By now, you’ve all heard of Obama’s hijab-gate 'scandal' and the apology he personally offered to the two Muslim women. This has really been blown out of proportion. He wasn't the one who pushed aside the Muslim hijabis (it was campaign volunteers). But even if the mistake were to have been made directly by him, he would have made the same apology and life would go on.
Obama is like every other politician and he must pander to public opinion. He is a slave who must serve his master - his media image. And as long as that is the case, he must continue to tippy-toe around the issue of treating Muslims with respect.
But lets say we entertain the fantasy that Obama is some agent for (positive) change. The issue then really becomes holding him to a consistent standard which must include eliminating islamophobia.
The real scandal is America's widespread acceptance of bashing, mocking, and deriding anything Muslim. And since I’m lazy, I’m simply going to link to Jinnzaman’s astute post on the issue.
Enjoy the read!
WAW
1 day ago
8 comments:
Brother this issue is ridiculous on so many levels. Everytime I read an article somewhere (most likely a blog) all I hear is victimization and selfishness. I've read some Muslims complain about Obama's selfishness or the campaign's selfishness and I'm further removed from the everyday meanderings of my coreligionists. For some reason, some Muslims somewhere assumed that Obama was the bastion of Muslim representation just like they assume Keith Ellison is supposed to be a bastion. And the line that follows is if they aren't representative of Muslims then they are 'pandering' to the public, leading some to believe that deep down something else exists. When did Muslims, particularly immigrant Muslims become 'public'? We have to admit many Muslims, not just immigrants became public only after 9/11. That is a short life compared to the other 'lobbying' groups. Muslims are going to have to get over themselves. One of the major problems in this is that Muslims viewed themselves as a voting bloc the way they perceive Evangelicals to be a unified voting bloc, and that is false. There are major schisms between Christians on voting and not all get representation. The other issue is that some Muslims would have Obama lose the election if it means stepping out to say he "condemns Islamophobia" but what does that mean for people on the ground? There won't be any new amendments in this regard in the near future because amendments already exist to thwart religious intolerance and even CAIR knows this. Obama's hypothetical condemnation of religious intolerance directed at certain groups of Muslims before the election will do nothing at all for impacting the people who hold such views and would only cause some Muslims to vote for him for a questionable reason. Muslims who hold such leanings suggesting that Obama should be the leader in repressing 'Islamophobia' are missing the larger picture. I have said this before, in fact I said this very thing to some Saudis when Clinton was in office; Americans do not vote for the morally upstanding person. It is about economics, national security, crime, education, etc, anything except who is the nicest person.
Now, the flipside is that no candidate should have to declare Islamophobia as wrong. Inherently, it is wrong to discriminate against anybody, even Muslims and Christians fight the battle of discriminating against gays because they know there needs to be some kind of acceptance of the person, not the act. It is easy to see how even someone other than a volunteer in Obama's camp could just opt scarves out of photos but that shouldn't be the line, especially when Obama has already been seen in many photos with Muslims here in America and around the world. The larger implications are not for Muslims at large but the Muslims in the Michigan area. There is and has been major tension between non-Muslim Blacks in Detroit and the Arab community. That young lady who refused them is the embodiment of the tension that exists there and it existed long before 9/11, something none of the bloggers have pointed out.
I don't understand why some are criticizing the Muslim reaction. Honestly, and I'm not being facetious here, but what reaction? Personally, I've mostly heard excuses for Obama, in addition to hardcore Obama supporters upset and sad over it (which is an understandable reaction, I think). I haven't heard any Muslim say this is going to cause them to not vote for Obama. Heck, even one of the ladies who was discriminated against released a statement after she got Obama's apology and said she will continue to support him.
For my part, I assumed that when Obama talks about hope and change and change and hope, he includes American Muslims. Refusing to have them in the same TV screen with him, well, that kind of sucks.
I would also criticize the Muslim response, but from the other way. If McCain had done this, we would never had heard the end of it from Muslim orgs and Muslim voters. Because it's Obama, yes there's been some criticism but it's been mostly muted, and hey we're all still going to vote for him anyway. We're as wrapped up in the Obama love as any other group.
It all makes me feel a little sick, to be honest. I'm glad he personally called the women to apologize, at least. And hey, he's still got my vote! Ugh...
AA- Charles
"The other issue is that some Muslims would have Obama lose the election if it means stepping out to say he "condemns Islamophobia" but what does that mean for people on the ground? There won't be any new amendments in this regard in the near future because amendments already exist to thwart religious intolerance and even CAIR knows this"
I don't think the expectation is for any new amendments on condemning Islamophobia. I think its about expecting Obama to reject the blatantly Islamophobic rhetoric found throughout American society. No less would be expected of him if the issue were about Blacks or American Indians or any other minority.
I'm not an Obama-guy, but I must admit that his profound speech on race (several months ago) was a pleasant aberration from the standard stump speeches we get from politicians. That being said, I think its not too much to ask him to take a principled stance on the issue of Islamophobia and introduce this hot-topic into the national dialogue.
Oh and good point about the Black-Arab tensions in the Detroit community.
AA- Safia,
Thanks for your comments, but I honestly didn't get the gist of what you're saying.
Are you suggesting that Muslims should have had a sterner, more public response?
Or that Muslims should change their stance on voting for him?
Or that Muslims are simply over-reacting over this non-issue?
Not sure what you're getting at sis...
Salaam,
Sorry I wasn't clear. I was saying that I was annoyed by some Muslims who were making excuses for Obama. The "well what do you expect, he has to play politics" excuse or "it's not his fault, he has to combat the 'secret Muslim' rumor", etc. The reaction from Muslims was so much milder than it would've been for any other politician, so it's annoying to me that even such a small reaction is criticized, as if we should all just excuse Obama his big time errors.
So I didn't have a problem with the Muslim reaction. I had a problem with those (Muslims) who acted like what Obama's campaign people did in no way reflects on him, or that it was no big deal, and we shouldn't make a stir about it.
I think overall I'm just fed up with the blind Obama love. And at the same time, I support Obama and will vote for him, because he's the best choice. So it all ends up as one big ball of frustration for me.
(not the same Safia who posted earlier lol)
An interesting article about Obama and the Muslim community:
http://www.thestar.com/article/448751
It really cemented my views in this case.
AA- Safia,
Thanks for the link. Great article!
I was thinking that Obama's strategy (of keeping Muslims at arms-length) is not really *that* risky, since its almost a guarantee that most of them will vote against McCain. So he doesn't lose (with Muslims) and can only gain (with the rest of the country) by semi-alienating Muslims, right?
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