From Fairfax To Richmond, "The Jihad Way?"

In his OpEd titled From Fairfax To Richmond, "The Jihad Way?", Marc Fisher of Washington Post tries to smear Dr. Esam Omeish who recently announced his candidacy for state delegate (35th District of Fairfax County)

Esam Omeish's campaign web site is fairly typical for a candidate for state delegate. The big issues for his Fairfax County district are traffic congestion, growth issues and public education.
But Omeish, who is running for the Democratic nomination in the 35th district, covering an area from Vienna west to Monument and Leehigh, is no ordinary candidate. He's a surgeon with a classic immigrant success story, having arrived in this country as a young boy who spoke no English, yet rose up through the Fairfax school system to attend Georgetown University.
And Omeish is also a Muslim fundamentalist rabble-rouser whose videotaped rants urging crowds of demonstrators to adopt "the jihad way" led to his resignation from Virginia's state Commission on Immigration just 24 hours or so after Gov. Tim Kaine appointed him to the panel last fall.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/rawfisher/2009/04/from_fairfax_to_richmond_the_j.html


I guess one man’s “rabble-rouser” is another’s “straight-faced activist.”

As an accomplished surgeon, Dr. Esam Omeish has been treating patients (from all walks of life) at their most vulnerable times; and as a selfless activist, has invested years in building bridges of understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in the US.

Over the years, Dr. Omeish has not shied away from speaking truth to power.

Just like any committed activist frustrated by the ugly facts on the ground would, Dr. Omeish shouted out the truth that the world needed to hear. He raised his voice on behalf of the voiceless and the oppressed people of Palestine so that it may echo inside the bulwarked chambers of justice; so that it may galvanize people of conscience to join in demanding basic human rights for the Palestinian people. [Who would not understand that where there is no justice there is never peace?]

Any people subjected to similar daily humiliation that systematically corrodes the dignity endowed by the Creator to the human being regardless of his/her color, ethnicity or religion would resist their oppressor to their last breath. And, any people who are arbitrarily denied the rights of movement, routinely subjected to psychological, physiological, and economical torture like the people of Palestine would have to endure a daily jihad in order to keep their sanity and to survive- Jihad in the most comprehensive sense…including self-defense.

So, what is the concern, Mr. Fisher? Is it because Dr. Omeish mentioned the most misunderstood word in the American lexicon (jihad) in the public sphere, in a post 9/11 climate? Whatever it may be, at the end of the day, I am confident reason will prevail over fear. And objective voters will ultimately ask themselves: why can we not trust a licensed surgeon who is in the life-saving business, who is entrusted to operate daily on American patients under general anesthesia, to make decisions dealing with “congestion, growth issues and public education”?

Abukar Arman