Thank You Gen. Colin Powell ...

As it appeared in Yahoo News - http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20081021/pl_mcclatchy/3078971

Muslim soldier fought for America and his faith

WASHINGTON — "Joe the Plumber" was only one of two Americans injected into the presidential election this past week. The other was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan , whom former Secretary of State Colin Powell invoked in his endorsement Sunday of Barack Obama .
Khan was a 20-year-old soldier from Manahawkin, N.J. , who wanted to enlist in the Army from the time he was 10. He was an all-American boy who visited Disney World after he completed his training at Fort Benning, Ga. , and made his comrades in Iraq watch "Saving Private Ryan" every week.

He was also a Muslim who joined the military, his father said, in part to show his countrymen that not all Muslims are terrorists.

"He was an American soldier first," said his father, Feroze Khan . "But he also looked at fighting in this war as fighting for his faith. He was fighting radicalism."

Khan was killed by an improvised explosive device in August 2007 along with four other soldiers and an Iraqi interpreter while searching a house in Baqouba, Iraq . He's one of four Muslims who served in Iraq or Afghanistan and are buried in Arlington National Cemetery , where 512 troops from those wars now rest.

About 3,700 of the U.S. military's 1.4 million troops are Muslims, according to Defense Department estimates.

Khan, a child of immigrant parents from Trinidad , was 14 when the Sept. 11 attacks happened. Feroze Khan said he remembered his son watching in stunned silence: "I could tell that inside a lot of things were going through his head."

Three years later, Feroze honored his son's request and allowed him to enlist him in the Army . "I told him: 'You are going to the Army .' I never said there is a war going on in a Muslim country. I didn't want him to get any ideas that he was fighting (against) his religion."
Feroze kept his fears for his son's safety to himself.

His son was assigned to the Stryker Brigade Combat Team out of Fort Lewis, Wash. , deployed to Iraq in 2006 and fought on Baghdad's Haifa Street , a Sunni insurgent stronghold.
His tour was extended as part of the surge of additional U.S. forces to Iraq , and he called or messaged home often until he was deployed to restive Diyala province, where he was under fire too often to contact home regularly.

But he prayed every day, his father said.

One Sunday morning, his son sent an instant message: "Hey Dad. Are you there?" Feroze Khan was out, and he saw the message when he returned.
A few hours later, his ex-wife called. Soldiers had knocked on her door in Maryland . Their only child was dead.

A few minutes later, soldiers appeared at Khan's door. "I guess it helped that I knew beforehand," he said. "There are no words to describe it."

Kareem Khan was a month from finishing his tour when he was killed.

On Sunday, Powell said that Khan's sacrifice and service had swayed him to discuss the way that Muslims have been portrayed in the presidential campaign, and the contention that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Obama "is a Christian," Powell said. "He has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, 'What if he is?' Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That is not America." He added: "I am troubled that within the (Republican) Party we have these kinds of expressions" suggesting that Obama is a Muslim, and that if he is, he likely associates with terrorists.

Powell said that he felt strongly about the issue after he saw a photo of Khan's tombstone in the New Yorker magazine . In the black-and-white picture, Khan's mother is resting her head on her son's tombstone. On each side of the stone are flowers, and in between is a copy of the Quran. On the face of the tombstone is a crescent and star, indicating that the soldier buried there is a Muslim.

"He was an American," Powell said.

This is NOT my America!

"It is a sad day, when you need to leave the United States of America in order to be 'free'." - Abdallah Al-Arian (Sami's eldest son)  

"It is sad really.  My mother is a Palestinian refugee.  My father is a Palestinian refugee.  And now, the United States of America is making us (their children) refugees too." - Sami Al-Arian's daughter

I don't want to live in an America that falsely accuses people of being terrorists and then AFTER years in prison, a lengthy trial, and NOT GUILTY verdicts on 51 counts of BS charges the government will not let him go.  He is still in prison!  ALMOST FIVE YEARS IN PRISON FOR NOTHING!  

An America where Habeous Corpus is suspended.

An America where the Patriot Act is an excuse to rip away our civil rights one by one.

