{"id":82,"date":"2008-10-28T17:56:41","date_gmt":"2008-10-28T17:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/10\/the-gop-war-on-muslims-rima-si.html"},"modified":"2008-10-28T17:56:41","modified_gmt":"2008-10-28T17:56:41","slug":"the-gop-war-on-muslims-rima-si","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/10\/the-gop-war-on-muslims-rima-si.html","title":{"rendered":"The GOP war on muslims: Rima Sinclair"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve praised president Bush<\/a> for emphasizing that the war on Terror should not be construed as a war against Islam, but the Republican Party has been enthusiastically waging a war against muslims<\/a>.Even muslims who are members of the Republican Party are potential targets – consider the case of Rima Sinclair<\/a>, a Republican in Colorado who ran in the primary for Colorado House District 6. Ms. Sinclair wrote the following editorial about her experience with her own party, and has graciously given me permission to publish it here on City of Brass.<\/p>\n

“This Is Not The Way We Should Be Doing It In America” Colin Powell<\/p>\n

By: Rima B. Sinclair<\/p>\n

For twenty-first century America, election 2008 has brought back to the
\nsurface issues that many believed to be things of the past. Once again,
\nthe color of one’s skin, or one’s faith, have been misguidedly
\npresented as considerations to use when evaluating a citizen’s
\neligibility to take part in the highest endeavors of our society. Here
\nis my story:<\/p>\n

On  March 1, 2008, the Republican Party Assembly elected me to run for
\nthe Colorado House of Representatives. I felt honored by this chance to
\ngive back and appreciated the great responsibility I just committed to
\nuphold. I believe in the basic values that made this nation great:
\nupholding the Constitution, individual freedom with responsibility, and
\nsmall government with prudent tax and spending policies. An integral
\npart of my beliefs are values like equality, justice, freedom of
\nreligion, the sanctity of human life and that our responsibility toward
\n children does not end at birth. It means giving the young a fair
\nchance at becoming contributing members of society.<\/p>\n

Soon after my nomination, a certain segment of the Republican party
\nmade it known that they rejected the nomination due to my ethnic and
\nfaith background. They claimed that I was not a “Real” Republican and
\nlaunched an intensive “character assassination” campaign, in which I
\nwas labeled a “radical” and “terror apologist.” My Republican opponent
\nclaimed that my intentions “may not always have been so benign towards
\nAmerica.” He invited volunteers to join him to defend the “home front
\nin the War on Islamist Terror.”<\/p>\n

Regrettably, the Republican leadership refused to address the problem.
\nThe Colorado Republican Chairman, dismissed the claims as the usual
\n“campaign business.” The Republican US Senate Candidate announced  his
\nunqualified endorsement of the abuser. Others, like the Colorado former
\nSpeaker of the House went so far as to circulate e-mails that accused
\nme of being an “Islamist mole” and a “strong threat” to Western
\ncivilization. My attackers were invited to bring forth any evidence to
\nsustain their charges, but none did.<\/p>\n

“She should be jailed for treason” and “The wombs of Arab women are
\nbomb factories,” said the letters in multiple media outlets. To no
\navail, I pleaded with party officers to urge a minimum standard of
\ndecency and truthfulness in campaign politics. The response was that
\nthe attacks had not reached the “extreme or outrageous” level which
\nwould warrant action to “arbitrate campaign rhetoric.” Instead, I was
\nwarned to drop out of the race or face a scandal that would so
\ncompletely ruin my reputation that I “won’t find anyone in town ” to
\ntalk to me. Needless to say, I felt relief when the so-called “real”
\nRepublican won the Primary election. Only God knows what other
\ntrumped-up claims they would have made, if I had won.<\/p>\n

The onslaught of ethnic and faith attacks for political gain have
\nmarked election 2008 as the dirtiest that I have witnessed. It is not a
\nsurprise that similar Machiavellian rhetoric is now being employed
\nagainst Barack Obama. The agents of hate have been successful in
\nwhipping-up enough anger to precipitate calls of “traitor”, and “kill
\nhim.” Recent history has demonstrated the horrible consequences of such
\nirresponsible agitations. The late Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak
\nRabin, was repeatedly labeled “a traitor” just before he was murdered
\nby a right-wing Jewish zealot.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Sarah Palin found it defensible to brand certain parts of
\nthe country as not “Pro-America.” The wholesale labeling of a large
\nsegment of Americans as harboring “questionable” patriotism was another
\nabominable example of this year’s gutter politics. No wonder some
\nRepublicans are in need of the services of a Savior Plumber. The drains
\nhave backed-up and they hope that “Joe” can snake out the Grime.<\/p>\n

I grew up in a country where I could not vote and where women are often
\ntreated as second class citizens. Twenty years ago, I came to America
\ninspired by the ideals of freedom, equality and the rule of law. In
\nColorado, I have built a business, I married a wonderful husband of my
\nown choosing, I do not have to fear repressive authority and can seek
\nto participate in government. Immediately after becoming a naturalized
\ncitizen, I joined the Republican Party because I felt that it best
\nsafeguards these blessings of liberty that exist in America and nowhere
\nelse.<\/p>\n

Sadly for America, the right-wing demagogues remain largely
\nunchallenged despite the personal and destructive tactics they have
\nused against Americans who do not fit to their definition of the
\n“Ideal” citizen. Perhaps next, they will up the ante, with charges of
\ntreason that targets whole groups of Americans. For the sake of
\n Freedom and Democracy, this treacherous campaign must be stopped.<\/p>\n

Rima Barakat-Sinclair is Denver resident and an American-Arab Muslim
citizen. She is a frequent speaker and an advocate for greater
participation in civic affairs and interfaith dialogue.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think Ms. Sinclair’s story speaks for itself. I applaud her for her courage and desire to serve her country, and her party. More information about Ms. Sinclair is at her campaign website<\/a>. I for one hope she decides to run to represent her district again in the future – and I hope she stays a Republican, because it’s people like her who will reclaim her party from the madness that infects it today. Perhaps, ironically, Obama’s victory next Wednesday will pave the way. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve praised president Bush for emphasizing that the war on Terror should not be construed as a war against Islam, but the Republican Party has been enthusiastically waging a war against muslims.Even muslims who are members of the Republican Party are potential targets – consider the case of Rima Sinclair, a Republican in Colorado who…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5],"tags":[26,32,130],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamerica","category-purple-politics","tag-politics","tag-republicans","tag-war-on-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nThe GOP war on muslims: Rima Sinclair - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The GOP war on muslims: Rima Sinclair - 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Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. 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The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}