If you listen to Barack H. Obama, you might get the impression Arab-American families are getting knocks on door in the middle of the night after which they are spirited away to concentration camps never to be seen again.
As the head of an Arab-American family, this was news to me.
But that's what he told the people of Texas in a commercial message just before the primary vote.
"If there is an Arab-American family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney, it threatens my civil liberties," he said. "It is that fundamental belief, I am my brother's keeper, I am my sister's keeper, it is that fundamental belief that makes this country work."
Granted he said "if." But that is an awfully big "if." I don't think there will be much emphasis on the word "if" when that message is played on Al-Jazeera and around the Muslim world where it is assumed America routinely rounds up innocent Arab-Americans without trial, without attorneys, without reason.
Does Barack H. Obama believe Arab-American families are being rounded up? Does he believe any have been rounded up? Does he believe it will happen?
Does his contempt for American institutions know no depths?
Is this one of the reasons he and his wife have had no pride in their country until he became a front-running presidential candidate?
Can he name one Arab-American family that has ever been mistreated by the U.S. government?
Why is he singling out Arab-American families? Does he think they deserve special consideration?
Is he afraid his family might be rounded up because of his own Arab-African name?
Is this one of the reasons he insists it's bad form for anyone to make reference to his middle name – which is clearly Arab in origin?
Let me tell you, as an Arab-American, I believe my chances for being part of any mass roundup will be greatly increased through a Barack H. Obama presidency. It won't come because of my ethnic background. But, if it does come, it will likely be because of my open allegiance to constitutional government – something this self-proclaimed "constitutional scholar" wouldn't understand if the document read itself to him.
Think of the damage this man does to his nation's image around the world every time he opens his mouth. It's disgraceful. It's treacherous. It's pathological.
But there's more to the quote, if you remember. Barack H. Obama is noted for speaking in platitudes and non sequiturs – and this is no exception.
He jumps from portraying America as a police state to explaining that it is America's charitable instincts and its commitment to compassion for others that makes it work.
Which is it?
Or is it really both?
Is he concerned about the oppressive power of the state? Or does he actually plan to make the oppressive state more powerful – to grow it at the expense of individual compassion, which he finds lacking in its inability to solve any real problems?
Think about these questions and this quote, because they say a lot about the man most likely to be the next president of the United States.
As an Arab-American, I am deeply offended that this man claims to be protecting my rights, watching out for my family's welfare, serving as my loving brother.
He's not. My Arab-American family has been in this country for three generations, having fled the persecution of the Muslim world in search of a better life. Never once has any member of my extended family, going back three generations, experienced even the slightest discrimination or bigotry in this wonderful land of opportunity and promise. Certainly we have never quaked in our beds fearing a knock on the door and the extra-judicial roundup.
It is so preposterous. It is so demeaning. It is so insulting to America.
I'm sure America's enemies are putting Barack H. Obama's campaign rhetoric to use in their propaganda at this very moment.
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