-By Warner Todd Huston
Hillary Clinton invited a controversial Muslim from Virginia, Esam Omeish, to participate in a conference call of Muslim leaders last week following President Obama’s call to reach out to Muslims in Cairo, Egypt. Omeish made headlines after it was discovered that he told a crowd at a pro-Palestinian rally in 2000 that “the jihad way is the way to liberate your land.”
So how did this radical Muslim end up as a member of Hillary Clinton’s outreach effort to loyal American Muslims? Is this just another example of the poor vetting process that goes on in the Obama administration? Did Hillary even know this man’s background before she invited him to participate in this conference call? Did she know this man’s outrageous Jihadist tendencies before her office contacted him?
In 2000 Esam Omeish urged people to support the Palestinian liberation movement.
“We the Muslims of the Washington Metropolitan area are here today in sub-freezing temperatures to tell our brothers and sisters in (Palestine) that you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land,” Omeish said, just three months into the Al-Aqsa uprising that would claim over a thousand lives through Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Fox News reports that Omeish had to resign from Virginia’s immigration commission once his jihad comments were publicized in 2007.
Omeish is currently running for state assemblyman against Republican Jim Hyland.
Naturally, Omeish used the old jihad-has-many-meanings dodge to explain away his support of Palestinian jihadists and also is trying to redefine the situation as a racist attack against him by his critics.
“I am hopeful that the my friends on the far right and even some of those in the media, that continue to try and distort my record and my name, and continue to distort public perceptions of the Muslim community, will realize that we have a president and an administration, along with most of the American people, that are ready to move beyond divisive politics,” he said on the call, according to a press release from his campaign office.
Of course it should be expected that anyone that questions his particular definition of jihad is considered by Omeish to be an extremist on “the far right.” Naturally, it is everyone else that is “distorting” the religion of peace. Granted we should all assume that Omeish’s definition of “jihad” must surely be filled with puppies, flowers, hearts and kisses, right? Why, what else could he have meant when raising jihad to a crowd of angry Palestinians?
All the more reason to support Jim Hyland for Virginia’s House of Delegates for the 35th District on November 3, 2009. (Hyland’s FaceBook page) And if you can’t vote for Hyland, maybe you can spare a few dollars for his campaign?
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, RedState.com, Human Events Magazine, AmericanDailyReview.com, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.