معا لفوز اوباما في كارولاينا الشماليه واميركا: رساله لحامد شارف, عمر عبدالله و شباب كارولاينا

Quote: الأخ/المعز أبونورة شكرا لك على إستدراجي لهذه المساحة. صحيح إن السودانين عدد كبير في ولاية كارولانا الشمالية خاصة مدينة قريزبورو بقليل من التنظيم يمكنهم أن ينالوا مناصب في المجلس المحلي أو حتى عمودية المدينة إذا أحسنو التنسيق و لكن لا أخفي عليك إننا في حوجة لقائد ملهم يبين الطريق و يفسر الهجرة تفسير إجابي يمكن الناس من الإستقرار و الإطمئنان على أجيالهم بإقامة مشروعات الحفاظ على الهوية . بالطبع لا ينبغي أن نتوقع أن كل السودانين مع المرشح الدمقراطي باراك أوباما و لكن أبشرك إن عدد المتحمسين له كبير جدا وسط السودانين و الأفارقة و تطوع عدد من أفراد الجالية للمساعدة في الإقتراع المبكر و كلهم همة . كثير مننا جاء إلى هذه البلاد بخطة قصيرة المدى إما بجمع مال كافي و الرجوع الى السودان أو إنتظار إصلاح سياسي يجعل من السودان بلد مستقر يستوعب أهله ومن الواضح أن كلا الهدفين لم يوفق فيهما إلا قليل من الناس و نتيجة لهذا الوضع أصبحت أعداد كبيرة موجودين في هذه البلاد من غير خطة واضحة مما جعل بعضننا يعيش على الأماني صعبة التحقيق .

Quote: I'm writing you because I urgently need your help. As I write, the McCain campaign and the RNC are flooding North Carolina with thousands of dishonest pre-recorded phone calls. Across the state, voters are picking up their phones only to hear smears and outright lies about Barack Obama that question his patriotism and his character. We have to respond, and fast. Our plan is simple: fight lies with truth. For every smear call they buy, we need two real calls from volunteers like you. For every voter they deceive, we need to knock on two doors to set the record straight. Please sign up right now to volunteer, help us reach our big 100,000 volunteer hours goal, and fight back with the truth in your community: http://nc.barackobama.com/NC100kHours North Carolina is one of the closest battlegrounds in the country and could very well decide the entire election. In their desperation to win, the McCain campaign even hired the exact same company to make these calls that George Bush hired to smear McCain in 2000. It's simply shameful. What we do or don't do in the next 15 days could make the difference, and it's going to take all of us working together to win North Carolina for Barack. We've come too far together to let this race end with tricks and lies. So please, sign up right away to reach out to voters in your area. Together, we can end the era of politics as usual and get to work addressing the real issues North Carolina families are facing every day. Thank you, Marc Marc Farinella North Carolina State Director Obama for America

(عدل بواسطة Elmoiz Abunura on 10-21-2008, 03:34 PM)

Quote: North Carolina Presidential Election North Carolina: Obama 51% McCain 48% Monday, October 20, 2008 Email to a Friend The latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports telephone survey finds that 51% of North Carolina voters prefer Barack Obama while 48% favor John McCain. No Democrat has won North Carolina in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. But Obama has made it clear that he is competing hard for the state’s votes. Last week, the candidates were even in the Tar Heel State. Two weeks ago, Obama was up by a point, and the Democrat enjoyed a three-point edge three weeks ago. In North Carolina, Obama is currently supported by 91% of liberal voters while McCain gets the vote from 81% of conservatives. McCain leads by just a single point among men but trails by six among women (see full demographic crosstabs). McCain is viewed favorably by 57% of Tar Heel voters, Obama by 55%. Fifty-four percent (54%) of North Carolina voters say that the economy is the most important issue of Election 2008. National security is seen as the top issue by 18%. When it comes to the economy, 51% trust Obama more than McCain while 45% have the opposite view. McCain is trusted more on national security issues. Overall, 63% say that McCain has the right experience to be president while 44% say the same about Obama. However, a plurality (43%) believe Obama is the only candidate who can bring real change to Washington. Twenty-seven percent (27%) believe only McCain could bring the needed change. Fifteen percent (15%) of voters believe that either man could bring real change while 10% say that neither of them can. (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). The Tar Heel state is rated a “Toss-Up” in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. NOTE: Factors other than the latest Rasmussen Reports poll impact the Balance of Power ratings. The current status is indicated on the table in the upper right hand corner of this article. Rasmussen Markets data gives McCain a 42.7% chance of winning North Carolina’s 15 Electoral College votes this fall. These results are updated on a 24/7 basis by market participants. It costs nothing to join, so add your voice to the collective wisdom. Not surprisingly, the numbers in North Carolina reflect national trends. Obama has maintained a modest but steady lead in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and in the Electoral College. New polling on the presidential race also has been released today from Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, Florida and Missouri. See an overview of the latest Fox News/Rasmussen Reports polls and the latest Electoral College projections. A total of 270 Electoral Votes are needed to win the White House (see 50-State Summary). Take a moment and predict how many Electoral College votes Barack Obama will win this year.

