. It must understand that if we want to lead and have the respect of the rest of the world we must give up our imperial bullying and instead get back to the ideals expressed in our Declaration of Independence. In order to earn their respect we must show respect for them by taking seriously the idea that all people, not just us, have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Barack Obama indicated during his recent overseas tour that he intends to follow this path:

Tonight, I speak to you as… a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world… There is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one… No one nation, no matter how large or powerful, can defeat such challenges alone…

While the 20th century taught us that we share a common destiny, the 21st has revealed a world more intertwined than at any time in human history… The burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity… Now is the time to join together, through constant cooperation, strong institutions, shared sacrifice, and a global commitment to progress, to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

The way in which Obama spoke of Muslims in that speech indicates that using them as scapegoats is the furthest thing from his mind:

The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down… If we could win a battle of ideas against the communists, we can stand with the vast majority of Muslims who reject the extremism that leads to hate instead of hope.

I disagree with many of Obama’s positions. But he has made it quite clear that he intends to use diplomacy, rather than war, as his primary means for relating to the rest of the world, which represents 95% of the world’s population.

John McCain on the other hand routinely frames the Iraq War in the simple minded terms of a school child who understands nothing but “winning and losing”. Yet he has never explained what it would mean to “win” the Iraq war. Since McCain has said that “No one has supported President Bush more than I have on Iraq”, it appears very unlikely that his approach to the war will differ appreciably from Bush’s approach. He has consistently opposed any plan for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He has said that we should stay in Iraq for a hundred or even maybe a million years.

I believe that James Zogby is correct when he says “This election provides more than a choice between two candidates. What we will decide is whether or not we profoundly change direction, reclaim our values and restore our image around the world.”

[brer cat]

1. A most excellent post.

Recommended.

[Time for change]

2. Thank you

[DinahMoeHum]

3. K'd, R'd, and bookmarked.

thanks

[Time for change]

4. Thank you

[Douglas Carpenter]

5. RECOMMENDED!!! I HOPE THIS POST IS RECOMMENDED TO THE FRONT PAGE!!!

This is the one of the most important post ever posted on this forum in terms of the gravest danger facing America today, the danger of political demagogues and ideologues dehumanizing and vilifying a people for selfish political gain - and the effects of this crass, vulgar, racist demonizing reaches around the whole world and have the potential for nightmarish consequences for America and indeed the whole world, perhaps even the potential to drive America and the world over the abyss.

[Time for change]

8. Thank you -- My sentiments exactly

I was so impressed with Zogby's speech. I hadn't been aware that the Arab-American community had such an eloquent spokesperson. I'm so glad that he had the chance to speak to the Democratic platform committee. I hope they give his words a great deal of thought.

Interestingly, his brother, John Zogby, is perhaps our country's most accurate pollster. Also interesting is the fact that his electoral predictions for this year are somewhat out of synch with most other pollsters, who I believe are trying to hard to make the race sound more "interesting" than it really is. Here's Zogby's latest predictions:



Note that many of 2004's swing states are blue, whereas many other states that were oomfortably Republican are now purple. Every single state that Kerry carried is blue, plus three more, plus a lot of previously unreachable purple states. End results is:

Obama: 273
McCain: 146
Too close to call: 119

[LeftishBrit]

6. kick

There are always 'Others' who will serve as scapegoats at a time when politicians, media figures, or generally disgruntled citizens need them (and the politicians would generally prefer that the disgruntled citizens turn their attention to the Others, and not to them).

In the UK, Islamophobia is very secondary to general anti-immigrant bigotry, but is sometimes grafted on it these days.. Most British Muslims are not Arabs, but have Pakistani or other Asian origins.

[Time for change]

9. Isn't that the truth

Our country went through the McCarthy period.

We went through the Vietnam War, which killed off 58 thousand American soldiers for no good reason whatsoever.

But we just haven't learned enough from those episodes. How many more will have to suffer and die before we learn the lessons of our past?

