I posted part 1 of Atif Qarni’s interview with Eric Byler of The Young Turks a few days ago. In that interview, Qarni talked about “his sense of duty to defend America as a U.S. Marine in the age of Islamic terrorism, and also to defend Muslim Americans as a public school teacher in the age of Donald Trump.” In part 2 (see video below), Qarni discusses his run for the Democratic nomination for State Senate (29th district – Prince William County) in 2015 and specifically how Senate Democratic leadership treated him (hint: they assumed he couldn’t win – despite the 29th being a strong Democratic district – because he was Pakistani-American and Muslim, had a beard, etc.).
Qarni’s argument, in addition to the district being solidly Democratic, was that he lives in the community, teaches in the heart of the district, volunteers, coaches, etc. (I’d add that his bio – U.S. Marine, Iraq War veteran, teacher – is superb). Qarni notes that he received no establishment support but almost won the primary anyway. He also points out that the only four elected officials (“as opposed to 30 or so who endorsed other people”) who endorsed him were Del. Mark Keam (Asian-American), Del. Sam Rasoul (Muslim-American), Del. Adam Ebbin (LGBT) and Del. Mark Sickles (LGBT). Hmmmm….
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