Beliefnet News

Beliefnet News

Muslims Say Obama’s Denials Come Up Short

posted by nsymmonds | 3:38pm Thursday February 7, 2008

By Omar Sacirbey
2008 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Muslim Americans and political observers heralded the 2006 elections as a sort of debutante’s ball for the Muslim voter, when anger and organizational heft pushed unprecedented numbers of Muslim citizens to vote and get involved with U.S. politics.
The 2008 election cycle, however, isn’t quite working out that way.
Many Muslim Americans sense that presidential candidates have, at worst, conflated their faith with terrorism, and, at best, treated them as a liability to be kept at arm’s length.
They’re especially disappointed that Sen. Barack Obama, in denying claims that he is a closeted Muslim, left it at that. They say he could have at least defended Muslims, or knocked down the notion that being a Muslim is somehow a negative.
“I think he knows Islam isn’t a violent religion, but he certainly has some sort of hesitancy to talk about his experience with it because of a fear that this will damage his campaign,” said Qasim Rashid, 25, who covered the issue on his weekly Muslim-themed online radio show.
It’s almost as if Muslims are asking for an Obama version of the famous “we’re-not-gay” denial from “Seinfeld”: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
Many Muslims say the dust-up over Obama’s Muslim rumors reflects their continued persona non grata status in U.S. politics ever since 9/11. In fact, some Muslims aren’t surprised at all.
“I wish Barack had been more vocal about the fact that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim,” said Pamela Taylor, a Muslim American activist in Indianapolis, but added, “Clearly no one wants to be deemed a `Muzzie-lover.”‘
Candidates have been keeping Muslims at a distance since even before 9/11. In her 2000 race for the Senate in New York, Hillary Clinton returned $50,000 in contributions from the American Muslim Alliance after her Republican opponent alleged, wrongly, that the group had terrorist links.
The Obama controversy stems from a 2007 article from the conservative Insight Magazine, which alleged that Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, attended a radical Islamic school as a young boy in Indonesia.
A recent flurry of e-mails suggest that Obama’s Kenyan stepfather was a radical Muslim, and say Obama took his oath of office on a Quran instead of a Bible. They also suggest that Obama refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance and that his church membership is a charade to conceal his Muslim identity.
John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, said “general antipathy” toward Muslims helps give the rumors staying power.
“Some issues like this are very difficult to dispel,” Green said,”because they have a face validity to them. Hussein is a Muslim name, and to many Americans, Obama sounds very Arabic.”
Numerous news outlets have proved the rumors baseless.
Obama’s biological father, from Kenya, was a secular Muslim who divorced Obama’s mother when he was 2. She then married an Indonesian Muslim and, while living in Jakarta, sent her son to both a Catholic school and a public school that was also attended by Muslims. The lawmaker who was sworn in on a Quran was not Obama, but Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., who actually is a Muslim.
Despite the outlandishness of the allegations, many Americans have fallen for them, something observers attribute to Americans’ lack of religious literacy — especially when it comes to Islam.
“There’s a certain amount of gullibility in American life,” said Alan Wolfe, a religion and politics expert at Boston College. He added that the allegations could hurt Obama’s presidential bid. “It’s going to matter some, especially in a close election.”
While Obama’s campaign has generated some buzz on Muslim Web sites– including a Muslims for Obama site — some Muslims resent what they see as Obama’s cold shoulder.
“You could have simply said, `While I am a Christian, I resent the implications in being branded a terrorist-sympathizer merely by association with Muslims.’ … Instead, your campaign sought to play the defensive card,” wrote Manan Ahmed, a Chicago-based blogger at the Muslim-themed Web site www.chapatimystery.com, in an open letter to Obama.
Some of that may be changing, however slowly. Speaking in Boise, Idaho, on the eve of the Super Tuesday primaries, Obama referred to the e-mails and the closeted-Muslim rumors.
“Don’t try to just insult not just me but people of the Islamic faith by playing on people’s fears,” Obama said. “I know who I am.” And, in a recent interview with Christianity Today, he said, “I am respectful of the religion, but it’s not my own.”
Still, some Muslims — even Obama supporters — seem resigned to their status in American political life.
“Frankly, as a Muslim, I’d rather stay away from publicly supporting Obama,” said Ani Zonneveld, a Muslim activist in California. “Believe me, this will be held against him.”
Copyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.



Previous Posts

Did Rastafarian spokesman Bob Marley become a Christian on his deathbed?
Three decades after the death of legendary Jamaican musician Bob Marley, an intriguing story is circulating. “What most people don't know, and many try to cover up, is the fact that Bob Marley converted to Christianity in 1980,” proclaims an article that has appeared on a number of websites.

posted 4:52:03pm Feb. 10, 2012 | read full post »

Are U.S. colleges hostile to Christian students?
Are Christian kids on U.S. college campuses facing open hostility and discrimination because of their faith? Supreme Court Justice Justice Samuel Alito seems to think so. So does U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Daniel Ripple – and human rights attorneys Gregory Baylor and Jordan Lorenc

posted 12:18:26pm Feb. 09, 2012 | read full post »

Building a Temple to Atheism
When I say temple, you think religious place of worship right?  When I say atheist, you think one that believes there is no God.  Stay with me now, when I say religion, don’t you think about the worship of God?  Before this blog becomes a full blown say what you are thinking game, let me get to

posted 5:49:11pm Feb. 03, 2012 | read full post »

