Quinn says he told Fatimah Ali to “get an American name,” because, “why would you want to relate to Africa? Africa is a nightmare.”
Written by Hannah Dreier
Published
Radio host Jim Quinn again addressed his September 3 comment that Philadelphia Daily News columnist Fatimah Ali should “get an American name ... if you want to be an American,” saying: "[T]he point that I was making here was simply this: First of all, why would you want to relate to Africa? Africa's a nightmare." Also, Quinn asserted that Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is "[Sen. Barack] Obama's cousin," a claim that has been denied by the Obama campaign and was disputed by a PolitiFact.com article.
On the September 17 broadcast of The War Room with Quinn & Rose radio program, co-host Jim Quinn again addressed his September 3 comment that Philadelphia Daily News columnist Fatimah Ali should “get an American name ... if you want to be an American,” saying: "[T]he point that I was making here was simply this: First of all, why would you want to relate to Africa? Africa's a nightmare. It's go-to-hell-in-a-handbasket time in Africa here -- we're talking genocide, we're talking Sudan, we're talking Rwanda, we are talking the breadbasket turned into a basket-case by Mr. Robert Mugabe, we're talking about churches being burned down full of Christians at the hands of the followers of Barack Obama's cousin Odinga. I mean, excuse me, if you think Africa's a good idea, go there -- like other black people in this country have, and you'll come back and kiss the ground that you're standing on now -- as they have -- and we will welcome you back with open arms, American."
Quinn continued: “My point was that the practice of American blacks adopting Muslim and African names is the result of years of trashing Western civilization in general, and America in particular, on the part of media and academia. And if you grew up in a culture that told you that your country was the scourge of the planet, you would do anything to distance yourself from that culture, including changing your name. That was my point. It's valid, and I stand by it.”
Quinn previously addressed his comments about Ali on the September 5 edition of his show. On that show he called his remark “political hyperbole,” adding: “The point is that African-Americans -- excuse me, black Americans, after their indoctrination into Marxism, adopting clearly non-American, Third World-type names, is an act of separation. And that act of separation is fostered by the very Marxist philosophies that are conveyed to them through black liberation theology and also the Nation of Islam.” He later added, “And one of the results of that is that there's a lot of black people in this country who want nothing to do with anything American, anything that looks American, or sounds American, as opposed to the original American experiment, which was to bring everybody on board.”
In a September 16 Philadelphia Daily News column, Ali responded to Quinn's comments and wrote: “Syndicated talker Jim Quinn wondered if I'm some 'liberal black Muslim' and (according to MediaWatch.org) fumed, 'Get an American name if you want to be an American.' You have to have a European name to be an American?”
Further, Quinn's assertion that Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga is “Obama's cousin” has reportedly been denied by the Obama campaign and Obama's Kenyan uncle and has been disputed by the website PolitiFact.com. While Odinga claimed, “Barack Obama's father is my maternal uncle” in a January BBC interview, Obama's Kenyan uncle reportedly said that: “Odinga's mother came from this area, so it is normal for us to talk about cousins. But he is not a blood relative.” An April 18 PolitiFact.com fact check of a chain email which also claimed Odinga is Obama's cousin stated that the Obama campaign denied Obama was related to Odinga and reported that "[Salim] Lone, Odinga's spokesman, said cousins in the African sense is very different from cousins in the American sense, so they might be distant relatives." According to PolitiFact.com, one Kenya expert said Odinga's claim is “stretched to the point of ridiculousness,” while another said that the claim is “very opportunistic and it should be totally disregarded.”
Talkers Magazine lists Quinn & Rose on its "Heavy Hundred" list, which it describes as a list of the “100 most important radio talk show hosts in America.” According to the show's website, it airs on 17 radio stations and XM Satellite Radio.
From the September 17 broadcast of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn & Rose:
QUINN: By the way, this show has been red-flagged by Media Matters, it's been attacked by The Philadelphia Inquirer, and also, Bill Moyers on PBS -- proving, of course, that you're in the right place. Now, in relationship to that:
HUME [audio clip]: Earlier this month we reported that the Philadelphia Daily News columnist Fatimah Ali predicted, quote, “If McCain wins, look for a full-fledged race and class war.” Ali now writes, quote, “After all of that backlash, I realize I was dead wrong. We don't have to wait until after the election for a race war -- we're in one now.”
QUINN: Now, I referenced her article, the original article, and I had a few comments about it. And then in this article, where she says the race war is on now, she references me -- my statement, which was something to the effect of, “Hey, look, if you're gonna be an American, why don't you get an American name, Fatimah Ali?” Now, that, of course, was presented as prima facie proof of the race war beginning, and how, you know, xenophobic I was. But the point I was making -- which of course was left out of Media Matters' article, and also left of out hers -- the point that I was making here was simply this: First of all, why would you want to relate to Africa? Africa's a nightmare. It's go-to-hell-in-a-handbasket time in Africa here -- we're talking genocide, we're talking Sudan, we're talking Rwanda, we are talking the breadbasket turned into a basket-case by Mr. Robert Mugabe, we're talking about churches being burned down full of Christians at the hands of the followers of Barack Obama's cousin Odinga. I mean, excuse me, if you think Africa's a good idea, go there -- like other black people in this country have, and you'll come back and kiss the ground that you're standing on now -- as they have -- and we will welcome you back with open arms, American.
My point was that the practice of American blacks adopting Muslim and African names is the result of years of trashing Western civilization in general, and America in particular, on the part of media and academia. And if you grew up in a culture that told you that your country was the scourge of the planet, you would do anything to distance yourself from that culture, including changing your name. That was my point. It's valid, and I stand by it.