From the beginning of the campaign when Sen. Obama started to talk about “Change”, repeatedly promising to his supporters a paradigm shift from the Beltway way of doing things, or “politics as usual” he brought hope to many. Everyone put his faith in the senators` promise of being a catalyst for change. There is no black America or white America; there is one America, he said.
It is to the senator’s credit that within a short time he was able to convince the skeptics in the black community who had difficulty believing that he was truly from within the “black community” and not some outsider. Similarly he also convinced a great many whites to overcome their prejudice and fear of electing a black person. This all seemed promising, a proud moment to see America overcome its prejudice and accept a black man as president. Everyone started to believe that they “all were on the same bus” with the senator and so did the American Muslim community.
The American Muslim community has been trying hard all these years to get properly assimilated within America. Unfortunately 9/11 has dealt a serious blow to their effort.
America is in the grip of fear and in the name of security more and more Americans are being made to surrender their individual rights and liberties. Muslims are additionally burdened by being under constant suspicion and surveillance. Despite the difficulties they face at this critical time, they have abiding faith in this country’s values and principles that Sen. Obama so eloquently invokes in speech after speech.
The words of hope, healing and change from the senator were encouraging for them in these difficult times.
Almost everyone concedes that being politically correct is an essential part of winning elections in this country. That the influence of special interest groups who are heavy donors to the campaign plays a major role in shaping the ideas and rhetoric of the candidate is also well recognized and also accepted sadly. American Muslims realize this as much as others. Yet along with others who have bought into the senator’s message of change and renewal the expectation has been that Obama will break the mold and show the kind of leadership he has been talking about throughout.
Much to the disappointment of the Muslim community, the interaction of the Obama campaign and the senator himself with issues related to Islam and Muslims leads one to draw a different conclusion.
It appears to the Muslims that there is clearly a dissonance between the senator’s words and his actions pertaining to his campaign’s handling of issues that relate to the Muslims community. Either he is poorly informed or he prefers being politically correct or in fact both.
Going back to the beginning of his campaign when the issue of the senator being a “closet Muslim” was raised by those who wanted to discredit him, his response appropriately was to reaffirm his Christian faith on public airways. This left the Muslim community thinking as to why he could not point out to his inquisitors that even if he was a Muslim, why was it such an offense in a nation, which upholds religious freedom and equality. If the senator were accused of being a Jew, would he be responding in the same manner? The stand-offishness toward the Muslims continued. He arrived at the AIPAC convention and expectedly like the other candidates strongly endorsed American support and commitment to Israel. Only he did one better. He declared that Jerusalem should remain the undivided capital of Israel. To the Muslims and others including some in the Jewish community, this seemed grossly insensitive at a time of heightened tensions in the area.
This also showed that Obama is no different from others in putting political correctness before that which is right and that special interest groups do have a hold on him.
As he continues his “Patriotism” journey across the country, he would be well advised to contemplate the words of wisdom of George Washington: “So likewise a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.”
Adding insult to injury, the Muslims were shocked recently when the Obama campaign barred two women with hijab, from sitting behind him within the TV camera range as he was going to speak in Detroit. The city is home to a large Arab-Muslim community and this sent shock waves within the community. The senator later apologized to the Muslims.
All of this makes Muslims feel that the senator is either unable to reconcile the idea of patriotism with the American Muslim community or he deliberately chooses to avoid the inclusiveness of Muslims, inherent in the idea. It is still early in the campaign and despite these bumps in the road; the American Muslims like to believe Obama will re-engage with the American Muslims more positively in the coming months.
— Dr. Nazir Khaja is chairman, Islamic Information Service based in California. nazir.khaja@gmail. com
