Dean Obeidallah: A House Arab At The White House

February 10, 2012

Having recently converted to Islam in order to acquire some sort of native legitimacy in his mediocre comedic career, Dean Obeidallah has made “humanizing” Muslims a priority. Of course, this became lucrative after the 9/11 attacks; before, by his own admission, Obeidallah was just another white Christian guy from New Jersey. While this photo opportunity with U.S. President Barack Obama will go a long way in advancing his career, it illustrates that Obeidallah does not actually care for Muslims. After all, from 2009-2011, Obama ordered four times more drone strikes on Pakistan than President George W. Bush authorized during two terms, resulting in the deaths of 1,354-2,254 Muslims. This toll does not include casualties of Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan, collaboration with NATO in the bombing of Libya or adventurism in Somalia and Yemen. If Obeidallah sincerely wanted to “humanize” Muslims, he would refuse to attend a White House function in protest of the Obama administration’s wars on Muslim nations and continued detention and torture of Muslims in Guantanamo Bay, many of whom have been held without trial for well over ten years. If Obeidallah’s “comedy” was, as he regularly claims, infused with a social, moral, and political consciousness or if he had a minimal personal conscience, those imprisoned, tortured and murdered should merit his skipping a presidential photo-op. Then again, these Muslims aren’t “human” to Obeidallah:  “Muslim” is merely a convenient label for a marginal comedian pursuing a career in post-9/11 America.

Ray Hanania – His own worst enemy

February 6, 2012

[Ikhras Note: Palestinian-American Zionist and Ikhras Shoe of the Month Award winner Ray Hanania* continues his inflammatory, offensive rhetoric and tirades against all anti-Zionist activists.  In this article, first published on occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com,  Sadika Arab responds to his latest attacks on two Palestinian activists.]

It’s always a dilemma. What to do, when people you admire are being attacked by the jealous and hateful? If you respond to it, it sometimes gives them the undeserved attention that they desperately seek. If you stay silent about it, you let baseless smears linger as if they contain some element of truth. Read More »

Ikhras Shoe Of The Month Award Winner – January 2012

February 2, 2012

Ikhras is pleased to announce the winner of the Muntadhar Zaidi Shoe of the Month Award for this January, 2012 is Imam Feisal Abdul-Rauf.  Speaking during his visit to occupied Palestine Feisal Abdul Rauf,  a self-declared supporter of Israel,  called on Muslims world wide to follow in his own foot steps and take a pilgrimage to the Zionist entity.

“I’d like us religious leaders to call for a sacred month that that will allow people to go on pilgrimage,” he said. If Muslims – including Iranians, who are often keen pilgrims – “felt free to come here for part of their pilgrimage, you would have easily tens of millions of people coming to Jerusalem…The pilgrimage to Mecca has always been an occasion for Muslims to get to know Muslims from other parts of the world,” Rauf noted. “If Muslims could come here, you could create some activity on the sidelines between Muslims and Jews.”

This purely political gesture, complete with quotes of passages from the Quran and absurd analogies to feuding Arab tribes in pre-Islamic Mecca, is intended to serve the interests of the usurping Zionist entity in three ways. Read More »

Arsalan Iftikhar’s Love for Islamic Pacifism and Militant Zionism

January 30, 2012

By Guest Writer and Ikhras friend Tammy Obeidallah* 

Arsalan Iftikhar, international human rights lawyer, former National Legal Director of CAIR and now author of a book entitled Islamic Pacifism, is yet another stooge making money off “humanizing” Muslims. It seems to be his sincere hope to convince colonial powers that Muslims really are peace-loving and don’t deserve to be obliterated. According to him, the “extremists” engaged in “terrorism” belong to a small minority who have “hijacked” Islam. Read More »

Ikhras Reader Shares Personal Experience With Hussein Ibish

January 26, 2012

[Ikhras Note: An Ikhras reader and friend wanted to share his/her personal experience with Hussein Ibish but wishes to remain anonymous.]

He is absolutely horrible. I told you that I enrolled (that is the best way I can explain it) in one of his Arab American seminars in 2006 while I was surveying students for my dissertation research. I thought I would be enlightened. After 4 days of the 5 day seminar, I ditched it. Read More »

Hussein Ibish And The Language Of Anti-Arab Racism

January 23, 2012

Hussein Ibish, the Senior Fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP), the Washington public relations outfit for the collaborationist Palestinian Authority (PA) in occupied Ramallah, continues to speak in the most disrespectful, condescending, and sometimes racist fashion when it comes to Arabs and Muslims especially those among them opposed to US criminal wars abroad and insist on combating and defeating the Zionist colonial project in Palestine. The language of the intellectual godfather of the establishment Arabs has grown increasingly abrasive and crude as he moves further and further to the political right and continues to adjust his unreasonably reasonable stance on Palestine to the demands of the most extreme elements of the Pro-Israel lobby. Read More »

Dean Obeidallah: An Insight

January 16, 2012

[Ikhras Note: Unsurprisingly alleged comedian Dean Obeidallah has failed to digest the irony of someone that launches a career as a nominal Muslim Arab on the far fringe of American pop culture dismissing the dedicated work of an American solidarity activist because she doesn't share an Arab-Islamic heritage.   Ethnicity is a chance of birth and religious persuasion is a personal choice.  You don’t have to be a Palestinian, an Arab, or a Muslim to recognize and be part of the struggle against Zionism and injustice in Palestine.  Our  universal human values should lead all of us to accept and promote a shared global responsibility for fighting against injustice, racism, ethnic cleansing, occupation, imperialism, and war wherever it may exist.  In this special guest submission ikhras friend Tammy Obeidallah shares her personal experience with Obeidallah and makes it clear that Palestine is not a punch line for aspiring American comedians, it is a morally compelling cause that has enlisted people of conscience from all backgrounds.] 

By: Tammy Obeidallah*

In May 2007, I was working as a staff writer for the Daily Advocate in Greenville, Ohio. While the newspaper is a small-town rag if there ever was one, it served as a forum to write as much about Palestine as possible to a largely conservative “Christian” Zionist community.

One day a message showed up in my inbox at the newspaper’s account from Dean Obeidallah. He had contacted me out of the blue, asking if we were related. I informed him my then father-in-law and his father were first cousins. He offered me free tickets to the upcoming Axis of Evil show in Cleveland, Ohio. Only vaguely familiar with his name at the time, I agreed to go. Read More »

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