Romney Nabs Second Primary Victory in Florida
"I stand ready to lead this party and to lead our nation.  My leadership will end the Obama era and begin a new era of American prosperity," Romney said in his victory speech in Tampa Tuesday night.  Romney who won all 50 of Florida’s convention delegates is the only Republican candidate to have

posted 5:15:58pm Feb. 02, 2012 | read full post »

Science Whiz Gets a New Home
17 year-old Samantha Garvey made national headlines when she was selected as an Intel Science Talent Search semi-finalist—one of 300 across the country vying for the top prize, a $100,000 science scholarship.  It was Garvey’s home life that tugged at the heartstrings of people all over the coun

posted 11:53:07am Jan. 30, 2012 | read full post »

Advertisement
Comments read comments(8)
post a comment
semiller

posted February 7, 2008 at 4:23 pm


“You could have simply said, `While I am a Christian, I resent the implications in being branded a terrorist-sympathizer merely by association with Muslims.”
Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted him to say.And I’m a Christian and an Obama supporter, for whwt it’s worth.



report abuse
 

semiller

posted February 7, 2008 at 4:25 pm


“You could have simply said, `While I am a Christian, I resent the implications in being branded a terrorist-sympathizer merely by association with Muslims.”
Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted him to say.And I’m a Christian and an Obama supporter, for what it’s worth.



report abuse
 

Henrietta22

posted February 7, 2008 at 5:46 pm


Barack Obama knows who he is, the senators he’s worked with know who he is, most of America knows who he is, but Muslim activists here and there speak aganist him, oh, I forgot Republicans who got the forwards together to throw garbage at him and pass it around to other like people they must be afraid of Mr. Obama, American man, and member of one of United Church of Christs Churches. I don’t think your misbegotten gossip is hurting him in any way.



report abuse
 

nnmns

posted February 7, 2008 at 5:53 pm


“There’s a certain amount of gullibility in American life,” said Alan Wolfe, a religion and politics expert at Boston College. He added that the allegations could hurt Obama’s presidential bid. “It’s going to matter some, especially in a close election.”
Absolutely true! And the attack dogs part of McCain’s machine will play it for all it’s worth. And in public McCain may deplore it, but mark my words it won’t stop.
I, too, wish he’d said something like what was suggested and I hope he’ll come around to doing so. When Limbaugh and his wannabes swallow their bile and jump on the GOP bandwagon where their bread is buttered, they will play everything Clinton or Obama says as wrong, no matter what it is. If they opposed Jesus they’d pick apart the Sermon on the Mount. So while they both need to avoid saying clearly stupid things they have no hope of avoiding saying things that the rabid GOP’rs will attack and they should not worry about it.



report abuse
 

pagansister

posted February 7, 2008 at 7:47 pm


His response to the Christian magazine ” I am respectful of the religion but it’s not my own” should be stated more often, and perhaps that would help solve the “hidden Muslim” rumor.
I found it really intersting that the Democrate from Minn.,Rep. Keith Ellison, a Muslim, was the one who took his oath on the Quran…not Obama. Why isn’t that a public problem? Maybe because he isn’t running for president.
This sounds like the hatred for the Japanese here in the US during WWII. Couldn’t trust a Japanese American, because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Same idea after 9/11….because it was Muslim fanatics…can’t trust American Muslims….as unfair as that is.



report abuse
 

nnmns

posted February 7, 2008 at 7:58 pm


“Why isn’t that a public problem? Maybe because he isn’t running for president.”
Oh it was. He was widely attacked by the Conservative Noise Machine. I’m sure you can find some by a simple Google.



report abuse
 

Jersey

posted February 11, 2008 at 8:38 pm


1) These people should be grateful for him at least not stating Islam to be bad or negative.
2) Again, IMHO, we’re focusing too much on personal faith when she should be concerned about national problems: welfare, education, economy, that stuff.
3) I am so glad that I studied Islam from a secular and historical angle before the 9/11 attacks. I studied on my own — my school didn’t teach me about it, I learnt about it on my own.



report abuse
 

rage

posted February 13, 2008 at 4:53 pm


“”There’s a certain amount of gullibility in American life,” said Alan Wolfe, a religion and politics expert at Boston College. He added that the allegations could hurt Obama’s presidential bid. “It’s going to matter some, especially in a close election.”"
Oh, please! These so-called activists are seriously grasping at straws here. That Barak Obama was the innocent product of a Catholic Muslim marriage that ended in divorce is hardly going to be a deciding factor in even the closest neck-in-neck quest for the Presidency in November. Whoever is sneakily paying these smear artists for their stealth Obama slander is desperately reaching.
What’s going to matter in November is the American-made confligration in Iraq, the economic recession that has devolved into a depression, high gas prices, job losses, homelessness, unaffordable healthcare, an unregulated military-industrial corporatocracy, tainted imported goods and consummables, government corruption, and everything else for which Dumya claims plausible deniability these days. Soon, no aspersion Faux Noise and CNN can snidely cast before their gullible, naive viewers, suggesting a link between Obama and terrorism, is going to make any difference.



report abuse
 

Post a Comment

By submitting these comments, I agree to the beliefnet.com terms of service, rules of conduct and privacy policy (the "agreements"). I understand and agree that any content I post is licensed to beliefnet.com and may be used by beliefnet.com in accordance with the agreements.

Share this story


About Beliefnet

Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness. More about Beliefnet.

Help

Media Kit

Subscribe

Legal

Copyright © Beliefnet, Inc. and/or its licensors. All rights reserved. Use of this site is subject to Terms of Service and to our Privacy Policy. Constructed by Beliefnet.

Advertisement

Report as Inappropriate

You are reporting this content because it violates the Terms of Service.

All reported content is logged for investigation.