An America where the government abuses its power via "Executive Decision."

An America where we wrongfully imprison innocent people.

An America where we actually hold "political prisoners."

An America where there are NO RIGHTS, NO FREEDOMS that are guaranteed!

An America where you are "... with us or against us."

THIS IS NOT MY AMERICA!

I am a statistic!  I am one of the 8,000 people that the FBI contacted "requesting" an interview post 9/11.  Of those 8,000 Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans that were rounded up like cattle, stripped of our rights, American citizens or not, by the FBI, CIA, NSA, etc. NOT ONE OF US has been convicted of any crime, much less convicted of a terrorist act!  NOT ONE!  

And as painful as that experience was for me, I am one of the "lucky" ones.  I am not Sami Al-Arian.  While the government maybe taping my phone conversations and maybe even tagging my e-mails or even this blog ... I am NOT Sami Al-Arian.  My anger here banks on sheer rage!  Bush has turned America into the MOST HATED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!

Which country has:

-Nuclear Weapons?

-Nuclear Reactor Programs?

-Military forces occupying foreign lands?

-Political prisoners for years without being formally charged with any crimes?

-Political prisoners taken to countries with no extradition treaties and no laws against torture?

-A government who spies on its own citizens? 

-A government who suspends the rights of its own people to "protect" them?

-A government who violates international laws?

-A government who violates the 4th Geneva convention?  Iran?  North Korea?  The entire "Axis of Evil?"  NOPE!  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!

Bush has turned this country into those countries we're allegedly fighting because of a conflict in our "ways of life" and for "freedom."  Ironic isn't it?  Not only is this 1984 because our government lies to us and strips us dowto protect us from ourselves, spy on us, and dehumanize others - but this is 1984 because we've become the very thing we "hate."

Our government is terrorizing its own citizens by using the "fear factor" to make us think we need to give up our civil liberties in order to be safe.  The American government has become "Big Brother."  We can stop it ... we have to stop it!  Raise your voice ... write Congress and ask them to free Sami Al-Arian!

Read about this remarkable man and his amazing family and his BS case .... 

http://www.freesamialarian.com

And read about the documentary made about his case and the fact that this man should be FREE!  He is innocent!  He was found innocent by a jury of his "peers."  A Palestinian, Muslim was found not guilty by a majority WHITE and non-Muslim jury POST 9/11 in America on ALL 51 counts and yet, he still sits in prison because he refuses to lie and give the government ammunition to wrongly accuse others!  This man is a hero!

http://www.usavsalarian.com

Be active in your world!  Make America realize its potential!  Make America great again .... SAY SOMETHING, WRITE SOMETHING, BECOME POLITICALLY ACTIVE.  Stop being a sheep.  Stop being a follower.  Start having some sort of say in your country!  "Stop bitching, start a REVOLUTION!"

Spread Peace, Love, & Understanding

We're all struggling to find a level of understanding (it seems) in a post 9/11 world.  It helps, I think, to spread positive things (love vs. hate - tolerance vs. difference) and this was light and its sentiment was appreciated by me, so I thought I would share it. 

For most of you, I am the "token" Arab-American or Muslim friend you've got.  I have tried to be open to questions and honest with answers and I have tried to live a good life, to be a good person, to be a good Muslim, and to be a good human being.  

I can only hope that by simply KNOWING me, you've learned that the actions of a few extremists do NOT speak for the 1.5 BILLION Muslims worldwide and more importantly do NOT represent the religion of Islam.  Any mistakes I make in life are my own.  They do not represent God and they do not reflect upon Islam.  I am human.  I do screw up from time to time!  =) 

We need to get away from focusing on the differences between us and start to realize that what we have in common (culturally, religiously, etc) is far greater.  Help me, please, by educating those that do not have access to anything other than bombardment of negative (and in my opinion, one-sided) news coverage.

Education = Understanding

Please help me pass it on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbcmPe0z3Sc

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did and I hope that if you ever have a question, as a friend, you'd be comfortable enough to come and ask me.  I promise to do the best I can to answer.