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AMP Report – July 3, 2008
“Holding Muslims at Arm’s Length”
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Holding Muslims at Arm’s Length: This is the title of an article written by the Boston Globe columnist Derrick Z. Jackson about the recent controversy when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s campaign staffers whisk women in Islamic head scarves out of photo-ops.
Jackson says that Obama’s campaign has been far more inclusive than John McCain’s but Obama’s handlers are so bent on passing their biracial, binationally-raised man as a pure-blooded American that they are reinforcing the perception that Muslim Americans are impure.
He pointed out that in his year-and-a-half-long run for president, Obama has visited churches and synagogues, but no mosque. “This has the musty feel of light-skinned African-Americans passing for white, paranoid over daylight visits from dark-skinned relatives.”
Quoting a Muslim Congressman from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, as saying about Obama, “a lot of us are waiting for him to say that there’s nothing wrong with being a Muslim,” Jackson said a lot of Muslims are waiting because, seven years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an undercurrent of suspicion remains. In the 2007 Pew survey, a third of Muslim Americans said that within the last year, they had either been treated with suspicion, called offensive names, profiled by police, or even attacked.
Jackson said that Obama himself has said “Christians and people of other faiths lived very comfortably” with each other when he lived in Indonesia. It is time for him to live comfortably with Muslims in his campaign. In a 2006 trip to Chad, Obama issued the Muslim greeting for peace. A wise Obama would say “assalamu alaikum” at home, too.
Perhaps Jackson answers to Obama’s meaningful reluctance to visit a mosque when he quotes a Newsweek poll of May which concludes that despite nearly hitting the third rail over his former Christian pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, only 58 percent of Americans think Obama is a Christian.
However, I believe that a blogger’s comment on Jackson’s article is more telling: “Obama is between a rock and a hard place, if he goes to a mosque this controlled media that we have would be camped out at the mosque for months, if he do not go the media is going to hold that against him. The system and the mentality of media in this country makes it where a politician has to do what the establishment want him to say or do in order to win the election, that is the reason honest people do not make it in politics just like an educated person does not make a good slave.”
Politics is not about honesty or principled stand but it is the art of possible.
Counter Punch - July 2, 2008
Is it acceptable to insinuate that being Muslim is a smear?
Obama and the Pesky Muslim Rumors
By PARVEZ AHMED
Smear: Barack Obama is a Muslim.
Sen. Obama in his justifiable quest to correct the record, so unfairly distorted by viral emails and insidious propaganda, has launched a website titled 'Fight the Smears.' He is well within his rights to vehemently deny that he is a Muslim, when in reality he has always been a Christian.
But is it acceptable to insinuate that being Muslim is a 'smear'? That is a question Muslims, many of whom are Obamaniacs, are asking.
What if Obama was a Muslim? Would it make his message less hopeful? Will it make his personality less charming? Will it make his candidacy less viable?
A recently released report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, titled 'U.S. Religious Landscape Survey,' shows 70 percent of Americans affiliated with a religion or denomination said they agreed that 'many religions can lead to eternal life'- a sign of progression towards a more inclusive and pluralistic society. And yet despite this progress, a Presidential candidate is being forced to go to unprecedented lengths to counter smears.
Last week New York Mayor Bloomberg speaking in front of a Jewish audience in South Florida stated that the deceptive campaign against Obama, 'threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country.' He went on to say, 'This is wedge politics at its worst, and we've got to reject it - loudly, clearly and unequivocally.' Despite the Mayor's commendable efforts, one audience member was reported in the New York Times to say, 'I still have doubts about him (Obama).'
Rumors often stick, which is why rumor mongering persists. Rumors are particularly lethal when they are easy to remember (Obama's middle name is Hussein thus it is easy to insinuate his alleged Muslim links) and they exploit emotive stereotypes (Muslims are out to destroy America). Simply dispelling the rumor without addressing the stereotype that makes such rumors stick is like treating the symptom without isolating the cause.
Thus, potential for blowbacks continue to fester. Given that Obama has not vigorously challenged the inherent bigotry behind the 'Muslim' rumors, some of his supporters got the errant message that any association between Obama and Muslims is potentially damaging to his candidacy. At a rally in Detroit last week, volunteers from the Obama campaign, citing 'a sensitive political climate,' prohibited two head scarf donning Muslim women from sitting too close to the stage lest they be visible in photo and video footage. Obama, to his credit, later apologized to the women and his campaign put out a message that the volunteers were not carrying out any campaign policy.
Over the past couple of months, I have been lecturing across America to Muslim audiences about civic and political engagement. Over the course of my trips I found that American Muslims in general recognize the historicity of the moment and are genuinely excited about the upcoming election. However, they are appalled at their faith being exploited for political gains.
Most Muslims were dismayed by Obama's clumsy denials. Many more were offended by his support for an undivided Jerusalem being the capital of Israel. Yet they are willing to look past them, partly because they perceive the alternative to be worse. They believe that Obama will restore lost civil liberties, is less likely to start a war and instinctively favors diplomatic resolutions to contentious foreign policy issues.
The second camp thinks that Obama will be so bloodied by the time he takes office that to prove his toughness he may swing to the right of Bush. They cite his comments that he may unilaterally send U.S. armed forces into Pakistan if he had actionable intelligence, as a grave concern. This group though small is prepared to sit out this election if their concerns remain unaddressed.
A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that while Muslims remain a small minority in the overall electorate, they are however likely to play a decisive role in the swing states of Michigan, Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Obama ought to reach out to the Muslim community much in the same way he has reached out to Evangelicals and Jews. His claims of a holistic attitude towards all faith groups require consistency in engaging all groups.
Obama needs to not only continue assuring people that he is not a Muslim but also challenge the collective conscience of this nation to not let their fears undo the progress we have been making towards racial and religious tolerance. His ultimate legacy will not only be judged by becoming the first person of color to be elected President but more importantly what he does after he is elected.
Obama's vision of 'One America' needs to be more than mere rhetoric.
Dr. Parvez Ahmed teaches at the University of North Florida. He is also chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. He can be reached at pahmed@unf.edu.
http://www.counterpunch.org/ahmed07022008.html
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