Quote: Quote: Op-Ed Columnist The Class War Before Palin By DAVID BROOKS Published: October 9, 2008 Modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. Richard Weaver wrote a book called, “Ideas Have Consequences.” Russell Kirk placed Edmund Burke in an American context. William F. Buckley famously said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But he didn’t believe those were the only two options. His entire life was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect. Driven by a need to engage elite opinion, conservatives tried to build an intellectual counterestablishment with think tanks and magazines. They disdained the ideas of the liberal professoriate, but they did not disdain the idea of a cultivated mind. Ronald Reagan was no intellectual, but he had an earnest faith in ideas and he spent decades working through them. He was rooted in the Midwest, but he also loved Hollywood. And for a time, it seemed the Republican Party would be a broad coalition — small-town values with coastal reach. In 1976, in a close election, Gerald Ford won the entire West Coast along with northeastern states like New Jersey, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine. In 1984, Reagan won every state but Minnesota. But over the past few decades, the Republican Party has driven away people who live in cities, in highly educated regions and on the coasts. This expulsion has had many causes. But the big one is this: Republican political tacticians decided to mobilize their coalition with a form of social class warfare. Democrats kept nominating coastal pointy-######### like Michael Dukakis so Republicans attacked coastal pointy-#########. Over the past 15 years, the same argument has been heard from a thousand politicians and a hundred television and talk-radio jocks. The nation is divided between the wholesome Joe Sixpacks in the heartland and the oversophisticated, overeducated, oversecularized denizens of the coasts. What had been a disdain for liberal intellectuals slipped into a disdain for the educated class as a whole. The liberals had coastal condescension, so the conservatives developed their own anti-elitism, with mirror-image categories and mirror-image resentments, but with the same corrosive effect. Republicans developed their own leadership style. If Democratic leaders prized deliberation and self-examination, then Republicans would govern from the gut. George W. Bush restrained some of the populist excesses of his party — the anti-immigration fervor, the isolationism — but stylistically he fit right in. As Fred Barnes wrote in his book, “Rebel-in-Chief,” Bush “reflects the political views and cultural tastes of the vast majority of Americans who don’t live along the East or West Coast. He’s not a sophisticate and doesn’t spend his discretionary time with sophisticates. As First Lady Laura Bush once said, she and the president didn’t come to Washington to make new friends. And they haven’t.” The political effects of this trend have been obvious. Republicans have alienated the highly educated regions — Silicon Valley, northern Virginia, the suburbs outside of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Raleigh-Durham. The West Coast and the Northeast are mostly gone. The Republicans have alienated whole professions. Lawyers now donate to the Democratic Party over the Republican Party at 4-to-1 rates. With doctors, it’s 2-to-1. With tech executives, it’s 5-to-1. With investment bankers, it’s 2-to-1. It took talent for Republicans to lose the banking community. Conservatives are as rare in elite universities and the mainstream media as they were 30 years ago. The smartest young Americans are now educated in an overwhelmingly liberal environment. This year could have changed things. The G.O.P. had three urbane presidential candidates. But the class-warfare clichés took control. Rudy Giuliani disdained cosmopolitans at the Republican convention. Mitt Romney gave a speech attacking “eastern elites.” (Mitt Romney!) John McCain picked Sarah Palin. Palin is smart, politically skilled, courageous and likable. Her convention and debate performances were impressive. But no American politician plays the class-warfare card as constantly as Palin. Nobody so relentlessly divides the world between the “normal Joe Sixpack American” and the coastal elite. She is another step in the Republican change of personality. Once conservatives admired Churchill and Lincoln above all — men from wildly different backgrounds who prepared for leadership through constant reading, historical understanding and sophisticated thinking. Now those attributes bow down before the common touch. And so, politically, the G.O.P. is squeezed at both ends. The party is losing the working class by sins of omission — because it has not developed policies to address economic anxiety. It has lost the educated class by sins of commission — by telling members of that class to go away.

