On Rahm Emmanuel

Salaams All -

I have been hearing and seeing alot of emails on Obama's selection of Emmanuel. And wanted to start a discussion on this topic.

InshAllah - I hope that we will wait on our judgments of Obama's selection of Rahm Emmanuel. Firstly - Obama is the governor/leader and Emmanuel is his deputy - and is tasked with being a manager. From what I am hearing - he is very good at that. He is tasked with managing the Dems, the Republicans - promoting bi-partisanship. And - it is thought to be a good cop-bad cop team.
I hope InshAllah we will focus on Obama's message and will choose to trust him as President - just as we trusted him to be our candidate.

Secondly - I think that we have to realize - we are a growing constituency - both in size and activity - but we are only one of the many constituencies that elected Obama. The Hispanics and the Blacks - number wise are much larger constituencies. And the Asian Americans are larger too - and they were much much more active throughout the campaign - as a constituency. We are less than 1% of the US population. We need to grow and be consistent in our ground presence, our media visibility, and our fundraising capacity. At this time - we need to organize ourselves as a community - and make our presence felt. We are planting the seeds and the trees will grow - but we must be patient and we cannot react to everything that happens by throwing the towel in. We all loved - Rosa sat so Martin could walk, Martin walked so Obama could run, and Obama is running so our children can fly.

I hope that we will be patient and positive that change is coming. I hope InshAllah that we will also be wise and realistic in our expectations. If we keep moving forward without getting easily disheartened - Allah InshAllah will reward us.

I welcome thoughts and a continued discussion.

Zeba

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Zeenat on November 10, 2008 at 2:55pm: From what I've read, Rahm is bombastic and irreverent. I like him already. ;); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Ahmed on November 10, 2008 at 4:03pm: Well said. It's baby steps we are taking....we need to keep growing almost like a snowball effect. Thanks!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by siddiq rasuli on November 10, 2008 at 5:42pm: Asaalaam,
Mashallah that was good Zeba sister. You are right, maybe we are getting a little worked up. You know this is the first time I had my whole family register and vote on election day and now that they ask why the sad face I deny it and say I am doing great. I dont tell them the truth about Rahm the Muslim Hater. Anyways we have a long way to go and I hope he picks someone who has some kind of sempathy like he seems to have. If he picks any of these three names in his cabinet it will be good for the whole world inshallah: Gen. Anthony Zinny 4 star general came back from palestine and said the Aipac and the Neo COns dont want peace everyone else including Israelis do. Colin Powell, and you should know the reason for that. Khalid Rashidi, student of the honorable EDWARD SAID. or even a Samantha Powers just a good hearted liberal that cares about peace. If not them then hopefully Obama is that powerfull to court BIDEN and Rahm. It is funny how Israel called Biden instead of barack today to warn of consequences if you hold negotiations with Iran. That is no respect to Barack.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sabra on November 10, 2008 at 6:05pm: SubhanAllah Allah swt reveals to us a lesson through this campaign....it is that we should not put our trust in people......no matter their speech, race......It was like a mirage of hypnotic false temporary worldly hope.....Politicians are amazingly blind and deaf.....and the people who follow and believe in them are the same....Allah swt give us a lightened path to follow Allah swt with all of our hearts, minds, bodys, souls....so that such people can't lead us away from the true path of Islam....Peace, Respect, Love and Compassion for all of Allah swt living creations.....Make Dua as We Muslims are very Weak .....Allah swt save us from Ourselves and Others Ameen.....InshAllah Allah swt will save us as we work towards our inner self of worship to Allah swt in every action our "Deeds" and every word our "Action"....Allah swt with Us Ameen; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by siddiq rasuli on November 10, 2008 at 6:40pm: No hold on Sister Sabra,
First of all Asaalaam alaikum second we should give him a chance like sister zeba is telling us. Yes I am dissapointed, but Obama himself Seems to be a great person. THis is the same guy who said NO oNE suffers Like the Palestinians, He has sympathy, I feel he does.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zeba Iqbal on November 10, 2008 at 8:53pm: Assalamu Alaikum Siddiq -

Thank you for your comment. That was exactly my point. We must be thoughtful and proactive. If Obama had reacted to everything that everyone said and did during the campaign - he would not have won. He won because he stayed on point and never lost sight of his goal - over the course of two years. If we work together and have a plan and realistic goals (to start with) - and use 'no drama Obama' as our mode of operating - we will achieve great things in 2 years, 4 years, etc.

And Sister Sabra - I am sure you have much sabr as your name indicates - but we are not weak, we are strong. We are only weak in front of Allah because we turn to Him for strength. We as citizens - had a choice between two candidates - and we chose the better candidate. Voting is Islamic. Allah has asked us to abide by the rules of the country that we live in - and so we acted on our duty. We must trust - if we didn't trust - we could not/would not have voted.

All immigrants are challenged - it is a rite of passage - to gain respect in this country. What this election has taught us is if we want our voice to be heard - we must speak to each other - and work together to identify the issues that are most critical for us - and then speak in a loud and clear voice. So far - our voices are muffled and it is confusing to an outsider. We as a community must work together - and as the campaign revealed - we are better together and there is strength in numbers.

