A decidedly ugly anti-Muslim tone injected into the American Democratic presidential campaign has sidetracked front-runner Barack Obama into denying falsehoods concocted by opponents about his religion and his American patriotism.
The worst of the insinuations came last Friday when Republican Congressman Steve King, of Iowa, said that if Obama were elected US president “radical Islamists, the Al-Qaeda. . .would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror.”
As if to add mean-spiritedness to his statement, King said that Obama’s “middle name does matter,” intimating that the family name of Hussein may have some connection with the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein.
Although Americans repeatedly tell public opinion pollsters they dislike negative political campaigns and dirty tricks, opponents trying to derail Obama’s fast-paced winning streak in primary elections and caucuses have continued to resort to questionable tactics.
Critics of Obama have spread various rumors, all disproved, but that continue to have a life in the presidential campaign. They also have exploited his family name to suggest unsavory connections in the Middle East.
Obama is a Christian, having attended the same Chicago church for more than 20 years. As for rumors that he took the oath of office as a senator on the Holy Qur’an, not true: He used a family Bible. His rival, Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton even found a way recently to nourish doubts about Obama.
When asked on the CBS news program, “60 Minutes,” whether she thought Obama was a Muslim rather than a Christian, Hillary Clinton gave an answer that revealed her insincerity and taste for the negative.
“No, there is nothing to base that on — as far as I know.”
The Hillary campaign also is suspected of having distributed a photo of Obama in turban-topped tribal attire taken when he was visiting his father’s Kenya homeland. The strategy, commentators believe, was to ridicule Obama as more faithful to some foreign culture than the United States.
Publication of the photo led to criticism of major US media for not digging into their archives and producing similar pictures of other American politicians who routinely donned native attire when making diplomatic visits to countries where local ceremonial clothing often reflects tribal traditions and culture. Another highly-publicized controversial slur on Obama was the televised comments at a campaign rally of Bill Cunningham, an extreme right-wing conservative Republican radio talk show host in Cincinnati, Ohio, who called Obama a “hack” politician and then three times repeated his full name — Barrack Hussein Obama. Since Cunningham had been asked to introduce the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, McCain later deplored Cunningham’s remarks and apologized. Despite the sniping and attempted smears, Obama has forged ahead with his campaign and continues to lead Hillary in the number of states he’s won and the number of delegates he needs to ultimately get the Democratic nomination to run for president against Sen. McCain.
Obama also has resisted suggestions he turn to negative campaigning to counter Sen. Hillary’s attempts to denigrate him as too inexperienced to be president and relying only on inspirational speeches to win votes. Moreover, Obama has not been reticent about his admiration and respect for Muslims and Islam. He told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, for example, that the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset.”
He also risked offending Jewish voters during a speech in Iowa before the important caucuses, when he said, “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.” He won the Iowa caucus. Although if elected president, Obama would not abandon the traditional US support of Israel, he could be expected to be far less inclined to automatically support Israeli policies and conduct without questions.
His multiracial parents and his African heritage have given him, he often has said, a clearer understanding of the need for viewing the world in less stark, simple politics. In one of his first foreign policy pronouncements, Obama said as US president he would be willing to talk with foreign heads of state that Bush has refused to see, including Iran’s Mahmood Ahmadinejad. Obama’s opponent, on the other hand, has been especially keen on cultivating America’s Jewish voters and their leaders. Sen. Hillary recently showed up to speak to the politically influential American Israeli Public Affairs Committee carrying a sign with her name spelled in Hebrew, according to The New York Times.
