Brooklyn Ron

Muslim Americans are Left out of Discourse in Presidential Election Year

[photo: Islamic Society of Bay Ridge]

There are hundreds of thousands of Muslims in New York City alone. Some readers of this site may recall that we once characterized Brooklyn as the "Mecca of Arab America".

Granted that these are two distinct identities -- being Muslim and Arab -- but the truth is that they often overlap, here in New York and the United States, as well as in the Middle East.

[The photo we have selected to accompany this post is of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, a very interesting neighborhood in Brooklyn, and it was pulled from the Society's web site. Worshipers at the Society are largely immigrants from Arab countries. They are, of course, Muslims.]

The point of the above headline is that both of these groups, Muslims and Arabs living in the States, are conspicuously missing from discussions taking place in this otherwise exciting presidential election year.

Given the way the Bush administration has lied and blundered in its handling of Middle East policy, one would think Democrats would have reached out to Muslim Americans, for advice and support.

But no. Hillary Clinton has almost completely turned her back on that community, ever since her first run for the Senate. She apparently feared being linked with Muslims who have no significant voting base in New York State and feared also the possibility of alienating Jewish voters.

Barack Obama has also kept a certain distance, and while he's likely driven by the same concerns as Clinton, he's dealing with other worries as well.

One is that many Americans think he was once a Muslim and, very much related to that, some of his enemies are linking his middle name (Hussein) with a certain fellow (now dead, hanged amid taunts) named Saddam.

Despite Obama's failure to assertively embrace them, there are indications that tens of thousands of Muslim-Americans (and we're talking voting citizens here) prefer Obama over the others still in the presidential race.

The following quote taken from a Grand Rapids Press article is pertinent:

"Jim Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American Institute, said many Arab Americans are drawn to Obama because of his cultural background.

"'It is clear he wants to have a broader relationship with the Muslim world,' Zogby said."

Muslim Americans -- many of whom, perhaps a third or more, are African Americans -- have much to say about the state of affairs in the States.

But their voices have been silenced.

The Debate is Over, But They Missed the Point: Our Tax Money is Still Being Wasted on a Senseless War

It wasn't the Democratic candidates, but rather a group called Brooklyn For Peace that hit the nail on the head:

It's the war, stupid!

Some of us were not satisfied with the degree to which the two Democratic candidates dealt with Bush's Iraq war, as they debated in Philadelphia on Wednesday evening.

It's our opinion that many, many Americans hold that absurd and, many would say, criminal foreign policy of George W. Bush high on their list of wrongs to be righted.

But the attacks, such as they were, on said George W. Bush by the Democratic debaters were feeble.

And what's more, Barack Obama failed once again to go after Hillary Clinton for her seminal action several years back in giving Bush the go-ahead to invade and occupy Iraq.

But on that night of nights, which is to say, April 15th, as Brooklynites gathered outside the main Post Office in Downtown, to send in their slight or hefty tax payments to said George W. Bush, volunteers with Brooklyn for Peace were handing out leaflets that made the point of the moment.

The leaflets said:"Our tax dollars are being wasted on war in Iraq instead of solving serious problems at home."

The group is calling on Americans to telephone Congressmembers and ask them to support H.R. 5507, "which would cut the funding for Bush's war and bring all the troops home quickly."

The number to call is (800) 828-0498.

Brooklyn for Peace's flier points out that "Bush is demanding another $105 billion on top of the half-trillion already spent on this war."

It also announces the upcoming fifth annual Brooklyn Peace Fair, to be held on Saturday, April 26, between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. at Long Island University, located at DeKalb and Flatbush Avenues. There will be speakers, performers and workshops.

Mighty Sparrow, Legend of Caribbean and Brooklyn, Sings for Barack Obama

The Mighty Sparrow has been honored by Brooklyn Borough Presidents for his unparalleled contributions to the music of this great hemisphere.

Now standing along with millions of other Americans at what he considers a critical juncture in the nation AND the hemisphere AND the world, Mighty Sparrow has penned an ode to the person he believes should be leading the free world: Barack Obama.

The opening line perhaps says it all: "The respect of the world that we now lack, If you want it back, then vote Barack!"

Enjoy.

Brooklyn Wisdom: The Black/Latino Factor is Complex and Changing

The New York Times That Tries Our Souls raised a question virtually ignored by the media and most of the rest of us in past weeks, especially in the past week that has been replete with punches and counter-punches between Barack and Hillary.

This is the age-old American issue of race and, specifically, how the relationship between Blacks and Latinos, said to be a mostly sour one (given that Blacks are often the ones who lose out to jobs taken by new immigrants), will affect Barack Obama's chances. (see article.)

There is no simple answer to this, and to the extent that the question can be answered at all, it has to be done on a region by region basis.

We hate to say this (we being ones of Afro descent who lived for a loving time in Mexico), but racism against blacks has been rife in Mexico for generations, going back to the days of the wild West and slavery. Mexicans in fact don't like Americans much (an understandable feeling given that California, Texas and much of the rest of the U.S. Southwest was stolen from them), but their anti-black feelings are of the otherwise dated Sambo variety.

Couple that with the feeling among some blacks that Mexicans are short, funny talking whites who steal jobs from them, and there are ingredients here for conflict.

