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Lazio Smears Muslim Americans
by Jamshed Bokhari
WASHINGTON (IslamOnline) - New York's senatorial race, pitting Democrat Hillary Clinton against Republican Rick Lazio, has raised the ire of Muslim Americans concerned about campaign contribution returns and mudslinging smear campaign tactics utilized by Lazio's campaign.
In the latest round of accusations centering on Muslim Americans, the Lazio campaign inundated New York area voters with telephone calls linking campaign funding by American Muslim groups with terrorism, the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and Hillary Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton had, last week, upon hearing from inaccurate reports published in the New York Daily News, stated that she would return contributions made to her campaign by Muslim American groups charged by the paper of supporting "terrorist" groups in the Middle East.
The American Muslim Alliance (AMA), one of the main Muslim American organizations targeted by the Lazio campaign, along with other Muslim groups, contributed not only to Mrs. Clinton's campaign, but also to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush's campaign as well.
The AMA was also one of the primary organizations united together under the banner of the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council Political Action Committee (AMPCC-PAC) that announced its endorsement of Bush for president in Washington D.C., on October 23rd.
Lazio has also courted both campaign contributions and votes from the Muslim community in New York creating a recent row with Faroque Khan, Chairman of the New York chapter of the AMA, who noticed apparent hypocrisies as Lazio was criticizing Mrs. Clinton concerning receiving money from American Muslims at one moment, while two days prior to his attack on her, he solicited funds from the same from Muslim Americans.
"I have about a dozen, a dozen and a half letters from Mr. Lazio asking me to help him get elected to the Senate and at the same time he is stating that the money from the Muslims is tainted money…it doesn't make much sense, its kind of hypocritical on his part," commented Khan.
Richard Cohen, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, commenting upon the tendency of New York candidate's, even though not Jewish themselves, becoming Jewish towards the end of a campaign season, quoted Bella Abzug, saying that the state's candidates try their best to "out-Jew" each other for the Jewish vote.
Within the same opinion piece, Cohen issued a stinging indictment of Lazio, lambasting the candidate's tactics, calling Lazio's telephone messages equivalent to "political pornography".
Courting New York's Jewish vote is imperative to gain for any candidate running for any elected position within the state, especially within the city.
Khan, a Republican, indicated in a profile of himself in the New York Times yesterday that fellow Republican Lazio had drove him towards Mrs. Clinton.
In an earlier interview with IslamOnline, Khan stated that he believed that Mrs. Clinton was more a victim than villain in the whole affair, as he was forced to distance herself from Muslim Americans due to unsupported and biased media reports and Lazio's attacks on her character, in order to garner New York's crucial Jewish vote.
Khan also announced after Jumuah (Friday) prayers today, that the AMA is initiating a lawsuit against Lazio for his actions during the past two weeks smearing the organization and American Muslims.
Along with the lawsuit announcement, Khan stated that the AMA and the local Muslim community in Long Island, was doubling its efforts towards a get-out-the-vote drive to mobilize the Muslim community to vote.
The American Muslim Council (AMC) and eight other Muslim and Arab American organizations have also condemned Lazio as well for his "anti-Muslim bigotry".
In an excerpt from a join statement condemning Lazio's remarks and political strategy, the organizations stated, "He is telling New Yorkers that Muslims are guilty by virtue of being Muslims."
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