Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
By Mona Eltahawy
NEW YORK — A woman wrote to me recently to ask “how can a non-Muslim EVER trust the word of a Muslim.” She said she “knew it is ok for all Muslims to lie to infidels” and, just for good measure, informed me that being a Muslim was incompatible with being an American because “the ultimate goal of Muslims (or you are not a true Muslim) is to have Sharia in the U.S.”
“Please don’t argue that point,” she wrote. “I’ve read too many commentaries from the Arab world. The way to take America is from the inside.”
Well, then. Nothing there for me to add. Even if I wrote back, what’s to guarantee my response wouldn’t be just another lie to an “infidel”?
Welcome to the Catch-22 of American Muslim life — you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. It is quite apparent today for the American Muslim supporters of Barack Obama — the presumptive Democratic nominee for president and a Christian who has been ‘accused’ of being Muslim.
For Jenan Mohajir, a program associate at Interfaith Youth Core — a Chicago-based international nonprofit — a conversation in October 2006 on a liberal campus in the Midwest was a lesson in what it was like to be an American Muslim supporter of Obama.
“I was at a lunch meeting with the campus rabbi when one of the women’s studies professors walked up to us. She primarily was in conversation with the rabbi about Barack Obama’s aspirations to run for the 08’ election,” Jenan told me in an email.
“Then she turned to me and said, ‘I’m sorry for YOUR loss, but America isn’t ready for a Muslim president,’ At which point, I was so shocked, that I could only reply with, ‘Barack Obama isn’t Muslim.’”
That professor is not alone — her misconception is alive today. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 12 percent of respondents believe Obama is Muslim.
Obama’s father was a Kenyan of Muslim ancestry and an atheist. Barack spent several years as a child in Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim country — with his American mother and her Indonesian husband. His African roots and his Indonesia years were common themes during Obama’s earlier campaigning when he wanted to illustrate the bridge he could build between a post-Bush America and the world it has alienated.
So how did Obama go from there to the rally in Detroit last June, when an overzealous staffer moved two Muslim women from directly behind him to keep women with headscarves out of a photo-op? Obama called the women to apologize and issued a statement that the actions were unacceptable and did not reflect his campaign.
But then in early August, Obama’s national Muslim outreach coordinator resigned after the Wall Street Journal asked questions about his alleged connections to a man named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a racketeering trial last year of fund-raisers allegedly for Hamas.
And it is difficult to ignore the childish but effective conservative and right wing chain emails and the chorus of inflammatory blog entries singing the tune “Obama sounds an awful lot like Osama” (of Bin Laden fame) aimed at eroding the steel of Obama’s bid for president.
The “smearing” was not confined to Obama’s Republican opponents and their racist allies. As reported in September’s The Atlantic Magazine, Mark Penn, former strategist to Hillary Clinton, suggested she “go negative” on Obama in 2007 — painting him as too foreign and exotic to lead America at war.
She did not heed the advice but her campaign did leak photographs of Barack wearing traditional Somali garb — a subtle but calculated message.
So what to do if you’re an American Muslim to overcome dismay at seeing your faith being used as a toxic catapult?
American Muslims are learning that in post-9/11 America, they must become more involved at every level of the country’s political process, and not least so that there’s always someone to say “So what if he’s Muslim?” whenever Obama is “smeared.”
More American Muslims are registering to vote and turning out at party conventions where they remind both Democrats and Republicans that many of their communities are concentrated in important swing states.
This week, the first ever American Muslim Democratic Caucus, launched in Denver at the Democrats’ convention, is especially encouraging. Besides showcasing the party’s Muslim delegates who turned out in Denver, the caucus launch was co-hosted by the two Muslim members of Congress, Keith Ellison (D-MN) and Andre Carson (D-IN), neither of whom campaigned on a Muslim platform but both of whom are role models for aspiring American Muslim politicians.
And what of all the American Muslim Obama supporters? Jenan Mohajir eloquently sums up the lessons they’ve learned. “I realized that perhaps it was better for me to be not vocal,” Jenan said. “I don’t think the rumors about him being a Muslim will be quenched if I stood on rooftops with my hot pink hijab screaming, ‘Obama’s not a Muslim! Obama’s not a Muslim!’
“So I’ve taken a quieter approach, and I’ve decided that the best I can do for Obama is to wear my brightly-colored hijab and drive my mother to the polls so that she can place her first vote in an American election. I’ll be voting too of course!”
Copyright ©2008 Mona Eltahawy – distributed by Agence Global
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Comments (13)
Craig said:
Obama’s father was a Kenyan of Muslim ancestry and an atheist. Barack spent several years as a child in Indonesia — the world’s most populous Muslim country — with his American mother and her Indonesian husband.
That is an unconvincing argument, Mona. Just going from memory, I’d say it is unlikely Obama even remembers his biological father and the “atheist” claim seems to be something that Obama’s defenders made up recently. His Indonesian step-father was also a Muslim. I’d still like to hear an explanation about why Obama’s mother selected not one but two foreign husbands, both Muslim, in 1960 Hawaii. That was before the whole hippie counter-culture movement. It was even before the civil rights movement. There’s something going on there with Obama’s mother. It isn’t the “Muslim” allegations that disturb me, it’s the apparent distaste for Americans shown by Obama’s Mom… I can’t imagine she was even close to her own family. I didn’t have a happy childhood either, so I know how much that can affect the views of even an adult.
All that said, the reason I won’t vote for Obama is because I think he’s a racist. Not because I think he’s a Muslim.
