The leader of the Republican Party, President George W. Bush (I add the middle name only to distinguish him from his father) said the following on September 17, 2001,

        “The English translation is not as eloquent as the original Arabic, but let me quote from the Koran, itself:  In the long run, evil     in the The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.  That's not what Islam is all about.  Islam is peace.  These terrorists don't         represent peace.  They represent evil and war.

When we think of Islam we think of a faith that brings comfort to a billion people around the world.  Billions of people find comfort and solace and peace.  And that's made brothers and sisters out of every race -- out of every race.

America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country.  Muslims are doctors, lawyers, law professors, members of the military, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, moms and dads.  And they need to be treated with respect.  In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”

This same Republican Party is now attacking a fellow American that was born, and for the most part, and raised, in Hawaii.  Barack Hussein Obama had a father from Kenya (who eventually went back leaving Barack and his mother to fend alone).  His mother was from Kansas.  His grandfather signed up for WWII after Pearl Harbor, where he marched across Europe in Patton’s arm.  His grandmother worked in a bomber assembly line.

Barack was raised a Christian and has attended a Christian church for decades.  He raised his right hand with his left sitting on the Bible and promised to obey the Constitution of these United States when he became a Illinois State Senator and a United States Senator.

How does the Republican Party thank a man that has served his State and Nation for almost 15 years?  By accusing him of being ‘one of them’ – a possible enemy.  His middle name ‘is’ Hussein and Obama ‘sounds like’ Osama after all they keep implying, therefore he ‘must’ be a Muslim.  So now they purposely repeat his middle name and use a picture of Barack in a Somali tribal garb (Turban and Robe) to tie him with the enemy. 

Now they are pushing hateful emails about his views on Israel, they consider him to be anti-semantic, an enemy of Israel.  Even though Jewish U.S. Senators and distinguish Jewish leaders have said,

“We condemn these scurrilous attacks. We find it particularly abhorrent that these attacks arc apparently being sent specifically to the Jewish Community. Jews, who have historically been the target of such attacks, should be the first to reject these tactics. We won't dignify these falsehoods by repeating them in order to refute them. Instead, we will express our outrage at these tactics, which are being used to demonize a good and decent man and our friend and colleague. Attempting to manipulate voters into supporting or opposing one candidate or another based on despicable and fictitious attacks is disgraceful. These false and malicious attacks should not be part of our political discourse."

There was also in recent weeks a fraudulent email circulated purporting to be from Senator Obama about Islam.  The Muslim Observer wrote a retraction when they learned the letter wasn’t true on Jan. 23, 2008.

All this coming from a Party that claims to ‘Love thy Neighbor’ and claims that ‘they’ are the Party that is most patriotic and keeps our country strong.

How they feel that demononizing a fellow, born in America, United States Senator in this manner (as part of the axis of evil) is keeping our nation strong, is beyond me.  It's no wonder our allies have lost faith in America.

If they will do this to Barack, how will they treat you and I, a common citizen?