BARACK Hussein Obama is truly the “other “candidate for President of the United States. His “otherness” has been and currently is a subject of note from the Western media and Washington pundits. One of those pundits is Glen Beck. Beck has a broad-based following amongst conservative Americans on his daily nationally syndicated radio show. He also is presented to the American public as a mainstream political commentator on his regular CNN television show.
The problem, however, with Beck is that he is really not mainstream and his shows are filled with negative racially and ethnically charged innuendos. Beck claims that he is not a racist. Many people think otherwise. For example, the National Council of Churches which represents millions of American mainstream Christians, has stated, “Glenn Beck has used his radio and television shows to spread false and hurtful statements about the Muslim- and Arab-American communities.” Beck is running a series of programs which purport to try to dispel false rumors about Obama.
These programs will also supposedly prove to the public that Beck is even-handed and he is not someone reporting from the so-called “ultraconservative right wing” that many people accuse Beck of defending. One of those “rumors” states that Obama is a Muslim. Beck definitely tries to close that rumor down and the “hidden message” that is contained in the rumor.
Beck states that Obama is a Christian and then goes on to say that the form of Christianity that Obama has practiced for many years is really a revolutionary form of black Christian theology which Beck claims is out mainstream American thought. Beck goes on to infer that Obama’s affiliation with that black theology might even be worse than him being a Muslim.
There clearly is another message hidden in the “hidden message” Muslim rumor that Beck and many others claim to be trying to dispel. Even Obama himself and a website that his supporters have created called “False Rumors” have helped to reinforce the hidden “hidden message”. Obama’s website states, “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim and is a committed Christian.” So where do we find another message hidden in Beck and Obama’s statements and statements from even very progressive American organizations.
What’s wrong with being a Muslim?
When Congressman Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim elected to the United States Congress, first came to Washington DC, he was interviewed by Beck. Beck said: “I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ “ Beck added: “I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.”
And these comments were focused on the simple fact that Ellison was a Muslim. Beck was articulating what many Americans, unfortunately, have come to believe: Islam is the enemy and the new threat to America. And so, the thinking goes, being a Muslim would automatically disqualify one from becoming president of the United States. No one asks, “What difference does it make if Obama is a Muslim?” Don’t we live in the United States which should guarantee us religious and racial freedom? Aren’t we in a country where being Jewish or Muslim or Hindu should not exclude you from even the highest office in the land as long as you are an American citizen? Aren’t we yet able to look at a brown- or black- or white-skinned individual as candidates for president as long as they are qualified by their age and American citizenship?
Last week, a Chicago attorney, Mazen Asbahi, who had served as the official volunteer coordinator for the Barack Obama presidential campaign since July 25 of this year resigned from that position. Asbahi, who had served as a liaison to both the Muslim-American and Arab-American communities for the campaign, stepped down due to pressure from the US national media, notably the Wall Street Journal, and many American Zionist writers regarding his questionable “affiliations” with Muslim individuals and organizations in the US. These relationships that the writers alleged were full of racist and ethnic innuendos about Arabs and Muslims and very little fact. The main concern from these pundits seemed to be that Asbahi was a Muslim and after all....
Absahi issued a statement when he resigned saying, “I am stepping down from the volunteer role I recently agreed to take on with the Obama campaign as Arab-American and Muslim-American coordinator in order to avoid distracting from Barack Obama’s message of change.”
Can you image how outraged the American media would be if someone was forced to resign from a campaign because they were Jewish or Catholic or any other religion of note. And they should be outraged if that would happen. But why no outrage if one happens to be Muslim? And why is it so important for everyone from the moderate right to the far left on the American political spectrum to point out that Obama is not Muslim.
And, by the way, Barack Hussein Obama, wear your name proudly. Millions of Americans will support you in spite of Glen Beck.
