Paul
Ibrahim
Read Paul's bio and previous columns
April 20, 2009
In Obama’s America, I
Am a Terrorist After All
I
am an Arab male in my 20s. If I don’t fit the profile of your average
terrorist, I’m not quite sure who does. Yet thanks to a culture of
political correctness and the likes of the ACLU, I had it unreasonably
easier than most after 9/11. Until, that is, the Obama Administration
decided that my conservatism makes me a potential terrorist.
Rewind to the aftermath of 9/11. Not only were Obama-types making it
difficult for airport security to even consider my background, but
oftentimes made it so anyone but me was selected for extra screening. On
many occasions I waltzed through security only to look behind me to see
a little old black lady, or an elderly white man, pulled out for an
additional search in an obvious exhibition of political correctness in a
world where we’re supposedly trying to save lives.
My
college experience was no different. I was automatically assumed to be a
member of an imagined community of oppressed minorities, invited to
diversity events that offered me special resources (because white people
apparently come with such resources), and welcomed with open arms by
members of an administration that cared more about the level of melanin
in my skin than about my intellectual capacity.
Then they discovered I was a conservative. The rainbows, unicorns and
Kumbayas abruptly vanished. Professors made plain their distaste for
non-liberal views in the classroom. Minority groups were shocked that a
“fellow” minority would speak out against their racially segregated
dorms. In utter irony, even the vice provost for diversity personally
attacked me in print for my calls for color-blindness – you see, if the
world became successfully color-blind, he would have no job.
In
short, college liberals claimed the high moral ground by refusing to
discriminate against me for being Arab, but then proudly discriminated
against me for being a conservative. And now we are seeing the same from
the liberal cohorts that form the Obama Administration.
Through Janet Napolitano’s Homeland Security Department, the Obama
Administration has released a threat assessment report warning, with
virtually zero data or substance, that “right-wing extremism” could
translate into terrorist action as more Americans start opposing illegal
immigration, abortion and expanded social programs, while favoring gun
rights, traditional marriage and more state and local government. In
other words, if you’re conservative, you might be a terrorist.
The report warns that
“extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about
several emergent issues,” such as “the economic downturn.” And no, the
report is not referring to the Obama campaign and administration.
When has the Bush
Administration ever released an overly generalized, unsubstantiated
report warning about the terrorist potential of those who support
liberal causes? Would any administration dare address Obama’s 20-year
spiritual home, which, during
my recent visit there, I found to embrace severely troubling signs
of racial supremacy and angry self-victimization?
Never. Yet as we are
seeing today, we might have to worry more about the left than about the
right. After stirring up waves of fury about the recipients of AIG
bonuses (which the Democrats specifically allowed), some Democrats
fought to release the names of the same employees who were already
receiving death threats.
Supporters of gay
marriage in California, many of whom have sought to harass and
intimidate political opponents, have published an online map pinpointing
the homes of those who donated even as little as $50 to the
pro-traditional marriage Proposition 8. Wonder why.
After Arizona State refrained from giving Obama an honorary degree with
his upcoming commencement speech, his supporters responded with death
threats.
Colorado police are currently dealing with threats of bomb attacks if
illegal immigrants aren’t released from jail (maybe they were victims of
law enforcement officials who are “terrorizing” families, as Obama
maintains).
And, of course, anyone with a brain understands that the “neo-Nazis”
warned about in the administration’s report are better classified under
socialist threats, as would have been the case with Hitler’s
National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis).
Yet the administration decided to go after conservatives.
Having miscalculated the reaction to her political report (which was
not-so-coincidentally released days before the Tax Day tea parties),
Napolitano is now going on a partial, mild apology tour over the section
in her report attacking veterans for being potential terrorists with
“violent capabilities” – never mind that they had just come back from
fighting terrorists. But her problem won’t go away that easily. The
Thomas More Law Center has filed a lawsuit against Napolitano for
encouraging law enforcement to target and harass conservatives for their
political beliefs.
Obama has dropped the term “enemy combatants” for enemy combatants
(preferring, perhaps, “undocumented adversaries”). He believes he can
find “moderate” Taliban to reach out to, an idea the Taliban themselves
mocked as “illogical.” His Homeland Security staff is focused on
demonizing conservatives while at least 20 Somali-Americans have
gradually vanished in Minneapolis, one of whom has committed a suicide
bombing in Somalia.
Where are the Obama-bots’ priorities? They fought to have me overlooked
by airport security even though I fit the profile of the 19 people who
killed 3,000 Americans, but now believe I might be a terrorist because I
am part of a movement that turned out hundreds of thousands of average,
peaceful, hard-working Americans at nearly one thousand tea parties with
zero serious disruptions or incidents? And all because I dare to
disagree with the One?
Looks like Obama is delivering the change he promised. In his America, I
am a terrorist after all.
© 2009 North Star
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