Showing posts with label American Muslims. Show all posts

19 November 2016

Renewed Support For Muslim Registry Called 'Abhorrent' 17NOV16

I am ashamed this is being considered in America. My Grandfather's family came to this country from Shubin, Prussia (now Szubin, Poland) through Hamburg, Germany at the beginning of the 20th century He was old world with old world prejudices, considered Germans superior to the Poles, Italians, Irish, and Catholics that are the dominate ethnic and religious communities in Warren, PA, where I am from. Blacks were off his radar as were people of Asian Hispanic communities, they just stayed aware and away from that part of NW Pennsylvania. He kept his opinion about Jews to himself out of economic necessity. Grandpa was a tool and die maker and worked in a machine shop owned and operated by a Jewish man. So when WW II started, because Warren had a refinery, steel mills, electrical industries and armament industries the FBI came to town to investigate citizens whose loyalties to America might be questionable. The asked neighbors, Catholic priest, Grandpa's employer, businesses in town about him. To a man, they all expressed various opinions about Carl Schwanke and all said he was no nazi, no nazi sympathizer. As things turned out Germans and Italians were not rounded up and sent to camps in the name of national security, probably because they were such a large percentage of the population. So the American government turned the nation on a minority, a very small percentage of the population, the Japanese. In a horrifying and shameful chapter in our history ( but with less deadly consequences than our government's actions against Native Americans and Blacks) the majority of the Japanese living in America, citizens and legal residents, were rounded up and imprisoned in concentration camps. That there weren't mass executions doesn't make it any better than nazi germany's concentration camps, America was supposed to be better than nazi germany (the continuing racial segregation and lynchings of Blacks in America during WW II is another damning stain on our history). And now this hate, bigotry, xenophobia, fascist nationalism is being suggested and promoted by incoming drumpf/trump-pence administration and republican controlled congress. They have picked another minority as their target, Muslim Americans and Muslim immigrants. Muslims may have to register with the American government as Muslims. The thought that my country is being willingly manipulated by a propaganda campaign based on fear, ignorance, racism and hate scares me. Once the government has all the Muslims registered and located, who will be next? First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. This from +NPR .....

Renewed Support For Muslim Registry Called 'Abhorrent'

November 17, 20165:52 PM ET

KAT CHOW

Twitter

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach supports Donald Trump during a rally in Wichita, Kan.

Wichita Eagle/TNS via Getty Images

A surrogate of President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday invoked Japanese internment camps as precedent for creating a registry for Muslim immigrants. This comes less than a week after the Kansas secretary of state told Reuters that Trump's team might reprise a post-Sept. 11 national registry of immigrants from countries regarded as havens for "extremist activity."

Such conversations in the president-elect's circles have raised new concerns about civil rights among advocates for American Muslims.

Former Navy SEAL and Trump surrogate Carl Higbie told Fox News' Megyn Kelly that the registry would be legal and that "we need to protect America first."

Here is how that exchange went after Higbie said there was legal precedent for the registry and referred to Japanese internment camps:

Kelly: You know better than to suggest that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.

Higbie: Right. I'm not saying I agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe that a regional-based ...

Kelly: You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is gonna do.

Higbie: Look, the president needs to protect America first, and if that means having people that are not protected under our Constitution have some sort of registry so we can understand, until we can identify the true threat and where it's coming from, I support it.

Last week, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told Reuters that the Trump transition team focused on immigration was considering using an executive order to bring back the post-Sept. 11 National Security Entry-Exit Registration system. Kobach helped President George W. Bush create the registry, which the Justice Department suspended in 2011

According to the DOJ website, the program mandated that people from "extremist" countries provide fingerprints and photos at the borders that would then be checked against a database of "known criminals and terrorists." It also allowed for "exit controls that will help the Immigration and Naturalization Service to remove those aliens who overstay their visas."

Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota said that if the Trump administration "moves forward with the racist and divisive policies his team have been advocating for, we will be the first ones to stand up to him. We will be the first ones to tell him, 'No.' "

More than a year ago, Trump said that if elected, he "would certainly implement" a law that would require Muslims to add their names to a national database. Trump, when challenged, did not distinguish his proposal from others throughout history, including the World War II Nazi effort to register Jews, according to the New York Times. The president-elect later attempted to distance himself from that statement, claiming on Twitter that a reporter had made those remarks.

