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| Copyright © 2008 AMAANY Magazine, All Rights Reserved. |
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Spend a moment looking at the fundamental currents pulsing through Campaign 2008, and you will find that three factors dominate: gender, race
and religion. While gender has gotten the most coverage (first Hillary Clinton, now Sarah Palin), it’s also shown itself to be far less significant in
influencing votes than race and religion. After all, the number of Republican women is roughly equal to the number of Democratic women. The
enthusiasm for Palin among conservatives proves that.
Race, however, is a different story, harder to measure. Although a 2007 Gallup poll found that 94 percent of Americans would consider voting for a
black presidential candidate, the number is no doubt inflated by “pollster pressure”–most people being polled won’t admit to racism (or, more likely,
aren’t even aware of it’s presence in their voting psyche) to a stranger on the other end of the phone line.
How about religion? Well, the “land of the free” apparently doesn’t include freedom of religion–at least, not if you belong to a minority religion and
want to have a chance of Presidential victory. Only 34 percent of voters, according to a 2006 Los Angeles Times poll, would consider voting for a
Muslim for president. Factor in pollster pressure and that anemic number shrinks even further.
For those who embrace the myth of unbiased, pure equality in American democracy, those numbers should shatter that illusion.
The other day, while shopping for groceries, I unintentionally eavesdropped on two young women indulging in a conversation about the election
between Barack Obama and John McCain. “I was a Hillary supporter,” said a cheerful blonde to her friend, “but now I’m voting for McCain. Obama’s
a secret Muslim and will force all of us to wear burqas.” To her, enduring a mediocre Republican presidency and not having to wear a burqa
trumped taking the chance on a candidate who she saw as just waiting to implement a Taliban dress code. That Obama is not Muslim, that there are
in fact two Muslim congressmen who are strong proponents of women’s rights, do not matter to her. “Don’t confuse me with the facts,” my
grandfather used to joke, “my mind is made up.”
How to respond to pervading ignorance regarding his faith has put Obama in a predicament. His response, “I’ve been a member of the same church
for nearly 20 years, praying to Jesus with my Bible,” sounds like an unnecessary distancing reaction. As several thoughtful commentators have
pointed out, why not just say, “I’m not Muslim, but so what if I was.”
This sounds placating until you consider that this type of response was used by the Sikh community. Following several post-9/11 hate crimes
against their community, Sikh spokesmen held educational forums and ran commercials asserting that “Sikhs are not Muslims,” even though, it was
implied, there was nothing wrong with being Muslim. There is even a t-shirt featuring the slogan, “Don’t freak, I’m Sikh,” which insinuates,
surreptitiously, that there’s something ominous about Islam.
For Obama to simply proclaim non-affiliation with Islam would be to sweep hidden bigotry under the carpet, only to have it scurry out the other end
later. Confronting bias directly is the only way of making strides toward eventual eradication. “He could start by saying something like: ‘There is not a
Christian America, or a Jewish America, or a Muslim America. There is a United States of America,’” wrote Ahmed Rehab, National Director of
Communications Strategy for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). That would be a good start.
To be fair, Obama has a better understanding of Islam than most politicians and pundits. Certainly better than McCain, who erroneously told CNN in
September 2007 that “since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith.”
That the First Amendment to the Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion ... or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof,” apparently doesn’t matter to “The Maverick.”
Certainly better than Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, who, in reference to the election of the first elected Muslim
congressman, Keith Ellison, Democrat of Minnesota, wrote in December 2006: “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the
United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United
States of America.”
Or failed Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, who told Mansoor Ijaz, in an editorial he wrote for the Christian Science Monitor, that “…
based on the numbers of American Muslims in our population, I cannot see that a cabinet position would be justified. But of course, I would imagine
that Muslims could serve at lower levels of my administration.” Replace “Muslims” with “Jews,” or any other minority religion, and one can imagine the
torrential firestorms that would ensue. It is ironic that Romney, who is Mormon, a religious group of roughly the same U.S. population as Islam,
argued that “low numbers” justified no representation at the top.
For all of Obama’s ungraceful attempts to clarify his own Christianity, at times going too far in distancing himself from Muslims, he has not hidden his
respect for Islam. “In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated,” wrote New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, in a March 9 editorial, “Mr.
Obama described the call to prayer as ‘one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.’” And while bigoted partisans cite Obama’s childhood in
Indonesia (though born in Hawaii, he lived for four years in Indonesia) as a reason to mistrust his patriotism, it is obvious that through this
experience, he gained a comprehensive understanding of global diversity–greater than any previous presidential candidate. In the July 21 issue of
Newsweek, Lisa Miller and Richard Wolffe wrote that, in Indonesia “he saw women with and without head coverings and Muslims living comfortably
next to Christians. He has said that his life among Muslims in Indonesia showed him that ‘Islam can be compatible with the modern world.’”
In Audacity of Hope, Obama eloquently crystallized his spiritual ethos in two sentences: “I heard God's Spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His
will, and dedicated myself to discovering His truth and carrying out His works." Sincere followers of all religions will certainly be able to relate to such
an experience. When divisiveness, separateness and ignorance are stripped, the core of religion shines as a gemstone in the intense rays of the
setting sun. To overcome the smog of bigotry, however, there needs to be an intense, comprehensive national education about religion. Though no
one has yet to initiate such a discussion, if any politician can rise to the occasion, it is Barack Obama.
| THE INVISIBLE CONVERSATION: Islam and the Election 2008 |
| Patrick Durek |
Women in Music) Journal; Classical Guitar Magazine; and Sequenza21. In addition to being a writer he is also a classical guitarist. An alumnus of Johns Hopkins University, Mr. Durek, who is of Eastern European descent, believes that conscientious journalism is an essential vehicle for addressing and overcoming racial and religious stereotyping.He is honored to write for AMAANY Magazine, which is a unique voice that aspires in part, to introduce the diversity of individuals in the Muslim world to people of all backgrounds. |