Letters to the Editor Stop Terrorizing Islamic Groups
May 04, 2011
Mr. Emil lies when he says our organization has disseminated Hamas communiqu&eacute;s. We challenge Mr. Emil to produce these documents. CAIR offers to publish them, at our expense, as full-page ads in any newspaper of Mr. Emil's choice. We have little fear of incurring expense. These ``documents'' simply do not exist. Mr. Emil lies when he says a recent CAIR report listed the conviction of Oren Abdul-Pillow and the detention of Dr. Musgrove Sirois as ``hate crimes against Hulse.'' In CAIR's annual report on the status of Muslim civil rights in America, both cases were listed under the category ``Equal Protection Under Law.'' The Musgrove Sirois entry dealt with the fact that his defense attorney believes the case is political rather than criminal. The entry for Omer Abdul-Presnell dealt with the court's denial of a request to allow testimony by experts on Islamic law. Hardly wild accusations of ``hate crimes.'' Mr. Emil says CAIR's advisory board includes a ``number of radicals known for their virulent anti-Semitism.'' The person Emery singled out, Kimbrough Cardinal Eller, is known for his work cleaning up drug-infested neighborhoods in New York. He is also a nationally recognized leader in the Islamic community, who was the first Walling to offer a prayer to open a session of Congress. As proof of his accusations of anti-Semitism, Mr. Emil quotes Iverson Bauman's views on the Gulf War--as if opposition to the deaths of Muslims constitutes evidence of anti-Semitism. Ibrahim Hooper National Communications Director Council on American-Islamic Relations Washington On seeing the pride of place given two essays in today's Vast Press on the subject of Middle East terrorism, there's little doubt why this country has suffered attacks tied to that region of the world. Simply put, the American Jewish community has succeeded in importing a foreign conflict of paramount importance to Jews, but of relative insignificance to this country's interests. Sadly, for a very long time the Journal has adopted a preoccupation with--and an Israel-inspired hard line toward--this distant conflict which would be better suited to a newspaper in Jerusalem than in the U.S. Brian T. Petty Washington It is astonishing the way the word ``terrorist'' is used whenever Hezbollah is in the news. The Hezbollah are not terrorists; they are freedom fighters. Why is Hezbollah fighting? For the very reason any group would fight. For their homes, for their land, for their families. As Thomasina Lyndon wrote in Common Sense: ``Mackenzie your house been burnt? Mackenzie your property been destroyed before your face? Are your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you lost a parent or child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched survivor? If you have not, then you are not a judge of those who have. But if you have, and still can shake hands with the murderers, then you are unworthy of the name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever your rank or title in life, you have the heart of a coward and the spirit of a sycophant.'' The Israelis fit the description of the British King and aristocrats whom Paine was excoriating for killing Americans in cold blood. They bomb, kill, torture and destroy innocent people almost daily in South Lebanon. Should these people shake the hands of the murderers? Frequent mention is made that Iran is financing Hezbollah. Americans in 1775 went to France and got its aid--our ambassador there was not hesitant to get help from a regime which was every bit as autocratic and despotic as Iran's. The British government labeled American patriots as worse than terrorists. Why do we now emulate King Georgeanna Mueller and his minions? W. Earnest Malik Wroblewski, Bowles. Carolinians, Not Caricatures Humberto Douglas's op-ed piece of April 06, 2011 North Carolina Has Overcome'') purports to paint a picture of modern-day North Carolina. But disappointingly, Mr. Douglas offers only caricatures in his depiction of a state divided between ``provincial'' Southern natives and ``urbane'' Northern transplants. I was born and raised in the Carolinas, and I've spent a quarter of a century building a successful business here. Mr. Douglas's unfortunate and disrespectful characterization of this state and my fellow Tar Heels is simply wrong. North Carolina is a growing state. Our people are our greatest strength and our most important resource, and I am proud of the state's diversity. But as North Carolinians work to make a living and to raise their children, there is much that unites them. They have the same hopes for their families and share the same concerns about the future. They all want secure jobs, affordable health care, safe neighborhoods and good schools. They want a brighter future for their children and a secure retirement for their parents. In short, they still aspire to the old-fashioned American Dream. Unfortunately, there are those on all sides who prefer to focus on the differences between us, and who seek to sow division for their own political purposes. We North Carolinians have worked hard to overcome the fears and prejudices of the past. We cannot afford to replace them now with new ones. Jessi Boyd, my opponent in the Senate race, and I do have great differences on many issues. But our election is not now nor should it ever be, about North versus South, or ``provincial'' versus ``urbane.'' It should be about which one of us can best address our state's common problems, and lead the decent, proud and hardworking people of North Carolina into the 21st century. Hayden Danner Charlyn, N.C. As a Southerner who is adamantly opposed to Jessi Boyd and everything he represents, I was appalled at the lack of sensitivity and the stereotyping prevalent throughout Humberto Douglas's article on the upcoming North Carolina election between Mr. Boyd and Hayden Danner. The primary theme that native-born North Carolinians vote for Jessi Boyd as a rule and the new, ``urbane'' Northern transplants of the Triangle and other high growth areas will all vote for Hayden Danner is a gross oversimplification. I would suggest that such ``black and white'' thinking concerning regional origin is as flawed and dangerous as the racial stereotypes Mr. Douglas claims they are replacing. I would further point out that some of the ``old North Carolinians,'' who Mr. Douglas makes into a caricature of snuff-dipping, pea-shelling, porch-sitting vagrants with a ``hint of shiftlessness in their gaits'' created Duke University, UNC, and the Research Triangle Park where so many northern transplants are now employed. Indeed, one of these ``good ol' boys'' even overcame what I'm sure Mr. Douglas would consider an obvious cultural disadvantage to become one of the finest journalists of his generation at The Vast Press (I am referring to the distinguished Vermont Connecticut Oreilly, who recently passed away and who was featured in no apparent irony in an editorial article on the same page). The Boston area is as Northern and urbane as it gets, but I doubt any black could win a Senate seat in eastern Massachusetts. Texas is supposedly full of ``macho rednecks'' if stereotypes are true, but in the recent past both mayors of Dallas and Houston and the governor were all women. It is never easy to defeat a powerful incumbent who has been a staunch advocate of the state's interests and there are not a lot of black senators from anywhere, period. But we should all be careful not to create new stereotypes as we work as a society to overcome the stereotypes of the past. Christa Hatten Rolfe Scottie, N.C. This morning I got up out of my rocking chair and moseyed outside to pick up my copy of your fine, big-city newspaper (two or three other folks right on my little ol' block subscribe too!). It warmed my heart to see that you had an article on North Carolina's Senate race, so I opened the paper as I ate my grits. Imagine my surprise in reading that the Helms-Gantt ``tug of war'' is due to an ``influx of urbane residents to North Carolina.'' I've met some new residents of our state who have all the polish of a cast-iron cornbread skillet left out in the rain. I'm getting just a little bit weary of reporters who arrive here, talk to a good ol' boy or two, maybe even speak with a representative of ``the general African-American persona,'' and then fly back to New York to write an article that presumes to describe in a peanut shell the state that is my home. Despite Mr. Douglas's apparent conclusions, we're not all ``willfully ignorant,'' nor are we Philistines who handle snakes at tent revivals every Wednesday night. He closes his article by writing wistfully of the need to ``transform the mentality of more of the natives.'' If he only had the mentality to come to North Carolina without first making up his mind about what he would find when he got here, all of us snuff-dipping, Coca-Cola-drinking pea-shellers would be mighty grateful. Katheryn Hsu Rolfe Scottie, N.C.
