An Open letter to Senator Lautenberg:
March 6, 2006

Dear Senator Lautenberg:

As your constituent, I wish to express my utter dismay at your racist and uncalled for remarks about Arabs. At the Monday (2-26-06) gathering at the Newark Port, you equated Dubai, an Arab country, with the devil. Metaphoric and rhetorical licenses notwithstanding, this is an assault on all Arabs and especially on your constituents who are Arab Americans. Previously, you described Dubai as a “rogue” nation unfit for our trust or friendship. You equated Arabs and -owned businesses with terrorism. One would expect a seasoned statesman to measure his words carefully and pursue matters with a reasoned tact. I saw in you, instead, an ill-advised politician seeking not to raise legitimate issues but to foster animosities and prejudicial sentiments. My dismay was furthered when I read your letter in the Bergen Record relegating our community’s objections and concerns about your harmful rants.

Mr. Lautenberg, you join others who interpret the first Amendment as giving a license or "right" to inflict racial slurs. The last few weeks have witnessed a spate of pundits and politicians exercising their right to freely engage in racist demagoguery against Arabs and Muslims seemingly without repercussion.

In my recent testimony before the NJ Homeland Security Committee, I provided a more expansive view of our position on the deal and what implication its failure or success will have for the Middle East and our fight against terrorism. I  invite your to read it.

We truly share your desire to secure our borders and shores and if anything, the Dubai Ports World’s takeover of the operations at the port has brought center stage the urgency for a national strategy to protect our borders. Sadly, you and other hatemongering politicians capitalized on the hate-the-Arab sentiments to not only outmaneuver our President but also to further harm our relations with fledgling modern societies in the Middle East. I venture to say that Bin Laden now feels vindicated for attacking America’s hypocrisy and its disdain for everything Arab. For even if we prohibit Dubai from running our US ports, we will still have to deal and collaborate with them in other world ports where they have shown great disciplines and unmatched commitment to efficiency, security and safety of the vessels, the terminal and people who operate them.

Mr. Lautenberg, you admitted that you might have "over dramatized" the situation.  But, you also described our subsequent criticism as 'bum rab". Does this duality of stance confirm your hypocrisy or lack of respect for our culture and people? You tell us that you know who the devil is.  Then, are you a prophet of peace or of hate?

You lament Dubai’s record on terrorism and its inability to control its ports, banks and borders. Unless you wish us to believe that Dubai deliberately permits terrorists free access to money and influence, then similarly, our US government is also complicit. How else can you explain the millions who cross our borders illegally every year? How can you explain the billions of dollars used in illicit drug trafficking and arms sales? How can you explain our great state of New Jersey, which issued driver licenses for some of the 9-11 terrorists? How can you explain the airport inspectors who allowed them to fly our American-made planes? Dubai and indeed the majority of Arabs and Muslims are no more guilty for aiding terrorism as our inept intelligence, and our under funded border control and huge and not so efficient bureaucracies.

The truth is that pre-911; most of the world was not onto the plans of Al-Qaeda. Where were you pre 9-11? The promising thing about Dubai is that since that tragic date, it has literally prostituted itself to befriend us and do everything of which we asked. Lack of a cohesive ports security infrastructure is indeed America’s liability as the bipartisan 9-11 Commission has stated to deaf ears. We should not permit you the easy way-out by blaming the Arabs when it is you and others in government who are suddenly woke up to discover and now argue that we need to “Americanize’ our port operations and cargo handling. Dubai which has invested close to $7 billion to buy the other  foreign (British) owned company is risking its capital and future worldwide investments should a preach of security occurred in any of  its ports. Security of our shores, Mr. Lautenberg, begins and is verified on the shores of our trading partners and allies. If we trust Dubai with our nuclear powered vessels and thousands of troops and hundreds of jetfighters roaming its sky, then I think we can found away to trust them with our ports.

You bring up Dubai’s close ties with Iran and its boycott of Israel. On the first, point, Dubai is a small and actually an artificially sowed up place, where foreigners outnumber natives and where Iran is the strongest regional power. Dubai’s only recourse is to keep Iran’s Islamic and Shiite revolutionaries from overwhelming its desire to part of the modern world. As for Dubai’s economic boycott of Israel, since when that was a deciding factor in our foreign policy or trade transactions with any country. Is not this our policy against countries we do not have relations with or at odds with their foregin polices. Does Cuba, Pre- Saddam Iraq, Iran, North Korea remained you of something? I am certain when we force Israel to end its occupation of Arab lands it illegally controls - against US laws and US endorsed United Nations Resolutions- then I fully except Dubai and all the Arab  and Muslim countries not only to trade but also to recognize Israel as  part of the new and peaceful Middle East. Bringing up these two albeit important matters obscures the public and makes any reasonable solution more complicated. Importantly, why is OK for the US to boycott while  it is  reprehensible for Arabs to  do  the same?

Mr. Lautenberg, you shame me when you call yourself a Senator from New Jersey. My hurt is further deepened by your arrogance and disregard for our reasonable demand for an apology. As to add insult to injury, you were joined by other politicians who have yet to distance themselves from your offensive remarks. Your rhetoric only adds fuel to backlash against Arabs, the great majority of whom are desirous of our friendship and support. We do hope that reason will soon bring good judgment to your position.

Mr. Lautenberg, you have crossed the line where free speech is rendered into hate speech. As journalist Robert C. Koehler remarked, “Maybe we should be careful about making common cause with born-again free speech advocates who never showed any tolerance for it until it became a handy club for bashing Muslims."

Mr. Lautenberg, this one proud but very scared American citizen demands an apology- a sincere one because my hurt is true and very deep indeed.

I do look forward to your response.

Respectfully,

Aref Assaf, President                              

American Arab Forum

Read the Bergen Record's editorial