CAIRO, October 12 (IslamOnline.net) – Revealing his agenda on Arab and Muslim Americans, US presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry has said the United States does recognize the many contributions they have made to the country.

“We will not tolerate the targeting of Muslim Americans or Arab Americans for threats, violence or discrimination based on their religion,” Kerry told the US-based Muslim Vibes Web site in an exclusive interview Sunday, October 10.

The Democratic challenger, who has pulled ahead of incumbent Republican George W. Bush in recent polls after two televised debates, said his administration would defend the civil rights and civil liberties of all Americans alike.

“…all Americans, including Muslims and Arabs, can live, work, learn, worship, and gather without fear or discrimination.”

A May 2004 report released by the US Senate Office Of Research concluded that the Arab Americans and the Muslim community in the United States have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

More than 1,200 Muslims and Arab-Americans have been taken into custody since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Amnesty International has repeatedly said that racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies had grown over the past three years to cover one in nine Americans, mostly targeting Muslims.

“As a former prosecutor, I know that racial, ethnic, and religious profiling is wrong as well as ineffective. It must be ended. Diversity is one of America ’s greatest strengths and respect for it -- one of our most important values,” said Kerry.

Respected Again

Kerry also said he wanted to shine up the image of America in the eyes of the world, tarnished badly by the US-led war on Afghanistan, Iraq and last but not least the Abu Gharib prisoner scandal.  

“We will stand up for America’s values and have a plan to build an America that is strong at home and respected in the world,” Kerry told Vibes.

“We cannot fight the war on terrorism at the expense of our principles and the rule of law. (Vice presidential candidate John) Edwards and I understand that fighting terrorism in America and abroad is not a fight against Muslims and it is not a fight against Arabs. It is a fight against fanaticism.”

Quizzed on Iraq , Kerry maintained that the war was “the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place.”

“ Iraq was not even close to the center of the war on terror before the president invaded it. The President also promised America that he would go to war as a last resort. Those words mean something to me, as somebody who has been in combat.

“You’ve got to be able to look in the eyes of families and say to those parents, ‘I tried to do everything in my power to prevent the loss of your son and daughter. I don’t believe the United States did that,” he added.

The US death toll since the start of the Iraq invasion in March last year hit the scary mark of 1,000 last month.  

Muslims -- whose estimated numbers nationwide range from 1.2 million to 7 million -- could be crucial in the November 2 make-or-break elections, especially in swing states like Ohio, Florida and Michigan, which have the nation’s largest Arab-American population.

Furious over the Bush administration’s post-Sept. 11 policies that unfairly targeted them, some 150 of the traditionally Republican-leaning Arab Americans, including businessmen, physicians and lawyers, agreed during a meeting at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on October 3, to give their votes to Kerry.

In late September, a poll conducted by Zogby International for Georgetown University found Muslims supporting Kerry by a margin of 76 percent to 7 percent for Bush.