Eager to vote for Obama, Muslims file stack of lawsuits

That’s basically the context of this article which is very similar to one we commented on a few months ago. As usual, not much in the way of facts and figures here, just sympathy. All so they can vote for Obama.

By JOHN LANTIGUA, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 02, 2008

STUART - Shadi Odeh has lived 17 of his 31 years in the United States.

He is a Palestinian, transplanted at age 14 to Texas, where he was a boisterous Dallas Cowboys fan. In 1999 he moved to South Florida, where he embraced basketball’s Miami Heat, which he watches on a wide-screen TV, eating chicken wings and Italian food. His favorite TV show is The Simpsons.

Of course we know that Palestinian children are indoctrinated into the jihadist ideology from a very young age; taught to hate the Jews and others in grade school. Taught that shahada, martyrdom, in the name of allah is a good thing. So does Slim Shadi believe in jihad? Does he root for Hamas/Hizbollah as boisterously as he does the Cowboys and Heat?

Odeh says he has become an American in every way but one: He has so far been denied citizenship and the right to vote. He very much wants to vote in November - for a Democrat.

“Barack Obama is a very good candidate, but it is also time to have a woman president,” he says. “I would vote for one of those two.”

The question is whether he will be able to register. Odeh passed his naturalization exam and citizenship interviews in 2006, but FBI name checks have delayed his swearing-in for more than two years.

Those checks, instituted after the Sept. 11 attacks, involve comparing an applicant’s name with names in FBI criminal and intelligence files to see whether the person is a security threat. Even if an applicant’s name matches only an acquaintance of a suspect or a witness to an event, approval can be delayed.

Those FBI procedures come on top of security checks performed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which grants or denies citizenship.

The process can take time, too much time for some would-be citizens, especially in an election year.

Odeh is one of six South Florida Muslims who in December sued the federal government, charging that their citizenship applications have been delayed “unreasonably and unlawfully” by name checks. Federal statutes, they insist, require the government to render a decision within 120 days of the interviews.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Osama Qasmieh, a Royal Palm Beach engineer originally from Jordan who has not been outside the U.S. in 20 years. His application has been delayed six years.

They also include another Jordanian, Belle Glade resident Mohammed Abdeen. A relative petitioned 20 years ago for him to be allowed into the U.S., and Abdeen arrived seven years ago. He passed his exam two years ago.

The lawsuit and another brought by five other South Florida Muslims last year are part of an avalanche of suits across the country.

“Hundreds of thousands of people nationally have been delayed,” says Tania Galloni, an attorney for the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center in Miami. “In New York, it’s Russians. In California, it’s Chinese. In Florida, we have seen a disproportionate number of Muslims affected.”

Really? And only six have filed lawsuits? How disproportionate can it be if only six filed lawsuits? Can you publish the data for us?

Being denied the right to vote is one way the plaintiffs say they have been damaged.

The delays could affect the November elections, says Altaf Ali, executive director of the South Florida Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

He says there are about 200,000 Muslims in Florida, and among those eligible to vote, turnout is traditionally high.

“This year a lot of people in our community are very interested in Barack Obama being the next president,” Ali said. “I myself am a Republican, but I won’t vote Republican this year.” He’s backing Obama.

Our community? Muslim community presumably, and what kind of Republican would vote for Barack Hussein Obama - one who shared some cultural or religious similarity.

The lawsuits have brought a response from the government. Last month it issued a statement saying extra personnel had been assigned to name checks and backlogged citizenship applications.

“The goal is to complete 98 percent of all name checks within 30 days,” the statement said. Citizenship and Immigration Services “and the FBI intend to resolve the remaining 2 percent, which represent the most difficult name checks … within 90 days or less.”

The statement said 29,800 cases that have been pending two years or more would receive priority. Those cases include Odeh, Qasmieh and Abdeen.

There is part of the equation 29,800 - how many of those were for Muslims v. other ‘religions’? It should be quite easy to determine exactly how proportionate this situation is.

The statement also said all cases of people waiting for more than four years had been resolved recently. But Galloni says that is not true of Qasmieh, who has been waiting six years.

FBI spokesman Bill Carter says that he has no explanation for the Qasmieh case but that about 300 FBI workers and outside contractors are doing name checks. The most time-consuming cases involve common names.

Outside contractors - never a good sign.

“If your name is Mohammed, that’s probably going to take more time,” Carter says. “It’s like having the name John Smith.”

Carter says the important thing is to reach “accurate and thorough results” regarding possible threats to the nation.

He says about 1 percent of people investigated are given a “negative” report. That report goes to Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is likely to deny those citizenship requests.

“But we are also very sensitive to the impact that the delays have on individuals,” Carter says.

Odeh, who married while on a 2006 trip to the Palestinian territories and has a 1-year-old son there, hopes his case is resolved so he can start the process of bringing his wife and child to the U.S.

“Any person who loves this country the way I do understands the need for security,” Odeh says. “But I’ve never committed a crime or threatened anyone or was involved with anyone who did. I wish they would just figure this all out.”

And rather than blaming your fellow Muslims for creating this situation, you file stacks of lawsuits against the U.S. which only adds more burden to the government workload. If Muslims weren’t bent on destroying the West it might be a little easier to become a U.S. citizen.

Tags: Creeping Sharia, Florida, Immigration, islam, jihad, Life, News, Politics, Religion