Yes! Yes! So What if He Were a Muslim?
by Linda Thieman
As a confirmed, yet independent progressive à la Howard Dean, I’ve come to define my outlook as being in support of “social tolerance and fiscal responsibility.” But in the massive blue Obama wave that has been sweeping the country, so many things get lost, that I was thrilled to see someone with the national stature of Gen. Colin Powell address this seemingly-overlooked point yesterday during his ringing endorsement of Barack Obama.Key to the Powell endorsement was not just, as former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has now so famously noted, that “what that just did in one sound bite…is it eliminated the experience argument,” but at the same time, Powell called John McCain to task for the nasty smear tactics that he and his campaign have been using against Obama.
In particular, one of the things that has been sticking in my craw these past few weeks was an exchange between McCain and a Minnesota woman at a rally in which the woman claimed that Obama was an Arab. McCain “defended” Obama from the inaccurate “accusation” and replied, “No, ma’am, he’s a decent family man.”
In one brief moment, McCain revealed his lack of social tolerance. An “Arab,” it can then be inferred, cannot possibly be a “decent family man.” So, McCain fuels the fire of hatred by seeming to “defend” Obama, but in fact reinforces the smear against Arabs.
General Powell addressed this very issue on Meet the Press yesterday. “I’m also troubled by, not what Sen. McCain says, but what members of the party say,” Powell explained. “And it is permitted to be said, such things as, ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, “He is not a Muslim; he is a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.’ But the really right answer is ‘What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?’ The answer’s ‘No, that’s not America.’ Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion he’s a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”
Exactly. So what if he were a Muslim? Since when has a person’s religion excluded him or her from serving in office in this now-decimated land?
One of the reasons Obama appeals to me, personally, is because he has run a campaign of inclusion, not divisiveness. And one would hope that he can reach across the aisle to all of those moderate and true-conservative Republicans who have been pushed into insignificance by the party extremists these past 8 years. For the nation to truly heal, it is now time to include all those who need healing.
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Colin Powell has a point but I definitely do not agree with him due to the fact that the Muslim doctrine is anti-freedom and thus anti American and I consider it a huge national security risk and threat to our quality of life. The Muslims would like us to believe that there is no issue here. Our country was built on Christian principles and our legal system is based on the laws of the old testament.
My understanding is Muslim doctrine calls for no separation of churh and statewhile Christian doctrine allows for it. I think us americans are in for some big trouble if a leader like Colin Powell would say such a thing without qualifying the meaning. Maybe he already knows something we don't(?).
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