Wake up, liberal Democrats; and I guess you’ll have to abduct me, too, President Trump

Since only 1.1% of the U.S. population is Muslim, let’s play “Six Degrees to a Muslim Friend.”

Years ago, Karen Park — the child of missionaries to Chile — introduced me to Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. The seminary introduced me to David and Colleen Burroughs. They introduced me to Todd Heifner. That led to me meeting Todd’s brother Kevin, a physician in Arkansas. Kevin shared one of my articles with his friend Ali Khan, and Ali sent me a friend request on Facebook.

Hey! A few more Muslim friends, and I’ll need two hands to count them!

Ali is a gastroenterologist in Little Rock. Born in Pakistan and educated at Catholic schools in Pakistan and England, he came to the United States at age 25 and completed his medical residency at Duke and fellowships at University of Alabama Birmingham and Columbia University. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2019.

We met face to face — albeit online — for the first time on the evening of March 11. I wanted to chat about how haunted I felt by one of his social media posts.

The previous day I had made two posts expressing outrage. One flamed Elon Musk for calling Senator (and combat veteran) Mark Kelly a traitor for supporting aid to Ukraine. The other raised alarm about a Trump appointee threatening Georgetown University with a boycott of hiring their law school graduates if they didn’t drop “diversity, equity and inclusion” materials from their curriculum.

Later, I briefly heard about Mahmoud Khalil and his abduction/arrest by authorities with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Khalil was a student leader in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University in April 2024. To be sure: “Arrest” means “to take or keep in custody by authority of law.” “Abduction” means “the act of restraining, or carrying or leading someone away, especially if the purpose is to disrupt a relationship.”

Just as law enforcement officers can be charged with murder for unlawful conduct, it stands to reason officials can be guilty of abduction if the detainment/removal serves improper purposes; those purposes need not be as heinous as rape or murder to be improper. Syrian-born Khalil is in the United States as a green-card holding legal permanent resident. He is married to a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant. Typically, a green card cannot be revoked without notification of the government’s intent to do so (see here and here).

However, there are shortcuts to deportation under specific circumstances where the individual is involved with a terrorist organization. There is no publicly known evidence of Khalil being thus involved. The stronger evidence suggests he is the object of a personal vendetta by President Donald Trump and certain of his supporters for merely holding an opinion divergent from the current administration.

When I heard the news, all I knew was that Khalil had been taken from New Jersey to Louisiana, which struck me as odd, and I suspected the administration was “judge hunting.” I made a mental note to look into the matter after work. Then, at the end of my workday, I saw this post by my social media friend Ali Khan:

The Trump administration targeted a Palestinian because they knew liberal democrats won’t rise to defend him.

They (the liberal democrats) allowed 306,000 Palestinians to die amidst rubble, starvation and disease, and paid for those bombs and planes through their vassal state.

What’s another, disappearing and rotting in American jails without due process?

Mark my words. What you allow to happen to the weakest amongst you will one day rise to happen to you as well.

This is the problem with the resistance.

I felt convicted that I had put energy into defending Mark Kelly and Georgetown University in the name of the integrity and the freedom of all of us. What about Mahmoud Khalil?

I texted Ali and asked if we could talk. We met by Zoom.

We spent several minutes introducing ourselves beyond our superficial social media knowledge. I learned he and his Catholic partner alternate going to mosque and mass. Ali laughed as he said: “The food is better at mosque. And since Islam still has the ethos of the desert, our prayers are faster.”

When we started talking about the detainment and threatened deportation of Mahmoud Khalil, Ali’s ebullient face transitioned to the stark pain of alarm. Ali wove together information he had gleaned from the news and from conversations with fellow alums of Columbia University.

Ali said his friends with ties to the university have told him Khalil was selected as a student leader precisely because he is so soft spoken and deliberative. He was seen as a good intermediary between student protesters and the university administration.

Ali said Khalil’s name wound up on a list of folks accused of ties to Hamas and that list was created by Betar — an organization he described as a right-wing Zionist group so militant even the Anti-Defamation League has classified them as an extremist group. Ali said Betar shared its target list with U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller. (A 2019 investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center acquired more than 900 emails in which Miller had fervently promoted a white nationalist — racist — agenda.)

Ali said it appears Khalil has been accused of being pro-Hamas simply by virtue of speaking out against Israel’s grossly disproportionate and genocidal actions in Gaza. Ali said there were 2.2 million Palestinians packed into an area the size of Little Rock, and the region has been destroyed with bombs the equivalent of three times the destructive power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima during World War II.

“Liberal Democrats have failed speak up for Palestinians.”

He leaned forward: “The vast majority of that destruction came not under Donald Trump but under Joe Biden. Liberal Democrats have failed to speak up for Palestinians. The silence of white pastors, white liberal Democrats and white writers contributes to the oppression of Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular. The students who marched for women’s rights (in the 1900s) were right. The students who marched for civil rights (in the 1960s) were right. The students who protested the Vietnam War (in the 1970s) were right. And the students protesting for Palestine are also right. But whereas women’s rights, civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam War were promoted by liberal Democrats, liberal Democrats have abandoned protesters for Palestine. Muslim protestors for Palestine are the canary in the mine. Others will be next.”

We then discussed the motives for protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestine and factors that complicate it.