This combination, admittedly simplified, nevertheless points to difficult time ahead for a black presidential candidate in California and elsewhere with a voting Chicano population.

Ah, but very different in New York where the voting Latino population is largely Puerto Rican and Dominican, communities with a relatively long history of bonding politically with Blacks.

Despite strong anti-Black racism in the Dominican Republic (itself a protective reaction to white racism, a protesting-too-loud declaration that "We are not them"),  Dominican  New Yorkers are largely  very  conscious of their Afro roots, and there is in fact much inter-marriage between the two groups in the city.

(An interesting online essay by a Dominican student says much about this conflicted bond.)

And in Brooklyn, as in the Bronx and Manhattan, the phrase Black and Puerto Rican has been mouthed for going on two generations as a single word in the political lexicon.

Add to all this the very fact that the American concept of race has been evolving at a breakneck speed (faster than most of us can see) in the United States. I mean, half black, half white Obama is almost the definition of what it means to be a Cuban or a Dominican.

A sane thinking person would have to admit that the coming months hold in store much that will be unpredictable in our new racial realm.

This is for sure a great contrast to the black and white predictability of the recent way the Democratic front runners have been playing the race card. Billary and his buddies Robert Johnson (of BET fame) and Andrew Young (of long long ago fame) have been frankly embarrassing themselves.

All of this, we have to say, would be meaningless if the country simply united behind the one candidate seriously pushing the program that true justice calls for – the impeachment of Dick Cheney.

But we are told the campaign of Dennis Kucinich is, at best, quixotic.

Oh well, time to listen to the debate.

(Note: Above photo is by Times photographer Ozier Muhammad.)

Bird-Dogging Jerry Nadler, to Get Him to Impeach Dick Cheney

Anti-Iraq war activists are targeting Brooklyn Congressman Jerrold Nadler, demanding he take action on Dennis Kucinich's resolution calling for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney.

"We decided to take it upon ourselves to make Nadler our target once and for all," writes Elaine Brower, as she also describes her arrest at Nadler's Coney Island office the first week of January.

Brower is the mother of a city police officer who has been assigned over the years to Brooklyn, specifically the 72nd precinct, and who is also a marine who has served in Iraq.

(Kucinich's impeachment campaign received a boost recently, as Florida Congressman Robert Wexler began to energize the movement to put Cheney on trial, sending out mass emailings and making other efforts.)

Brooklyn is the Mecca of Arab-America

It's been an incredible transformation, but almost overnight (night being a decade or so) Bay Ridge and other parts of Brooklyn have become sizable communities of Arab immigrants.

That's why, for one thing, this whole to-do over Debbie Almontaser -- her being bounced as principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy -- has so much import.

Tell Brooklyn's Congressional Reps: It's Time to Impeach V.P. Cheney

Two of Brooklyn's Congress members, Yvette Clarke and Edolphus Towns (photo), signed on earlier this year to a bill calling for the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, for deceiving the American people into a war that seems to have no end.

How is it that those two very members, along with all other members of the Brooklyn and New York City Congressional delegation, have signed on also with Sen. Hillary Clinton, in her bid to be the Democratic candidate for president?

Local Congressmembers are Hillary Puppets; and the War Goes on

Could this possibly be true, that all the Brooklyn Democratic members of Congress are supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary?

I mean, there's strong anti-war sentiment in Brooklyn and the rest of the city. And you would think that some of our U.S. Reps would be supporting one of the stronger anti-war candidates, like -- well, name almost any of them -- but Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama come to mind.

But, no, I'm told, all of the local Congressmembers -- ALL of them -- are on the record supporting their New York Senator.

Brooklynites To Congressmembers: 'Stop Bush's War with Iran!'

Activists opposing the administration's war in Iraq and its war drum-beating policies toward Iran are asking for help.

They want members of Congress to speak out more forcefully to President Bush.

Paul Wolfowitz: Straight Out of Brooklyn and Never Dying

We wish we could say that it wasn't true but, yes, Paul Wolfowitz, architect of the policy that got us into the war in Iraq, was born in the borough of Kings.

There were, several months ago, premature reports of his demise, as he was compelled to leave the top position at the World Bank over allegations he allowed his girlfriend there to boost her pay check substantially.

But now Newsweek is reporting that Wolfowitz is being resurrected yet again, this time by virtue of a magic wand waved by Her Eminence at the State Department, one Condi Rice. Rice, it seems, has offered the Brooklyn boy the chairmanship of the not-too-well-known International Security Advisory Board.

Bizarre as it may seem, Wolfowitz would be leading an 18-member panel that has access to classified information and would advise Rice on weapons of mass destruction matters, among other issues.

Yes, this is the same Wolfowitz who got us into the now seemingly inescapable cauldron of Iraq, on the assertion that there were weapons of mass destruction there.

Maybe it's time to pull out those letters to our Congressmembers demanding they pursue impeachment.

On a more positive note, Wolfowitz and his family left Brooklyn when he was barely ten years old.

According to an impeccable source –  wikipedia – Wolfowitz "was born [in 1943] in Brooklyn, New York, into a Polish Jewish immigrant family, and grew up mainly in the university town of Ithaca, New York."

Dear Lord: Thank you. We graciously take what good news we can get, however little.