They don't need Imans, they have Al Gore

Middle Eastern newspapers are reporting on a speech former Vice-President Al Gore gave in which he accused the United States of abusing Arabs following the attacks of 9/11. The Pakistan News reports:

The former US vice-president told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated in US universities, that Arabs in the United States had been “indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable.” “Unfortunately there have been terrible abuses and it’s wrong. I do want you to know that it does not represent the desires or wishes or feelings of the majority of the citizens of my country.”

The Arab News reports:

“The 21st century has to be a century of renewal, and our ability to overcome these kinds of cycles of disrespect and violence is the key to making it a century of renewal,” he said, alluding, like many other speakers at the forum, to the recent controversy that erupted over caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Commenting on the negative Saudi image in America and the treatment meted out to Saudi nationals and Muslims in the US after the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, he said that he and his Democratic Party colleagues have always opposed illegal detentions of Arabs and other people in the United States.

Am I the only one that can't think of anything that would be more inappropriate than a former Vice-President and former Presidential canidate speaking to a Muslim audience about horrible mistreatment of Arabs in the United States after 9/11? Especially at a time when the Muslim world is already looking for excuses to attack us and continue the bloody, fiery riots they are currently having. And considering that no one, even the press, has heard of this 'rounding up' of Arabs following the 9/11 attacks? Has he lost his mind? It makes me shudder to think of how close he came to being president. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ linked to: Third World County; The Median Sib; Basil's Blog; Is It Just Me?; Bloggin Out Loud; Stop the ACLU ; Michelle Malkin;