Quote: RealClearPolitics Poll Averages General Election: McCain vs. Obama Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) McCain (R) Spread RCP Average 10/14 - 10/21 -- -- 50.4 43.0 Obama +7.4 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby 10/19 - 10/21 1208 LV 2.9 52 42 Obama +10 Rasmussen Reports 10/18 - 10/20 3000 LV 2.0 50 46 Obama +4 Gallup (Traditional)* 10/18 - 10/20 2384 LV 2.0 51 44 Obama +7 Gallup (Expanded)* 10/18 - 10/20 2299 LV 2.0 52 42 Obama +10 Hotline/FD 10/18 - 10/20 791 LV 3.5 47 41 Obama +6 NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 10/17 - 10/20 1159 RV 2.9 52 42 Obama +10 ABC News/Wash Post 10/17 - 10/20 1324 LV 2.5 53 44 Obama +9 Ipsos/McClatchy 10/16 - 10/20 773 LV 3.5 50 42 Obama +8 IBD/TIPP 10/16 - 10/20 1088 LV 3.0 47 41 Obama +6 CNN/Opinion Research 10/17 - 10/19 764 LV 3.5 51 46 Obama +5 Pew Research 10/16 - 10/19 2382 LV 2.5 53 39 Obama +14 GWU/Battleground 10/14 - 10/20 1000 LV 3.1 48 47 Obama +1

Quote: In most of the hottest races across the country, the Republican Party is on the run, pulling the plug and conceding defeat. Republicans are desperately retreating and retrenching to protect GOP Senators like Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mitch McConnell and Mitch McConnell in Kentucky. New Hampshire is different. In this vital swing state, Republicans are turning up the heat with a slew of unfair negative ads aimed at a great Democrat, my friend Governor Jeanne Shaheen. We need to fight back. Please help Jeanne Shaheen fight back and win this vital race: https://jeanneshaheen.org/contribute The last two years in the Senate have taught us: 51 votes isn't enough. We have a chance to make history, and we Democrats need to win so big that no Roadblock Republican can stand in our way. We need Jeanne Shaheen in the United States Senate. Her opponent, John Sununu, has been one of the most reliable rubber-stamps for George Bush in all of Washington. In 2002, he won his seat in part thanks to illegal voter suppression tactics that landed numerous people in jail afterwards. Now he's trying to keep it with attack ads from the National Republican Senatorial Committee lying about Governor Shaheen's record. Let's teach him a lesson. I know Jeanne. She's been an excellent governor and a progressive leader, and she's going to be a terrific US Senator. With Barack Obama and Jeanne Shaheen on the ballet, this is our chance turn New Hampshire blue. So please help: https://jeanneshaheen.org/contribute The road to a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate runs through New Hampshire, so let's get to work. Let's help Governor Jeanne Shaheen beat back the GOP attacks and join me in the Senate working for a progressive agenda. We've only got two weeks left, but if we push hard, we can make this an historic election and bury the Republican Party of Bush and Rove for a generation. Thank you! John Kerry

Quote: الاخ الفاضل المعز ابو نورة اتفق معك في وجود عدد مقدر من السودانيين في قرين اسبورو يمكن ان يؤثر على سير اي انتخابات محلية في هذه المدينة واختلف معك في عدم وجود القائد الملهم !!!

Quote: معز سلامات والله ولايتكم نورث كارولينا دي وكر كيزان عديييييل كده ياخ .. تاريخياً لم يفز بها اي مرشح للرئاسة عن الحزب الديمقراطي منذ اكثر من ثلاثين عاماً، وآخر رئيس ديمقراطي يفز بها كان جيمي كارتر في العام ١٩٧٦ وحتى هامش فوز الجمهوريين في نورث كارولينا اصبح ١٢% في انتخابات ٢٠٠٤ بعد ان كان اقل من ١% في انتخابات ١٩٩٢ يعني الهوا معاهم!!