August 27th, 2008, 12:48 pm
Khalid said:
Craig,
Umm, perhaps you should compare the policies of the candidates? It’s interesting how these things always seem to boil down to trivial personality issues, while critical issues of policy — military vs. education and health spending and so on — go unnoticed.
August 27th, 2008, 2:16 pm
Craig said:
Khalid, asking me to vote for somebody who I think is racist against people of my background just because his stated policies might seem attractive is a little absurd, don’t you think? If there is bias (against me) in Obama’s personality, then there will be bias (against me) in his policies.
Would you vote for a candidate who was openly Islamaphobic? Just because you liked some of his policies?
August 27th, 2008, 3:05 pm
Dale said:
Obama is a LIBERAL Democrat. I do not need to know any more than that. I will not vote for him on that basis.
McCain is a LIBERAL Republican. I do not need to know any more than that. I will not vote for him on that basis.
Both men follow the religion of Liberalism, which states that nobody is able to actually take care of him/her-self and needs an Orwellian Big Brother to do it for them. Thank you, no, I don’t want a telescreen in my home and I don’t wish to learn Newspeak.
Both men are liars, like all politicians. If either man is elected we will be facing higher taxes and a new expanded war to justify them.
I plan to vote for Bob Barr, though I have considered voting for myself. In any case, it scarcely matters. Like a long freight train pulled by a Big Boy going down slope with a monkey wrench on the safety valve, our nation’s direction is pretty much determined and it would take Superman to stop it or change direction.
August 27th, 2008, 3:29 pm
Khalid said:
Craig,
I don’t see any strong evidence that Obama is racist, and certainly not ‘openly’ so. He is himself, after all, multi-racial, with as many ‘white’ ancestors as ‘black’ ones. His pastor said some wacky things, but Obama doesn’t seem to share those views, and well… ‘your’ people did enslave and oppress black people for hundreds of years. That does cause some understandable resentment.
And it’s not like he could ever discriminate against white people even if he wanted to; even as President he does not have the power to do so. So, vote for he whose policies will be good for the entire country and the world, overall.
Dale,
You are confusing ‘liberalism’ with ’socialism’. Liberalism is perfectly OK with leaving everyone to take care of themselves. And your ‘argument’ is much too blunt to take seriously, so I guess I can’t comment on it further.
August 27th, 2008, 5:53 pm
Dale said:
Liberalism=Socialism. ’nuff said.
August 27th, 2008, 7:21 pm
Craig said:
Thanks for your unsolicited input, Khalid. Now answer my question: Would you vote for somebody who was an obvious (In YOUR opinion, not in MINE) Islamophobe?
August 27th, 2008, 10:26 pm
Khalid said:
Would you vote for somebody who was an obvious (In YOUR opinion, not in MINE) Islamophobe?
This can’t really be answered hypothetically. It depends on how you define “Islamophobe”, the degree to which they are “Islamophobic” (and how this is reflected in their policies), and the alternatives available. Would I vote for a person who vows to deny Muslims (or Jews, or Christians, etc.) their legal rights and/or intern them and/or force them out of the country? No. (And Obama isn’t threatening any of these things to white people, nor would he have any success in implementing such a plan.) Would I vote for someone whose Islamophobia is an emotive dislike of Islam because of what some Muslims have done? Potentially yes, if their actual policies weren’t egregiously harmful to Muslims, and the alternative candidates would take the country down a worse path on more important issues (health care, war, etc.) Sometimes you vote for the lesser evil, in the name of the greater good.
If you’re averse to Obama and want to vote for some actual, refreshing, positive change, there’s always this guy.
August 27th, 2008, 11:34 pm
Craig said:
If you’re averse to Obama and want to vote for some actual, refreshing, positive change, there’s always this guy.
Oh great, a bigot of a crazy dude is what I got? This is an important election too!
Khalid, nice job of “answering without answering”
August 28th, 2008, 12:42 am
raafat said:
Dale
I gree with you 100%. Obama is a LIBERAL Democrat. I do not need to know any more than that.
I will vote for him. I really don’t have to look at his background or color
His ideas represent me as an average middle class US citizen and that’s all I need.
Mona
I think so many American Muslims don’t even register to vote. I have so many friends who don’t even bother registering and that is one of the reason no one looks at them when running for an office.
Personal experience:
I never vote in Egypt. My first vote ever was in New York, and of course, I did not know how to use the voting machine!! In Egypt, they vote with Pens. Anyway, I told the lady that was my first time to vote and I need help using the machine
Everyone was in the room voting started clapping for me!! I was so happy and so proud as well. And since that day, I never missed a vote!
August 28th, 2008, 1:38 am
Dale said:
A liberal votes?!!! Noooooooo!
August 28th, 2008, 11:43 am
essam said:
come to the pinstripe suit wearing, secret energy undisclosed bunker residing dark-side raafat—–in all seriousness, kudos in exercising your right of franchise! But as an arab hyphen american you should cognizant of the fact, that voting for the most merciful lord Obama is not in your interest!!!
August 28th, 2008, 5:11 pm
Raafat rohaiem said:
essam
why not?
I dont think McCain will do me any better.
I am thinking of my vote as a US citizen. I had the best years of my life in the Clinton years.
i think Obama is talking like me. he was once poor, even though he went to Harvard and I only took one class there. LOL
Republicans dont give a sh–t about me as a middle class citizen
August 29th, 2008, 5:55 pm
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