Colin Powell Is New Hero Of U.S. Muslims

I have to admit it - I missed this quote from Colin Powell when he made his endorsement of B. Hussein Obama on Meet the Press. See, I don't watch Meet the Press and when the video of his interview with Tom Brokaw was put up, after a few minutes I couldn't take it any longer. But according to the story at Haaretz, American muslims are rallying around a quotation from Colin Powell where he said:

"The correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America," Powell said. "Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated (with) terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Okay, first of all, Mr. Powell, Obama IS associated with terrorists - might not be a muslim one but indeed a bona fide, 100% admitted terrorist in William Ayers.

Here's what American muslims are saying about Powell's comments:

"We American Muslims have talked about our patriotism and the heroism of some American Muslims till we were blue in the face, and neither the media nor the people listen," said Seeme Hasan, a Pueblo, Colorado, Republican whose family has given tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party. "Gen. Powell made people listen and at a very humane level," said Hasan, who is backing McCain. "More people in leadership positions need to say this and recognize this - that American Muslims have worked very hard to fight this war on terror."

Now, let me take Colin Powell's statement and make a point out of it. Powell says, in essence, that if an American is muslim they should not be seen in any suspicious light. So let's look at Congressman Keith Ellison. Ellison became the first member of Congress to ever be sworn into office using the Qur'an. The Qur'an implores all of its followers to follow the orders of allah and mohammed and to literally work for world submission to islam. Keith Ellison, as a muslim, has sworn to work towards the goal of islam which is final submission of all infidels in America.

I call that a security risk. I call that a terrorist threat.

We have the majority of muslim leaders in America who have publicly ignored islamic terror attacks across the world...we even have some who have insinuated that it was U.S. policy in the Middle East that caused the 9/11 attacks. These muslims who are so eager to cling to Powell's comments, so infuriated at their perception of persecution....I'd like to ask each of them if they agree with the total support the U.S. has of Israel as one of our biggest allies. Search these people out and simply ask them if they agree with U.S. support of Israel and you will find out just how "American" these people are. They are muslims first, Americans second or third.

U.S. Muslims relieved by Powell's attack on anti-Islam rhetoric

American Muslims say they have been treated as dangerous outcasts in an election year when Barack Obama's opponents are spreading false rumors that he is Muslim and linking him to terrorists. So when Colin Powell, a Republican, condemned using Muslim as a smear - a tactic he said members of his own party allowed - there was an outpouring of gratitude and relief from American Muslims. "That speech really came out of left field and really shocked us," said Wajahat Ali, 27, an attorney and playwright from Fremont, California. "The sense is that it's about time. He said something that needed to be said."

The retired general, who was President George W. Bush's first secretary of state, made the comments on NBC television's Meet the Press, as he broke with his party to endorse the Democratic nominee for president. Powell noted in last Sunday's broadcast that Republican John McCain did not spread rumors about Obama's faith, but Powell said he was troubled that others did. "The correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America," Powell said. "Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated (with) terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America." Powell said he felt especially strongly about the rumors because of a photo he saw in The New Yorker magazine of the mother of a Muslim soldier in Arlington Cemetery embracing her son's grave, which was marked with a Muslim crescent and star. The soldier, Kareem R. Khan of New Jersey, was 20 when he was killed in Iraq. "We American Muslims have talked about our patriotism and the heroism of some American Muslims till we were blue in the face, and neither the media nor the people listen," said Seeme Hasan, a Pueblo, Colorado, Republican whose family has given tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party. "Gen. Powell made people listen and at a very humane level," said Hasan, who is backing McCain. "More people in leadership positions need to say this and recognize this - that American Muslims have worked very hard to fight this war on terror." The inaccurate claims that Obama is secretly Muslim started as soon as he was mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. There were false rumors that he was educated at a radical Islamic school as a child in Indonesia and that he was sworn into the Senate on the Quran. His opponents emphasized his middle name - Hussein - and circulated a photo of him wearing traditional tribal garb on a 2006 visit to Kenya. Kari Ansari, a mother of three from Villa Park, Illinois, said the allegations upset her 10-year-old son. "It sort of made him feel like, 'If they won't elect him president just for trying on Muslim clothes, they will never elect me because I'm a real Muslim,'" said Ansari, a founder of America's Muslim Family, a quarterly magazine. "That's heartbreaking for us as Muslim parents." Obama has combatted the claims in speeches and on a campaign Web site dedicated to debunking inaccuracies about him. But the belief persists. A poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found 12 percent of voters believed the Illinois senator is Muslim. That poll was released Tuesday - coincidentally, the same day the head of a New Mexico Republican women's group called Obama a Muslim socialist and said Muslims are our enemies. County and Republican Party officials condemned the statements. "Muslims feel jaded by the 2008 election precisely because they see the smearing of their identity," Ali said. "Muslim or Arab is seen as a scarlet letter, political leprosy, kryptonite. There is that taint there. We're the lowest of the low." The experience isn't entirely new for American Muslims, who have struggled for acceptance in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The major parties have quietly courted them for years, yet presidential candidates have refused to publicly associate with them, leaders say.