I’m embarrassed to admit that despite it now being codified as law in my home state of Tennessee and — according to Ali — is on the verge of being made official policy at Vanderbilt University located in Nashville where I live, I had not heard of the International Holocaust Remembrance Act and its “Working Definition of Antisemitism.” The working definition states this:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

On the surface, this seems to be quite fair and straightforward. However, Ali pointed out that Jewish activist Peter Beinart and other prominent Jewish personalities like Noam Chomsky and son-of-two-Holocaust survivors Maté Gabor (whose maternal grandparents were killed at Auschwitz) assert that the Holocaust has been — in Ali’s words — “weaponized” to prevent legitimate criticism of any behavior by the state of Israel.

“The Holocaust has been ‘weaponized’ to prevent legitimate criticism of any behavior by the state of Israel.”

A search of the internet reveals multiple Jewish writers who point out the examples used to illustrate the working definition of antisemitism cross the line into hypocrisy and suppression of freedom of speech. For example:

• “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
• “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

Both these supposed examples of antisemitism reflect an expression of someone’s nonthreatening and nonaggressive opinion, and these particular opinions are held by even many Jewish people.

For instance, Peter Beinart has argued “there is no right to a (Jewish) state.” The United Nations’ top court said Gaza has been a “concentration camp where genocide is taking place.” In deep red Tennessee, teachers would not be able to cover that last historical piece of information. Apparently reputed deep blue Vanderbilt has dropped anchor on that as well.

Thus, Ali said Muslims feel abandoned and threatened: “We feel betrayed by Christians — our Abrahamic spiritual cousins.”

He went on, “We Muslims believe Jesus is the messiah who is coming back. In the Quran, Mary is esteemed.”

I asked how he would reply to those who say, “What about all that ‘kill the infidel’ stuff?”

“Not all Muslims are like Isis any more than all Christians are like the Ku Klux Klan.”

Ali smiled and said, “Not all Muslims are like Isis any more than all Christians are like the Ku Klux Klan.”

We talked at length about the factors contributing to Palestinian anger — such as the Israeli control of commodities as basic as electricity and even water. I left this part of the conversation and subsequent reading of articles feeling like I’d watched a meeting of Baptists on steroids. For every two people in the room, there are five divergent opinions about the path forward. This makes it particularly ridiculous for Americans to say one of these opinions cannot be spoken.

The end of our conversation pierced my conscience. Ali asked, “Why do my liberal-Democrat friends change their profile pictures to stand with Ukraine but not for Palestine?”

That’s a fair question.

Somewhat defensively, I said that in the immediate wake of October 7, I had posted a picture of an Israeli and Palestinian flags with the text, “I stand for peace.” I also convinced a high-ranking leader of a denominational institution to remove a one-sided “I stand with Israel.” But I have to ask myself: Why do I have no problem labeling Russia an invader in a very uneven war while being reluctant to strongly speak out against the grossly disproportionate and genocidal annihilation of Palestinians?

I haven’t read anything stated by Khalil that indicates he is a security risk to the United States or that he has spoken inappropriately about Israel or in favor of terrorism. On the contrary, there is this report:

Khalil told CNN he felt called to advocate for the liberation of both the Palestinian and Jewish people as a refugee.

“As a Palestinian student, I believe that the liberation of the Palestinian people and the Jewish people are intertwined and go hand-by-hand and you cannot achieve one without the other,” he told CNN last spring when he was one of the negotiators representing student demonstrators during talks with Columbia University’s administration.

“Our movement is a movement for social justice and freedom and equality for everyone,’ he said.

If that offends you, President Trump, then you have a problem with me, too. Where shall I turn myself in? Shall I be deported back to England? I mean, my family has been in Tennessee since the time of the Revolutionary War, but it’s your arbitrary call apparently.

Also, you and your staff need to be aware of protocol when posting on X, “Shalom, Mahmoud” — as what even a Jewish publication called a taunt.

First, the word shalom means “peace.” Using a sacred word in this sarcastic way compounds the incivility that besmirches the people’s White House.

Second, when you make an unprofessional, undignified, childish taunt like this, it gives strong evidence that the motive for detaining and attempting to deport Khalil is rooted not in the law or evidence of illegal behavior but in personal vendetta and racism. As such, that would make this an abduction, not an arrest.

“That would make this an abduction, not an arrest.”

To right-wing conservative Christian proponents of absolutist Zionism: There is a fine line between faith and superstition. I know some of you feel it is a religious obligation to support Israel. You believe if you and our country unquestioningly support Israel, God will bless you and our country. However, it is a mistake to equate the covenantal Israel of the Bible with the modern state of Israel. It is a mistake to believe any country or administration is above criticism.

Open your Bible and find an “Old Testament” prophet who was not critical of the biblical people of Israel. Even God is said to have had “hate” for Israel’s misbehavior and David’s shedding of blood.

Now, let me say something to all those opposed to the style of government in which we now find ourselves — especially you who identify as liberal Democrats with whom Ali takes strong umbrage. There is a fine line between political prudence and cowardice. Have you heard the expression “Cat got your tongue?” One possible etymological explanation of this expression dates back to people remaining silent for fear of being whipped with a cat-o-nine-tails.

Returning to you right-wing American Christians who believe God will reward you for not being critical of Israel: If you are wondering where the line is in moving from faith to superstition, look behind you.

But don’t be smug, progressive-minded Americans — of which, despite my fiscal conservativism, I am one. Muslims look at us scratching our heads about where political prudence ends and cowardice begins. To them we look like folks treading water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, chin deep in the Gulf of Mexico, wondering where the fresh water ends and saltwater begins.

 

Brad Bull grew up going to Baptist boys’ camp where, around the campfire, they sang, “I have decided to follow Jesus — no turning back.” This was the same Jesus who asked, “Who was the neighbor to the wounded man?” and the Jewish people said it was the non-Jewish person like the ones living among them. He currently lives in Nashville.

 

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