(WASHINGTON, D.C., 10/22/08)

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today applauded remarks by former Secretary of State Colin Powell repudiating Islamophobia in political campaigns.

In an appearance yesterday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Powell said in part:

“I'm also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to be said such things as, ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, ‘He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.’ This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”

SEE: 'Meet the Press' Transcript for Oct. 19, 2008

Click here to watch the video.

“We applaud Mr. Powell for stating so eloquently and forcefully what should have been said long ago by public officials and candidates for elected office,” said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. “His statement gives hope to American Muslims who have been disheartened by rising levels of anti-Muslim bigotry in this election cycle.”

Last week, CAIR noted the increasing religious and ethnic bias in political campaigns and called on Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to repudiate anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias during the final presidential debate.

SEE: Muslim Group Asks Candidates to Reject Islamophobia in Debate

As examples of that bias, CAIR cited a recent controversy over Sen. McCain’s declaration that his opponent is a “decent guy” after a campaign rally participant called Sen. Obama an “Arab.” The Washington-based group also noted the false claim that the Illinois senator is a Muslim and an incident in which Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves were barred from an Obama rally photo opportunity in Michigan.

CAIR said American Muslims are particularly concerned about the recent distribution, possibly funded by a foreign entity, of 28 million anti-Muslim DVDs to voters in presidential swing states nationwide.

SEE: http://www.obsessionwithhate.com/

In September, CAIR released its annual report on the status of American Muslim civil rights. That report, called “Without Fear of Discrimination,” outlined 2,652 incidents and experiences of anti-Muslim violence, discrimination and harassment in 2007.

To view the entire report, click here.

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

- END -

CONTACT: CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com

==========================================

More on the Soldier Kareem R. Khan

By The New York Times

On "Meet the Press" today, Colin L. Powell concluded his endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by referring to the death of a Muslim soldier, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan of Manahawkin, N.J., who was killed in Iraq on Aug. 6, 2007, and whose remains were buried in Arlington.

Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan

He and three other soldiers, including a corporal from Washington Heights, were killed in Baquba after a bomb detonated while they were checking abandoned houses for explosives. They served in the Stryker Brigade combat team of the Army's 2nd Infantry Division, based in Ft. Lewis, Washington.

Mr. Khan graduated from Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin in 2005, and enlisted in the Army a few months later, spurred by his memories of the 9/11 terror attacks. "His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go. It never stopped him," his father, Feroze Khan, told the Gannett News Service in a story printed shortly after his death. "He looked at it that he's American and he has a job to do."

Mr. Powell mentioned Mr. Khan's death to underscore why he was deeply troubled by Republican personal attacks on Mr. Obama, especially false intimations that he was Muslim.

Mr. Obama is a lifelong Christian, not a Muslim, he said. But, he added, "The really right answer is, what if he is?"

"Is there something wrong with being Muslim in this country? No, that's not America," he said.

Mr. Khan's death came to his attention, Mr. Powell said, when he saw a photo essay in a magazine about the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. One picture showed a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her fallen son in Arlington cemetery. It was the grave of 20-year-old Mr. Khan, engraved with his name, his military awards, and the Muslim symbol of the crescent and star.

"He was 14 years old at the time of 9/11, and he waited until he could go serve his country, and he gave his life," Mr. Powell said. "Now, we have got to stop polarizing ourselves in this way."

Mr. Powell said that he had heard senior members of the Republican Party "drop this suggestion that he [Obama] is a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists."

"Now, John McCain is as nondiscriminatory as anyone I know. But I'm troubled about the fact that within the party we have these kinds of expressions."

Mr. Khan had served in Iraq for just over a year, arriving in July 2006. He had sent home pictures to his family of him playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy in Baghdad, according to his obituary in the Newark Star-Ledger.

He loved rooting for the Dallas Cowboys with his father, and challenging his 12-year old stepsister, Aliya, to video games. He last saw his family during a two-week visit in September 2006.