“Muslim” not a smear

February 29th, 2008 · 3 Comments

The invaluable Naomi Klein posted an important column in The Nation yesterday, pointing out that Obama’s responses to insinuations and assertions that he is a Muslim have been woefully inadequate.

So far, Obama’s campaign has responded with aggressive corrections that tout his Christian faith, attack the attackers and channel a cooperative witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. “Barack has never been a Muslim or practiced any other faith besides Christianity,” states one fact sheet. “I’m not and never have been of the Muslim faith,” Obama told a Christian News reporter.

Of course Obama must correct the record, but he doesn’t have to stop there. What is disturbing about the campaign’s response is that it leaves unchallenged the disgraceful and racist premise behind the entire “Muslim smear”: that being Muslim is de facto a source of shame. Obama’s supporters often say they are being “Swiftboated,” casually accepting the idea that being accused of Muslimhood is tantamount to being accused of treason.

Substitute another faith or ethnicity, and you’d expect a very different response. Consider a report from the archives of this magazine. Thirteen years ago, Daniel Singer, The Nation’s late, much-missed Europe correspondent, went to Poland to cover a hotly contested presidential election. He reported that the race had descended into an ugly debate over whether one of the candidates, Aleksander Kwasniewski, was a closet Jew. The press claimed his mother had been buried in a Jewish cemetery (she was still alive), and a popular TV show aired a skit featuring the Christian candidate dressed as a Hasidic Jew. “What perturbed me,” Singer wryly observed, “was that Kwasniewski’s lawyers threatened to sue for slander rather than press for an indictment under the law condemning racist propaganda.”

While I have been and continue to be a vocal Obama supporter, I am troubled that he has strongly rejected the tactics of ethnic and religious bias but not the bias itself.

It is not enough to say “No, I’m not!” By far the more important response is, “So what? It shouldn’t matter.”

The Obama campaign’s strategy has been to attack the attackers and show that they are relying on falsehood and bias, and of course that is the first step in responding to Swiftboat-style attacks when they are married with a distorted identity politics.

It is time for all of us to stop responding to demographically-based attacks with the kind of defensiveness that inadvertently reinforces the prejudice such attacks seek to exploit. If someone calls you a Muslim, respond with a sincere “Salaam-Alaikum.” If someone calls you a faggot, roll your eyes and tenderly take the hand of a nearby same-sex friend.

While Obama’s campaign has pointed out that some of his surrogates have explicitly rejected the idea that “Muslim” is a smear at all, Obama himself has stuck to the point that he is a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ (btw: expect a lot more questions about the politics and theology of pastor Jeremiah Wright in the coming campaign.)

Instead, Obama should aggressively question the idea that “Muslim” is a word to be feared. He should say that if he were a Muslim he would still be the best choice for President.

Let the surrogates correct the facts. Obama’s job is to aggressively articulate the big ideas of his campaign, and to vociferously reject the ideology behind these attacks.

Read Klein’s article here.

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Tags: identity · politics · why i drink

3 responses so far ↓

1 Angela Episale // Feb 29, 2008 at 11:20 pm

agreed.
2 Janine Hohengasser // Mar 1, 2008 at 2:25 am

Absolutely right you are… I think his wife Michelle is doing a pretty good job in this case. I saw a speach of her where she responded quiet brilliantly to the fear-propaganda about his middle name.

Btw, if it’s possible I suggest you to change the coloring on the right hand site. The read/listen links are hardly readable.
3 Frank Episale // Mar 1, 2008 at 3:14 am

The thing on the side is happening in Firefox but not in IE and is really annoying, It seems to be some kind of weird bleedthrough from the Amazon ad. I’ll try to get it fixed when I have a chance.

Too Frank?

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