Colin Powell, 2008. Subject: Muslim-Americans

With the new big fad on the right being hatred of Muslims, it's a good time to revisit a 2008 video on the subject. On an appearance on Meet the Press, Colin Powell not only shoots down the argument that Obama's a Muslim, but asks us to consider why we think it would matter if he were.

Partial transcript, courtesy of Alan Colmes:

Powell: [Obama is] a Christian; has 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?

… one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. And she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave… He was twenty years old. And then at the very top of the headstone… it had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey, he was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11 and he waited until he could go serve his country and he gave his life.

The photo:



So all you people freaked out about the Growing Muslim Menace, take those damned flags off your cars and quit referring to yourselves as "patriots." Patriots don't hate other Americans. There are a lot of better words you could apply to yourselves -- coward, demagogue, bigot, fool -- but the best is "anti-American." You are the anti-patriots. I know it's fun to dress up and play founding father, but wearing a tri-corner hat and waving a flag doesn't make you a patriot. Being a patriot makes you a patriot.

And sorry folks, you just don't measure up.