Democratic Rep. Judy Chu of California denounced Higbie's comments.

"Any proposal to force American Muslims to register with the federal government, and to use Japanese imprisonment during World War II as precedent, is abhorrent and has no place in our society," Chu said. "These ideas are based on tactics of fear, division, and hate that we must condemn."

Higbie isn't the first to invoke internment camps in reference to Muslim immigrants in recent years. In November 2015, when talking about the perceived threat of Syrian refugees, the then-mayor of Roanoke, Va., cited the 1942 order requiring more than 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent to relocate to camps.

"I'm reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor," Democrat David Bowers said in a statement, "and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then."

Politicians and activists quickly criticized Bowers and pointed out that Japanese internment had long been discredited. In 1988, Japanese-Americans who were sent to the camps were paid reparations, and in 1991, President George H.W. Bush issued a formal apology.

On Thursday afternoon, Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., said "no one should go through what my family and 120,000 innocent people suffered regardless of their race or religion or any other way they would choose to try and divide us."

The idea of a return to darker days is more than just hyperbole. A 1944 Supreme Court ruling that allowed for Japanese internment still stands. The Atlantic's Matt Ford detailed how the case, Korematsu v. United States, was argued:

"In one of its most widely condemned decisions, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the exclusion orders in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Hugo Black argued for a 6-3 majority that the exclusion orders were a necessary outgrowth of the president's war powers and justified by the situation at hand. 'Compulsory exclusion of large groups of citizens from their homes, except under circumstances of direst emergency and peril, is inconsistent with our basic governmental institutions,' he wrote in his opinion for the Court. 'But when, under conditions of modern warfare, our shores are threatened by hostile forces, the power to protect must be commensurate with the threatened danger.'

"The Supreme Court has never overturned Korematsu, largely because federal and state governments have not attempted the mass internment of an entire ethnic group since then. But the decision belongs to what legal scholars describe as the anti-canon of American constitutional law — a small group of Supreme Court rulings universally assailed as wrong, immoral, and unconstitutional. Dred Scott v. Sandford, Plessy v. Ferguson, Buck v. Bell, and Korematsu form the anti-canon's core; legal scholars sometimes include other decisions as well."

Ford pointed out, however, that one of the judges wrote in his dissent that implicit in the Korematsu decision was the "legalization of racism."

CorrectionNov. 17, 2016

A previous caption incorrectly identified Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach as the state attorney general.

24 September 2016

JOEL SOLLENDER VIDEO; 5 TIME VIETNAM WAR MILITARY DEFERMENT RECIPIENT TRUMP DISRESPECTS US MILITARY & VETS & KHIZR KHAN'S SPEECH AT THE 2016 DNC 19SEP&28JUL16

Image result for image purple heart medal

donald drumpf has said he wishes he had a Purple Heart. Maybe if he hadn't received 5 deferments during the Vietnam War he would have one. Instead he is now running for president as a military wannabe, insulting everyone in the US Military from those in command to active duty to veterans to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, those who died defending our nation, our Democratic Republic. Check out this ad from the Clinton campaign think about drump's attitude toward the US Military and his temperament as our CIC / Commander-In-Chief with access to the nuclear codes. From +Mother Jones and the Hillary Clinton campaig, Joel Sollender's video is the 2nd one. Followed by the video and transcript of Khizr Khan's speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention and +PolitiFact's coverage.....

Hillary Clinton’s New Ad Will Remind You How Awful Trump Has Been to Veterans

KANYAKRIT VONGKIATKAJORNSEP. 19, 2016 6:10 PM

"He insulted all of our military."

Sacrifice | Hillary Clinton

War Hero | Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump has said a lot of awful things, and Hillary Clinton's campaign wants to make sure you don't forget. Her latest campaign ad directly attacks Trump's controversial statement last July that questioned Vietnam veteran and Arizona Sen. John McCain's status as a war hero.

"He's a war hero because he was captured—I like people who weren't captured, okay?" Trump said, provoking the ire of numerous Republicans. Trump has yet to apologize for the comment.

The Clinton ad was timed to coincide with National Prisoners of War Remembrance Day, which took place on September 16, and features Joel Sollender, a prisoner of war who was captured by the Nazis during WWII. "Apart from the outrage of the insult to prisoners of war, he insulted all of our military," says Sollender, who appeared to be choking back tears as he noted his war was both "70 years ago, and yesterday."

