Barack Obama Could Be Muslim
Why say ‘nigger’ when ‘Muslim’ will do?
And that would be OK. He’s not, but I don’t get what’s so bad about being a Muslim in the first place. As the blow-up over his pastor makes obvious, he has a pastor and he is a Christian. What’s curious is that countless pundits and even voters state the ‘Obama is a Muslim’ lie as a reason not to vote for him. As if it is impossible for a Muslim to ever aspire to be President, and if being Muslim is, in itself, a bad thing. I’ve lived with, eaten with, drank with and slept with Muslims and they’re people – just as amazing and flawed as anyone else. I don’t think religion should be a requirement for elected office, and I don’t think it’s a ‘smear’ to call someone a Muslim. Unfortunately in America it is – calling someone a Muslim is now a smear. Calling Obama a Muslim is a lie, and bad on that count. There is no inherent shame in being a Muslim.
For the record, I totally support Obama and may have even converted my mother. To ISLAM – oooohhh, scary. No, I mean, to supporting him. Partly for what he represents – the future, globalization, and a progressive revival – but also for his character. When he speaks or answers questions he stops and thinks, and he gives reasoned, complex answers. Not political boilerplate. As to the fact that he’s all hot air and inspiration – an awful lot of his speeches and writing are pretty cerebral and even boring. If he was the US President I think it would do a lot to heal the rifts within the country and without. Unlike McCain, I also think his policies – especially economic – are surprisingly sensible. Seriously, McCain’s latest dumb policy is temporarily reducing the gas tax (economic folly) and his ideas aren’t actually really deep beyond him being ballsy. But I digress. I support Obama.
What I find curious is the continuous email and other campaigns seeking to portray him as a Muslim. I think his father was, but Obama is a practicing Christian. What’s curiouser and curiouser is that – in this day and age – being Muslim is in itself a slur. As in, something so bad it should preclude you – other qualifications aside – from being President of the United States. That is, to me, insidious and hurtful to the millions of totally chill Muslims in the world.
I guess Sri Lanka gives you a different perspective on the thing. You’ve got Sinhalese and Tamil extremists – and moderate Muslims. They speak both languages, go about their business, whatever. I’m not saying the Muslims here are lily or whatever, but they’re not pitch. And I suspect that most Muslims globally are like that. People. Not extremist, and not even Arab. The American perception of Islam seems to be the 9/11 bombers, but most Muslims are brown. They’re not sand niggers, they’re Pakis. If you check out the demographics Saudi Arabia only appears on top if you sort by percentage Muslim. In terms of raw number, most Muslims are in Indonesia, followed by Pakistan, India, Bangla and Turkey. You don’t even get a Middle Eastern country in the Top 5 (I’m including Turkey in Europe). Pakistan is suspect, but nobody else is a huge threat to America. And most Muslims there honestly have not much to do with America.
And yet.
And yet 9/11 was so damaging and the information flow so corrupted that many people think Saddam Hussein did it and that Muslims everywhere are like that. Nevermind that Saddam most Iraqis are of a minority Muslim group even, entirely unrelated to Al Qaeda. It doesn’t help when the US President encourages this misunderstanding – but it could help if the next President has a better understanding. Unless he doesn’t get elected because of the very same. But I think he will. Ahem.
Like many things in America, the bias against Islam will look pretty bad in hindsight. I mean, it affects immigration, travel, work, everything. At the very worst the Bush government has used nationality and religion to lock people up without habeas corpus and torture them – and the very ‘otherness’ of these people has kept the American public from complaining too much. But as Bill Clinton said, everything that’s wrong with America can be fixed by everything that’s right with America. I mean, you have a really viable Presidential candidate who’s black, of a Kenyan father and who lived for a while in Indonesia. And he’s well educated, well spoken, charismatic, and a great leader running an effective campaign. He has had opportunities, he’s taken them, and he’s given back in years of public service. And that’s why – bumps, bristles, discrimination and even slavery aside – America is still a pretty cool place. That’s also why the dream Barack Obama is living is still a deeply inspiring one. Hopefully he can help America set aside the racial divides of the past and, in time, the religious ones of the present.
