Colin Powell speaks out against anti-Muslim smears, honors fallen heros, and endorses Obama

"Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is no. That's not America. Is there something wrong with a seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she could be president? Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion that he is a Muslim and might have an association with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America," - Colin Powell, standing up to the disgusting rhetoric and tactics of the McCain-Palin campaign.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/face-of-the--12....
Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his partys campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words community organizer; the Republicans argument that using taxes to spread the wealth was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palins insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were the real America.

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.

I stared at it for an hour, he told me. Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?

Khan was an all-American kid. A 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., he loved the Dallas Cowboys and playing video games with his 12-year-old stepsister, Aliya.

His obituary in The Star-Ledger of Newark said that he had sent his family back pictures of himself playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy.

His father said Kareem had been eager to enlist since he was 14 and was outraged by the 9/11 attacks. His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go, Feroze Khan, told The Gannett News Service after his son died. He looked at it that hes American and he has a job to do.

In a gratifying have you no sense of decency, Sir and Madam? moment, Colin Powell went on Meet the Press on Sunday and talked about Khan, and the unseemly ways John McCain and Palin have been polarizing the country to try to get elected. It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/opinion/22dowd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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[tigerhearttigerking]

sooo touching i cant hold back my tears...negative campaigning is the down fall to the republican..

[pulsepi]

fresh, rational, reasonable rhetoric. Thank god for it

[Demon629x]

RIP Kareem. I miss you everyday man.

[islamDick]

Fucking Republician.

[llROCKETMANll]

Preventable death,unnecessary waste cause of w.m.d. lies,honor the fallen,watch "Uncovered,The War In Iraq" @ /watch?v=T_f_Z3DoCCM

[chesterblackhawk22]

@kurdishleader. That's a little exaggeratd based on the smell of the guys in 7-11 or dunkin donuts

[kurdishleader]

@Biltom before you even mention Islam or Muslims go take a good long shower, clean urself well then u have right to Smell us. Muslims clean themselves 5 times a day, which also includes brushing teeth. And every time we use bathroom, we clean our private parts with soap and water.. But u dont even Wash ur hands.. Disgusting prick

[kurdishleader]

@funufana. Its not occupation its freedom of Iraq, after 35 years of terror in Iraq people are now free. Saddam the dog is waiting in grave to be burned in hell for murdering 200 000 Kurdish civilians. There is no god but Allah, the best of planners.

[TheAdjundantReflex]

Fufana, you are a spineless coward Insulting a fallen soldier. Love of your homeland is a part of your faith according to the prophet.

[funufana]

I hope every one that kills innocent people burns in hell for eternity including this kid and me for that matter and I say he is not serving Islam but America and he aint no Muslim for choosing this path he shouldn't have served in this war since it was wrong from the beginning and so many non Muslim Americans were against this war why should he be fighting against people who are defending them selfs from occupation,God knows best