Syndicated journalist and writer Ann Coulter hates Arabs and she's proud of it. Last year, she recommended, "America should invade Arab countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Such a hideous remarks are Arab bashing and outright racism.

On Feb. 23, Coulter was at it again with her racist and anti Arab remarks, when she wrote, "Press passes can't be hard to come by if the White House allows that old Arab Helen Thomas to sit within yards of the president." Coulter wants us to believe that Mrs. Thomas could be a threat to the president because of her Arab background.

Had she made similar remarks against a black or Jewish reporter, she would have been dragged through the mud and called by every name in the book.

Helen Thomas was a legend of her time. She was one of the first female journalists. She was the dean of the White House Press corps, and covered the last eight presidents since John F. Kennedy. Mrs. Thomas also insisted women reporters have the same access and privileges to the White House as their male counterparts.

Ann Coulter's views on Arabs and Arab-Americans has nothing to do with free speech. It is hate speech and demagoguery. Such a public insult and a hostile attitude toward one ethnic group in America can only promote ill feeling, discrimination and violence against Arabs, as well as Muslims.

This ethnic group, which Coulter shamefully attacked, has played a critical role in the defense of our national defense as well as our homeland security. Readers can learn more about Arab-Americans' contributions by visiting the Web site of Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military, www.apaam.org  

Perhaps Mrs. Coulter could take heed from the words of Israeli Foreign Minister, Salvan Shalomo, who said very recently, "the holocaust did not begin with gas chambers and concentration camps, it began with hate speech and hate propaganda."

Mahmoud El-Yousseph lives in Westerville.

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Originally published Saturday, March 19, 2005