PS. His speech on race is well worth watching: YouTube
America can have black president. Even when the whites had a 70% majority in 2005.
If we were to talk about a Tamil president in Sri Lanka…
Tamil President? There could have been someone close to that in my opinion. Neelan Thiruchelvam. LTTE killed him.
Barak is a republican, if we win primaries, we will have another republican president.
“when he speaks or answers questions he stops and thinks, and he gives reasoned, complex answers. Not political boilerplate”
Right. Which Obama have you been listening to?
christ (yeah nigga pun intended (two times)), why are most of your opinions so childish and starry-eyed? does the above really need an explanation? is it so hard to understand how civilizations and histories (and human beings in general) have played themselves out over the course of history? how institutions work and sustain themselves? there’s only so much room for ‘truth’, only so much room for ‘justice’ in most of the big systems that have prevailed in the world, and here you’re considering esp something as complex and big as the united states, and wondering out aloud oh why oh why, can’t a good muslim be a president of USA. and do you really think even someone who ‘sounds’ as promising as obama can get enough room to maneuver and push for a real change within that framework? short answer: cosa nostra
deane asks from indi padashow
“Which Obama have you been listening to?”
answer is simple, he has got the filtered version through the american liberal media and think that is the real obama.
when ppl listen to and watch the superficial stuff they peddle as news in mass media coupled with indi padashow’ inability think independently, you end up with a post like this, so full of errors.
“I also think his policies – especially economic – are surprisingly sensible.”
so protectionism is sensible? yes mccain ponders with 3 month gas tax holiday but that is straight pander, not much harm.
but promising to oppose free trade as obama ( and clinton ) has done ? that is really irresponsible dumb pandering that will do damage
how about his iraq policy ? do you think that withdrawing troops( regardless of right and wrong of going in ) is sensible? or do you believe he will really do that and is not merely pandering?
prediction- he will not withdraw if he is elected.
and obama’s foreign policy ? what a joke! but then you don’t refer to it (out of ignorance ? )
or heath care policy ? you have to be cosset socialist to find that sensible?
“he’s given back in years of public service”
what exactly has he given back? or do you consider being paid by the government is service enough ?
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obama himself panders to american racists when he disclaims and hides his perfectly ok muslim background when he was young ( for example he was admitted as a muslim and learned islam ( instead of catholicism etc) when he studied in catholic run private and then public schools in indonesia for instance. check ) . it is slur because he and his campaign treats it as a slur and comes down hard on anyone who raise that. and that is one reason why the campaigns against him calling him a muslim even now ( which he is not ) persists . majority of americans probably would not care. but he panders to racists.
“His speech on race is well worth watching”
same one where he equated his grand mother and former vice presidential candidate feraro to rev. wright ? and said he will no more disclaim wright than wider black community ?
well he given up part of that within weeks by denouncing wright when he became a liability – just like an ordinary politician
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america is a cool place, just like sri lanka
there are few racist idiots like indi, who deal in racist categories and regularly equate sinhalese and tamisl to ltte terrorists and extremists, and then there are moderates, the vast majority in both countries
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another similarity between america and sri lanka. -
when ppl like obama’s paster wright, says such things like america reaped 9/11, us government invented hiv to kill blacks, etc that is considered racist. and there will be a political price to pay for associating with ppl who say that
in sri lanka when terrorists and their peacenik parrots say ltte is fighting for tamils, ’83, discrimination etc created and justifies ltte, or there are conspiracies to disappear and genocide tamils, etc etc, that is considered racist by majority of sri lankans and they have punished politicians who have accepted and associated with such ppl.
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“Nevermind that Saddam is of a minority Muslim group even”
huh? he was secularist as far as policy goes and that is why he was not related to al qaeda. (as for religion in fact he was a sunni muslim same as bin laden but that did not matter bc he was a secular politician who clamped down on religious)
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i will stop now, though there are several more errors
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barring a self generated implosion by mccain( which is quite possible) , obama is heading for a 1972 style defeat when nixon defeated mcgovern ( who just endorsed obama btw ) in 49 states
deane, with friends like snut, who needs enemies huh? ;-)