November 2008

Quoted: LoHud Journal News: Hussein is not a Slur

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Hussein Rashid, a Harvard University doctoral student who is from New York, joked that he should take Obama as his middle name.

“I’m old enough to have been through both Gulf wars, growing up with the name Hussein,” he said. “If people are saying ‘Barack Hussein Obama,’ it takes it away from Saddam Hussein. And you know what, overall it’s a positive thing.

“People did mean it as a slur, but we saw after the election that most of this country didn’t see it that way,” he said. “At least my name is not associated with this horrible Iraqi dictator but with our new president- elect.”