I'm supporting Barack Obama for president...but that's not what I'm writing about here. What I'm writing about here is something that all of us, I'm sure, is absolutely disgusting and could present trouble for Obama should he be the nominee. My point of view though is probably skewed as I live in the South (Arkansas obviously) so it may not represent a larger threat to his candidacy, but I'm anxious to see if anyone else has similar stories to share.
I'm sure all of us remember the whole Fox News Madrassa hit piece. At first I thought it was going to be a one time thing, but more and more it seems like it's done lasting damage.
My first indication was from chatting with a very, very, very conservative friend of mine who probably should not be taken as a representation of the electorate. This is the person after all who tried to convince me that all the effects of global warming were really the fufilment of prophecy in the Book of Revelations after all. I won't spend a lot of time on this one as it's not too important-he basically called him Barack Osama and said he was a closet Muslim. As he put it, and I think this is telling about the whole thing, "He's black and he's got a name like that. That just screams Muslim!"
The next one was slightly more enlightening. I was actually on a date and making small talk about the presidential race. Needless to say, it was a pretty bad date. Anyway, my date made the observation that there was a Muslim running, but didn't view it as a negative. I quickly made the correction, and that was that. But it made it clear that the Muslim myth was spreading a bit.
The next time I crossed this one was the most disturbing. I was talking to a former chair of the Democratic Central Committee in my home county and she was firmly against him because "He's a Muslim." I gave her his book, "The Audacity of Hope" and she promised to read it, but quickly asked, "Does he play the race card a lot?" The lady in question weilds a considerable amount of political influence in the county. But this is Arkansas, so it may be a given that Hillary Clinton with her Arkansas roots (who the former chair was supporting) will carry the primary, so I tried not to be to disturbed at the time, still clinging to optimism.
Finally, my step mother asked me who my presidential candidate was. I told her and she made the following comment, "We might as well get you a robe and sandals." I enquired as to why, and she carped off with this "We don't need a Muslim president" bit, and my dad, sad to say, pretty much agreed. I tried to explain that Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ, but they told me they were going to have their preacher talk to me about it. FYI, they go to one of those scary Baptist churches that advocates bombing Iran and all that bit, last time I was there anyway.
All these encounters have come together to represent some bad news for Obama, at least in Arkansas, and probably in the whole south. I don't know how far it's spread around the country, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has stories to share on the matter.
Obviously, it's disgusting that calling someone a Muslim in our society serves as a political smear. However, I think there is a more classical prejudice at work here. This is, by and large, an educated guess. I could well be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm not.
The first encounter, my not so smooth friend, hit the nail on the head I think-he seems Muslim to some people based on his name and his skin color. That last part is the key. The people peddling this, I think, are too smart to go after his race directly. So they have to turn him into something he's not. This has been perpetuated by Keith Ellison's election and smears put out on him, I think, which all wounds up in that "All black people look alike" prejudice. Still, regardless of whether the bigoted attacks made on Senator Obama stem from racial or religous intolerance, they're disgusting and good people, whether they support him or not, have what I think is a moral obligation to work against them.