"I would hope we would not adulate a man like him and put him into the most precious office in this country," he concluded.

Trump, who received five deferments during the Vietnam War and has never served in the military, has had a number of controversies involving veterans. Earlier in January, Trump held a highly publicized fundraiser for veterans and promised to personally donate $1 million to veterans' causes. The money only arrived four months later, after pressure from the Washington Post. In August, Trump came under fire again after he smeared Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the parents of an American solider who had died in Afghanistan.

KANYAKRIT VONGKIATKAJORN

Kanyakrit Vongkiatkajorn is a digital fellow at Mother Jones. You can reach her at kvongkiatkajorn[at]motherjones[dot]com. Read more of her stories here.

Khizr Khan at DNC 2016

Here’s the full transcript of Khizr Khan’s speech:

Our thoughts and prayers are with our veterans and those who serve today. Tonight we are honored to stand here as parents of Capt. Humayun Khan and as patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.

Like many immigrants, we came to this country empty-handed. We believed in American democracy — that with hard work and the goodness of this country, we could share in and contribute to its blessings.

We were blessed to raise our three sons in a nation where they were free to be themselves and follow their dreams. Our son, Humayun, had dreams of being a military lawyer. But he put those dreams aside the day he sacrificed his life to save the lives of his fellow soldiers.

Hillary Clinton was right when she called my son "the best of America." If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America.

Donald Trump consistently smears the character of Muslims. He disrespects other minorities, women, judges, even his own party leadership. He vows to build walls and ban us from this country.

Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution? I will gladly lend you my copy. In this document, look for the words "liberty" and "equal protection of law."

Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one.

We can't solve our problems by building walls and sowing division. We are Stronger Together. And we will keep getting stronger when Hillary Clinton becomes our next President.

The backstory of the Muslim soldier's dad who said Trump 'sacrificed nothing'

By Linda Qiu on Friday, July 29th, 2016 at 2:09 a.m.

Khizr Khan holds a copy of Constitution of the United States, that he offered to lend to Donald Trump, with his wife Ghazala Khan, during the last day of the Democratic National Convention. (TNS)

It was one of the most powerful rebukes of Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention: The father of a Muslim-American soldier slain in the Iraq War pulled out a copy of the U.S. Constitution from his pocket and offered to lend it to the Republican nominee.

"Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution?" Khizr Khan, 65, asked, his wife Ghazala beside him. "In this document, look for the words ‘liberty’ and ‘equal protection of law.’ "

Khan’s son, Humayun, was a captain in the U.S. Army who sacrificed his life while saving his fellow soldiers in Iraq. One of 14 Muslim-Americans to die in the line of duty since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Humayun Khan was posthumously awarded a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

"If it was up to Donald Trump, he never would have been in America," Khan said, referring to Trump’s call to ban Muslims from the United States. "Have you ever been to Arlington Cemetery? Go look at the graves of the brave patriots who died defending America — you will see all faiths, genders, and ethnicities. You have sacrificed nothing and no one."

The brief speech (you can read the full transcript at the bottom of this story) got a standing ovation at the convention and went viral on social media:

‏@NYMag

Andrew Sullivan on the #DNC speech by Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier: http://nym.ag/2aAeaGY 

‏@DanaSchwartzzz

Khizr Khan just spoke for the soul of this country #DemsInPhilly

‏@NateGoldman

As soon as Khizr Khan finished his speech, "register to vote" spiked as a Google search.

The Khan family moved from the United Arab Emirates to the United States in 1980, when Humayun was 2. The family settled down in Maryland, and Humayun went on to graduate from the University of Virginia in 2000, where he joined ROTC. Aspiring to be a military lawyer, he enlisted to pay for law school and to give back to the program he felt had "completed him as a person," according to his father.

Capt. Khan had already completed a four-year tour when the he was assigned to Iraq indefinitely in 2004. There, he hired Iraqi civilians to help patrol the streets of Baqubah and was a unofficial counselor for mentally troubled soldiers.

He called his mother on Mother’s Day, May 9, 2004, to assure her that he was safe,according to the Washington Post. A month later, he died in a suicide bombing at age 27. Khan ordered his soldiers to hit the dirt as a taxi carrying explosives drove into the gate of his compound. Khan took 10 steps toward the car before it detonated.