Quote: Obama lead on McCain grows to 12 points Thu Oct 23, 2008 3:47am EDTPost Your Comments | All Comments Email :47am EDTBy Andrew Quinn WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama's lead over Republican rival John McCain has grown to 12 points in the U.S. presidential race, with crucial independent and women voters increasingly moving to his side, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released on Thursday. With less than two weeks before the November 4 election, Obama leads McCain 52 percent to 40 percent among likely voters in the latest three-day tracking poll, which had a margin of error of 2.9 points. Obama has made steady gains over the last four days and has tripled his lead on McCain in the past week of polling. "Obama's expansion is really across the board," pollster John Zogby said. "It seems to be among almost every demographic group." The Illinois senator saw his lead among women -- who are expected to play a decisive role in this election -- increase to 18 points from 16 points on Wednesday. And independent voters, who have been the target of intense campaign efforts by both sides, have now swung behind Obama by a 30-point margin, 59 percent to 29 percent. Zogby said McCain, 72, appeared to have lost the traction he won after the third and final presidential debate last week. "McCain can still try to turn it around, but he has to find focus," Zogby said, adding that economic issues, which dominated the campaign amid turmoil in the credit, housing and financial markets, still seem to be working in Obama's favor. "At some point there are some issues that just overwhelm, and McCain has been particularly weak on the economy," Zogby said in a statement. Other recent national polls have given Obama a narrower lead, but Zogby said he was confident in his sampling methods. The latest poll showed a continued erosion of McCain's support even among his "base" voters. While Obama wins the backing of 86 percent of Democrats, only 81 percent of Republicans back the Arizona senator -- down from figures in the low 90s immediately after the Republican national convention in early September. Obama holds a 6-point lead among men, 48 percent to 42 percent, while white voters -- who had been among McCain's core support groups -- now only back McCain by a 2-point margin. Independent Ralph Nader and Libertarian Bob Barr held relatively steady at 2 percent and 1 percent respectively. Three percent of voters said they remained undecided, unchanged from Wednesday. The rolling tracking poll surveyed 1,208 likely voters in the presidential election. In a tracking poll, the most recent day's results are added while the oldest day's results are dropped to monitor changing momentum. The U.S. president is determined by who wins the Electoral College, which has 538 members apportioned by population in each state and the District of Columbia. Electoral votes are allotted on a winner-take-all basis in all but two states, which divide them by congressional district. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

Quote: .. وأبد بالشكر على الرسالة وعلى الخلفية التاريخية اللطيفة عن الهجرة والنزوح في اوساط الأهل خاصة والسودانيين عامة والتي زادت وتيرتها في الفترة الأخيرة

Quote: RealClearPolitics Poll Averages General Election: McCain vs. Obama Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) McCain (R) Spread RCP Average 10/16 - 10/24 -- -- 50.4 42.6 Obama +7.8 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby 10/22 - 10/24 1203 LV 2.9 51 42 Obama +9 Newsweek 10/22 - 10/23 882 LV 4.0 53 41 Obama +12 Rasmussen Reports 10/21 - 10/23 3000 LV 2.0 52 45 Obama +7 Gallup (Traditional)* 10/21 - 10/23 2406 LV 2.0 50 45 Obama +5 Gallup (Expanded)* 10/21 - 10/23 2365 LV 2.0 51 44 Obama +7 Hotline/FD 10/21 - 10/23 766 LV 3.5 50 43 Obama +7 ABC News/Wash Post 10/20 - 10/23 1321 LV 2.5 53 44 Obama +9 GWU/Battleground 10/19 - 10/23 1000 LV 3.1 49 46 Obama +3 IBD/TIPP 10/19 - 10/23 1008 LV 3.0 46 42 Obama +4 CBS News/NY Times 10/19 - 10/22 771 LV -- 52 39 Obama +13 FOX News 10/20 - 10/21 936 LV 3.0 49 40 Obama +9 NBC News/Wall St. Jrnl 10/17 - 10/20 1159 RV 2.9 52 42 Obama +10 Associated Press/GfK 10/16 - 10/20 800 LV 3.5 44 43 Obama +1 Ipsos/McClatchy 10/16 - 10/20 773 LV 3.5 50 42 Obama +8 CNN/Opinion Research 10/17 - 10/19 764 LV 3.5 51 46 Obama +5 Pew Research 10/16 - 10/19 2382 LV 2.5 53 39 Obama +14

Quote: كامل التأييد لأوباما.. رغم اننا شايلين الجواز الاخضر وفيه صقر الجديان

Quote: سنستمر في حشد الطاقات من أجل التصويت المبكر حتي الأول من نوفمبر وفي الثاني والثالث من نوفمبر هنالك نفيير كبيير لطرق الأبواب من باب لباب وفي يوم أربعة نوفمبر الأعمى شايل المكسر عديل على مراكز الإنتخابات .