[Douglas Carpenter]

7. Kick and recommended -- because it is so very important!!

[mojowork_n]

10. It's that -- "The Other" -- thing... People not like "us"

A couple of days ago, I took my stepson and his friend to '6 Flags/Great America' theme park, north of Chicago.

Americans (and maybe a few foreign tourists, I think), of all ages, backgrounds, shapes, sizes, on parade.

I walked past a family group. The women were all wearing headscarves, so I guess they were muslim. One of the ladies was also wearing a colorful t-shirt with big white letters on it, that said,

"MAKE AWKWARD SEXUAL ADVANCES, NOT WAR"

I laughed inside, but I didn't really let it show. That headscarf. As a rule, I'm generally pretty open to "foreigners" (being a naturalized citizen, myself, who had to start learning English the day I entered kindergarden), but I was just bashful enough not to want to disturb the group. I barely even let out a grin...

Waiting near the main gate, an hour or so later, for the boys to show up, another family group sat down next to me. The women were wearing headscarves, but there were no t-shirts, or shorts, or anything. Everybody was all covered up, even a young lady who looked like she was barely out of grade school. The kids in the group sat right next to me, and pulled out a map of the park, to talk about the best rides. I couldn't resist the impulse to reach over and point out my favorite ride, the "Tornado", which was at the Water Park. You ride a raft down a long, steep chute, then get thrown into the 60 foot wide mouth of this giant platic cone:

http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/sixflags/23528/

It wasn't until later, when the three of us were going to go on the ride, that I figured out I'd embarassed *them*. Steve and Jake were kicked out of the line for having denim shorts on. A sign at the front of the park reads, "no swimwear", but swim suits are mandatory at the water park. No way were they going to let the muslim kids in, wearing what they were wearing.

D'oh....

I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, but it sort of brings back an excerpt from George Orwell's diary.

Writing in 1945, just as the horrors of the concentration camps were being exposed, he makes a good point:

January 12:


SOME time back a correspondent wrote to ask whether I had seen the exhibition of waxworks, showing German atrocities, which has been on show in London for a year or more. It is advertised outside with such captions as: HORRORS OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMP. COME INSIDE AND SEE REAL NAZI TORTURES. FLOGGING, CRUCIFIXION, GASCHAMBERS, ETC. CHILDREN’S AMUSEMENT SECTION NO EXTRA CHARGE.

I did go and see this exhibition a long time ago, and I would like to warn prospective visitors that it is most disappointing. To begin with many of the figures are not life-size, and I suspect that some of them are not even real waxworks, but merely dressmakers’ dummies with new heads attached. And secondly, the tortures are not nearly so fearful as you are led to expect by the posters outside. The whole exhibition is grubby, unlifelike and depressing. But the exhibitors are, I suppose, doing their best, and the captions are interesting in the complete frankness of their appeal to sadism and masochism. Before the war, if you were a devotee of all-in wrestling, or wrote letters to your M.P. to protest against the abolition of flogging, or haunted second-hand bookshops in search of such books as The Pleasures of the Torture Chamber, you laid yourself open to very unpleasant suspicions. Moreover, you were probably aware of your own motives and somewhat ashamed of them. Now, however, you can wallow in the most disgusting descriptions of torture and massacre, not only without any sensation of guilt, but with the feeling that you are performing a praiseworthy political action.

I am not suggesting that the stories about Nazi atrocities are untrue. To a great extent I think they are true. These horrors certainly happened in German concentration camps before the war, and there is no reason why they should have stopped since. But they are played up largely because they give the newspapers a pretext for pornography. This morning’s papers are splashing the official British Army Report on Nazi atrocities. They are careful to inform you that naked women were flogged, sometimes spotlighting this detail by means of a headline. The journalists responsible know very well what they are doing. They know that innumerable people get a sadistic kick out of thinking about torture, especially the torture of women, and they are cashing in on this widespread neurosis. No qualms need be felt, because these deeds are committed by the enemy, and the enjoyment that one gets out of them can be disguised as disapproval. And one can get a very similar kick out of barbarous actions committed by one’s own side so long as they are thought of as the just punishment of evil-doers.

