American-Arab ADC Objects to Islamophobic Remarks by Huckabee Aide

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Posted Jan 25, 2008      •Permalink      • Printer-Friendly Version
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American-Arab ADC Objects to Islamophobic Remarks by Huckabee Aide


Today the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) sent a letter to Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. ADC, the nation’s largest civil rights organization working on behalf of the Arab-American community, relayed its deep concern over the recent appointment of James Pinkerton as a senior advisor to the Huckabee campaign. As a contributor to Fox News and a columnist for Newsday, Pinkerton had made several troubling statements concerning Muslim Americans, immigrants, the use of torture, and what Pinkerton terms as, “Muslimization.”

In the letter to Huckabee, ADC National Executive Director Kareem Shora asked the republican presidential candidate to immediately and publicly disassociate himself from Mr. Pinkerton and his comments.


The Honorable Mike Huckabee
Huckabee for President, Inc.
P.O. Box 2008
Little Rock, Arkansas 72203

Dear Governor Huckabee:

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is the nation’s largest civil rights organization working, since 1980, on behalf of the Arab-American community.  Our headquarters is in Washington, DC, with offices in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan, and California in addition to 38 volunteer-based chapters around the country and members in every state of the Union. ADC is an Executive Committee member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).

ADC is a non-sectarian, non-partisan grassroots organization representing an American community which consists of people of a variety of faiths, including Christian, Muslim,
Coptic, Jewish and others who don’t identify as religious. As such, we are gravely disappointed with your recent decision to include James Pinkerton as a senior advisor to your presidential campaign.

As a contributor to Fox News and a columnist for Newsday, Mr. Pinkerton has made several troubling statements concerning Muslim Americans, immigrants, the use of torture, and what he terms as, “Muslimization.” These racist and divisive statements on Muslims and immigrants are reminiscent of the ignorance of a by-gone era when people questioned the loyalty and patriotism of other American communities such as Japanese and German Americans. Mr. Pinkerton’s statements are detrimental to your campaign,
your personal integrity, and the image of our nation around the world.

While disagreements over policy matters are expected in such a hotly contested election, using racism, Islamophobia, or anti-Semitism is unacceptable and un-American.  Therefore, ADC requests that you immediately and publicly disassociate yourself from Mr. Pinkerton and, more importantly, his statements. Should you need any additional information about this matter or the work of ADC, please contact me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (202) 244-2990. Thank you for your time and consideration and I hope to hear back from you soon on this matter.

Sincerely,
Kareem W. Shora, JD, LL.M.
National Executive Director

American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
1732 Wisconsin Ave., NW | Washington, DC 20007 | http://www.adc.org

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