Quote: RealClearPolitics Poll Averages General Election: McCain vs. Obama Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) McCain (R) Spread RCP Average 10/22 - 10/28 -- -- 49.9 43.9 Obama +6.0 Rasmussen Reports 10/26 - 10/28 3000 LV 2.0 50 47 Obama +3 Gallup (Traditional)* 10/26 - 10/28 2435 LV 2.0 49 46 Obama +3 Gallup (Expanded)* 10/26 - 10/28 2409 LV 2.0 51 44 Obama +7 Diageo/Hotline 10/26 - 10/28 870 LV 3.6 49 42 Obama +7 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby 10/26 - 10/28 1179 LV 2.9 49 44 Obama +5 ABC News/Wash Post 10/25 - 10/28 1316 LV 2.5 52 44 Obama +8 IBD/TIPP 10/24 - 10/28 894 LV 3.0 47 44 Obama +3 GWU/Battleground 10/22 - 10/28 1000 LV 3.1 49 46 Obama +3 Ipsos/McClatchy 10/23 - 10/27 831 LV 3.4 50 45 Obama +5 Pew Research 10/23 - 10/26 1198 LV 3.5 53 38 Obama +15 More Polling Data | Chart | News

Quote: RealClearPolitics Poll Averages General Election: McCain vs. Obama Poll Date Sample MoE Obama (D) McCain (R) Spread RCP Average 10/23 - 10/29 -- -- 49.9 43.7 Obama +6.2 FOX News 10/28 - 10/29 924 LV 3.0 47 44 Obama +3 Rasmussen Reports 10/27 - 10/29 3000 LV 2.0 51 46 Obama +5 Gallup (Traditional)* 10/27 - 10/29 1825 LV 2.0 50 45 Obama +5 Gallup (Expanded)* 10/27 - 10/29 2437 LV 2.0 51 44 Obama +7 Diageo/Hotline 10/27 - 10/29 869 LV 3.6 48 42 Obama +6 Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby 10/27 - 10/29 1179 LV 2.9 50 43 Obama +7 IBD/TIPP 10/25 - 10/29 894 LV 3.0 48 44 Obama +4 ABC News/Wash Post 10/25 - 10/28 1316 LV 2.5 52 44 Obama +8 GWU/Battleground 10/23, 10/26-29 1000 LV 3.1 49 46 Obama +3 Ipsos/McClatchy 10/23 - 10/27 831 LV 3.4 50 45 Obama +5 Pew Research 10/23 - 10/26 1198 LV 3.5 53 38 Obama +15 More Polling Data | Chart

Quote: Election 2008: North Carolina Presidential Election Obama Ahead Again in North Carolina Thursday, October 30, 2008 Email to a Friend North Carolina was supposed to be safely Republican again this year, but someone forgot to tell the voters there. Barack Obama is back out front by two points in the Tar Heel State after trailing by one in a survey released on Monday. Obama is now ahead of John McCain 50% to 48%, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state. One percent (1%) support some other candidate, and one percent (1%) are undecided. A week ago, McCain led by two points. On October 19, Obama was ahead by three. This is only the third time Obama has made it to or exceeded 50% all year, and he’s done it twice this month. McCain also has been in this territory only three times in this year’s polling, last week for the first time since mid-September. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Maintaining that Republican lock on the state is essential to McCain’s bid for the White House. Democrat Kay Hagan now holds a six-point lead over incumbent Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole in North Carolina. (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). McCain is supported by 93% of Republicans while Obama gets the vote from 87% of Democrats.McCain has a nine-point lead among unaffiliated voters. The Republican leads by 11 points among men, while Obama has a 12-point advantage among women. Ninety-eight percent (98%) of African-American voters back Obama. Whites support McCain over the Democrat 63% to 35%. Rasmussen Markets data currently gives McCain a 39.5% chance of winning North Carolina’s 15 Electoral College votes on Election Day. These results are updated on a 24/7 basis by market participants. It costs nothing to join, so add your voice to the collective wisdom. The Tar Heel state is rated a “Toss-Up” in the Rasmussen Reports Balance of Power Calculator. NOTE: Factors other than the latest Rasmussen Reports poll impact the Balance of Power ratings. The current status is indicated on the table in the upper right hand corner of this article. Fifty-six percent (56%) of North Carolina voters regard McCain favorably and 43% unfavorably. This is a shift of three from the positive to the negative column from the survey earlier this week. Obama is viewed favorably by 53%, unfavorably by 46%. Obama’s numbers are largely the same. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the economy is the number one issue in the election, while 20% rate national security as most important. North Carolina voters are closely divided on which candidate they trust more to deal with the economy, giving Obama a two-point edge. Among voters who list the economy as the most important issue this year, however, Obama has a 69% to 31% lead over McCain. Voters give McCain a six-point lead over Obama in terms of trust on national security issues. But among those who say national security is the primary electoral issue, McCain leads Obama 79% to 17%. President Bush’s job performance is rated good or excellent by 32% and poor by 52%. The partisan divide is dramatic: Only 11% of GOP voters say Bush is doing a poor job compared to 85% of Democrats. Battleground state polls released Monday showed Obama leading in Colorado, Florida, Ohio and Virginia. With these latest results, Rasmussen Reports has moved Florida from “Toss-Up” to “Leans Democratic.” In Missouri and North Carolina, the race remains a toss-up while McCain leads by five in his home state of Arizona. Rasmussen Reports Electoral College projections now show Obama leading 260-160. When “leaners” are included, Obama leads 313-160. Other new polls show McCain ahead in Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and Mississippi while Obama has the advantage in New Mexico, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Demographic crosstabs for all state polling are available

