The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) dispatched its Chicago office director Ahmed Rehab to the Heartland Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday to ask Democratic candidate John Edwards "a question about American Muslims and the civil rights movement," the group announced yesterday.
CAIR issued a transcript of the question and answer, which it said was accepted with frequent applause.
AHMED REHAB: Senator, my name is Ahmed Rehab from Chicago, Illinois. I'm from the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
REHAB: As a full-time civil rights activist, I receive hundreds of complaints from American Muslims regarding the sort of abuses, and prejudices, and discriminations that they face on a regular basis simply because of their name, physical appearance, or faith affiliation, whether it's housing discrimination, or employment discrimination, or having to wait two to five years over the average time limit in order to obtain their citizenship.
Sadly, it seems that we're facing a culture of fear-mongering that is replacing our collective constitutional vision for equal opportunity for all.
Senator, in the '60s, Malcolm and Martin gave up their lives fighting for justice for all. The civil rights movement is not over. It's not done yet. We're still fighting.
Senator, fighting the civil rights movement is what I do on a daily basis, and we would like to know if you will fight with us, if elected president. Thank you.
SEN. JOHN EDWARDS: … We've got to stop this racial profiling that's going on in the United States of America.
And we've got to change the entire atmosphere. Here's what I'll do as president: I will close Guantanamo, which I think is a national embarrassment.
We will have no more secret prisons, no more rendition, no more — and I use this word intentional — no more illegal spying on the American people by the president of the United States of America.
And then, finally, finally, it is so heartbreaking that we have a debate in America about what kind of torture is permissible. I have an answer to that: No torture is permissible in the United States of America. And those are all things that I would do as president.
CAIR does not appear to care much for Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, whom they have criticized in past press statements.
Last week CAIR demanded a meeting with Mr. Romney to discuss a statement he made about placing Muslims in his Cabinet. In October, CAIR demanded Mr. Giuliani fire a campaign adviser who is a vocal critic of CAIR.
— Audrey Hudson, homeland security reporter, The Washington Times
Comments (8)
Well, if you're a semi-single issue voter, then this is your defining moment. The Dems marginalize the threat from radical Islam, while Reps don't.
Posted by jack salami | December 4, 2007 8:21 PM
John Edwards is either an idiot or a charlatan. Given his background as a lawyer I'm guessing charlatan.
He knows he cannot win the nomination so he's pandering to the moonbat left hoping to leverage himself a shot at being vice-president.
As for CAIR, their specialty is straw-man questions and crying "Wolf". America has bent over backwards trying to avoid blaming American Muslims for the 911 (and subsequent) attacks, but every time a Muslim is caught with bomb making material or a hoard of undeclared cash and a hard-drive full of Islamist connections CAIR is there to defend them against "racist" and "Islamophobic" discrimination.
Do the research. CAIR is a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood and their goal is a world-wide caliphate.
Posted by USBeast | December 4, 2007 8:55 PM
Is it the Amish who call out "Allah Akbar" when they behead someone. Do they sing "God Bless America" when they blow up people in markets? Is it "Shma Yisroel" that they cry out when they capture airplanes and fly them into buildings? Not even Christian Arabs, who claim the same grievences, kill innocents. What's the common thread that runs through all the atrocities every single day around the world? It is only the Muslims. If they don't want to be suspected as terrorists, then they should stop the terrorists among them. It would be suicidal not to profile them.
Posted by Miggs | December 5, 2007 1:19 AM
It figures that CAIR would be supporting a trial lawyer for President.
Posted by paulm | December 5, 2007 9:26 AM
We all know that every religion has extremists. Is killing innocent people in Islam allowed? No, it's not. After Christianity, Islam is the most practised religion in the world. The majority of these Muslims are Sunni. The ones that are causing all the terror in the world are Wahabi's. They think they'll go to heaven after they kill innocent people but according to Islam, they'll be punished by God. Islam is a peaceful religion and unfortunately the damage done by these terrible extremists is doing nothing but giving the religion a bad name around the world. Please read up on the basics of any religion before making any judgements. But I do ponder why the Western media does not cover the terrorism that Muslims have been going through in Palestine and in Iraq. Thousands have lost loved ones, if that isn't terrorism then what is it? It's the same end result, killing innocent people, right? The killing of people must stop, whether it's by the terrorists or political leaders simply making bad decisions.
Posted by Amna Qamar | December 12, 2007 10:04 AM
In The Name of Allaah
The Most Merciful, The Most Generous in Mercy.
There IS a great evil today that can be described as Muslim terrorism. These people, kill any and all whom they classify as enemies of God. They will kill Muslims and easily and they will kill a Christian and a Jew as and Muslim who disagrees with some of their tenets they classify as an infidel.
There is no such thing as a "Wahhabi". This is a made up term such as the term "Mohammedan". The term is rooted in anti saudi politics and has confused the uninformed mindset on Islamic sects.
In the 1940's terrorism in the middle east was reborn. It had existed in the past from time to time. It is noteworthy that this rebirth of terrorism was initiated by a group of terrorist jews called the 'Irgun' they dressed as Arabs and killed Muslims and Christians via bombings and slaughter in order to form the state of Israel.
Since then, there has been a tit for tat terrorist cycle that has now enveloped the world.
The Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him) foretold about Muslim terrorists in details and ordered the Muslims to fight them and anihilate them. They are following a methodology of deviated jews before them and share the methodology of the Irgun and Israel of killing civilians and all who obstruct their goals - with no recourse to rights and justice.
America will thrive and grow tremendously if it disconnects from the one sided support of Israeli terror and instead sides against ALL terror domestic, foreign, internal and external.
America is killing itself with a religious belief of supporting the state of Israel regardless of wrong or right. Jews need to recognise that they cannot go on usurping, killing, manipulating and deceiving in order to maintain and grow 'Israel' - this policy will probably eventually backfire very badly. Israel relies on America funding to exist. The American people cannot be fooled forever into supporting Israel against the American economy and its security for a misplaced false religious belief that supporting Israel will bring the Messiah.
Israel kills palestinian Christians regularly and besieges and attacks Christian holy sites such as Bethlehem.
This is proof that the "Christian" "Jewish" alliance is less religion based and more race and culture based since the killing of Arab Christians in CLEARLY deemed as totally acceptable in order to maintain the alliance.
This will all change and become history - no doubt.
But when and at what cost? When its too late?
Peace.
Posted by Robin Hossain | January 5, 2008 11:37 PM
John Edwards is not winning .....to win, he needs to take a strong stand on illegal immigration. None of the democrats is talking about illegal immigration, yet it is one of the top concerns with 72 percent of american citizens...go John!
Posted by claudia | January 11, 2008 5:15 AM
as far as I am concerned, CAIR is free to leave America any time. I would encourage them to do so. Their rhetoric is a sham, as are their phony claims of concern for constitutional propriety. Get real, boys.
Posted by jggrimm | April 8, 2008 8:04 PM