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AAI Condemns Anti-Arab Attack on Candidate in Maryland

AAI Press Release
Posted on Monday November 6, 2006

WASHINGTON – Nov. 6, 2006 – The Arab American Institute (AAI) today condemned the campaign tactics by Maryland local candidate Jamie Benoit, calling his recent attacks on Arab American candidate Sid Saab another instance of Arab baiting.

Benoit, the Democratic candidate for the 4th District Anne Arundale County council seat, recently issued an e-mail in which he repeatedly mentioned his Republican opponent by his full Arab name, pointed out that he was born in Lebanon and criticized Saab for receiving “substantial money from Arab special interest groups.”

“Whatever points Mr. Benoit was seeking to make in his race against Sid Saab, he unfortunately chose to couch them in anti-Arab rhetoric,” said AAI Executive Director Nidal Ibrahim. “By choosing to repeatedly accentuate Sid Saab’s Arab heritage, Mr. Benoit seeks to play up on worn-out anti-Arab fears.

“The tactics used by Mr. Benoit represent an effort to deligitimize a candidate – and by extension an entire community of voters – based on nothing more than their ethnic heritage,” Ibrahim continued. “Such a strategy does not have a place in American political discourse, and Mr. Benoit should be ashamed.”