Quote: There has been a lot made in the recent weeks about the Muslim history of my family. Some of the things that have been said are true, others are false, so I am writing this letter to clear up the misunderstandings on this issue. Yes, it is true that I have a name that is common amongst Kenyan Muslims where my father came from and that my middle name is Hussein. Barack is a name which means “blessing†and Hussein is a masculine form of the word beauty. Since there is nothing inherently wrong with the concept of blessings from God and the beauty He creates I fail to see the problem with these names. Some will say wouldn’t it be a problem to have a president with a name similar to the deposed and executed former dictator of Iraq? My answer to this is simply no; rather it is the strength and beauty of America that the son of an African man with a “funny sounding†name, born under British Colonial Rule, can now be a serious candidate for the presidency of the United States. My father was a Muslim and although I did not know him well the religion of my father and his family was always something I had an interest in. This interest became more intense when my mother married an Indonesian Muslim man and as a small child I lived in Indonesia and attended school alongside Muslim pupils. I saw their parents dutifully observing the daily prayers, the mothers covered in the Muslim hijab, the atmosphere of the school change during Ramadan, and the festiveness of the Eid celebrations. The man my mother was married to was not particularly religious; but he would attend the mosque on occasion, and had copies of the Quran in different languages in the home, and books of the sayings and life of the Prophet Muhammad. From time to time he would quote Islamic phrases such as “no one truly believes until he wants for his brother what he wants for himself†, “oppression is worse than slaughter†, and “all humans are equal the only difference comes from our deeds†. Growing up in Hawaii with my mother and her grandparents Islam largely escaped my mind. My mother installed in me the values of humanism and I did not grow-up in a home were religion was taught. It was later while I attended college at Columbia University and Harvard Law that I became reacquainted with Muslims as both schools had large Muslims student populations. Some of them were my friends and many came from countries that our nation now has hostile relations with. The background I had from my early childhood in Indonesia helped me get to know them and learn from them and to me Muslims are not to be looked upon as something strange. In my experiences up until college a Muslim was no less exotic to me than a Mormon, a Jew, or a Jehovah’s Witness. After college I settled in my adopted hometown of Chicago and lived on the South Side and worked as a community organizer. Chicago has one of the largest Muslim populations in America (estimated to be around 300,000) and Muslims make-up some of the most productive citizens in the area. I met countless numbers of Muslims in my job as an organizer and later on in my early political career. I ate in their homes, played with their kids, and looked at them as friends and peers and sought their advice. Therefore, when the tragic terrorist attacks of 9-11 occurred I was deeply saddened with the rest of America , and I wanted justice for the victims of this horrific attack, but I did not blame all Muslims or the religion of Islam. From my experience I knew the good character of most Muslims and the value that they bring to America. Many, who did not personally know Muslims, indicted the entire religion for the bad actions of a few; my experience taught me that this was something foolish and unwise. Later I had the chance to visit the homeland of my father and meet Muslim relatives of my including my grandmother. I found that these were people who wanted the same things out of life as people right here in America and worked hard, strive to make a better way for their children, and prayed to God to grant them success. This is what I will bring to the office of the Presidency of the United States. I will deal with Muslims from a position of familiarity and respect and at this time in the history of our nation that is something sorely needed.