It's about time someone said it. Thank you, Colin Powell.

I was particularly impressed by this excerpt from Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama:

I'm also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say, and it is permitted to be said such things as: "Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim." Well, the correct answer is: he is not a Muslim. He's a Christian. He's always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is: What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer is: No, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing he or she can be President?

Yet I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion: he's a Muslim, and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.

Thank you, Colin Powell. Your words about Muslim Americans were ultimately more important than your endorsement of Senator Obama.

It's sickening and saddening to see how "Muslim" has become a political "smear." A bad word. A word to describe someone that supposedly is un-American or even anti-American, just because of their faith.

Obama has had to fight this "smear." It's fair to point out that he is, in fact, Christian. But we need to go further. We need to ask "so what if he were Muslim?" That should in no way be any sort of disqualification for holding public office.

We have millions of Muslim Americans in our great nation. They're just like you and I. They love this country. They love our freedoms. They love their families. They work hard. They try to be good citizens. They try to live their religion. Just like you and I do.

The demonization of Muslim Americans has to stop. We have to stop it.

More from Glenn Greenwald:

A major enabling factor in convincing the population to support unnecessary and brutal wars -- and to perceive the "need" for endless expansions of federal surveillance and other police powers -- is the demonization of large groups of people both inside and out of the country. The Right's ongoing, intense obsession with demonizing Muslims and Arabs is, for that reason, not only repulsive but also quite destructive. The core of the Republican Party has degenerated into the unrestrained id of its worst impulses, and it was good to see Powell specifically cite (and condemn) those elements as a principal reason why he is turning away from the party he has served for so long, and instead supporting the Democratic nominee.