Arab name controversy reflects growing hate in America

Rightwing haters hone in on anyone who has a Middle East name, with the exception of “Jesus,” of course, one of the most famous Middle Eastern names. But in many cases, not everyone with a Middle Eastern name is Middle Eastern although they don’t seem immune to the hate industry that targets Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners

By Ray Hanania

The name Hassan is an Arab name. But, it also is an Irish name and a Hebrew name, too.

But that doesn’t stop the racist haters in this country and the Loon Brigade who have launched a campaign against New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan and her husband, Thomas E. Hassan, who is the principle of the prestigious New Hampshire school, the Phillips Exeter Academy.

According to the hate industry cult that is growing by leaps and bounds in America, and led by notorious racists like Pamela Geller and David Horowitz, who heads up a network of racist hate under the banner of “Jihad Watch,” the Hassans are the latest “sleepers” to infiltrate America.

Well, let’s just ignore the facts for one moment and address the word “infiltrate.” What they are really doing is taking the word “immigrate” and turning it into a sinister word.

Isn’t that what’s happening in America? The one word that made this country great is now the word that represents all that is evil in this country?

Back to the Hassans.

According to the critics, the Hassans are supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and they fear that Gov. Hassan will bring Sharia into the state, which will then spread like a virus in a laptop computer to every nook and cranny of America’s beloved Christianity.

Jihad Watch and the Loon Brigade ran this big headline on their Internet rants against Maggie Hassan when she ran for public office: “What does NH Gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan think of her husband’s friends who are linked to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood?”

Seems that the Exeter School invited a few Muslims to speak there. That’s the first sign that the world is going to pot, in the minds of these moronic bigots. America starts practicing free speech, and schools start having discussions about all kinds of issues like religion and politics and more.

Well, we should also note that Christianity isn’t beloved by the haters, as much as they would like Christians to believe.

Horowitz happens to be Jewish, a zealot of sorts who is seeking to impose not Sharia but Zionism in America. Jihad Watch has one priority, to defend Israel and bash anyone who ever says anything critical of Israel and its government policies. It has nothing to do with principle, morality or justice.

I guess that’s what the Loon Brigade wants schools to teach these days, intolerance. Geller is no different, a screamer who waits for a theater to get crowded and then yells “fire” just for the fun of watching people trip over themselves in fear.

The truth is that the Hassans are not Muslim.

They are not Arab, although maybe if every American were to take a DNA test through Ancestry.com, they would discover their origins are in the — GASP! — Middle East. Which is kind of expected for most Christians, since Jesus was born in the Middle East.

The Hassans are members of the United Church of Christ. And the last time I looked, when you have words like “church” and “Christ” in the name of a religious institution, it’s usually Christian.

But like I said, Horowitz, whose has made repeated attacks against me, a Christian Palestinian who is married to a Jewish wife and who has a son who has his Bar Mitzvah last year, doesn’t care whether I am Muslim or Christian or married to a Jew.

This one is confusing for the Loon Brigade. A Palestinian married to a Jew. How can that be? With a son who had a Bar Mitzvah, clearly, I am trying to convert Jews not just to Jesus, but instead to the Muslim brotherhood.

Actually, the Loon Brigade has its radical Jihadist members, too. They’re not all pro-Israel fanatics or Christian evangelists who need Israel in order for Jesus to come back and scoop them all up in the Rapture. (Are you “Rapture Ready?”)

I get my share of hate from the Arab and Muslim extremists, too. It’s an interesting phenomena about the loon-brigade. It doesn’t have one religion. They consist of Muslims, Christians and Jews. The glue that binds them is the hatred they share of each other.

Did I mention that Governor Hassan’s communication’s director is Jewish? Marc Goldberg.

Fueling the controversy is the fact that New Hampshire has a female Senator who – Oh, my God! — happens to also have an Arab name, Lebanese to be exact. U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who happens to be married to Lebanese-American attorney Bill Shaheen. Senator Shaheen also served as New Hampshire governor, too, paving the way for the “Mooslim Hordes,” apparently.

And Shaheen was preceded by John Sununu, another Lebanese from Palestine (Acre). Oh the infiltration goes back a long way, folks, in New Hampshire where the future of America is defined in our presidential elections.

Hassan in Arabic means “handsome.” Not jihad. Not terrorist. Not fanatic.

In Gaelic, it doesn’t have a meaning. Hassan is just Anglicized. Although there are a few in Ireland who proudly carry the name “O’Hassan.”

Don’t tell the Loon Brigade, but Hassan is also Hebrew which means “Cantor.” (Hanania is Hebrew and means, “God has been gracious.” You know who told me that? Israel’s former Foreign Minister Abba Eban when I debated him on national TV back in the early 1970s.)

Ray Hanania is an award-winning Palestinian American columnist managing editor of The Arab Daily News at www.TheArabDailyNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @RayHanania. To find out more about Ray Hanania and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2015 CREATORS.COM.

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rayhanania

Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster at The Arab Daily News

RAY HANANIA — Op-Ed writer, author, radio host, podcaster

Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.

Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).

Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.

Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.

Click here to send Ray Hanania email.

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