Opinion Editorials, December, 2016

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Amended HB 476: Ohio Bill Encroaches on US Federal Government and Violates International Law, Including the Geneva Convention By Marcelle Rose Anthony Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, December 12, 2016

 
On behalf of myself with supporters numbering in the tens of thousands, I oppose Amended HB 476 and request that the Ohio Senate otherwise reject the bill, Amended HB 476, and Senate Version, in any form it may take.
 
There are at least four U.S. Constitutional arguments in opposition, as follows:
 
First, the bill violates the U.S. Commerce Clause for only the federal government can regulate for justiciable reasons interstate and foreign commerce.  Mr. Wexner is not going to be thrilled with this Ohio bill because he makes billions from sales to Arab and European countries, all of whom except perhaps Britain espouse the justice of the Palestinian cause and support a Palestinian State.
 
Second, the U.S. Supremacy Clause for there are already federal civil rights laws, including 42 USC, Section 1981 prohibiting discrimination in the making or enforcement of a contract based upon race which include Irish, Arabs, Iranians, Greeks, Italians, Jews, Spanish, Africans, and here Palestinians as Arabs, which prohibit Ohio’s contemplated bill and provide civil damages.  If a State actor is involved, then I refer you to 42 USC, Section 1983 which also prohibits Ohio’s contemplated bill and provides for civil damages.  These are federal civil rights laws which are supreme over any law that Ohio may pass.
 
Third, the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech and assembly and that includes discussions as well as assembly on the justice of the Palestinian cause and for a Palestinian State at any time and place within reason.  One of my former clients was an Israeli Jewish gentleman who was a writer on the justice of the Palestinian cause, Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians, and who advocated a Palestinian State.  His books were banned from the American internet and he was called a “self-hating Jew” and an “anti-Semitic Jew.”   All I could do is negotiate that his readers’ funds be returned to them, but I was not able to convince the internet to sell his books.

Our President Carter found the same resistance when he too published a book on the justice of the Palestinian cause and a Palestinian State and Israel’s mistreatment of Palestinian Christians, Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Muslims.
 
Fourth, only the United States government can set policies for foreign politics, not the States of the Union.  As you may be aware, virtually 95% of the countries in the General Assembly at the United Nations passed resolutions recognizing Palestine, (and that includes China and India who represent one-half of the population of this Earth).  The Security Council did not pass the resolution vetoed and blocked by the United States and the State of Israel and I believe Britain.
 
There are other reasons which deserve mentioning, as follows:
 
Fifth, when Rome occupied Palestine at the time of Jesus, (Jesus was a Palestinian Jew), there were many other people living in occupied Palestine at that time were not Jewish.  Jesus spoke the language of Aramaic, among other languages, which is the predecessor language to modern Arabic.  The first Bible was written in Aramaic, with the word, “Israel,” mentioned, which in Aramaic means “House of God.”  At that time, “House” meant “Family” or “Believers,” not a physical building.  So then, the Bible in Aramaic, Jesus’ language, meant “Believers in (or family of) the One God.” The Arabs, whether called that then, were Believers in the One God from Prophet Abraham perhaps twenty thousand years earlier. 

Today, just about everybody on this Earth are Believers in the One God (as opposed to Eros and Venus for example, the war and the fertility gods).   Even before Jesus’ time, the native Americans believed in the Great Chief in the Sky (the One God) with an afterlife for the eternal spirit (soul) based on good deeds.  The Buddhists believe in the One God with an afterlife for the eternal soul based on good deeds.  Just about everybody on this Earth today believes in the One God.  The Arabic word for the One God is Allah, to whom Arab Christians, Arab Jews and Arab Muslims pray. 
 
Sixth, your bill could be a signal that no American can work for a State of Ohio government agency or department who even listens to the justice of the Palestinian cause.  What is next?  No American citizenship if you are a Palestinian, Arab, Catholic, Muslim, Buddhist, European, African, Latin, and so on because all of them, save and except a few, believe in the justice of the Palestinian cause and a Palestinian State.  Will Ohio be sending these people to internment camps stripping them of their citizenship?   What is next?
 
Seventh,  that Ohio bill violates international law including the U.S. Geneva Convention.
 
Eighth, that Ohio bill is worse than the Salem witch hunts and the Dred Scott incident.
 
I respectfully request that this Ohio legislature vote No on Amended HB 476 and any Ohio Senate version.
 
Marcelle Rose Anthony, J.D., LL.M.

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Islamophobia in the US

How would American Christians feel if …
 
As an American Christian professional and as a member of this human species, I am appalled at the news media and government accounts of the latest happening at Ohio State University where, Thank God, no one died, by an unstable and pitiful person who happens to be Muslim.
 
Right away, the government and media are claiming that he “may” be a “terrorist” and that this
could be a “terrorist attack” by a Muslim who “could have connections” to two abhorrent violent organizations.
 
There are about 7 billion people on this earth, of which about 1.5 billion are Christians, and about 1.5 billion are Muslims living in almost all of the countries on this earth.  The Muslims believe in Jesus, that he was born of the Virgin Mary by the Immaculate Conception, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as announced to Mary by the Archangel Gabriel; and that Jesus will come and appear again on Judgment Day.
 
How would we American Christians feel if across every world newspaper and in every media, it was reported that American Christians are “terrorists” because they eat flesh and drink blood every Sunday at the minimum, have weapons of mass destruction, and since America has bases and weapons in just about every part of the world, the American Christians could be ruled by military dictators, with an insinuendo for every European, South American, Asian and the rest of the world’s countries to hate, sanction and destroy those American Christian “terrorists”.  How would we American Christians feel?
 
Shame on those who are responsible for a government and media sponsored hate and fear message.  Until you know for certain, have concrete evidence, and are not conjecturing, please
 
keep your investigation to yourselves, silence the media, and stop fueling hate and fear among all Americans.
 
Remember, Jesus said, the greatest commandment of all is to Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself.
 
And as President John Kennedy espoused, Let the world unite and America will align with it in peace and harmony.
 
The Muslims do not believe that Jesus is the “Son” of God, for that would mean that there are two Gods, not the One God, Allah, to whom Arab Christians and Arab Jews and Arab Muslims pray. “Allah” is the Arabic word for “God.”
 
The Muslims do believe in Jesus.

Marcelle Rose Anthony, J.D., LL.M.

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org