Mohamed Khodr’s Column
Dear President Bush:
Logic, reason, and rationality do not seem to permeate current administration policies. The genuine love and outpouring of sympathy worldwide after the outrageous terrorist attack by “Muslim” terrorists against our nation on 9/11 has been squandered by unelected neo-conservatives in and out of government who saw an opportunity to fulfill their objectives of world domination and completion of Israel’s Zionist expansion from the Nile River in the west, the Litani River in the north, and the Tigris-Euphrates rivers in the east.
They also saw an opportunity to enrich the military-industrial-energy-congressional complex that has hijacked the Constitution, Bill of Rights and our international credibility in the name of a “jihad” for freedom, peace, and liberty for all mankind. Additionally, evangelical Christians who by their very nature are “exclusivists”-I was raised by Southern Baptists as a young man-are now with your help “forcing God’s hand” to hasten Armageddon, kill or convert Jews, and prepare for Christ’s return.
To the world, our government is perceived as a “Congregation of Hate” aided by a compliant media guiding our naive, innocent, but caring and generous nation to an abyss that can only lead to more terrorism, conflict, and hate among people and religions.
The most important question a “civilized” people asks when faced with a crisis is “why?” Tragically and deliberately, neither you nor any of our institutions has asked this question. Probably because the answer will not gratify the “power lust” of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, John Bolton, Lewis Libby, William Kristol, Robert Kagan and their conservative “think tanks” (what an oxymoron!), which are funded by like-minded extremists who don’t care that our young soldiers are dying needlessly for their cause as well as Israel’s. It seems Israel’s influence will allow America’s youth to fight Islam to our last dollar and life.
This may seem extreme to you, Mr. President, but having just returned from abroad I can assure you that most of the world perceives our “America the Beautiful” in such a fashion. The gulf between their world and us is widening, and you, Mr. President, are allowing it to happen and at times even encouraging it with your ill-advised decisions.
A case in point: by what logic and rationale would you consider appointing a prolific writer of hate and bigotry like Daniel Pipes to the taxpayer-funded U.S. Institute of Peace?
Obviously, this is not an informed decision, but rather a lobbied decision. As an American taxpayer, I respectfully urge you not to make a recess appointment of Mr. Pipes to the Peace Institute, and not to bypass the will of the American people and our AWOL Congress. Such an appointment would only further inflame American Muslims and others as well as the Muslim world, unless that is exactly the purpose of the “neo-con.” Don’t forget, Muslims voted overwhelmingly for you last election.
Here are the Goals of the Institute of Peace in general and toward the Muslim world in particular:
“As the United States and its allies continue their campaign against terrorism, it is key that long-term nonviolent options for preventing and combating international terrorism be made available to policymakers in the United States and beyond.”
U.S. Institute of Peace: Muslim World Initiative:
“Support those in the Muslim world working through nonviolent means to integrate democratic and human rights principles into existing Islamic political, social, and economic frameworks.”
Now, Mr. President, I ask you to read some of the written comments of Daniel Pipes and reach your “own” reasoned judgment. Does such a man belong in an institute of peace? Please notice that these opinions were all published in “Jewish/ Zionist-owned papers.
Pipes Opposed To Middle East Peace:
“Israel needs to take more active steps… Bury suicide bombers in potter’s fields rather than deliver their bodies to relatives (who turn their funerals into frenzied demonstrations)… Permit no transportation of people or goods beyond basic necessities. Shut off utilities to the PA… Raze the PA’s illegal offices in Jerusalem, its security infrastructure and villages from which attacks are launched.
(The National Post, July 18, 2001)
Pipes On Muslims, African-Americans And People Of Color:
“Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene… All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most.’
(National Review, 11/19/90)
“…black converts tend to hold vehemently anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Semitic attitudes.”
(Commentary, June 1, 2000)
“…a well-established tradition of American blacks who convert to Islam turning against their country.”
(Jewish World Review, 2002)
Pipes on academic freedom: (He created the website campus-watch to intimidate academics who criticize Israel.)
…academics seem generally to dislike their own country and think even less of American allies abroad… (Ibid)
Campus Watch will henceforth monitor and gather information on professors who fan the flames of disinformation, incitement and ignorance. (Ibid)
As a born again Christian, Mr. President, I’m sure you’ll recognize these verses from the Bible.
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
PSALM 58: 1-2
Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge uprightly among men?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
Based on this evidence, Mr. President, does Daniel Pipes exhibit a balanced, fair-minded approach to human conflict, or one that is one-sided and extreme?
Mr. President, it is the greatness of our national freedoms that allows a citizen to write you such a letter without fear or malice.
I pray that you reconsider appointing Mr. Pipes to our Institute of Peace.
I pray you reconsider our “hijacked” foreign policy in the Middle East and the Muslim world.
I pray you free America from its fears both domestically and internationally.
I pray that you do follow the teachings of your philosopher, Jesus Christ-peace be upon him-and fight for peace and justice in the world, especially in the Holy Land, for that is our true “Manifest Destiny.”
The world loves our nation and its people, but hates our foreign policy. Even in the Muslim nations I visited there was an American T-shirt in every mosque and a KFC nugget in every mouth. The most damaging “fence” is the one surrounding our capital and our foreign policy, a one-way fence that only allows kosher policies to leave our shores and cost us the lives of our youth.
Mr. President, you are the president of 50 states, not 51.
God bless you, your family, our nation and our world with peace, justice, and wisdom.
Respectfully,
Dr. Mohamed Khodr
Mr. Mohamed Khodr is an American Muslim physician and a native from the Middle East. He has worked in Academic Medicine and Public health with national and international health experience. He is a freelance writer who often writes columns on the Palestinian cause, Islam and on America’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East.