We have not actually got to the point of Roman gladiatorial shows yet, but we could do so if the necessary pretext were supplied. If, for instance, it were announced that the leading war criminals were to be eaten by lions or trampled to death by elephants in the Wembley Stadium, I fancy that the spectacle would be quite well attended.

Was it yesterday, Osama bin Laden's driver was convicted:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26055301/

...of the charge of being Osama bin Laden's driver. They couldn't really tie him to any terrorist act, or other criminal activity, but he was the driver, so of course no one really said anything.

“The love of liberty is the love of others. The love of power is the love of ourselves.” – William Hazlitt, English essayist (1778 - 1830)

[Time for change]

12. Interesting story

Sometimes one has to be careful to avoid not insulting people.

It disgusts me how our government has abused and tortured Muslims. Hamdan was detained without charges for years, tortured, and when they finally give him a military tribunal he's convicted of something he admitted to from the beginning.

One wonders what we'd think if George Bush's or Dick Cheney's drivers were incarcerated while an international court tries Bush and Cheney for war crimes.

[Douglas Carpenter]

11. what is particularly disturbing is that anti-Arab racism and anti-Muslim bigotry, no matter how

hateful, no matter how blatant, no matter how obvious, is today the socially acceptable form of racism and bigotry, sometimes even in liberal circles, at times even on liberal and progressive blogs and forums.

here are some thoughts from Zbigniew Brzezinski:

Terrorized by 'War on Terror:

How a Three-Word Mantra Has Undermined America
By Zbigniew Brzezinski
Sunday, March 25, 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613.html

snip:"To justify the "war on terror," the administration has lately crafted a false historical narrative that could even become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By claiming that its war is similar to earlier U.S. struggles against Nazism and then Stalinism (while ignoring the fact that both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were first-rate military powers, a status al-Qaeda neither has nor can achieve), the administration could be preparing the case for war with Iran. Such war would then plunge America into a protracted conflict spanning Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and perhaps also Pakistan"

snip:"The entertainment industry has also jumped into the act. Hence the TV serials and films in which the evil characters have recognizable Arab features, sometimes highlighted by religious gestures, that exploit public anxiety and stimulate Islamophobia. Arab facial stereotypes, particularly in newspaper cartoons, have at times been rendered in a manner sadly reminiscent of the Nazi anti-Semitic campaigns. Lately, even some college student organizations have become involved in such propagation, apparently oblivious to the menacing connection between the stimulation of racial and religious hatreds and the unleashing of the unprecedented crimes of the Holocaust."

snip:"In the meantime, the "war on terror" has gravely damaged the United States internationally. For Muslims, the similarity between the rough treatment of Iraqi civilians by the U.S. military and of the Palestinians by the Israelis has prompted a widespread sense of hostility toward the United States in general. It's not the "war on terror" that angers Muslims watching the news on television, it's the victimization of Arab civilians. And the resentment is not limited to Muslims. A recent BBC poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries that sought respondents' assessments of the role of states in international affairs resulted in Israel, Iran and the United States being rated (in that order) as the states with "the most negative influence on the world." Alas, for some that is the new axis of evil!"

snip:"Where is the U.S. leader ready to say, "Enough of this hysteria, stop this paranoia"? Even in the face of future terrorist attacks, the likelihood of which cannot be denied, let us show some sense. Let us be true to our traditions."

"Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, is the author most recently of "Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower" "

link to full article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301613.html

[Time for change]

13. Excellent article by Brzezinski

Thank you.

[Douglas Carpenter]

15. one positive development, I have noticed

Between two and five years ago, certain fringe Democrats wanted desperately to push anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism and bigotry as a political strategy. Prominent writers from such publications as The New Republic and such think tanks as The Progressive Policy Institute actually got it into their sick, perverted heads that the American people were just itching for more wars in the Middle East and were seething with feelings of vengeance for 9/11 and that this agenda would be a winning strategy for the Democratic Party.

By the time the November 2006 elections came along, it was quite clear to everyone, that the American people did not want any part of their wars or their racist message.

[Douglas Carpenter]

17. /

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. kick

[Douglas Carpenter]

16. kik