OTMs
A Clash of Culture, Faith
By Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 5, 2006
...Across the nation, thousands of Latino immigrants are redefining themselves through Islam, including a few hundred in the Washington region, according to national Islamic groups and community leaders. Precise numbers are not available, but estimates range from 40,000 to 70,000...
--- Now here's a disturbing trend. Al-Qaeda can just train them in Latin America, they cross the Mexican border illegally to the US, where they can join the temporary guest worker program and create sleeper cells. Thank you Presidente Bush. And we pay for their health care!
Latino women find what most westerners rarely see -- a respect for women, unlike, some converts say, the machismo culture in which they were raised...
--- Muslim men are respectful to women! Okayyyyy.
This is a long article but I'm just relaying the fun parts to you. Feminism and multiculturalism in a nice, neat package! Thank you Washington Post!
[Margaret] Ellis... was unsatisfied with Catholicism and said in Panama, the Catholics she knew were not religious. She wanted a deeper connection with God...
In the United States, Ellis kept asking herself: Where do I fit in? As a black Latina, she found many black Americans didn't accept her. And Latinos she met were largely from nations without many blacks...
"For me, the perfect niche was the Muslim community, because for us it doesn't matter where you are from or what you look like," said Ellis, 44.
She is now called Farhahnaz Ellis.
--- That's because no one sees your face anymore you dumb... oh, yeah, racism as well as feminism and multiculturalism! It makes me feel so elite!
When the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks occurred, [Jackie] Avelar, then a George Mason University student, was dating a Pakistani American Muslim. One day, she angrily asked him: How could Muslims commit such acts? Yet she also grew curious...
--- Of course! Muslims killed all those people, tell me more!! That was everybody's first reaction, right?
Avelar's beliefs are shaped neither by politics nor injustice toward Muslims, she said. In her mind, she's still a hyphenated immigrant -- only with one more hyphen.
"I love my country. I love living here. I love being Latina," she said. "But more than anything else, I love Islam..."
--- The more hyphens the better. I think.
"The way Latin men portray women, it's terrible," Avelar said. "You look at Spanish CDs, and you see women in bikinis on the cover."
Before Islam: The day laborers at a nearby 7-Eleven whistled and cat-called -- " ¡Oy Mamacita ! " -- as she passed them.
After Islam: The day laborers stared in silence as she, in her hijab, passed them.
"The fact they stayed quiet, I was like, ' Alhamdulillah! '," said Avelar, reciting the Arabic phrase "Praise be to Allah."
"I love the respect that I get from the opposite sex [when I'm] in hijab."
--- Sure. We all know how wonderfully Muslim women are treated. But don't commit adultery girl! I hear stonings are pretty painful!
Bush Calls for Guard on border
By Stephen Dinan
Washington Times
May 16, 2006
President Bush [of the United States of Mexico] yesterday called for sending 6,000 National Guard troops to U.S. borders to back up the Border Patrol and also said state and local police officers should be allowed to help enforce federal immigration law.
--- That's it. 2000 miles of border, 6000 troops. They'll stand toe-to-toe, one every 1/3 of a fricking mile, and stop them. What a crock.
"The Guard will assist the Border Patrol by operating surveillance systems, analyzing intelligence, installing fences and vehicle barriers, building roads and providing training," he said. "Guard units will not be involved in direct law-enforcement activities."...
--- Nudge nudge. Don't worry, I'm just pandering. Nothing has changed. Everybody line up! Al-Qaeda to the left, temporary guest workers to the right, drug runners right down here. Vote Republican guys!
He said longtime illegal aliens should be awarded a right to citizenship while recently arrived illegal aliens should not.
--- Those who have been criminals longer than X years, congratulations! You shall receive your reward! More recent criminals, just shut up and wait for your reward.
He did not say what the cutoff date should be, nor whether those who didn't qualify would be deported, but he said those awarded citizenship are not getting amnesty.
--- I suppose Al-Qaeda members here for more than X years get citizenship too, as long as they vote Republican?
"What I have just described is not amnesty. It is a way for those who have broken the law to pay their debt to society and demonstrate the character that makes a good citizen," he said.
--- I break and enter, a company hires me illegally, I work; there! now I've paid my debt! Make me a citizen dammit!You goddamn crooked politicians. There will be an uprising, eventually... and it's gonna be very ugly.
Rising tide of border crime and violence: Brazen drug criminals now smuggle people
By Kris Axtman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
February 15, 2006
HOUSTON – First came an armed standoff between Texas lawmen and drug smugglers disguised as Mexican soldiers. Next, federal officials seized a stockpile of heavy-duty weaponry - assault rifles, hand grenades, and improvised explosive devices - along the Rio Grande. Then a Mexican police reporter was critically wounded after intruders fired more than 60 rounds into the newspaper's offices.
These three incidents in as many weeks dramatize the rising violence along the US-Mexico border. Drug traffickers are becoming more brazen and expanding their operations to include smuggling people. Even as President Bush proposes to beef up border security, these attacks are renewing the debate over how best to keep criminals - perhaps even terrorists - from crossing into the United States....
--- You gittin' sceered yit? We really are masochistic.
"For five years President Bush has been talking about the war on terrorism. But it's all offense and no defense," says Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington. "And immigration control is the most important defensive tool in this kind of conflict."
--- President Bush, you're not running for reelection. Why don't you really do something about it? Nope, the stupid Republican machine is just pandering for Hispanic votes. The logic escapes me. A legal Mexican immigrant is supposed to be delighted that illegals are crossing over with impunity, and reward the Republicans. I mean, I'm Armenian, but I wouldn't be happy if Republicans allowed Armenian mafia types to come illegally to this country. Duh.
He says the budget makes clear that Bush continues to ignore workplace enforcement, one of the main ways to check people's immigration status from inside the country.
Indeed, his budget proposes to spend $100 million more on a program to let immigrants come in as temporary workers than on forcing employers to verify the immigration status of their workers, Mr. Krikorian says. "You can't let in the Mexican dishwasher and keep out the Saudi suicide bomber. Immigration enforcement needs to be comprehensive."
--- President Bush, I'm starting to believe the Left... maybe you are a total idiot.
Possible Al Qaeda infiltration worries FBI chief
Mark Sherman, Associated Press
March 9, 2005
WASHINGTON -- FBI director Robert Mueller told Congress yesterday that people from countries with ties to Al Qaeda have crossed into the United States from Mexico, using false identities.
"We are concerned, homeland security is concerned about special interest aliens entering the United States," Mueller said, using a term for people from countries where Al Qaeda is active.
Under persistent questioning from Representative John Culberson, Republican of Texas, Mueller said he was aware of one route that takes people to Brazil, where they assume false identities, and then to Mexico before crossing the US border.
He also said that in some instances people with Middle Eastern names have adopted Hispanic last names before trying to get into the United States.
Mueller provided no estimate of the number of people who have entered the country in this manner.
Bush administration officials have previously said Al Qaeda could try to infiltrate the United States through the Mexican border.
Are terrorists (Other Than Mexicans) entering the United States through Arizona's border with Mexico? Tucson Weekly Article 9/2/04
--- We got sleepers all over the country just waiting for orders. Man, I don't know. PWBs (Politicians without Balls) won't take it on. And I don't know what we could do about those who are here, but for chrissake, put the military at the border and tighten things up. No, I'm not a nativist, my father was an immigrant, so don't write me off. Just common sense.
At least many others are talking about it now.