In light of recent Hezbollah attacks on Israel, Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sat down with representatives of the Jewish community to express his sympathy and his support.

After this meeting, an Islamic extremist by the name of Shakeel Syed complained that the Governor should also mee with him.

Governor Schwarzenegger was absolutely right to decline a meeting with Shakeel Syed.

Syed is the executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, and he demanded to meet with the Governor, then when he didn’t get an immediate response took his complaint to the media. He threatened that there would be "political" consequences if he didn’t get an audience with the Governor.

I can think of a few good reasons why Governor Schwarzenegger should never honor Syed by meeting with him.

• Syed was quoted in a story in the LA Times earlier this month referring to Hezbollah as the "militia of Lebanon." Untrue. Hezbollah is a terrorist group, plain and simple. Let’s not forget that Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of 241 American service members in 1983. It’s disturbing that as a representative of so many California Muslims Syed would say otherwise.
• Syed is a religious adviser and cheerleader of John Walker Lindh, the American who fought on behalf of the Taliban. Syed has described Lindh as a "softer version" of Malcolm X who could "become a bridge-builder between faiths and communities." And Syed wants to spread Lindh’s story.
• Syed has bizarrely downplayed the tragedy of 9/11 by saying that remembrances of that day are an "ethical disparity" because they somehow come at the exclusion of remembrances for other tragedies.

Would you agree to meet with Syed?

(Here is a link to a piece that Syed wrote in the LA Times, bitter about his inability to meet with the Governor.  What did he expect?)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.