Chicago,October,27,2004


I'm Ashamed.

By Hatem Abunimeh

If George Bush wins next Tuesday's presidential election,Arab & Muslim Americans will be doomed for good.First of all they waited forever to endorse a candidate hoping that Mr.Bush or Mr.Kerry will reach out to them,and when no one reached out to them they decided to haphazardly cast a protest vote against Mr.Bush.

Secondly,Arabs & Muslims don't have any love lost for Mr.Kerry,they already labeled him as a Jew lover and a war monger since he stated that he had no intention of pulling the troops out of Iraq,and he supports the continuation of the separation wall/fence between the Israelis & the Palestinians.So even in the unlikely scenario that Mr.Kerry wins,he too will give the Arabs & Muslims the good old cold shoulder.

Finally,for Arabs & Muslims,it is a lose/lose situation for them no matter what part of the political isle they stand near,the loss is theirs;as for several years now they have been arduously complaining about Mr.Bush's patriot act that was originally created to protect the country from further terrorists attacks but the Arabs and Muslims kept on dancing and parsing the act to death trying to poke holes in it in every which way they can to no avail,and their attempts not only failed to produce any results,it enhanced the flurry of activities around the advent of patriot act II.

Then they accused Mr.Bush of being a puppet for Mr.Sharon,and that the original annual state of the union text is actually written in Hebrew first and then translated into English.Moreover,the two chambers of congress were referred to as Israeli occupied territories.In addition,the Iraqi peoples liberation was labeled as 21st century neo-imperialist usurpation of the Mideastern resources.

In the likelihood that Mr.Bush gets re-elected How on earth is he supposed to react to these follies?He already on a number of occasions stated that the war on terror has nothing to do with Islam or Muslim,he already stated that the Palestinians should have their own state living side by side with Israel,the only problem is that there is no one to negotiate with since Arafat is still the man with the final say so and he proved his impotence when it comes to making leadership decisions.He already stated that the wall or fence is snaking into the west bank territories,he already brought Sharon,AbuMazen,and King Abdullah together in a summit in Aqaba last year.

On the domestic level he came up with faith based initiative program which benefits people of all faiths including Muslims,he appointed Arab-American Spencer Abraham to a cabinet position,he appeared on two Arab televisions denouncing the Abughrib prison abuses scandal as being un-American,he invited moderate Arab leaders to join him during the G8 summit to discuss the greater middle east initiative.

If all of these actions on the part of the sitting president don't merit a simple endorsement by Arab & Muslim Americans for re-election I don't know what is,the president has bent backwards to treat the Arabs and Muslims in the fairest possible way,and to come in the last minute and pull a quick putsch against him in hope that it will tip the balance is an ungracious act of pitiful ness.

I would like to see the faces of the Arab and Muslim leaders next Wednesday morning and look at their reaction when Mr.Bush wins the reelection.

Right now I'm angry and I'll stay that way until election day,I feel that my people let me down,and frankly I'm really ashamed of their political ignorance.You reap what you sow,come November 2nd,Arabs and Muslims will reap the biggest disappointment of their life