"His colleagues and superiors remembered him for his courage, honesty, sense of humor and grace while in the field, even under pressure. Capt. Khan's colleagues eulogized his exemplary services and praised him for the leadership he provided to his troops," according to his memorial page on Arlington Cemetery's website.

Eleven years later, and after Trump had proposed his Muslim ban, Hillary Clintonsaid in December that Khan represents "the best of America."

The deeply personal nature of Khizr Khan’s speech added weight to his rebuke, said Kathleen Kendall, a University of Maryland professor specializing in political rhetoric.

"Mr. Khan, this calm and serious man, mourning his son, suddenly seemed to take charge, and put Trump on the spot," she told PolitiFact. "The most powerful element of the speech was this Muslim immigrant speaker's direct challenge to Trump, questioning his knowledge of the U. S. Constitution, and offering his own copy."

Khizr Khan seems to agree.

"This is our country too," Khan told the San Francisco Chronicle before the speech.

Share The Facts

Khizr Khan

Father of a Muslim-American soldier slain in the Iraq War

"Donald Trump, you are asking Americans to trust you with our future. Let me ask you: Have you even read the U.S. Constitution?"

in a speech at the Democratic convention – Thursday, July 28, 2016

05 October 2013

‘Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month,’ bloggers claim 3OKT13

THIS is a perfect example of how hatred and voluntary ignorance can blind some people to the truth, and in this case, to a joke. And how some, who know it is a joke, will use something like this to fan the flames of hatred, ignorance, prejudice and fear. From PolitiFact.....

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

"Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month."

Bloggers on Friday, September 27th, 2013 in blog posts

‘Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month,’ bloggers claim

The headline flew around the conservative blogosphere: "Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month."

The fact that it came from a website,National Report, known for Onion-like satire, didn’t stop some bloggers from reporting it as news.

The piece was packed with fake details designed to press anti-Muslim buttons: President Barack Obama held a news conference to make his declaration. He said Muslims "are not all bad. In fact, most of them are good."

His announcement was hailed by a "member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party." He said he would work with Congress to make it easier for Muslims to earn U.S. citizenship.

"Mr. Matei of the Muslim Brotherhood assured me they want to come to this country to help us, not harm us," he was reported to say.

Following other attempts to paint Obama as a Muslim -- such as this one that we rated Pants on Fire -- the National Report’s gambit worked.

"How dare Obama declare November, the month when we give thanks to God for our blessings and great nation, National Muslim Appreciation Month!" wrote a blogger for Tea Party Nation.

The PolitiFact inbox saw email after email with links to such stories from readers who got it from outraged friends.

Urban-legend debunker Snopes.com quickly confirmed that it originated with National Report.

The headline was utterly invented, and the event was entirely fabricated.

While we didn’t hear back from the White House, we found no evidence of any such proclamation at the White House website.

We also asked Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

"I’m fairly certain they haven’t. Otherwise, I would have heard about it," he said.

Obama regularly commemorates Muslim holidays alongside Christian and Jewish ones. He’s proclaimed a Jewish American Heritage Month, a National Day of Prayer and a Religious Freedom Day, noting, "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, Sikhs and non-believers."

He has declared heritage months for Irish-Americans, Asian-Americans, Caribbean-Americans and Hispanics. He has proclaimed a month for appreciation of African-American music. But nothing about Muslims.

As for Obama’s purported proclamation, the Tea Party Nation blogger posted an update to her outrage: "Just found out this article was a hoax. They sure fooled me. However, my comments still stand if O should ever do such a thing."

Our ruling

Bloggers posted a claim that the president had declared November "National Muslim Appreciation Month." He hasn’t — the claim was based on a piece of Internet satire. We rate the claim Pants on Fire.

About this statement:

Published: Thursday, October 3rd, 2013 at 4:01 p.m.

Subjects: Islam, Religion

Sources:

National Report, "Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month," Sept. 27, 2013

Your Daily Dose of Conservatism, "Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month," Sept. 27, 2013

Tea Party Nation, "Obama Declares November Muslim Appreciation Month," Sept. 28, 2013

MinutemanNews.com, "Obama Declares November National Muslim Appreciation Month," Sept. 28, 2013

White House, "Proclamations," Sept. 30, 2013

White House, "Statement by the President on the Occasion of Ramadan," July 8, 2013

White House, "Statement by the President on the Occasion of Eid al-Fitr," Aug. 7, 2013

White House, "President Obama's Rosh Hashanah Greeting," Sept. 13, 2012