The reason the Jewish community is well-represented is because they have put money, time and effort into their strategy. We cannot deny them that. But we have to work hard to make sure that we too encourage our community to put time, money and effort in. The survey done by MuslimVotersUSA indicated that 95% voted for Obama - but only 25% were active or volunteered in the campaign - and only 25% contributed money. We must change that InshAllah.

We should trust Allah first and above all - but we should not despair. The Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was challenged throughout his life - and he never despaired. Obama has not even been sworn in yet.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Muhammed on November 11, 2008 at 5:06am: Guys, I live in Sri Lanka and I'm trying to get views on how will be Barack Obama's administration and his policies over muslims around the world. I'm trying to achieve this through news, but I believe since you live in the US, you must be knowing better,
Please explain me..
I was reading articles on Rahm Emanuel and according to my findings he is a hard lined jew.
I was going through youtube and found this video on Rahm,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjygwAHIg8M

Question1: How are Rahm's policies on muslims and is he a threat to muslim world? How is your view?
Question2: How is Rahm's works going to impact on future POTUS? Will he be a threat if Barack Obama tries to bring lenient policies over muslims?
Question3: Was Barack Obama forced to elect Rahm Emanuel as the chief of staffs? Were there any agreements?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by siddiq rasuli on November 11, 2008 at 12:38pm: Asalaam Alaikum Muhammad and everyone else,
Well I just seen the You Tube and I dont know if Rahm is A Mossad Agent. But to your questions Obama had to make this decision with Rahm Emanual. If you think about it this could be stragedy. He can use Rahm for the Israeli lobby to not say a word about him being to pro Islam or actually pro peace and he can pursue his agenda with them not undermining him. Now do Right wing orthodox Jews like Muslims? No they pretty much hate muslims. Picking Rahm is WHy almost 70% of Jews went for obama. Yes there probably was an agreement at the AIPAC meeting to pick Rahm so then florida will go obamas way. No obama does not have to take all this crap from AIPAC all he has to do is go in front of TV and spill the beans on these people. Just Like Eisenhower, Just Like KEnnedy did, He can go in front of the world and tell them about all this stuff thats going on with these bankers and these elites. If anyone wants to know what I am talking about just ask me and I will show you were to go so you can here the Speeches of EISENHOWER AND KENNEDY TALKING ABOUT THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND THE SECRET SOCIETYS AND HOW THEY HAVE INFILTRATED OUR SYSTEM THEM; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by siddiq rasuli on November 11, 2008 at 1:03pm: Asalaam again,

But then I look at Obama and say he knows whats going on and he is just trying to make everyone happy specially muslims but for him to make muslims happy he has to lobby AIPAC. And I think to my self if this guys professor was the HONORABLE EDWARD SAID he has to be sympathetic to our people. Barak and Mitchell are great friends of MOna and Rashid khalidi they have to be sympathetic. You know Obama walked into this event and he told one of his older friends hey we cant speak about the middle east here so becareful what you say, so he has to sympathetic to our people. Like my palestinian brother told me Yesterday they are all one but THE OBAMAS AND THE POWELLS are really tired of pursuing it with bloodshed they rather do what there doing with peace. JUSt remember Gen Anthony Zinni Colin Powell SAamantha Powers or Rahid Khalidi in cabinet then we are OK our voices well be heard; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by siddiq rasuli on November 11, 2008 at 2:02pm: Salaam Alaikum

WHat it comes down to is this, we all have to wait and see how Pres. Elect Obama reacts to certain incidents that happen out there. Will Obama be a better president than George Bush Yes. Well he be a better president than Mcain YEs. We are spoiled and very sensitive people everyone including me and we should not be. Imagine now no muslim will get teased about there names in school no muslim will be looked at differently Obama will make sure that we here at home get treated with dignity and respect I guarentee that. Even his foreign policy will be better than bush and mcain i guarentee that as well. Obama is probably the best thing that happened to the people who want peace and justice. He will probably be the best for us and the country as a whole from domestic policy to forign policy. and bibi Zeba is so bright along with all the other sisters in here we have to get involved just like we have been doing in the last 2 elections in 2006 and in 2008 I am very proud of all the ummah in America Great job and just keep hope. Allah inshallah will get us through this and you have to remember Mitchell for some reason is very sympathetic to Muslims and she will make sure that her husband our president will be Nice and Fair to All. We all have to start getting involved in the process we have to if you folks want to get somewhere. Thats what the Jews did they are not smarter than us believe me but they are united and we are not. that is our problem; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zeenat on November 11, 2008 at 6:53pm: So what if I idolize rockstar mullahs? Don't hate me because I listen to Klezmer and I enjoy poppyseed bagels every now and again. All this hatin's gotsta stop...It's tearin' us apart!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Zehra on November 11, 2008 at 8:31pm: Yes, apparently he uses the f-word as subject, verb, or adjective all at once. If that doesn't make you like him people, I don't know what will...:)

http://www.suntimes.com/news/politics/obama/1268963,barack-obama-ra...

Zeenat said:
From what I've read, Rahm is bombastic and irreverent. I like him already. ;); ▶ Reply to This