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Arab-Americans tell Corzine of candidate's `political
lynching'
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
March 29, 2006, 3:12 PM EST
NEWARK, N.J. -- Arab-American leaders told Gov. Corzine that the dumping
of a Lebanese-born candidate for a county office because of comments he
made about terrorism amounted to "political lynching," and asked the
governor for help in fighting a renewed climate of Arab-bashing.
At a private meeting Tuesday night with the governor in the Statehouse,
eight Arab-American community leaders protested the treatment of Sami
Merhi of Totowa, according to Merhi and another Arab-American leader,
both of whom were present. Merhi was chosen by Passaic County Democrats
to run for freeholder, then dumped from the ticket a week later over
comments he made in 2002 that some interpreted as sympathetic to suicide
bombers.
Merhi reiterated his explanation that he has always condemned terrorism
in all its forms. When he said he could not see the comparison between
the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers and Palestinian suicide bombers, he meant
that while all murder is wrong, the 9/11 attacks were mass murder on an
unprecedented scale.
Corzine and U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez publicly opposed Merhi's
nomination, citing the comments.
"This is not about a freeholder seat," Merhi said Wednesday. "This is
about my integrity."
Participants at the meeting did not ask Corzine to try to reinstate
Merhi to the ticket. Rather, they asked him to visit Arab-American
communities on a regular basis, appoint qualified Arab-Americans to
state commissions and agencies, and work to reduce negative stereotyping
of Arab-Americans and Muslims.
But the governor did not make specific promises, they said.
"We had a good meeting," said Corzine's press secretary, Anthony Coley.
"There was a useful, productive dialogue and we promised to carry that
forward."
Aref Assaf, president of the Paterson-based American Arab Forum, said
Merhi's treatment was an insult to all Arab-Americans.
"This is not going to fly with our community," said Assaf, who also
attended the meeting and said he told the governor that Merhi was the
victim of "political lynching."
"He was wrongly judged," Assaf said. "It wasn't the voters who turned
him out; it was his own party. It is not acceptable that the party takes
our money and our votes, then tells us to sit in the back of the bus."
Merhi said he still has not decided whether to run for the freeholder
seat without the party's blessing.
"I feel betrayed by the very people I believed in and supported," he
said. "The party that gave us the New Deal and the Fair Deal, gave me a
raw deal."
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc. |
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