First comes the news that Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner and now the president's nominee for secretary of homeland security, is married to a Syrian woman named Hala. Raymond Stock, the writer and translator from Arabic, speculates that "If she is Muslim, one wonders if Kerik converted (at the very least) to marry her – making him the first Muslim Cabinet member in history, if confirmed by the Senate."
Then comes the report by Tyler Golson, an American, a Democrat, and an English teacher in Damascus, who recounts how, since he began teaching in Damascus six months ago, he has been "continually surprised to find support and even admiration for Bush," then he gives first-hand examples of this phenomenon. (December 4, 2004)
